SSAB is a highly specialized, globally operating steel company. The company develops ultra high strength steels and provides services for achieving high-performance, durable products.
(www.ssab.com). Image: Stefan Ek.
SSAB uses Thinking Portfolio’s solution for planning investment activities in the coming years. Plans are prepared in a clear way in the portfolio, which provides a quick overview of upcoming events. Investment Services Director Arto Kangas describes how the implementation of the project portfolio has made it possible to make the company’s approach even more systematic.
“We used to have a jungle of Excel sheets for preparing project plans and submitting reports. The Excel interface combined with a significant amount of manual labor was a combination that was very susceptible to errors. Thinking Portfolio has made planning easy, and we have been able to prepare more plans in the portfolio for the coming years.”
The latest features of the portfolio include Pivot tables and a connection to the SAP financial accounting. The new connection further improves reliability.
Thinking Portfolio’s portfolio has improved transparency and provided new perspectives
The management has been provided clearer, more consistent reporting, and the portfolio is also used by the management for an overview of the company’s status. Among the most appreciated aspect has been the improved level of transparency.
For historical reasons, various divisions and locations used a variety of reporting and planning tools. Thinking Portfolio allowed the company to bring all organizations in Finland and Sweden into a single system.
“Thinking Portfolio was new to everyone, so we were all at the starting line, starting the process together.
Implementing the tool was not an issue.” Users have been pleased with how easy it is to prepare reports, and the tool has been received very well.
The users were also happy with the various features for grouping and filtering data.
With Thinking Portfolio, SSAB has access to a portfolio service that is uniform throughout the organization. Among the most applauded features are the intuitive user interface, the transparency and the reliability of the planning process.
There are hundreds of users and thousands of projects in the portfolio.
“We now have a tool for filtering data with various search criteria and combinations. We can, for example, group and review plans according to various countries and regions, just to mention a few positive features.”
New tool saves a significant amount of working hours
Arto Kangas estimates that the introduction of Thinking Portfolio has saved a few working days on the management level. He has also noted the significant amount of time saved in the work of project managers, as everything is handled with one tool.
Thinking Portfolio is considered a reliable supplier that is easy and flexible to work with.
“Thinking Portfolio has been a solid supplier for us. We have made some requests for changes, and not only have they been open to our requests, the changes have been implemented quickly. We are pleased to look into the future by planning further development of the portfolio together with Thinking Portfolio’s consultants.”
Interviewee:
Arto Kangas,
Director, Investment services SSAB Europe
