Prosperity in Progress: Wellby Financial’s Adaptive SPM Journey

Why OnePlan: Strategic adaptive portfolio management, ease of configuration, cost-effective customization, and seamless integrations

Departments: Project Management Office (PMO), 7 divisions and over 20 departments

Feature Highlight

• Portfolio Management & Prioritization Scoring 
• Objective & Key Results (OKR) 
• Schedule Management 
• Integrations, flexibility in project methodology 
• Reporting & Visibility 
• Controlled access to teams based on roles 
• Custom Notifications, automated alerts for stakeholders on project milestones, status changes, and governance updates 

Danielle Douglas, Vice President of the Project Management Office at Wellby Financial Services, shares insights into their digital transformation journey and its impact on portfolio management objectives. Wellby Financial embarked on a digital transformation journey in 2018-2019, recognizing the need to update infrastructure, enhance digitization, and embrace automation. With over 60 application replacements and numerous new additions, prioritization became crucial.  

Challenges Before OnePlan

Transparency posed a significant hurdle across Wellby Financial’s 7 divisions and 20+ departments. Siloed initiatives led to redundancies and conflicting efforts. Uniting all portfolios under one platform became essential for streamlining operations. 

They aimed to visualize the impact on team members to manage the change effectively, assessing how new initiatives would affect both membership and team members. This required a sound scoring methodology to prioritize the right projects. 

Why OnePlan

OnePlan’s selection by Wellby Financial was driven by its standout features, tailored to meet the diverse needs of their portfolio management: 

• Adaptive Strategic Portfolio Management: OnePlan’s ability to seamlessly accommodate various methodologies ensured consistency and efficiency across the portfolio. 
• Ease of Configuration: Wellby appreciated OnePlan’s user-friendly interface and low or no-code configuration options. This allowed their teams to customize the platform to their specific requirements without the need for extensive development resources.
  
• Cost-Effective Customization: Given the financial institution’s focus on efficient resource allocation, the cost-effectiveness of OnePlan’s customization was a key factor. 
  
• Integrations: OnePlan’s existing integrations with Microsoft products, including Teams, SharePoint, Planner, and Azure DevOps, aligned seamlessly with Wellby Financial’s existing tech stack. Beyond Microsoft products, OnePlan’s ability to integrate with other essential applications such as Active Directory and WorkDay financials, streamlined processes and data flow across the organization. 

Benefits of OnePlan 

• Holistic View: OnePlan consolidated OKRs and initiatives, providing a singular overview crucial for selecting and executing high-value projects.
  
• Enhanced Decision-making: Clear alignment of initiatives with key results enabled better project selection and avoided low-impact endeavors.
  
• Customization: Tailoring reports, work schedule templates, and ROI calculations empowered Wellby to adapt OnePlan to their specific needs. 

Successes and Results 

Reporting Transparency: 

One of the primary successes Wellby Financial experienced after implementing OnePlan was the significant improvement in reporting transparency. This newfound clarity was instrumental in guiding their decision-making processes and improving overall project outcomes. 

Lessons Learned Reports: Wellby introduced custom reports to analyze project lessons learned, gaining insights into areas like project communications, change management, and testing. This proactive approach helped teams address challenges and prevent recurring issues in future initiatives. 

Success Metrics Tracking: Wellby used OnePlan to track project KPIs, analyze impact, and make data-driven decisions for future endeavors. 

Baselines and Status Tracking: OnePlan’s feature of setting project baselines and tracking real-time status updates empowered project managers with a comprehensive view of project progress. This allowed teams to compare initial estimates with actual timelines, enabling proactive adjustments for on-time project delivery. 

ROI Calculations for Project Prioritization: OnePlan’s financial tools integration enabled Wellby to see proposed projects’ ROI along with other project prioritization factors, assisting with aligning investments to strategic goals for optimal organizational value. 

Time Sheet Utilization & Capacity Planning and Forecasting: With insights from time sheet data, Wellby could proactively forecast future resource needs, preventing team overloads and minimizing the risk of project delays due to resource shortages. 

Partnership with OnePlan

The OnePlan Advantage service offering played a pivotal role in Wellby Financial’s portfolio management journey, providing invaluable ongoing support. This service ensured that the platform was tailored to meet Wellby’s specific needs, from customizing workflows to configuring reports and dashboards. As a result, Wellby was able to adapt to the new system, maximize its functionality, and achieve their project management goals with confidence. 

Final Thoughts

In considering OnePlan, Wellby Financial found a versatile and adaptive solution that not only addressed their immediate needs for transparency and efficiency but also provided a platform for ongoing growth and optimization in their project portfolio management journey.