Our client is a strategic bottling partner for The Coca-Cola Company. For over 740 million consumers in 29 countries, it produces a diverse range of soft drinks, juices, water, sports drinks, coffee and tea, among others. Part of its more than 36,000 employees is a digital innovation portfolio. This portfolio develops technologies, products and services to achieve strategic goals and stay ahead of the competition. These include innovations to better serve internal and external customers, in the areas of Internet of Things, automation and augmented reality.

Issue

In 2021, the portfolio made the transition to agile working, according to the Scaled Agile Framework. By delivering agile and short-cycle products, the organisation aims to create value faster and respond better to an unpredictable environment. The Portfolio Management Office (PMO) facilitates this transformation and is the first point of contact in terms of methodology, tooling and processes.

Improven received the challenging request to professionalise the PMO to get a grip on portfolio management in an agile environment.

Vision Improven

Improven has a clear vision and approach to the organisation of complex portfolios and projects. Our focus is on defining, managing, steering and reporting on the project portfolio and the underlying projects so that an organisation can realise its change strategy on time and with optimal deployment of people and other resources. Improven believes in the integrality between effective Project Portfolio Management, central Project Support, good Project Management and the right tools for increasing an organisation's change capacity. Our integral approach connects three key pillars: People, Process and Systems.

"Improven has helped us tremendously in bringing structure to the way we work. Together, we have come to new insights that enable us to make strategic decisions in steering our project portfolio."

Our approach

We focus first on establishing ongoing alignment between management and the methodology used for the digital initiatives to maximise their efficiency and effectiveness. This is incrementally better aligned with portfolio and programme level needs, working closely with the teams. For continuous development, ideas should be proactively gathered from within the organisation to be used as best practices wider use.

Alongside this, we will work to improve tooling and reporting that facilitates close collaboration between the digital initiatives. The insights derived from the tooling are translated into reports at team, programme and portfolio level, providing management and agile teams with the business intelligence they need. As a partner, we are always ready to take an organisation to the next maturity level.

Result

Thanks to our integrated approach to project portfolio management, Improven has been able to work with the organisation to take the PMO to the next level.

By organising steering information, communication and training in a uniform way, the team can contribute value to the organisation in a consistent way, in line with the strategic objectives.

Jasper van der Sman