Consultant Madelon Snel was asked by the COO of the Credit Exchange Group to establish a Project Management Office (PMO) and get involved with several ongoing projects. The Credit Exchange Group is a FinTech company. This family business has grown rapidly in recent years: from a few dozen employees to more than 200. The increase in the workforce also marked a growing need for structure, process and project work. The PMO was set up almost a year earlier, but mainly acted as ‘assistance centre’, that provided small, ad hoc services on all kinds of issues.
Positioning and strengthening PMO
After an overview of all the current projects was made, it was established when an activity could be marked as project. Activities that did not meet these criteria were phased out. In addition, a vision, mission and positioning for the Project Management Office (PMO) was set up. A standard process for customer deployment was also designed and arranged. In the meantime, Madelon started two internal projects, namely the introduction of the new European privacy laws (GDPR) and the collection of the debt collector’s label. Discussions with relevant stakeholders, mainly Business Unit Directors, followed quickly to explain the role and added value of the PMO. The question was whether, and if so how the PMO could support them in the realisation of their objectives. The PMO was also involved in projects within the IT department, for which the PRINCE2 project methodology served as the basis.
Robust project office
After eight months, a robust projects office with 3 motivated project managers was built and functioned as the preferred partner for all departments. Whether it concerns customer implementations, broad operational projects or IT projects, the PMO is the specialist to involve. The PMO uses a standard process for project selection, execution and completion. In addition, PMO now makes an important contribution by creating structure and facilitating better cooperation between departments.
