In 2011, American Capital's IT PMO had tried and failed to get even basic visibility into projects status and resources. With help from AtTask enterprise work management, they were able to get unprecedented visibility into their processes and resources and communicate their results throughout the company.

1. CATCHING THE VISION
How enterprise work management revived American Capital’s IT PMO

2. American Capital
• Industry: Financial Services
• Employees: 300
• Manages $18.6B in assets
• In 2012, IT PMO handles $9.9-million budget
CUSTOMER BACKGROUND

3. By the fall 2011, the American Capital IT PMO was
busy but with no visibility into project status or
resources. Nine months earlier, they’d spent $40,000
on project management software that failed to
produce a single useful report.
Q3 2011: ZERO VISIBILITY

4. CIO Kim Jacques lost 2 weeks every quarter on data-
gathering alone. Despite being busy, the PMO
couldn’t provide her with a simple list of projects
being worked on.
Q3 2011: ZERO VISIBILITY

5. “We had no way of knowing how taxed individuals
were on one project versus another. We didn’t have a
line of sight on budgets. We didn’t have scope of
what was coming up. We didn’t have any of that
data.” –Kim Jacques, CIO
Q3 2011: ZERO VISIBILITY

6. In October, Jen French started as PMO senior
manager and commenced formalizing data-
gathering, defining projects, and collecting timesheet
information via Excel spreadsheets.
Q4 2011: DATA STRUGGLES

7. This process consumed 60% of Jen’s time per week.
Reports to executives were outdated.
The PMO lost productivity maintaining spreadsheets.
Q4 2011: DATA STRUGGLES

8. “I didn’t have time to think strategically, ‘How do we
improve the PMO?’ It was just, ‘How can we get some
kind of reporting out there?’” –Jen French, Senior
Manager
Q4 2011: DATA STRUGGLES

9. Jen set out to find a new project management tool.
But after evaluating several tools, she was inspired
by the end-to-end visibility the AtTask enterprise
work management solution offered.
Q1 2012: GOING SHOPPING

10. An on-site AtTask consultant set the PMO up in 3
short weeks. The team picked up the intuitive tool
quickly. Kim was delighted as AtTask instantly began
producing invaluable reports.
Q1 2012: RAMPING UP

11. With real-time reporting, Jen could see project status,
budgets, and team member workloads.
Q2 2012: INCREASING VISIBILITY

12. With less time spent on data-gathering and reporting,
Jen could spot opportunities to increase PMO
efficiency and align efforts to company goals.
Q2 2012: INCREASING VISIBILITY

13. Clear visibility made it easy for Kim to justify PMO
resources and budgets to senior management.
Q2 2012: INCREASING VISIBILITY

14. Real-time reports on project status, resource
workloads, and project expenditures allowed
management to make smarter, data-driven decisions.
Q2 2012: INCREASING VISIBILITY

15. The PMO saved $160,000 per year on status and
time collection.
Q2 2012: INCREASING VISIBILITY

16. The CIO got back 10% of her workweek.
Q2 2012: INCREASING VISIBILITY

17. “If I have a new project manager, I can sit with them
and train them. I can think about how we’re going to
expand our PMO expertise.” –Jen French, Senior
Manager
Q2 2012: INCREASING VISIBILITY

18. “The value I get from AtTask is the data to market IT.
We’re running 40 active projects at any given time.
Ninety-five percent of those are within budget. I
couldn’t say that without making up the numbers until
now.” –Kim Jacques, CIO
Q2 2012: INCREASING VISIBILITY