Overview

Customer

ACCA

Products and Services

Microsoft Project Online
Microsoft Power BI
SQL Server Reporting Services

Industry

Professional Association

Key Benefits

• Improved visibility of project performance.
• Increased project management performance and throughput.
• A cloud-based PPM solution, meaning no upgrade costs.
• Better informed decision making by government and management boards.

The Challenge

ACCA’s Portfolio Management Office (PMO) delivers 50-100 IT transformation projects annually, employing a mixed methodology approach including Waterfall, Agile, and Lean Six Sigma. The challenge was standardizing project and portfolio management (PPM) procedures across this varied landscape, ensuring consistency, governance, and clarity in resource management, budgeting, and reporting.

We were attracted by Project Online’s ability to automate a lot of the manual labour–but we needed help to configure it to our way of doing things. When we looked at suppliers, we felt that Wellingtone offered a transparent business model.

Sarah Olliffe, Senior PMO Analyst

A Bespoke Configuration to Support Mature Portfolio Requirements

Sarah Olliffe is the Senior PMO Analyst for ACCA’s PMO. She explains the complexity of her department’s role in delivering the organization’s strategy. “Most of our projects are IT-based,“ she says. “Across the portfolio, we are tasked with ensuring that the correct level of governance is applied and that our projects deliver the right benefits to support both ACCA’s growth and our members’ and students’ needs. We need clarity and measurement across those deliverables. In support of that, we need total visibility across our project’s budgets and resources, as well as the dependencies that might affect our ability to deliver.“

The Solution: Microsoft Project Online Implementation

The PMO adopts a combination of Waterfall, Agile, and Lean Six Sigma methodologies–a forward-thinking approach with the capacity to optimize benefits delivery. “We were using quite a few different systems to manage all of this,“ Sarah recalls. “The information was held in other places, so we had to devote lots of time to copying, pasting, and replicating information to get an overall picture. We wanted to streamline that and to standardize our resource management, reporting, and documentation procedures. We were attracted by Project Online’s ability to automate a lot of the manual labor–but we needed help to configure it to our way of doing things. When we looked at suppliers, we felt that Wellingtone offered a transparent business model. They were clear about what they could offer, they gave us an accurate picture of what their services would look like, and that made them an easy choice for us.“

A Tailored Approach for Complex Portfolio Management

Wellingtone delivered an initial proof of concept phase, designed to enable the PMO to test Project Online’s parameters and decide how the tool might be configured to help Project Managers work efficiently. That equipped the PMO to move to a requirement-gathering phase, also facilitated by Wellingtone. The Wellingtone team addressed challenges like mapping dependencies, refining resource management, and ensuring the tool supported each methodology’s unique demands.

We found Wellingtone’s approach refreshing. It felt more like a partnership than a supplier relationship, and they delivered on what they had promised. I would recommend them to anyone who’s considering making the move to Project Online.

Sarah Olliffe, Senior PMO Analyst

An Interactive Partnership to Facilitate User Adoption

Over two months, Wellingtone collaborated with ACCA’s PMO to configure Project Online and ensure a smooth deployment. Engaging Project Managers early in the process increased buy-in and eased the transition. The familiarity of Microsoft’s user interface also contributed to higher adoption rates. “Having had the chance to engage with the transition at an early stage, by the time we moved to rollout and training some of our Project Managers already had an understanding of the system,“ Sarah explains. “The familiar aesthetic and usability of Project Online, as it was a Microsoft application, certainly helped. People found it easier to work with than our previous tools. We phased the introduction, both in terms of transferring projects over from our other systems and ensuring that we had the resources to support people in using the new technology. At this stage, around 95% of our portfolio is integrated

into Project Online, and we’re looking ahead to explore how we can further maximize its potential. We’re aware that cloud-based software is always improving, so we recognize Project Online’s capacity to support our strategy as it evolves. For that reason, we’re now considering a full move to Office 365 in the future.“

A Strong Partnership for Ongoing Success

ACCA’s experience with Wellingtone has been positive, fostering a partnership that goes beyond the traditional client-supplier relationship according to Sarah. “We’re currently rolling Project Online out to more users, so we’re bringing Wellingtone in to conduct that training. We also intend to ask them to help us with any further bespoke configurations or reports that we may need. We enjoyed our experience of working with them. They’re very approachable. They’re proactive–making sure that they stay in regular contact to monitor how we’re getting on and how they can support us. We found Wellingtone’s approach refreshing. It felt more like a partnership than a supplier relationship, and they delivered on what they had promised. I would recommend them to anyone who’s considering making the move to Project Online.“