CUSTOMER STORY
One Place for Everything: Port Waratah Coal Services and pmo365
-
~170 170
Concurrent projects, managed by a two-person PMO
-
Two thirds
Reduction in the PMO’s administration tasks
-
145Mt 145
Annual coal export capacity across two terminals
Port Waratah Coal Services is a coal transport organisation operating in Newcastle. The company is running some 170 (mostly procurement and maintenance) projects concurrently, managed at the corporate level by a Project Management Office of two people. PMO team member Geoff Crook previously spent hours collecting information scattered across spreadsheets, Word documents, scheduling software, a cloud-based ERP, and various financial reporting apps.
Since the implementation of pmo365, the PMO and almost all project data has moved to a single platform that serves as the central location for all project information. A single source of truth and real-time data has made a “transformational” change to its PPM and cut Geoff’s administration tasks by almost two thirds.
-
Shiploading at Port Waratah, Newcastle
About the organisation
Port Waratah Coal Services
Port Waratah is a coal transportation company connecting the Hunter Valley coal chain to the global market. This chain spans 450km, involves 35 mines, rail haulage providers, and the Australian Rail Track Corporation. Port Waratah receives, stockpiles, blends and loads coal for export at the Port of Newcastle to more than 20 countries, with capacity to export up to 145 million tonnes per annum from its Kooragang and Carrington terminals.
Port Waratah has made a number of innovations, including real-time service delivery dashboards, an Intelligent Dust Management System, and a drone programme for investigation and maintenance tasks. The PMO’s responsibilities include governance over maintenance tasks and upgrades to capital and equipment, as well as regular reporting to the Senior Leadership Team.
The challenge
Five key challenges
Port Waratah’s previous project management tool was extremely powerful, but way too complex for the projects it was being used for. Users needed a good deal of training before they could get any benefit from it, and the average project manager found it difficult to enter data directly. The PMO was devoting a lot of administrative time to retrieving data for reporting, and the organisation carried a significant single-person risk.
-
01
A ‘single point sensitive’ PMO
The PMO’s unique skillset meant he was the only person capable of running the entire project management system. There would be no backup if he left, and a lot of important data and historical knowledge would be inaccessible.
-
02
Scattered data and lack of visibility
Project data and documentation were kept on local drives in a variety of applications. Delays and inaccuracies prevented the PMO from getting a clear, up-to-the-minute picture of performance.
-
03
A time-consuming reporting and analysis process
Reports were prepared by collating massive amounts of data from the PM tool, documents, project folders, and financial and forecasting tools into spreadsheets, limiting the PMO’s ability to focus on a strategic role. Portfolio analysis ran on a cumbersome, inflexible web tool.
-
04
A lack of shared tools and resources
Off-the-shelf tools either failed to fully accommodate needs or were overly complex. Project managers had little incentive to work on a common platform, so metadata, schedules, costs, status, risks and actions were never in one place.
-
05
Gate checklists retained in project folders
Each stage or gate in delivery was recorded locally by project managers, leaving insufficient visibility across tasks and gates to enforce governance and maintain traceability.
"All of the project management, comments, status reports are in pmo365. The costs are in there, the forecasts are in there, the actions register is in there. All of the reporting which I used to do in spreadsheets, I’ve now built into pmo365. So, I’m going to one place to see all of that work that I need to do to analyse and look at projects, and the time savings for me far exceeds what I ever expected it to be."
The solution
Unify all project activities onto a single, integrated platform
With a subscription, the pmo365 solution was deployed to Port Waratah’s own Microsoft Power Platform environment and configured over an initial three-week sprint. From then on, all project portfolio data would be routed to a central data exchange, the Dataverse.
After deployment, the PMO set about gradually establishing project management requirements for its project managers with minimal disruption to their operations, on the principle of Introduce, Integrate, Replace: introduce new PPM applications from the Solution Library, integrate data from the tools users like to use, and replace old applications that are no longer necessary.
-
01
Centralise data and bring all project managers onboard
The single source of truth for status updates, checklists, costs, forecasting, risk, actions and reports. Uptake was strong and benefits became apparent “pretty much straight away”, with the pmo365 DevOps team refining the solution iteratively to suit each project type.
-
02
Centralise governance processes for consistent delivery
Gates and stages define the scope and requirements of each aspect of delivery, and an approvals process ensures requirements are met before a project moves on. One accessible location gave visibility and control across the portfolio and the means to generate enterprise-wide reports.
-
03
Simplify reporting
All project data is routed directly to Power BI for best-practice reports and dashboards. “The project managers update their projects and my reporting is done.” Several Senior Leadership Team reports run directly in PowerPoint presentation mode, refreshed with a single click.
-
04
Build institutional knowledge
Historical data on performance, risk, costs and resources is retained for business cases and estimates on new initiatives, and protects the organisation from single point sensitivity. Reports built with pmo365 developers can be adapted, repaired or redeveloped whenever needed under the continuing subscription.
-
05
Provide shared tools and resources
Real-time data and notifications when actions are required mean fewer long email chains and no documents lost in an in-tray. Configuration is driven by user experience and business best practice in consultation with pmo365 developers, with the DevOps team on hand for new customisations and integrations.
The results
A “transformational” change for the PMO
For the PMO, the change has been transformational: there is much less administrative burden in the collection of project data, and month-end analysis and variance reporting now happens in one place. Administration tasks have been cut by almost two thirds, and all information previously spread across drives is kept in a single location that makes reporting and project tracking incredibly easy.
In 2021, Port Waratah received the Professional Services Award in the NSW Project Management Achievement Awards, run by the Australian Institute of Project Management, for its Project Management System Upgrade. Port Waratah runs approximately 170 projects at any time across IT, compliance, engineering, investigative studies, maintenance, capital renewal and investment.
The future: only getting started
Port Waratah plans to expand pmo365 further. Geoff is hoping to replace most (up to 70%) of the PMO’s current forms and templates with pmo365’s to create a uniform approval process, and is considering integrating project management with its business procurement functions as a future development sprint.
Frequently asked questions
-
How long did implementation take?
A typical 3-week initial sprint deployed and configured the platform. The PMO then further configured the solution over about 6 months to suit its portfolio requirements. After that, all projects and project data were imported over a few days and the old system was discontinued.
-
Does Port Waratah use the full pmo365 Solution Library?
The focus was purely on improving project management, governance, and the ability to create reports, dashboards and insights without copying and pasting data. The PMO has since extended into portfolio analysis, plans to convert most forms and templates into pmo365 documents, and is considering a procurement tool and continuous-improvement project tools. A subscription gives access to the entire library and all updates to the IP forever.
-
Did Port Waratah consider other solutions?
The PMO looked at Primavera Cloud, Planview and Monday.com, among others. Primavera and Planview were highly regarded but Port Waratah did not require that level of complexity; it needed to manage a large, sustaining portfolio concerned with maintaining and upgrading existing assets. pmo365’s advantage is versatility, scalability, easy integration, the security of the Microsoft cloud, and Power BI reporting.
"We had costs in cost spreadsheet templates and in BI Reports. We had forecasts going into a different system. We had integrations with all those systems. But if I wanted to go to one place to see everything I needed to see about that project, I couldn’t. So, that’s one of the real benefits of pmo365 so far: when I’m doing my month end analysis and variance reporting, I’m going to one place to look at everything."
Ready to transform your project portfolio?
See how pmo365 can bring governance, visibility, and financial clarity to your organisation.