Photo by: Super Otus Oy
Vantaa Energy is one of Finland’s largest city energy companies that produces heat and electricity and sells heat services. The company believes that it holds the keys to the direction and speed of climate change, and it invests in finding carbon-neutral energy solutions through circular economy methods, for example. Vantaa Energy’s goal is to be carbon-neutral by 2030.
(www.vantaanenergia.fi)
Thinking Portfolio’s project portfolio opened a view to the organization’s projects
Vantaa Energy’s Development Manager of Strategic Planning Susanna Schauman-Hynes was responsible for the implementation of the Thinking Portfolio in the company. The implementation of the portfolio was a natural and necessary part of the development project for the organisation’s project culture. The implementation of the project portfolio was speeded up by the fact that project model had already been revised and the processes reviewed internally when the Thinking Portfolio’s implementation project started. Progress was swift, and scheduling was easy when a big project team was no longer needed in this phase.
“A really good procurement, because if we’d only revised the project model, we wouldn’t have this great view into everything and couldn’t realize any concrete benefits. I was familiar with Thinking Portfolio from my previous workplace, where I was attracted to its user-friendliness, and that’s why I also recommended it to us.
We had already done the specifications for the project model in advance, so now it was enough to confirm some questions that were brought up in the project portfolio workshops. The implementation of the new project model and the project portfolio simultaneously proved to be a good solution. Cooperation with Thinking Portfolio went really well. The consultants knew to suggest various options and take into account even our vague wishes. Indeed, I have given Thinking Portfolio feedback afterwards on the excellent cooperation.
You can get much information out of Thinking Portfolio with a small investment
The benefits of Thinking Portfolio’s project portfolio have quickly come out in the reviews of the portfolio management team. Susanna presents the situation of the portfolio’s projects to the management team once a month. The review looks into the projects’ monthly reports and biggest deviations, the overall situation of project resourcing, as well as the portfolio’s general situation from different viewpoints. In addition, new projects are approved for the planning phase.
“Jory has been positively surprised by how much information you can get out of the Thinking Portfolio with a relatively small investment. There is so much information available that we don’t even know how to utilise everything at this point. The goal is to make the project portfolio into one essential source for leading with knowledge in the group, and this is what we are now practising, one step at a time.
Staffing needs are easily predicted through Thinking Portfolio’s views
Assessing the resourcing for projects and through that getting the overall picture for the staffing needs for projects is an essential part of the project portfolio management of Vantaa Energy. The aim is to predict the staffing needs for projects for at least six months ahead.
Thanks to this increasing visibility, people have also wanted to take other work besides projects to the portfolio as a basic load/line work reservation. In this way, the overall workload of the project resources is visible also to the supervisors, who can examine it.
“After a few months of resourcing practice, we already now have a pretty good picture of the resource situation. We have also started recording the completed project hours in the portfolio, so that we can compare the resourced workload to the actual one.”
Separate reports or documents do not have to be made any more
Vantaa Energy’s project process has abandoned separate Power Point, Word and Excel files, because Thinking Portfolio contains all essential project documentation and reporting related to management. Producing documentation is easy, because the project plan and the final report, for example, start to take form as soon as the project is established in the portfolio. The use of the project portfolio in project management thus clearly reduces the amount of work for the project manager. Users have also found the portfolio easy to use, which is an essential precondition, because the experts perform project management activities alongside other work; there is only a handful of full-time project managers in the company.
“In the implementation phase of the portfolio, all the strategic and development projects in progress were taken there, and they were documented starting from the planning phase. Every project manager took their own projects to the portfolio in connection with the training, this was the best way to learn, notes Susanna about the starting phase for the use of the portfolio.
Projects that started after the implementation have been taken to the portfolio already in the preliminary study phase.
The feedback from the users has been positive. Our experts have considered the portfolio to be a clear and self-directed tool that supports the project process. The use of the project portfolio in the planning and management of a project is, of course, still at a relatively early stage and requires support, just as the different steps of the project process require regular reminders. I keep the portfolio open all day as one tool alongside e-mail and Teams, and I pop in there throughout the day to update or search for information and record my own project hours”.
Thinking Portfolio’s service portfolio is of interest
The wider utilisation of reporting is the next development step, and there are plans in a later phase to build connections, for example, to financial and working time monitoring systems.
A service portfolio is also in the plans: creating different development roadmap views and utilising the shared resourcing of portfolios are seen to be great benefits especially in connection with the Service and Project portfolio.
Susanna Schauman-Hynes
Development Manager & PMO
Vantaa Energy
