Insights

As project goals change and shift through continual uncertainty, many organizations seek means to increase visibility across their commercial portfolio. Stakeholders are not only looking to steer their portfolio towards the strongest position to succeed but are also taking the opportunity to reinvent their approach to commercial visibility as an exigent component to portfolio management. 

 

WHAT DOES COMMERCIAL VISIBILITY MEAN TO YOUR PROJECT PORTFOLIO?

Visibility enables PMO leaders to predict risk to project outcomes – greatly impacting schedule and delivery. When a portfolio is highly visible, team members are aligned behind real-time facts, further bolstering recognition of overall PMO goals. Presumably, specific team members may understand where blockages are, yet are not able to effectively illustrate those details to stakeholders in a comprehensive and transparent way. Having heightened visibility across the portfolio enables teamwide comprehension of the project’s health – resulting in decisions based on accurate data rather than conjecture.  Improving visibility into where time and resources are being spent is the initial step to ensuring alignment in view of reassessing the risk profile across the project portfolio. 

 

IMPORTANCE OF PROJECT PORTFOLIO VISIBILITY

Visibility across the project portfolio facilitates executive decision-making processes by not only providing accurate data but a realistic overarching perspective of all projects. Principally, it ensures that every team member is informed of the projects’ alignment with overall objectives to deliver on schedule and within budget. It also determines that PPM team controls can ensure that supply and demand are aligned both to the expectations of stakeholders and capabilities of the enterprise. This is particularly critical when resources are impacting more than one project – creating an opportunity to prioritize. The cost of inefficient resource allocation results in schedule delay and cost overruns/liability, as well as failed strategy deployment. 

Commercial visibility not only promotes clarity, transparency, and trust but can eliminate project derailment.

BENEFITS OF TRANSPARENT COMMERCIAL EVALUATION

The purpose of commercial visibility lies in the consolidation of risk and opportunity management across the entire project portfolio, which drives an effective response through your supply chain. 

KEY BENEFITS

• Assurance of Tracking against Key Milestones
• Transparent, Convenient, and Synchronous Project Reporting
• Informed Stakeholder Decision Making
• Agility to Alleviate Obstacles and Mitigate Risks
• Engaged and Timely Supply Chain & Procurement Management

 

COMMERCIALLY ASSESSING YOUR PORTFOLIO

The main objective of commercial evaluation is to safeguard supply chains and increase resilience against future disruption. Typically, some companies will only prioritize evaluating the first tier of relationships within a project, rather than navigating the arduous task of assessing their complete commercial portfolio – especially under acute time pressure. To adequately identify commercial risk in view of securing the commercial position, stakeholders must be able to rely on consistent, meticulous, and reliable data. Most importantly, data visibility, availability, and convenience will certify alignment between company leadership and the project team while further establishing stakeholder accountability.  An effective commercial evaluation analyses a portfolio’s commercial position regularly across the supply chain, location, contract type, project type, and global business units. To implement the desired holistic approach, engagement should be undertaken teamwide across a portfolio, from stakeholders and commercial management to contract representatives.   Utilizing this strategy empowers stakeholders to develop counter actions that prioritize risk and opportunity management throughout the portfolio. This approach will not only cultivate a transparent and risk-based technique but also limit liabilities. In the case of this process becoming seemingly unattainable, project leaders must review their current framework in view of building resilience for the future. For example, employing an experienced third-party consultant, to perform a relative analysis of the disparate risks, mitigating scope creep across individual projects and the overall allocation of risk between parties. 

 

NURTURING PORTFOLIO TRANSPARENCY

When a process and the according data input is transparent and visible to all team members, it becomes easier to not only maintain knowledge of how the process should function but also allows for any discrepancies to exert themselves plainly. Portfolio transparency simultaneously simplifies the process while drawing the attention of decision-makers to the following indicators: 

• Schedule Lag
• Regulatory Indicators
• Actual Performance
• Concerns of Stakeholders
• Scope Creep

A portfolio that is managed with scrupulous transparency allows decision-makers to compare actual current performance with the standardly expected indicators – furthering the identification of any discrepancies. This visibility aids in identifying risks and liabilities in advance, which minimizes the resulting impact. Additionally, alterations and adjustments will not violate the transparency of the process. In turn, the requirements and expectations of stakeholders remain precedent for evaluation.  

HOW OUR TEAM TRANSFORMS COMMERCIAL VISIBILITY FOR EVERY PROJECT

When communicators are transparent, they frequently, proactively, and openly provide project stakeholders and team members with the “why” behind decisions, recommendations, and actions. This approach creates a predictable environment, with full comprehension throughout the project. Ultimately, the projects’ performance is heightened without an unnecessary search for details. Abbott’s team conforms to the current urgency by driving rapid assessment and commercial visibility to effectively manage your commercial portfolio.   

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