Robeco improves control with CA Clarity PPM On Demand

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1 Customer success story Robeco improves control with CA Clarity PPM On Demand Customer profile Industry: Financial services Company: Robeco Managed assets: 135 billion (2009) Employees: : 1,500 Business Financial services provider Robeco is part of Rabobank Group, the privately owned bank with the highest credit ratings and one of the global leaders with respect to corporate social responsibility and sustainability. Challenge Professional project management is key to improving Robeco s infrastructure and implementing new systems and strategies. An automated tool was needed to facilitate this. Solution Robeco implemented CA Clarity Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) On Demand. The solution provides a clear picture of forecasted and spent time and timelines of the projects. Benefit The IT organisation is able to step up the improvement of processes such as planning, reporting and portfolio management based on a clear understanding of the activities, deployment and availability of staff. we can

2 Business Engineering investments that deliver greater value Robeco The Investment Engineers is one of the oldest and most respected investment institutions in the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1929, the asset management firm has always had a clear international focus and now has offices in 15 locations, including Rotterdam, Boston, Hong Kong, New York, Paris and Zürich. The firm manages assets worth 135 billion, which are invested in companies and funds around the world. Robeco s clientele includes both private investors and large institutional and corporate investors. Robeco advocates responsible investment. It integrates environmental, social and good governance factors in its investment process and has an exclusion policy in place. The company makes active use of its voting right and enters into dialogue with the companies in which it invests. Challenge Support business goals with professional and proactive project management Delivering superior performance is Robeco s ambition. Robeco wants to secure its position as one of the leading international asset managers, by providing the very best securities and products in the area of Robeco needed an integrated platform that could support all the facets of project management, including time reporting. asset management not only in the most important financial centres of the world, but also in a selection of emerging markets. A modern and efficient business infrastructure is an important feature for successfully implementing Robeco s corporate strategy and meeting its business principles. In 2007 Robeco initiated a large-scale programme to optimise its back-office systems and organisation. Like most financial institutions, Robeco depends strongly on innovative IT and, over its 80 years of operations, has been left with numerous legacy systems. 02

3 The Project Management team are playing a key role in the modernisation of the systems, as well as helping to execute strategic programmes, such as outsourcing. Some of Robeco s current projects include the: Outsourcing of the datacentre to a location in Germany Migration of the telephone infrastructure in 18 locations to a global VOIP/unified communications platform Introduction of a company-wide risk management system certified by the Netherlands Central Bank (Nederlandsche Bank). In order to enhance project management, Robeco needed to replace its separate administrative sub-systems with a comprehensive integrated platform that could support all the facets of project management, including the time reporting. 1.5 years estimated for Robeco to achieve a full return on its investment Marinus Spaan, Manager Project Management for Robeco s Group Information Services department, comments, A standard method for project management has been developed. This resulted in the need for a tool to support the project management, and the supporting processes timesheets and resource management. If this is not realised, there will be no common view of reality. It was impossible to unequivocally answer questions such as when is this person available for deployment in my project, or how much capacity is available? This led to much discussion and uninformed decisions. 03

4 Solution Cost-effective and rapid access to powerful PPM tools After an extensive selection of the project portfolio management software in Gartner s Magic Quadrant, Robeco chose CA Clarity PPM On Demand. In terms of functionality, CA Clarity PPM On Demand scored the highest, says Spaan. The solution also dovetails with our infrastructure and has been successfully used by our holding company Rabobank. The CA Technologies team presented a fine proof of concept based on their Software-as-a- Service (SaaS) offering. The benefit of the SaaS model is that Robeco did not have to invest in additional hardware, installation or configuration. Also, the company could take advantage of the solution s functionality straight away. The product was ready for use on the day the contract was signed, adds Spaan. SaaS gave us a quick start. We could use it right out of the box as it fits our processes very well. There can, however, be some challenges with a SaaS approach security being a prime example, as information is stored by the software provider. As Spaan explains, Security is critically important for a financial institution such as Robeco. Our security department turned the CA Technologies solution inside out. CA Clarity PPM On Demand is SAS70-certified and meets literally all the security demands. Our security people were very satisfied. Within three months, Robeco had access to a range of PPM tools for simplifying and supporting demand, project and resource management. Robeco s choice of CA Clarity PPM On Demand allowed CA Technologies to offer the functionality plus implementation for a fixed price. Bram Alblas from CA Services comments, This way both parties benefit from a fast and successful delivery. CA Services was the main implementation partner and called on various local specialists to assist with training 50 power users who could pass on knowledge to the Robeco employees that use the CA Technologies solution. 04

