Johnnic Communications (Johncom) is SA`s leading media and entertainment company - a world-class supplier of media, including national newspapers, magazines and digital services; and a globally competitive entertainment company, which produces and distributes local and international music, film and books.
This ethos of excellence was therefore also a requirement when Johncom approached Fulcrum Business Solutions to deploy an enterprise project management solution, which focused on a new dimension: performance management.
Johncom`s IT division already had a very mature project management environment, since world-class project methodologies like PMBOK were already well entrenched within their processes. However, with the list of new business solutions that the IT division was tasked with deploying, Johncom needed additional deliverables from its EPM solution.
Nadia Pistorius, Business Analyst and Project Manager for Fulcrum Business Solutions, explains: "Johncom has a corporate culture of commitment to the development of their staff and this became a key requirement in this phase of their EPM solution development. We developed a 360^0 team evaluation as part of the project performance evaluation process. This performance evaluation allows executives to see, not only if project deliverables are met, but if project managers and team members specifically met requirements on individual projects. The configured formulas in the EPM solution allows for input from project managers, team members and the customer after completion of each project, resulting in a pre-defined performance indicator showing above average, average or below average performance. These performance indicators have been built into the KPAs of the individual employees and in that way link their performance on individual projects to their compensation."
"In addition to the performance management element, Johncom had a number of other more technical requirements," adds Hannetjie Edmunds, Consultant at Fulcrum Business Solutions. "Their project documentation was fragmented, with a large degree of paper-based processes. Apart from the frustration of not being able to find the correct documents, this also made it difficult to give executives quick access to view the status of each project. Fulcrum Business Solutions developed a single document repository for Johncom, integrating a number of the paper-based processes. Terminal services were also added to the solution, enabling executives to not only see project data at the office, but also to dial into the project server and view documents in the repository when at home or travelling."
"The new face of EPM at Johncom has delivered a number of business benefits. With the adoption of common templates and the reduction in paper-based systems, Johncom now have a centralised knowledge base which enables transparency in planning and scheduling, project history for planning purposes, proper time sheeting and improved resource management, in addition to the performance management system giving them success metrics per project, linked to team members," concludes Pistorius.
Helene Scheepers, Programme Manager for Johncom Information Technology Department, explains that one of the key drivers for implementing an EPM solution at Johncom was to allow for the more efficient management of time and cost related to each project. In addition, the trend in organisations is to allocate fewer funds to IT, but the expectation in terms of service delivery remains the same or higher. As a result, the processes and methodologies used or the management of projects have been adjusted continuously to drive efficiencies in the successful delivery of projects. Resource management also becomes a challenge, since you have to deliver more with fewer resources. The EPM solution allows for an overall view of resource allocations and the leveraging therefore. It was also a requirement from the executive to have an overall view of the status of projects. The EPM solution that was implemented at Johncom provides exactly for this, but with the additional information of individual resource performance, which complements the performance management system.
The solution is a relatively new implementation, but the expected benefits for the IT department will be the leveraging of technology, empowerment of Johncom IT staff, the streamlining of processes and the establishment of repeatable best practices. Project management in the larger Johncom organisation is used inconsistently in parts of the business. The aim is to formalise it as an essential business requirement and to use the EPM solution to complement the business practices.
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