Efficient project benefit management with the Microsoft Power Platform

The head of transformation office was repeatedly faced with the same challenge in project management: The control functions of the classic project management tool were not sufficient to carry out practical and reliable financial benefit tracking. The corresponding figures had to be entered manually into many separate Excel tables and were laboriously consolidated into an overall result. Incomplete information, outdated data and human errors were pre-programmed here.

However especially in the case of major strategic projects and transformation initiatives, it is crucial for success that the financial benefits are continuously reviewed: Is the project still on the right track? Are there adjustments to be made or even parts to be completely restructured? Efficient financial benefit tracking therefore often requires an extension of the existing PM tool or the use of a new application.

At Campana & Schott, we have created a solution for this with the help of our CS PPM Power Suite, which is based on the Microsoft Power Platform and can be expanded particularly flexibly due to the low-code approach. 

This Power Apps solution is used, for example, for the management of major projects at Schindler. As the world's leading provider of elevators and escalators, the new solution now enables the Group to collect master data, and financial and order tracking information in one dashboard. Ralph Harmath, Project Manager at Schindler Global Large Projects explains: 

For financial benefit tracking, we at Campana & Schott have now expanded our solution to continuously check the concrete financial benefits of a project or initiative. This means that the project managers can constantly keep an eye on whether costs are saved or whether more sales are generated. 

For this purpose, the tool validates according to the degree of hardness model and by planning the added value of many individual measures whether the targeted financial goals are actually achieved. The CS PPM Power Suite serves as a central application for data entry, tracking of measures and reporting.

Our solution can be used in numerous use cases for the central optimization of processes and collaboration – always with a focus on improving key financial figures. For example, it supports global sales initiatives, projects to increase efficiency, comprehensive strategy and transformation programs or the improvement of KPIs for higher business excellence. Even if an initiative consists of hundreds of individual measures, those in charge can keep track of the respective result optimization. And this regardless of whether it is a cost-saving program or a strategic project with increased sales.

The advantage of our solution is the setup: It can be quickly and cost-effectively integrated into Microsoft environments. The individually adaptable, generic building blocks can be embedded in Microsoft Teams or Planner as well as in the Reporting Layer of Power BI. Power users and project managers can access the CS PPM Power Suite directly and employees have access via Teams rooms and channels to the relevant information and key figures and both can edit data at the same time.

Accordingly, no special knowledge is required for proprietary tools. Even individual adjustments are done quickly via Microsoft's low-code platform. Thus, project benefit management is no longer rocket science, but can be carried out intuitively and reliably using the tools which are already in place. 

The head of transformation office therefore primarily controls the overall financial benefits of projects – instead of milestones or tasks – on the basis of the concrete financial value added of individual measures. In this way, she can react much faster to undesirable developments and always present the top management with the latest forecasts for financial benefits.