Client background

This not-for-profit company operates federally funded research and development centers (FFRDC) and public-private partnerships. FFRDCs are unique organizations that assist the United States government with scientific research and analysis, development and acquisition, and systems engineering and integration.

The business challenge

Our client was at a critical turning point in a multi-year, highly complex transformation effort. What had started as a simple ERP implementation turned into multiple technology and process transformation projects to enable their back-office to better support their delivery teams and the organization’s desire to overhaul their entire business model. Each aspect contained interconnected data and moving parts that would require multiple project teams and collaboration across hundreds of internal and external stakeholders.

Central to these efforts was the company’s transformation project management office, the umbrella over which all the projects are launched, coordinated, monitored and directed to their completion. However, the current Transformation Office was struggling to keep up with the pace and scale of changes.

The client needed an experienced team to quickly assess their situation, architect a program management plan and guide the interconnected projects to success. They also required change management expertise to help stakeholders capture the value from the transformed organization.

The Baker Tilly approach

The client engaged Baker Tilly to perform a rapid PMO assessment, directly engaging the existing program and business teams, a review of content, artifacts and overall program structure. Once complete, the Baker Tilly team provided:

• Actionable recommendations on how to enhance processes, tools, and improve program organization structure and reporting
• Consistent and impactful organizational change management strategy for the program and across each individual project, from stakeholder analysis to change readiness assessments, and communication
• Training strategy and tools to enable project teams to deliver training and enhance user adoption

The business impact

The Baker Tilly specialists helped the PMO define a “right-sized” program management approach to allow for:

• Visibility and reporting on critical success measures across all projects
• A centralized roadmap and timeline, identifying key dependencies across individual projects with consistent and standardized reporting across the program
• Agility and the ability to adapt quickly when project timelines change or are affected by data migration related to other projects
• A common set of execution methods and templates for each individual project that were customizable to support unique needs of each team