5 To speed up implementation and promote rapid adoption of CA Clarity PPM On Demand, the project team of CA used the CA Clarity PPM Essentials Rapid Implementation and the Clarity PPM Earned Value Management Accelerator. This is a set of methods, services and tools for ensuring the successful implementation of CA Clarity PPM On Demand. Improved demand, project and resource management Within just three months, Robeco s users had access to a range of PPM tools for simplifying and supporting demand, project and resource management. Robeco opted for the standard functionality offered by CA Clarity PPM On Demand and to continue with its existing processes, as Spaan explains, In doing so we achieved our primary objective: gaining an unequivocal picture of what we are doing, who is doing it, what it costs and what it delivers. Spaan also decided to not immediately offer the users full functionality one of the first features introduced was time management. Enforcing innovation doesn t work. You first have to demonstrate success then the demand for more follows automatically. We have created a foundation with CA Clarity PPM On Demand. Now we can further streamline and improve our corporate processes. But we will do this step-by-step an approach the software can support. With CA Clarity PPM On Demand... the quality of our decisions will improve significantly. Marinus Spaan Manager Project Management, Robeco Benefit Improved efficiency and resource allocation result in rapid ROI Thanks to the SaaS delivery model, Robeco did not have to invest time nor money in preparing for the application, as it was available immediately as a service. This allowed them to start with the functional setup and implementation right away, without having to worry about the IT implications. Robeco achieved and even surpassed its business objectives, with the project completed on budget and within the expected project time of three months. The project steering group also rated the implementation at eight out of ten for Robeco. 05

6 The new system offers business managers all the tools they need to improve their efficiency, streamline the reporting processes and keep control of their projects and activities. As a result of CA Clarity PPM On Demand, Robeco has been able to: Increase the efficiency of project management Make better use of its resources Improve the quality of information. CA Clarity PPM On Demand is Implemented since January About 120 projects are currently managed in CA Clarity. Some are change projects to help run the business and make it more effective, the others are maintenance projects to keep IT running. 250 timewriters are using Clarity, about 25 project managers use the solution to manage their projects and approximately 25 line managers use Clarity to manage the resources in a matrix organisation. CA Clarity PPM On Demand integrates with MS Project and with Peoplesoft applications for HR and Finance. In the future more departments will be using Clarity. It s estimated Robeco will achieve a full return on its investment in around one and a half years. Project portfolio management is high on the agenda everywhere. You always want to do more projects than you can with the people and resources available to you as an organisation. So you have to make choices, comments Spaan. With CA Clarity PPM On Demand we will be able to see in advance whether we have sufficient resources for particular projects. The quality of our decisions will improve significantly. Our finance department doesn t use Clarity PPM. At the moment, we provide our finance department with Clarity timesheets. In the near future, we will show the money associated with the time as well. With CA Clarity PPM On Demand, we are ready for further integration of our portfolio management with our financial processes. Copyright 2010 CA Technologies. All rights reserved. All trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. This document is for your informational purposes only. CA assumes no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information. To the extent permitted by applicable law, CA provides this document as is without warranty of any kind, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. In no event will CA be liable for any loss or damage, direct or indirect, from the use of this document, including, without limitation, lost profits, business interruption, goodwill or lost data, even if CA is expressly advised in advance of the possibility of such damages.