Cargotec is a global technology company delivering load handling solutions and maintenance services. Their business areas MacGregor, Kalmar and Hiab are recognised leaders in cargo and load handling solutions.
Cargotec’s main branch is located in Ruoholahti, Helsinki, with sales branches in over one hundred countries with staff in 48 countries. In addition to having its main branch in Finland, Cargotec has a testing and product development centre in Tampere. The company also has product development, sales and management staff in Kaarina and Raisio. The technology and competence centre in Tampere is home to the largest inland port in the world for product development and testing operations.
Thinking Portfolio is a tool for strategic project portfolio management
Cargotec’s internal development project portfolio is managed with Thinking Portfolio’s project portfolio application. Currently, there are over 600 users in twenty different organisations. Most of the users come from business units in charge of load handling equipment product development projects. Thinking Portfolio has been utilised in Cargotec since 2011. Initially the application was mainly used for clarifying the overall view of the group’s project activities and budgeting the project portfolio. Currently, however, the area of emphasis has shifted towards status monitoring and strategic management of the project portfolio. The application has also improved the efficiency of monitoring the quality of project management.
Project portfolio functionalities are undergoing upgrading at the new service centre
Markku Toivanen
Markku Toivanen is in charge of project management in Cargotec’s service centre, which is tasked with developing the IT and financial administration as well as supporting business operations. The service centre operates in all countries where Cargotec is active. Toivanen indicates that the use of Thinking Portfolio in IT administration has decreased recently due to changes in the organisation and tasks. This area has seen significant emphasis during the spring, because the new service centre organisation has an increased need for project portfolio monitoring. In fact, Markku Toivanen states that Thinking Portfolio’s implementation has entered phase two, as new functionalities are implemented and new operations are upgraded.
“We have upgraded the version of the application. We feel that the visual appearance of the tool has been further enhanced. Furthermore, new functionalities, such as advanced resource management functionalities, are more conducive to our operations than before.
We were looking for additional functionalities in resource management, which we developed through the collaboration of the product development organisation and experts from Thinking Portfolio. Among the most desired new functionalities for both us at the service centre as well as the product development organisations were resource management, hour logging and related reporting.
Key users can customise Thinking Portfolio views
Cargotec is pleased that Thinking Portfolio allows key users to customise application parameters. This enables Cargotec to implement certain changes in-house. As an example, Markku Toivanen mentions the fine-tuning functionalities, that are seen necessary to adjust to developing working methods.
“We have been implementing the new version of Thinking Portfolio while simultaneously improving our working methods. We do not organise Thinking Portfolio training, per se, but rather engage in discussion and exchange of experiences in terms of process efficiency. We reflect our experiences on Thinking Portfolio, allowing us to modify the parameters of the application according to our needs.
Our admin users are able to customise views to suit our purposes.
There is always a solution
Having established the use of Thinking Portfolio, Cargotec has also commissioned customised report views and added classification criteria. Cargotec finds it essential that as business operations have developed, it has been possible to adapt the application to new operating methods. Thinking Portfolio has been constantly developed in a positive direction from the perspective of administration and project management. Thinking Portfolio has enabled Cargotec to carry out project planning and reporting without using Word, Power Point or Excel forms separately. Indeed, Markku Toivanen expresses that Cargotec prefers handling project reports during portfolio management team meetings with Thinking Portfolio views and real-time reports.
“Our multi-layered and constantly developing organisation poses significant challenges to any application. As a small and nimble application, Thinking Portfolio is well-equipped to handle any task. We haven’t had to make any compromises; there is always a solution.
I would recommend the real-time functionality of the application to others, as well. If you cannot find a suitable report view or template, you can create new ones with the help of Thinking Portfolio’s experts.
Markku Toivanen gives Thinking Portfolio a grade of A+ as an application and as an application supplier. Furthermore, he believes that the significance of the application will only be further enhanced with time.
“Thinking Portfolio is an excellent tool for project portfolio management and administration. I believe we will be utilising Thinking Portfolio even more for operative portfolio management and project prioritisation in future.
More information:
Download the latest Thinking Portfolio PPM Whitepaper Q2/2014
Markku Toivanen
Director, IM Program management
Cargotec Service Center
Cargotec Oyj
Markku.toivanen(at)cargotec.com
