Healthcare
PMO Modernization: Towards Cloud Portfolio Intelligence
Primary Area
Organizational Project Management (OPM)
Service Area
Project Server Migration and Process Optimization
Products Used
Project Online, Power BI
Roles Impacted
IT Director, Portfolio Managers, Project Managers, Business Analysts
Impact Highlight
50% time saving on project status reporting
Opportunity
A leading pediatric hospital’s IT Project Management Organization was constrained by an aging Microsoft Project Server 2010 on‑premises environment that couldn’t keep pace with expanding regulatory, capital, and digital initiatives. Leadership saw an opportunity to modernize governance, unify data, and gain forward‑looking insight by moving to Microsoft’s cloud platform.
Pain Points:
Fragmented project schedules across Project Server 2010, and Excel trackers led to inconsistent dates and duplicate effort.
No single demand intake path; requests arrived by email, hallway conversations, and ad‑hoc SharePoint lists, making prioritization reactive.
Financial tracking lived in disconnected spreadsheets with manual re-keying into ERP cost centers, delaying variance insight.
Risk and issue data were inconsistently defined and rarely rolled up for executive review; escalations depended on individuals.
Reporting required manual exports and PowerPoint assembly, consuming days each cycle and limiting confidence in data quality.
Solution
We partnered with IT, clinical operations, and finance stakeholders to design a people‑first PMO operating model that aligned roles, governance cadence, and data ownership to the hospital’s growth strategy. The team engineered and executed a phased migration from Project Server 2010 to Project Online with integrated Power Platform analytics, automations, and controlled transitions for legacy toolsets.
People, Process & Technology Highlights:
People: Role clarity matrix for project managers, resource owners, finance analysts, and clinical sponsors.
Process: Standardized demand intake form with required benefit, compliance, and capital/operational expense tagging; stage‑gate workflow mapped to regulatory checkpoints; common risk/issue taxonomy and escalation rules.
Technology Migration: Lift‑and‑reshape migration of schedules, custom fields, and resource pools from Project Server 2010 into Project Online; conversion utilities built with PowerShell + Project Online CSOM.
Integrated Platform: SharePoint Online project workspaces; Power Automate flows to route new requests and trigger risk escalations; Azure AD‑based security groups for role‑driven access; data fed through Project Online OData endpoints into an enterprise Power BI semantic model.
Impact
The hospital’s PMO now operates from a single cloud portfolio dataset with governed intake, automated status rollups, and real‑time executive dashboards that surface schedule, financial, and risk signals before issues widen. Teams spend more time on delivery and less on data wrangling, and leadership can compare clinical, infrastructure, and compliance investments on equal footing.
Results:
Cut project reporting cycle time by ~50% through use of Project Online Status Reports and Power BI dashboards.
Improved risk visibility: Active projects now maintain current risk/issue logs with automated executive escalation triggers.
Reduced manual financial reconciliation via structured cost field mapping and ERP data integration.
Consolidated demand intake reduced duplicate/overlapping requests.
Supporting portfolio prioritization and audit readiness.