Client background

WEA Trust was founded by the Wisconsin Education Association Council in 1970 and serves Wisconsin public employers, staff and families. In 2018 NeuGen, a shared services organization, was established to provide services to WEA Trust and its subsidiaries, WEA Insurance Corporation and Health Tradition Health Plan. In addition to providing services to its sister organizations, NeuGen provides medical management and administrative services to other healthcare companies. As a long-term Baker Tilly client, NeuGen knew they could depend on Baker Tilly to independently assess their Project Management Office (PMO).

The business challenge

Though NeuGen had a long established PMO, executives were unclear if they were investing time and resources in the right projects, and if the projects being delivered were producing the highest value outcomes. NeuGen sought an independent organization to assess the people, process and technology components of the PMO in order to provide strategic recommendations to improve the value of their investments.

Strategy and solution

Current state understanding: Baker Tilly reviewed existing PMO and project documentation and interviewed PMO staff to understand current priorities, processes and tools to operate the PMO. Baker Tilly then interviewed 20 individuals throughout the business to understand the current landscape, business priorities and perspectives on effectiveness of the PMO.

Current state assessment: NeuGen’s PMO was mapped against the Baker Tilly PMO Maturity Model, which highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the capabilities required to support the PMO. The capability areas focus on how to best structure a PMO including governance, portfolio definition, prioritization, pipeline management and value realization. Capabilities focused on PMO execution including resource management and project execution were evaluated as well. NeuGen was benchmarked at their corresponding maturity level across each capability, from initial to optimized.

Future state recommendations: After completion of the PMO assessment, Baker Tilly established improvement themes and collaboratively defined the desired future state PMO maturity areas with NeuGen leadership. Throughout this process, Baker Tilly defined future state goals and specific recommendations to achieve the desired maturity levels across PMO capabilities including effort required, timing and potential costs.

By engaging Baker Tilly for their PMO assessment, NeuGen was able to obtain a transparent, honest, third-party assessment of current PMO operations. In addition, the project delivered a clear, future state PMO road map along with a sequenced action plan and success measures to help NeuGen achieve their goals. The assessment recommendations and road map were structured to result in:

• NeuGen operating with a sense of purpose and having a strong understanding of PMO and project value
• Selection of ideas and projects for investment that provide value to the organization which align to NeuGen’s strategic objectives
• Clear project prioritization processes and measures to ensure the appropriate work is being done at the appropriate time
• Improved project execution using standard processes and tools including effective resource management

Overall, the assessment provided NeuGen with the information and prioritized action items needed to accelerate the PMO’s ability to efficiently meet the goals of the business.