Project Management

These days, access to rich sources of pension industry data, information and advice is readily available from an array of government bodies, lawyers, actuaries and numerous pension consultancy providers. So whilst Scheme Trustees and Pension Managers are certainly under more pressure than ever, they are now much better informed.

But once you’ve consulted, digested and finally decided how best to meet your own challenges and obligations for the foreseeable future, you may well find yourself with a collection of projects which are almost impossible to deliver without seriously threatening your day to day operations as well as your budget. Especially if your projects involve external suppliers. Navigating a course through your projects on top of your daily work demands could represent a major challenge.

There are a number of ways you could try to meet such a challenge:

“We’ll find the time”

Unless you have sufficient spare capacity within your existing team AND the expertise in house to implement your new projects, trying to fit these in and around your existing commitments is unlikely to give you the outcomes you want.

Your team is probably structured to deliver cyclical and ‘on-demand’ processes rather than formal projects. Adding these into your existing team can result in poor quality or unfinished projects, SLA breaches, increased E&Os, dissatisfied members, a de-motivated team and potentially, non-compliance.

If external suppliers are involved then managing the relationship and ensuring that all their responsibilities are being met in accordance to agreed quality, costs and timescales can be extremely time consuming. If you’re not accustomed to doing this it can be almost impossible.

You need a delivery solution that does not threaten your team’s ‘business as usual’ activities or divert you from your own operational and strategic responsibilities.

“We’ll appoint a major consultancy to provide additional resource and manage our projects”

The major players can of course provide a wide range of products and services and should be able to work with you and your suppliers to successfully deliver your projects. However, they are expensive and, given the breadth of their products and services, they are also likely to bring their own agenda to the table.

Major consultancies will see their involvement at the Programme or Project Management level as a golden opportunity to ‘grow the relationship’, squeeze out your existing suppliers and sell you their own range of products and services.

It may well be necessary to buy-in temporary resource to undertake specialist project roles or back-fill existing staff who need to be released to projects. Most of the large consultancies can supply excellent people at this level, but to retain effective and impartial control over your projects you should have a Project Manager in place who is completely independent from all suppliers to your projects. The Project Manager should be answerable only to you.

You need a cost effective delivery solution, managed day to day by someone who only has your interests at heart.

“We’ll Project Manage the work and our suppliers”

This approach will normally give you the best chance of success, but only if you have the time, skills and experience in house to fully engage with the project delivery process and properly manage your suppliers.

Such a commitment will normally include:

Effectively challenging and then agreeing project objectives, scope, approach, teams, costs, risks, controls, delivery plans, success criteria and contingency plans with your suppliers and all internal/external stakeholders
Producing and agreeing detailed specifications that accurately define the desired solutions such as new processes, target operating models, systems, etc., that will meet your agreed project objectives within agreed parameters
Organising test environments/pilot teams where solutions can be tested, refined, re-tested and signed off
Organising the release of key staff from their daily commitments to support agreed delivery plans without impacting upon the administration of your scheme
Running regular project review meetings to understand and challenge the status of the project with your suppliers and staff, review risks and resolve any issues that may impact on the desired outcomes
Communicating progress to various stakeholders outside the project team (i.e. Trustees, members, unions, other departments, etc.)

Suppliers may well include Project Management services within their proposals. The cost for this might be transparent or included within the overall costs. Either way, they have to manage their own project staff, internal processes and deliveries. Your suppliers will be most effective if they can work closely with someone on your side who has the skills, experience and time to fully understand the delivery process and support their needs as suppliers, whilst prioritising and representing your needs as the client.

You need a delivery solution that will ensure your interests are fully represented and reinforced by engaging effectively with the process, constantly challenging your suppliers and supporting your staff, all without taking up a disproportionate amount of your time and energy.

“We’ll appoint an independent Project Manager”

This is the best of all worlds. An experienced, independent Project Manager working exclusively for you will dedicate themselves to delivering your project, to your complete satisfaction. Once your Project Manager understands the driving forces behind your project they can very effectively manage it on your behalf.

This would normally include;

Challenge and agree project objectives, scope, approach, costs, risks, controls, delivery plans, success criteria and contingency plans
Work with your team to implement an effective project infrastructure, release skills and knowledge that are essential to the success of the project with minimal impact to ongoing scheme administration services
Work with your suppliers to understand their needs, closely monitor and manage their progress and ensure that they are able to fulfil their commitments to the project
Organise, chair and minute project review meetings to understand and challenge the status of the project with your suppliers and staff, review risks and resolve any issues that may impact on the desired outcomes
Implement a Communication Plan to advise progress to various stakeholders outside the project team (i.e. Trustees, members, unions, other departments, etc.)
Drive the project forward without distractions such as operational or member issues that often demand the immediate attention of your senior staff

Call Pension Project Solutions Limited on 0117 905 5383 or email us at enquiries@pensionprojects.com to secure the delivery solution that will work for you first time, every time.

Pension Project Solutions Limited

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