Planisware had been part of BMS's business processes for 15 years and was so ingrained in their project planning, that many non-standard processes had helped to mitigate some data quality issues. After a sizeable acquisition, the company’s expansion and subsequent portfolio changes meant they couldn’t easily maneuver around the data quality gaps anymore. Leadership declared integrated project plans would be fundamental to drive portfolio decisions. Therefore, needing confidence in their data, BMS created their PMO Center of Excellence (COE) to get their data quality standards in shape.
Margery Davis-Leeman, Director of Project Planning explained, “We want data consistency. The visibility of data in Planisware now gets escalated much higher in several new reporting dashboards. So, to highlight those data potholes, we now use the same data definitions and no longer have the capacity to massage the data. We must be consistent and trustworthy every single time our leaders ask, “Why am I seeing this? Can we trust this data?” With a data accuracy rate that touches 98%, their leadership can make decisions from trustworthy data.
Andrew Cheng, Senior Capabilities Manager explained how their COE analysts work more closely with system users to better identify what they didn't know before. “It's always good when business users have a certain amount of flexibility to work with their stakeholders, but everyone needs to know that workarounds are not ideal long-term solutions. We regularly collaborate with users to customize the process and make any needed adjustments to better serve the business. Planisware helps identify when there is a problem that requires a change to be implemented.”
Davis-Leeman commented about the road ahead. “There's always something. There is always more process that we’ll need to look at and as business changes, we need to be able to change with it. Planisware allows us the flexibility to do that.
