Every day, KBR delivers innovative solutions that make a global impact. Our world-class team leads advancements in science, technology, engineering, and mission-critical services, helping both governments and corporations achieve their primary goals and sustainability objectives.

KBR’s operations are divided into two main sectors: Sustainable Technology Solutions and Government Solutions. Within the latter, Simon Davies heads the Projects & Programs Division’s P3M in the EMEA region. Since January 2022, Simon has led a cutting-edge PMO modernization initiative driven by digital innovation. This program has established a virtual PMO, revamped internal governance for portfolios, programs, and projects, enhanced project management capabilities and assurance, and created a new service offering for KBR’s clients. In 2023, these accomplishments earned KBR the Company of the Year award and a finalist spot for PMO of the Year at the Association for Project Management (APM) Awards. Simon credits Wellingtone’s Planner Premium Accelerator+ Power App with significantly accelerating their digital transformation journey.

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Overview

Customer

KBR

What did we do?

We implemented Microsoft Planner Premium, extended by the Wellingtone Accelerator+.

PMO Transformation Highlights

  • Deploying Planner Premium with Accelerator+ as a ‘digital cockpit’ for portfolio, program, and project management.
  • Exploiting Power Platform’s capabilities as a digital integrator for business intelligence.
  • Delivering a virtual PMO that is transforming governance and accelerating delivery.
  • Creating a PMO blueprint that could scale out to KBR’s customers.

Harnessing Digital Power for Modernization at KBR

“I’ve been with KBR for fourteen years, with a background in projects and programs and a strong focus on technical project controls,” says Simon. “When our new Vice President joined, he approached me with a vision and a challenge for the PMO: to modernize. While our program delivery was mature, our data was still siloed. We wanted to transform and compile that data into a warehouse for business intelligence. So, we broke the old project controls model apart and established a holacracy: a self-organizing team of systems specialists, quality specialists, project management specialists, and project controls specialists, overlaid with an HR specialist for resource management. We then needed the right tool to sit across our systems and integrate all our data into a single digital cockpit for portfolio, program, and project management. On exploring the market, Wellingtone fitted the bill. Their Accelerator+ Power App could accelerate our digital transformation journey.

Most businesses have not yet fully embedded Power Platform development skills in-house. Still, we have, so we needed a technology partner willing to combine their capabilities with our own. We felt that Wellingtone’s people were technically equipped to deliver our specific requirements and culturally geared up to work collaboratively with us. One of our ambitions was to build a digital PMO model internally that we could then offer to our customers. Accelerator+ was well suited since it leverages existing Microsoft licensing, meaning that our configuration can remain our intellectual property, and we can potentially deploy as we choose. Overall, Microsoft Planner Premium was adapted to our needs, as the Accelerator+ Power App could be configured to meet our requirements. Wellingtone came across as great people whose primary objective was to support our journey–not just sell licenses and bow out, as some vendors do.”

“I see real potential to offer our PMO model as a blueprint of what can be achieved with the right customized Power Platform capabilities and Wellingtone as the implementing partner.”

A Collaborative Technology Solution with Microsoft Power Platform

The configuration process began with a requirements-gathering workshop involving Simon, senior departmental leads, and technical specialists. “It was a productive, two-way process,” says Simon. “At the start of this transformation, I performed an organizational assessment, pulling together twelve critical success factors that will guide our five-year plan across people, process, and technology. We knew what we wanted the solution to do in the technology arena. We were particularly interested in maximizing Power Platform’s capabilities. For instance, we wanted to map key elements of APM’s Body of Knowledge into a single dashboard for full portfolio visibility, control, and governance. Wellingtone’s hotline into Microsoft’s roadmap as a Microsoft Gold Partner was especially valuable.

Across our requirements, they knew whether a capability existed, whether we could anticipate a future release, or whether we needed a workaround. When we did, Wellingtone supported us in finding the right solution. For example, we have brought benefits realization management into the tool and linked it to the United Nations’ sustainability development goals. That doesn’t come out of any box! But, by combining our technical Power Platform skills with Wellingtone’s support and expertise, we have successfully implemented many innovations like this.”

Rolling Out the Wellingtone Accelerator+

The first iteration of Accelerator+ was configured, built, and launched across a pilot set of projects within three months, followed by a full business rollout. Adoption was facilitated by a customized training program, developed with Wellingtone’s support and delivered virtually via a SCORM eLearning module. “The hardest part of any systems implementation is aligning the tooling to the different user groups and workflows,” Simon explains. “That must come from within the business. So, again, we were heavily involved in designing the training repository. Wellingtone adapted their standard offering to our senior audience, producing impressive videos that met our brief and followed our script.

“We have branded the solution as the KBR P3M Hub. The training process onboards people and is an important professional development tool. We have embedded the training media within our HR platform and made it a mandatory stage gate that people must pass before accessing the full Hub. I’m focusing on using it to drive the right digital behaviors. We are continuously improving, but it’s not just about digital transformation. It’s about joining people, process, technology, and data across all our portfolios and systems.”

Moving Forward

Looking ahead, Simon’s vision of a scalable solution benefiting KBR’s clients is becoming a reality. “Wellingtone’s extensive technical and project management knowledge, combined with our maturity and digital skills, have underpinned a PMO model and tooling that acts as a digital integrator across the business,” Simon explains. “It is a model that I believe could also add significant value for our customers. I am now starting to have those conversations, showcasing our achievements to present the art of the possible in a PMO. Adopting the model would never be a ‘lift and shift’ scenario for our customers. Extensive customization will always be involved, so a technology partner will always be needed. I see real potential in offering our PMO model as a blueprint of what can be achieved with the right customized Power Platform capabilities and Wellingtone as the implementing partner.”