To facilitate the monitoring of work progress and the rapid identification of project risks.
Collection of project documentation in one place and ongoing analysis of the most relevant indicators.
Mechanism-based on an Excel template with project structure linked to documents periodically uploaded throughout the project lifetime.
Oliver Wyman is a global leader in the field of business management consulting. The company is known for business transformation, strategy creation and risk management based on specialist domain expertise. Every day, over 7,000 experts solve complex customer problems, streamlining work and business processes, thereby improving the profitability of hundreds of companies worldwide.
- Scope
Frontend & Backend Development, Databases, Reporting, QA
- Industry
Management Consulting
- Region / Country:
Germany, Belgium, Netherlands
When changing organizational strategy, the challenge is managing the project's complexity and dynamic structure. This is why it is so important to have up-to-date information on the status of the strategic project and its constituent individual initiatives.
The client-consultant collaboration is based on the definition of activities and their implementation. Tasks are often carried out jointly or are dependent on each other, so updating progress and keeping track of the status of the work is important for both parties.
For high-stakes, expensive projects, the cost implications of delays are significant. Only a swift response to events that may lead to project delays can effectively keep the project's budget and delivery time on track, underscoring the importance of timely action.
It should also be noted that Excel is an indispensable tool in every consultant's work. It allows the calculation of various indicators using complex formulas. Moreover, several consultants can work on the same project, creating 'personal' files.
A tool was needed to facilitate information exchange and consultant-client collaboration for effective project management.
The FINGO developers, in collaboration with a group of consultants from Oliver Wyman, created an application utilizing an Excel-based mechanism, namely a template with a project structure linked to documents cyclically loaded throughout the project lifetime.
From the imported files, the application aggregated data on an ongoing basis and displayed the progress information defined at the start of the project. To make this possible, the team had to establish the rules for calculating the indicators and define the data structure within the project. This formed the basis for the construction of the relevant database.
A function was also implemented that provided project information at two levels: basic (traffic light message: red – yellow – green) and detailed (an aggregated downloadable Excel report).
The ability to configure the interface on a case-by-case basis was important, as Oliver Wyman employees and clients accessing the application needed different functionalities, metrics, and permissions in each case related to the project. Therefore, instead of a sophisticated user interface that would be difficult to adapt to project-specific requirements without interfering with the programming code, a generic tool was created that could be adapted to the needs of different projects.
Application testing proved to be a challenge, as it relied on checking the validity of the data calculated by the algorithm. For this reason, it was important to prepare carefully devised test documentation, where the results obtained in the tests had to be correlated with a database properly prepared for this purpose.
Faster response to deviations from the plan
Enabling a quick response to deviations that could result in future project delays by displaying the indicators needed to monitor the progress of the project.
Easier management of the project portfolio
The most important information was hidden in very sophisticated Excel files belonging to many users working in an international organization.
Bringing the dispersed knowledge together in one place, the application has facilitated the management of diverse project portfolios, the calculation of indicators and KPIs.
In other words, the application enabled different projects, characterized by different requirements, structures, and people in charge to be handled more efficiently by 'pulling' the most important data out of Excel and putting it into reports visible on the application's dashboard.
Improvement of data security
Improvement of data security by enabling in-app management of access to files and the data contained therein. The app ensured that the aggregated data and resulting conclusions were only available to the designated stakeholders.
Improvement of information transfer
Improvement of information transfer by enabling flexible document flow (export and import of data files) and their archiving in the application (creation of a certain repository for project documentation).