Project portfolio management strategies
Horn & Company is your trusted partner for exceptional consulting in establishing effective project portfolio management.
What does effective project portfolio management mean?
When successfully implemented, project portfolio management (PPM) serves as the cornerstone for successful transformation and strategic execution. With our vast experience, we have assisted many clients in elevating their PPM to a professional level. An effective project portfolio management optimizes resource allocation, enhances process and planning reliability, and creates transparency. However, in practice, PPM is often associated with a lack of flexibility, high complexity, and additional bureaucracy. Our expertise and experience span from initial design of a strategic project portfolio management, through establishment of "value-based" project prioritization and focused management reporting with meaningful KPIs, to optimization of an existing setup e.g., in preparation for large transformation programs. Benefit from our extensive experience in professionalizing your PPM, and set the course for successful transformation and strategy execution. 
Four key elements for professionalizing project portfolio management
Our experts for effective project portfolio management
Selected references of project portfolio management Projects
Establishing a project portfolio management for a service provider of German savings banks
Challenge
A project-based way of working with a high proportion of change was fundamentally embedded in the organization’s DNA. However, projects were previously mostly completed and implemented within individual organizational units. With the organizational development towards a matrix structure and an increasingly large run proportion, the need arose for greater transparency regarding activities and capacities, as well as for more centralized control. Additionally, there was a requirement from top management to steer and prioritize the portfolio more from a strategic perspective in the future.
Lösungsansatz
| As part of the organizational development, Horn & Company supported the organization in designing project portfolio management and establishing a corresponding new staff unit. This included, in particular, defining new roles and responsibilities, developing new processes (primarily an annual planning process), and implementing regular reporting. To ensure quick and accurate implementation, Horn & Company developed customized tools for recording planned activities and consolidating and comparing them with existing capacities. Through the new PPM with the right governance and tailored tools, the benefits of the new organizational structure could be realized, significantly increasing the transparency and control of the portfolio. |
Modernizing project portfolio management for a large savings bank
Challenge
In view of the challenge to further modernize project portfolio management, the organization faced a dual challenge: on one hand, new regulatory requirements had to be implemented, and on the other hand, there was an overall tense resource situation within the organization. It was therefore necessary to revise the entire project portfolio governance during ongoing operations, not only to increase efficiency but also to achieve greater transparency in project execution and to manage the demanding portfolio effectively.
Solution Strategy
As a strategic partner in the transformation process of PPM, Horn & Company made crucial contributions to redefining the governance structures. The engagement included developing a coherent framework for PPM that supports the organization's strategic goals and ensures efficient resource allocation. Horn & Company worked closely with the organization's leadership teams to ensure seamless implementation of the new processes and their acceptance among employees. Until the deployment of a new PPM software, selected through a comprehensive vendor selection process, Horn & Company provided adequate interim solutions to ensure effective, data-driven portfolio management during the transition period. This included customized PPM dashboards and reporting structures that enabled improved transparency and control of the project portfolio.
Optimizing project portfolio management for a leading insurance company
Challenge
| Our client, a leading insurance company, was confronted with an extensive project portfolio involving a wide variety of projects and a correspondingly high budget and resource commitment, which presented a high level of "baseline complexity." Different reporting systems, heterogeneous data quality, and the sheer size of the organization, including the associated multitude of skills and resources, as well as the management of international project teams, further increased the complexity. Accordingly, in addition to a stringent, effective project prioritization, the focus was on the manageability of the overall portfolio (including targeted management reporting), as well as general efficiency improvement and cost reduction. |
Solution Strategy
To address the challenges, Horn & Company, together with the client, implemented a prioritization framework that enabled efficient evaluation and ranking of projects based on their strategic and regulatory relevance. Additionally, Horn & Company developed a highly automated reporting system that significantly increased transparency within the project portfolio through clear KPIs. Intelligent forecasting methods, based on a solid and harmonized data basis, significantly improved portfolio control. With these tools, critical phases in individual projects and sub-portfolios could be identified early and addressed with clear measures before problems manifested. These improvements allowed the organization not only to optimize resource utilization but also to achieve significant cost savings. Overall, the measures streamlined the organization's project portfolio management, improved project performance, and enhanced the manageability of high complexity.