question archive Arup Group Limited is a multinational professional services firm headquartered in London that provides engineering, design, planning, project management, and consulting services for all aspects of structures and environments of human construction
Arup Group Limited is a multinational professional services firm headquartered in London that provides engineering, design, planning, project management, and consulting services for all aspects of structures and environments of human construction
Subject:ManagementPrice: Bought3
Arup Group Limited is a multinational professional services firm headquartered in London that
provides engineering, design, planning, project management, and consulting services for all aspects
of structures and environments of human construction. Founded in 1946, Arup now has over
13,000 staff based in 85 offices across 35 countries
throughout the globe. The company defines itself
as one where professionals of diverse disciplines—engineers,
planners, designers, financial experts,
consulting specialists, and sustainability
professionals—
can work together to deliver projects
and services of greater quality than by working in
isolation. Arup has worked on projects in over 160
countries, including the Pompidou Center in Paris,
the Sydney Opera House, the high-speed railway between
London and Paris, and the National Aquatics
Center for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Arup is an intensive user of information technology
in all aspects of its work, including working with
clients, designing buildings, running structural simulations,
and coordinating projects. Its management
wants to ensure that Arup's information systems
group is working on all the right IT projects for furthering
the business and is doing so in the right way.
Arup's systems have to be stable, leading edge, and
available at all times, with employees able to access
the information they need at any time and any place.
Until recently Arup's IT staff relied on Microsoft
Excel spreadsheets or Microsoft Word documents as
their project management tools. Reports were sporadic
and in diverse formats, collaboration was very
limited, project delivery styles were inconsistent,
and there was no central visibility into what was
happening with each project. Arup set up a Global
IT Portfolio Management Office to oversee its entire
portfolio of IT projects, but it was hampered by having
to manually create reports using spreadsheets
and e-mail updates from regional offices.
Working with Program Framework consultants
who specialize in project portfolio management,
Arup decided to adopt Microsoft Project Online to
improve project management. Project Online is
Microsoft's cloud-based project management tool,
and it helps organizations efficiently plan projects,
track status, and collaborate with others from any
location and any device. Members of Arup's global
workforce have immediate access to project data
at any time wherever they are working. The cloud
solution also makes it possible to report on projects
using live data, with the system able to tie in to other
processes such as service and change management.
Program Framework consultants helped Arup implement
Project Online and train employees. They also
developed a customized Project and Program Status
Reporting capability for Project Online.
In the past, Arup's Global IT Portfolio
Management Office had to spend 40 hours per
month compiling reports manually. By the time it
created a status report, the report was already out
of date. Project Online gives Arup instant views
into the status of all of its IT projects. Regional employees
can view their own portfolios of projects,
while Arup's Global IT Portfolio Management Office
has immediate views of all global projects. Arup's
management can examine and classify projects
throughout the entire enterprise based on their red,
green, and amber status indicators. (Red designates
projects with critical status, while amber designates
those at risk.) The ability to see Arup's entire project
portfolio gives management better insight into project
delivery. The Global IT Portfolio Management
Office can obtain key project status summaries,
and highlight reporting of individual projects where
it can drill down for further detail, enabling it to
make better decisions based on up-to-date data.
Project Online has become essential for supporting
a common approach to Arup's project management
across the globe. There is less duplication of effort
and more strategic value in Arup's overall project
portfolio.
Project Online is part of Microsoft's cloud-based
Office 365 software suite, so it works seamlessly with
other Microsoft productivity and communication
tools such as OneDrive for Business (cloud storage),
Skype for Business (voice, video, chat), Yammer (enterprise
social networking), and Visual Studio Team
Foundation Server, which Arup uses for software
development projects. Arup also plans to implement
additional Project Online capabilities for demand and
capacity planning, portfolio prioritization, and portfolio
balancing. Users can easily copy information
from Project and paste it into Office applications like
PowerPoint and Word.
Arup uses Project Online for its IT Project
Pipeline, a central repository of ideas for future
development. Each idea recorded in the Pipeline
requires that the initiator furnish information such
as project description, budget, and resource needs.
Arup's Global IT Portfolio Management Office
sends this information to Arup's management committee
members to review and prioritize for new
initiatives.
When ideas are approved, their Project Pipeline
information can easily be transferred to active projects.
It only takes a few minutes for Project Pipeline
to create a project or program within Project Online.
Each has its own Project Details Pages, which include
a built-in schedule template and a connected
Microsoft SharePoint Server site with document repository
and status reporting. This capability saves
Arup's Global IT Portfolio Management Office manager
Carolyn Bundey several days of work for each
new project, creating significant time savings for an
annual portfolio of approximately 180 IT projects.
Several years ago, Project Online had about
150 users, but Arup is thinking about providing
the tool for all of its employees. Arup licenses
three different versions of Project Online. Project
managers, owners, and administrators use Project
Online with Project Professional for Office 365,
enabling them to create and edit project plans
inside or outside a web browser. Arup executives
use Project Online to review project status. Project
team members can view assignments or collaborate
with other team members using the lower-cost
Project Lite version.
Sources: "Engineering Firm Uses Cloud-Based Solution to Generate,
Execute, and Monitor IT Projects," www.microsoft.com, accessed
January 2, 2018; "Leading Arup at the Forefront of Innovation
in Today's Built Environment," www.gineersnow.com, accessed
January 3, 2018; and www.arup.com, accessed January 2, 2018.
1. What is the relationship between information
technology, project management, and Arup's business
model and business strategy?
2. How does Microsoft Project Online support Arup's
business strategy? How did it change the way the
company works?
3. What management, organization, and technology
issues did Arup have to address when selecting
Project Online as its global project portfolio management
tool?
