Suominen’s project portfolio acquisition process started from the requirements of an extensive development project, the cost-effectiveness program Optima. The Optima program involved dozens of different programs and projects of various sizes. In the initial phase of Optima, it was stated that it is necessary to say goodbye to the “Excel era.” Following Optima’s example, the Thinking Portfolio project portfolio was also launched by Suominen’s R&D development projects, growth investments, and ICT, whose projects were previously managed using Excel and Word as well.

When Elo began searching the markets for a suitable project portfolio solution, the goal was to improve reporting and transparency. Elo was looking for better transparency in development work, and a tool that would make resource planning easier and resources more visible. Thinking Portfolio has enabled Elo to plan and allocate resources more comprehensively – providing transparency on allocated development resources while exposing any resourcing bottlenecks.

Administrative documentation was previously handled with Office tools. This meant a significant amount of copying and entering identical content on several documents. NLS has been particularly satisfied with the clarity of Thinking Portfolio, in which the content comes from one source regardless of its end use. Furthermore, less work means fewer errors.