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INTELLIGENT BUSINESS MANAGEMENT KEY STRATEGIES FOR RISK REDUCTION OPTIMIZE YOUR CORPORATE GROWTH
IntellIgent BusIness ManageMent
Key strategIes for rIsK reductIon
optIMIze your corporate
growth
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Managing The boTToM line how are you
measuring up against your growth strategies?
financial executives play a direct leadership role
as key strategists in shaping their organization. a
cfo is expected to foster growth from multiple
lines of the business. a portfolio solution allows
the CFO to analyze the cost and benefits of these
growth strategies against budgets and resources.
to successfully manage risk, standardized
methods for capturing real-time data and
ensuring mitigation strategies are in place is
vital. enterprise portfolio Management (epM)
provides the visibility required at all levels of the
organization to ensure an optimal portfolio.
1 In 4cfos did not have enough information to
predict the performance of their business.
- Accenture 2013 CFO Survey
92% of failed initiativestraced the failure to poor planning, unclear
objectives, and inadequate resources.
-PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2013, CFO Agenda
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Survey of over 1,000 CFOs and senior finance executives rating their company’s visibility
zz no Visibility: lack of visible information needed to predict performance 4%
zz low Visibility: too little information available to monitor performance 24%
zz Medium Visibility: had half the information needed to indicate overall performance 54%
Benefits of using Enterprise Portfolio Management (EPM)
zz Effective use of budget cost per project reduced 37%
zz delivery of projects with real business value redundant projects dropped by 78%
zz return on enterprise Management solution investment roI occurred within 7.4 months
appropriate risk management solutions range from simple excel worksheets that allows users to
monitor available resources to more complex enterprise tools such as Microsoft project server, which
enable the organization to perform what-if scenarios and sophisticated resource assessment based
on business drivers and their consensus-based priorities.
-portfolio management: how to innovate and invest in successful projects, dr shan rajegopal
zz Difficulty showing portfolio progress
zz lack of consensus across the organization
zz Inability to agree on measures of success
Top cited reasons why Portfolio Management efforts fail
zz lack of visible trends in data
zz roles and responsibilities are unclear
zz Business cases are seen as an approval hurdle
-Portfolio management: How to innovate and invest in successful projects, Dr Shan Rajegopal
-Accenture Study, 2013
-IDC Survey, 2011
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Making the right decisions requires access to
precise information at the right time. Many
organizations manage their initiatives using
homegrown excel spreadsheets, with out of
date data, and without any certainty as to
whether resource adjustments have made their
information inaccurate.
No one understands the value of effective
portfolio management better than a cfo. In
order to make data driven decisions in real time,
the information within a strategic portfolio must
be current and centralized, offering a single
source of the truth.
the unanticipated problem organizations
face today is putting an enterprise portfolio
Management (epM) solution in place that allows
the necessary visibility. To ensure confident, data
driven investments, and impartial decisions, a
cfo needs to know the risks, investment return,
and break down of benefits. Working with
executives across organizations, the arbutus
solutions team has developed tools for cfos
that resolves the issue of visibility – providing a
single source of the truth for decision making.
The power of epM prioritize and
manage everything in your organization
the cfo is now expected to be a key strategist and leader, help the ceo and the rest of the executive team shape overall strategy and direction, and act as an agent of change who can instill a performance-driven culture throughout the company.
- accounting principles
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Single source of the truthVisibility of initiatives and resources is critical if a cfo wants to make decisions in real-time. arbutus
solutions uses Microsoft technologies, to create a collaborative environment where the management
of initiatives can all occur in one place. this design enables real-time decision making, eliminates
duplication of effort, and ensures accuracy of information.
By providing data in an easy to use interface, cfos are given insight into the trends that let them
proactively impact the success of a growth strategy. they can set governance standards for initiatives,
track accountability, and provide an audit trail that highlights trends – reducing risk over time.
Sample Executive Dashboard of initiatives within an organization
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ourCoMpany
our department was decentralized, we needed to streamline our processes and found that an out-of-the-box solution wouldn’t work. we needed someone to understand what we wanted to achieve and Arbutus Solutions was the right choice. They were flexible, understood our issue, and we got a client-focused product, not a cookie cutter answer.
