Curia is a contract research, development, and manufacturing organization (CDMO) that helps pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies bring their products to market to improve patients’ lives. A global organization that spans twenty-eight sites and more than 3,500 employees, Curia’s offerings range from drug discovery through commercial manufacturing.
Keeping with its commitment to deliver a best-in-class experience to customers, in 2017, Curia saw an opportunity to modernize its approach to project management. Because Curia doesn’t have traditional project managers on every project, scientists need to be able to provide accurate data to effectively partner with the PMO for project management and with financial analysts to forecast project revenue. They needed a tool that could enhance collaboration among their teams.
Planisware’s easy-to-access browser-based application filled that need. Curia’s Senior IT Business Analyst was tasked with implementing Planisware across Curia’s global sites and improving its user adoption. Amid the implementation efforts, Curia was also growing, completing two acquisitions in that timeframe. Planisware provided a solution that supports operational output while balancing operating margins for both new and existing teams at Curia to collaborate.
Key results achieved at Curia since integrating Planisware:
- Significant time savings
- Enhanced financial forecasts
- Better portfolio visibility
A Collaborative Approach Facilitates Teamwork
Curia started small by introducing the Planisware system to project managers and resource managers site by site for project creation, task management and resource management.
“Our scientific project managers manage a lot of projects within their teams,” Curia’s Senior IT Business Analyst said. “They want to focus on the science while working with their customers and need to have the ability to quickly provide project updates and forecasts.”
Over time, the scope evolved to include portfolio management and financial forecasting. Curia’s Senior IT Business Analyst identified this as an opportunity to improve the revenue forecasting process. Previously, Curia used a manual process that produced a monthly static snapshot review. Planisware enabled Curia to streamline and automate this process dramatically.
Using a standard format to capture data from project managers across multiple projects and activities, Curia’s Finance team is now able to download and transform that data into real-time weekly reports. Planisware condensed the process significantly by making Curia more agile and allowing teams to provide daily updates. This improved the accuracy of revenue forecasting and instilled a weekly vs. monthly review to enable better financial decision-making.
“Planisware adds value by giving back time to employees to perform and improve other important processes in their day-to-day. Their biggest reward is time. That’s what we’re always trying to get back to.” - Senior IT Business Analyst, Curia
Planisware and the PMO: A Unified Source of Truth for Project Management
As Planisware was being integrated into the organization, Curia also established a PMO. Curia’s Senior IT Business Analyst partnered with this new team and onboarded the PMO onto Planisware, which is now used as a single source of truth for all of the PMO’s project timelines and KPIs. Planisware also provides the ability for the PMO and scientific managers to collaborate.
The Road Ahead: Continuing the Progress with Planisware at Curia
Innovation continues to be a key pillar of Curia’s success, which means there is still work to be done. Curia’s Senior IT Business Analyst spoke about the road ahead. “This story isn't finished so much as it is to be continued. Planisware is one of the perfect tools to grow with. It’s just a matter of managing growth because there’s so much where you can go. It’s a matter of finding use cases and team members that we can partner with on the business side.”
Curia’s growth in learning how to use technology like Planisware had its growing pains, but now people are getting used to using it. It’s a level of trust that’s being built because as Curia’s Senior IT Business Analyst stated, “Planisware adds value by giving back time to employees to perform and improve other important processes in their day-to-day. Their biggest reward is time. That's what we're always trying to get back to.”
