CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY Picis improves the delivery of client projects worth $50 million with CA Clarity PPM CUSTOMER PROFILE Industry: Healthcare Informatics Company: Picis, Inc., a part of OptumInsight BUSINESS Picis, a part of OptumInsight, is a global provider of innovative solutions that enable rapid and sustained delivery of clinical documentation, financial and operational results in hospitals. CHALLENGE To ensure its client projects are a success and safeguard revenues, Picis needs to make optimum use of its resources. With multiple solutions in use, demand management and revenue forecasting processes were often flawed. SOLUTION CA Clarity PPM provides a centralized platform for efficient project and portfolio management and resource scheduling. This helped Picis track $50 million worth of projects with up to 5,000 tasks per project. BENEFIT Improved collaboration and resource allocation has resulted in greater project success rates and increased client satisfaction. Picis can also more accurately forecast its revenues from month to month. agility made possible
Business Delivering data for better healthcare decisions Thousands of hospitals and health professionals across the US rely on Picis to process critical data needed to assist clinicians in making decisions about patient care. The company combines the latest technologies with its experienced resources to provide integrated workflow solutions that deliver data to enable organizations and clinicians to make better business and healthcare decisions. Picis offers the most advanced suite of integrated products focused on life-critical areas of the hospital where the patients are the most vulnerable, the care process is the most complex and an increasing majority of hospital costs and potential revenue are concentrated. Picis, part of OptumInsight, has licensed systems for use in nearly 2,300 hospitals in 19 countries. Challenge Maximizing the time spent with clients Picis has risen to become an industry leader in healthcare information and technology. To help sustain its market position and drive further growth, the company needs to effectively manage its resources and the delivery of professional services. It was difficult to match our resources to demand and revenue forecasting was often inaccurate. Craig Thomae Director, Project Management Office, Picis Craig Thomae, Director of Picis Project Management Office, comments, The time we spend working on client projects is extremely valuable and directly relates to service quality and satisfaction as well as profitability. To optimize the time of our experts, we need to accurately forecast demand for our resources and services across our client base. Picis was tracking client engagements and the assignment of internal resources via a number of disparate spreadsheets. With staff working on multiple projects at the same time, an updated spreadsheet was sent out on a daily basis detailing staff allocations and tasks. 02
Employees used a separate solution to track the time they spent on different client projects. This approach not only resulted in excessive administration, but also made reporting, resource allocation and forecasting complicated and time-consuming. Thomae comments, Without access to comprehensive data, it was difficult to match our resources to demand and revenue forecasting was often inaccurate. For example, if we routinely under- or over-estimate the number of hours required for a particular project, we cannot manage the business as efficiently. As the business grew, Picis recognized it needed to address these issues to safeguard customer satisfaction and profitability. The company reviewed and streamlined its project and resource management processes, and needed a solution that could imbed and mandate its new methodologies. Solution A consistent framework for professional services delivery After investigating a number of solutions on the market, Picis decided to deploy CA Clarity PPM (Project & Portfolio Management). Although the CA Technologies solution offered much of the functionality we needed out-of-the-box, it also had the flexibility to enable us to create bespoke workflows, portlets and reports, comments Thomae. We felt the solution would be able to support our business as we matured. Picis initially deployed CA Clarity PPM in 2007 with assistance from CA Services and CA Technologies partner CSC. Since then the Picis team has made extensive application configurations as its business needs have evolved. Following configuration and a training program, all existing project and timesheet data was collated and migrated to CA Clarity PPM. As part of its continuing staff training activities, Picis uses CA Productivity Accelerator. We run an annual training refresh program to showcase any new features and to ensure staff members are using the solution correctly and to its full potential, explains Thomae. CA Clarity PPM is used by Picis for project management, resource scheduling and management and revenue forecasting. More than 200 members of its staff use the solution for timesheet entry and task management, with around 75 project, resource and senior managers using the solution on a more comprehensive basis. Enhanced management of client projects Around 100 of the projects tracked using CA Clarity PPM are major client initiatives, such as automating the surgery operative area in a major healthcare system across multiple facilities. These projects can involve up to 5,000 tasks and have an average value of $500,000. 03
The solution also helps Picis manage 200 smaller initiatives, such as a report customization on an existing system for a client. The bespoke portlets created by Picis means the company can keep track of all these activities via a single solution rather than multiple spreadsheets. The solution also facilitates both resource scheduling and demand management, and provides Picis with visibility of job roles and staff locations in order to allocate tasks more efficiently. Resource utilization is reviewed every quarter to enable the company to identify skills shortages and any training or recruitment requirements. Resources can be matched with particular client projects in advance to provide clarity, confidence and in-built contingency, adds Thomae. Although CA Clarity PPM is not used directly for financial reporting, the solution does play a key role in the Picis client billing process and provides Picis with data it regards as necessary for its revenue forecasting and comparing predicted and actual income. CA Clarity PPM also supports the company s project governance process and is used to track approvals and changes in scope to ensure they are incorporated in Picis financial planning. The solution is integrated with Business Objects and Picis customer relationship planning (CRM) tool to enable projects and contracts to be aligned and updated in tandem. $50 million dollars worth of projects managed via CA Clarity PPM 04
Benefit Greater client satisfaction and more accurate revenue forecasting CA Clarity PPM has enabled Picis to transform its project and resource management processes and ensure greater governance. As Thomae confirms, The solution supports our new processes, for example the completion of project plans and approval workflows, and provides at-a-glance visibility of scheduled tasks for each project and current status in real time. This helps project teams work in a more collaborative manner and identify potential bottlenecks or resourcing issues before they impact client projects. Picis has also been able to significantly improve its revenue forecasting, as Thomae explains, Before implementing the CA Technologies solution, our project revenue estimates could be out by as much as $1.5 million a quarter. In the three years we have been using CA Clarity PPM, we have achieved consistently accurate forecasting every month, which means we can manage our business and resource requirements much better. We now have the time and resources available to help clients achieve their strategic goals. Craig Thomae Director, Project Management Office, Picis As well as more accurate revenue forecasting, Picis has been able to: Accurately forecast and deliver revenue generating projects Accurately track resource utilization Improve client satisfaction Free up staff to spend more time on billable activities, which increases revenue generation. Rather than just meeting our clients project needs, we now have the time and resources available to help them achieve their strategic goals, comments Thomae. Our new approach, which is considered a model for running a professional services company, has also gained us recognition from other organizations and resulted in our acquisition in 2010 by OptumInsight (formerly Ingenix). 05
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