-Vikram chadalawada, project Manager ngsIs, university of toronto
Arbutus Solutionswe deliver business improvements where inefficiencies related to portfolio management exist. Our staff, experienced veterans with over 25 years of demonstrated success, take pride in finding unique solutions to help you achieve your corporate vision. We are a boutique consulting firm specializing in Microsoft solutions that minimize the time-to-value for realizing strategic investments. This is our focus, and our staff have become so proficient that senior members of the team sit
on the Microsoft partner advisory council. our solutions allow cfos to reduce administrative overhead, manage risks effectively, and align corporate strategy to drive consensus on the ground. the tools we implement ensure governance is consistent, repeatable, and complied with. our clients generally see a return on investment in less than four months of putting a solution in place.
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Drive business strategyyour corporate strategy drives the initiatives that
are put in place at your organization. It is essential
to align the work on the ground with the higher
level vision, to ensure that your organization is
working on the right projects at the right time.
Change managementa critical component of portfolio success,
change management, is often overlooked. our
management tools focus on providing traceability
to highlight impacts to success.
Do more with lessreporting based on Key performance Indicators
(KpI) has been shown to drive consensus and
optimize the portfolio. our tools provide an
easy-to-use interface for cfos to analyze KpIs
impacted from resource and budgetary changes.
Improved risk managementsetting governance standards for the intake and
execution processes, together with ensuring
an audit trail based on accountability, will drive
compliance with your best practices and reduce
risk over time.
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Integrating an enterprise portfolio Management
(epM) system empowers your organization
to manage its multiple growth strategies
simultaneously.
at arbutus solutions, our purpose is to help
your organization meet its objectives. We offer
a holistic approach from start to finish. Our
commitment to realizing your strategic vision
begins with consultations by seasoned experts
in portfolio management using investigative
workshops to determine your needs and
priorities. our consultants will then design
unique solutions in order to maximize your
organization’s operational efficiencies. Arbutus
solutions provides the expertise to seamlessly
integrate your business processes to technology
solutions. we help you gain data-driven insight in
order to set your organization’s priorities, predict
when an initiative is becoming a negative impact,
and confirm that resources are optimized. In
short, we help you put first things first.
portfolio management consulting, Microsoft
technology implementation, maintenance,
support: arbutus solutions helps you setup
enterprise portfolio Management from inception
to delivery.
our TeaM
It’s very important to me that we are an open and honest organization. our client relationships are long-term; we take the time to understand our client’s vision and work collaboratively to ensure success.”
- Michael patrick, Vice president, Business solutions
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with over 25 years of experience in operations management and business consulting, graeme has held executive positions in various corporations across north america and europe.as Vice president of project delivery, graeme prioritizes designing the optimal solution for the client. he manages all of our project delivery teams nationwide including project managers, developers, and business analysts.
graeMe ByrneVice president, project delivery
ray lettsVice president, technology
MIchael patrIcK, MBaVice president, Business solutions
ray combines his diverse professional experience as an It developer, business and systems consultant, and organizational manager, in his strategic approach. he has worked as an executive in public sector and government for over 30 years. In his role as Vice president, technology, ray coordinates the technical aspects of project delivery, hosting, support, and technical staff development.
Michael has the unique ability to take an executive’s vision and design a flexible solution that directly provides the desired business value. Michael is a recognized industry leader. he works directly with the development groups at Microsoft and regularly participates in speaking engagements with the project Management Institute (pMI), Microsoft project conference, and project world.
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ClienTs
How we workwe serve our clients by advising on best practices
in portfolio management and crafting solutions
that solve their specific business problems. Our
success stems from working with your internal
subject Matter experts to realize your strategic
vision, then collaborating with you through every
stage of the implementation.
It’s our goal to help you achieve your desired
portfolio management maturity, create a self-
reliant atmosphere, and commit our support as
your vision evolves.
Industries
Construction Energy
Education
Health PublicSector
Professional Services
Retail
Oil &
Gas
Utilities
Arbutus Solutions set us up to be self-sufficient. They were not working on a model to force us to go back to them, and they didn’t try to make the project bigger then it needed it to be.It was refreshing to work with someone who had our interests at heart. In the future if we need help we would certainly contact arbutus solutions.
- Rod Millar, Director, Enterprise Portfolio Management Office, AESO
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Improve your ability to make decisions in real timearbutussolutions.com
IntellIgent BusIness ManageMent
