Strategic Program Management

Co-Creating Structure and Embarking on the Transformation Journey

Our Client

Our client is one of the 10 largest transmission and distribution electric utility providers in the United States, serving more than 10 million homes in over 400 communities.

Transformation Challenge

Our client’s IT department needed help to identify, develop, and deliver a Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) system. A UEM is a centralized platform that allows an IT group to deploy applications and remotely support employee endpoint devices (i.e., desktops, laptops, virtual machines, mobile devices, and tablets) across an enterprise. UEM systems make it significantly easier to ensure system and service availability so that team members in the field can continue to drive the business effectively. With a UEM system, the IT team can ensure that all devices in the organization run on the same supported application versions, thus better enabling the IT group to support enterprise applications quickly and efficiently.

The client had made multiple attempts to initiate this UEM deployment internally but failed to gain traction. Internal leadership simply wasn’t sold on the initial delivery roadmap and felt there was a better way to plan and implement the project. What they needed was a trusted partner who could work vertically and horizontally across the entire IT organization to deliver related initiatives with cross-functional impacts.

Thought Ensemble has a long history of delivery with this company, and they believe in our ability to listen to them, understand their objectives, and effectively drive projects to completion. Our job was to work with the leadership team to build out the vision and business requirements, develop an implementation plan, (resources, timelines, budget, etc.), secure executive approvals, and implement the solution.

Our Approach

Upon diving in, we worked quickly to understand the issues that prevented this initiative from getting off the ground—primarily, they lacked the necessary, dedicated resources to drive the project forward In other words, the project team members were part-time, and they often had other responsibilities that they would prioritize first.

Understanding this situation, we quickly established a tempo that helped create momentum. First, we assessed the previous diligence that had been done to understand what work still needed to be completed. Then, we identified key stakeholders and steering committee members from across the enterprise who would serve as the appropriate approval authority to begin work. This critical first phase focused on organizing the project team and establishing the infrastructure that would support key communications and work going forward. We then presented our findings and go-forward plan and attained executive approval to proceed with project delivery.

Next, we began working with the client’s subject matter experts and third-party service providers to drive the plan and complete the project. The team’s method from the beginning was to provide a communication infrastructure that engaged key stakeholders and to set a project pace that allowed the team to steadily move forward while keeping leadership informed. Our project manager held weekly meetings with our client’s project team, making sure to stay close to the work plan, while also holding one-off sessions to follow up on action items and progress the project. 

Results

In the end, we were able to establish a project structure that enabled this UEM project to be packaged, approved, and executed on. As we always do, the team ensured that key stakeholders and sponsors had the appropriate level of visibility while working with subject matter experts to deliver on the critical components of the overall project. Most importantly, we fulfilled our client promise to work alongside their teams to catalyze transformation.