A South Africa-based medical aid, insurance and investment giant has optimised its project and portfolio operation using the McMethod.net project management system provided by McManus Consulting, in association with their development partner Dac Systems.

The client required the services of an experienced service provider to introduce a solution that would help to facilitate the implementation of its comprehensive project management strategy, one that covers both domestic and international practices.

As a leader in medical aid cover, insurance and investment, the Company had a requirement to manage various projects according to best practices and to provide a functional Project Management Information System to its various divisions across the globe.

There was also a need to accommodate the various ways these different divisions approach projects, whilst enabling the overall organisation to monitor project, programme and portfolio performance at a group level.

“It was a sizeable undertaking and required a solution that would offer the necessary level of automation on projects and the required workflow capability,” says Tony McManus, MD of project management specialist McManus Consulting (Pty) Ltd. “We knew that McMethod.net would be the ideal solution.”

McMethod.net is a project management system containing comprehensive Project Management Methodologies with all the necessary Project Management templates, governance instruments, project sites and project processes.

These project processes are automated using Nintex® workflow for Project Server and an automated process can be defined for each project type undertaken, from complex to simple – including the ability to apply no workflow if required.

These methodologies can be easily modified to accommodate any specific need or completely new methodologies can be defined using the tool.

The solution utilises software elements already owned by the Client, such as Microsoft SharePoint® and Microsoft Project Server® which ensured that the Company could leverage off their existing investment in Microsoft products.

In addition to this, the underlying technology used for McMethod.net (Nintex® Workflow for Project Server) has enabled this leading insurance provider to automate business processes outside of the project environment such as IT provisioning, HR processes as well as procurement processes – all managed through the power of SharePoint®.

“McMethod.net is an example of the impact that the right technology can have in providing project information across conventional and mobile platforms. Access to this kind of solution will assist businesses in gaining competitive advantage through improved project insight and greater team participation, leading to increased project success,” McManus adds.

Following this successful pilot on McMethod.net, the solution will now be rolled out globally.

Executive management at the Client have praised the level of expertise housed within McManus Consulting and Dac Systems and believe the McMethod.net solution has already made a lasting difference to its project and portfolio management capability. There is every confidence global rollout will progress smoothly and will result in significant improvement for the client.