PMO-as-a-Service - A True Revolution in the Making

If you’re not aware, PMO stands for Project Management Office. PMOs are used by enterprise-sized organizations to improve project management. That’s achieved by improving efficiency and standardizing processes.

In more specific terms, PMOs do things like create and maintain best practices and project documentation, track metrics, and come up with training programs. Ultimately, the department helps to ensure that all of a company’s projects and objectives are supported in the best possible way.

In-house PMOs have been used by companies for quite some time, but PMO outsourcing is emerging as a new viable alternative option. In fact, PMO-as-a-Service is a true revolution in the making. Adopting PMO-as-a-Service could benefit your company in multiple ways. Just like a homeowner might hire a third party to manage an interior design project, many business are now outsourcing project management. So, let’s learn more about it.

So, what exactly is PMO-as-a-Service?

PMO-as-a-Service is about outsourcing your PMO needs. It’s a flexible managed service that involves expert staff and leading PMO software and tools. Basically, it’s a ready-made PMO. Therefore, by choosing PMO-as-a-Service, your company can avoid going through all the costs, time consumption, and learning pains of building its own high-performing PMO.

Instead, you can simply outsource your PMO needs and tailor the service to your company’s specific requirements and objectives. This tailored approach ensures that your planning cycles are optimized, enabling your company to increase delivery certainty, meet agreed costs, margins, and timescales for projects, and improve commercial focus.​ In turn, that will enable your company to do things like increase delivery certainty, meet agreed costs, margins, and timescales for projects, and improve commercial focus.

Benefits of PMO-as-a-Service

We’ve briefly mentioned some of the benefits that PMO-as-a-Service can bring your company, but there are plenty of other advantages. First off, the flexibility of PMO-as-a-Service means that you can easily attain the service level and staff that you need at any given time. Therefore, your costs will vary and be in line with demand.

The flexibility that PMO-as-a-Service provides wouldn’t be so simple to achieve by setting up your own in-house PMO. Other advantages include having lower staff overheads, as you would not need to pay for things like pensions and Employer National Insurance, and being able to adjust the makeup of PMO teams without having to spend additional funds on things like hiring and training.

So, outsourcing your PMO can enable you to always have experts on hand as required and cut costs. PMO-as-a-Service can help in other ways, too. For example, it can help you to:

a) Inject portfolio expertise and tools in order to optimize the value of your PMO outputs.

b) Support the regular activities of your portfolio.

c) Deliver continuous improvement to service performance.

The Challenges of In-house Project Management

The challenges of in-house project management can be wide-ranging. Challenges include having unclear or unrealistic expectations, inadequate resources, inaccurate estimates, poor communication, scheduling conflicts, and project progression uncertainty, to name just a few.

Even the finest tools for project management can’t always ensure perfect outcomes. That doesn’t mean that project management tools like Nuclino, ProofHub, and Trello can’t be very useful.

But when you adopt a PMO-as-a-Service strategy, you know the experts and the right tools are already in place, and, in turn, you will be able to tackle challenges much more effectively than you would be able to manage in-house alone.

Conclusion

In conclusion, PMO-as-a-Service is not only a great option for companies that don’t have the time or resources to manage a fully-fledged PMO. It’s also an ideal option for any kind of company. After all, it offers the same services and benefits as a traditional PMO, but with the added bonus of affordability, expert guidance, and flexibility.

As mentioned above, PMO-as-a-Service brings benefits like having the ability to:

a) Increase delivery certainty.

b) Meet agreed costs, margins, and timescales for projects.

c) Improve commercial focus.

d) Attain the service level and staff that you need at any given time.

e) Have lower staff overheads.

f) Avoid spending funds on things like hiring and training new employees.

g) Inject portfolio expertise and tools in order to optimize the value of your PMO outputs.

h) Support the regular activities of your portfolio.

i) Deliver continuous improvement to service performance.

When you outsource your PMO needs to an experienced PMO-as-a-Service organization, you can ensure that your PMO is tailored to your company’s precise needs, while providing the flexibility to grow and scale over time. Ultimately, PMO-as-a-Service is a great choice for companies that want to take their project management to the next level.

With the right provider, you can get access to the latest tools and technologies, as well as the expertise and guidance needed to ensure the success of your projects. Look for a provider with a proven track record of success, as well as a team with the knowledge and skills to help you achieve your goals.

With the right partner, you can be sure that your PMO will be set up for success and you can get the most out of your projects. So, if you’re looking for a cost-effective and time-saving way to manage your projects, PMO-as-a-Service may be just the solution you’ve been looking for.