Leading Telecommunications company Delivers More Value by Optimizing Business Flow on Its Journey Towards Agility

With a desire for stronger collaboration with customers and improved demand management, this telecommunications internal University group recognized the need to revamp its operating model. Taking a more agile approach, the group looked for ways to improve workflow effectiveness and efficiencies, manage capacity, and deliver greater value to the business.

Using Planview AgilePlace as its single workflow and collaboration platform, the internal University has unprecedented transparency into its operational performance and the value it is delivering to the business. The group now has achieved consistency and accountability across their workflow as they are able to complete more work while maintaining high-quality standards.

The Telecommunications internal University was challenged to meet and manage the increased demand for employee learning while reducing costs in a constantly changing environment. They wanted to enable stronger collaboration with customers and improve demand management, but analysis revealed that their resources owned the workflow and task/milestones for all learning initiatives. It was apparent that the current operating model was no longer sustainable, and if they wanted to transform their organization into an agile model, they would have to improve workflow effectiveness and efficiencies. Specifically, they aimed to achieve a higher throughput of projects, the ability for teams to adapt to change quickly, balanced workloads across team members, and instant visibility to all levels as work progresses.

The Learning and Development group chose Planview AgilePlace for its flexibility to meet their process and resource needs as they evolve their business to be more adaptive to change. By taking a more agile approach with their workflow, they can significantly improve effectiveness and efficiencies. “We leverage functionality within Planview AgilePlace to help us better align work with our core functions,” says the senior manager of Learning and Development. “This alignment is key to optimize our business flow so that we can deliver what’s most important to employees.”

The internal University began with a simple, digital Kanban board in Planview AgilePlace to outline the most important steps in their workflow process. They can easily adjust the board to reflect changes in their operating model as they happen, helping them to remain focused on what matters most, even when those priorities change. This is a critical agile capability, one that ensures the organization can quickly adapt to shifts in demand while reducing costs by investing resources only on work that has the highest value.

“Planview AgilePlace gives our group full transparency into the work being executed across Learning and Development,” says the senior manager of Learning and Development. “All project, program and initiative details are on the Kanban board, giving us one place to manage and track work. We can use all of that information to have more informed discussions and make smarter decisions.”

They reference the Kanban board to guide their weekly standups, which have helped them to meet their goal of improving communication and collaboration with their customers. Everyone is on the same page regarding work status and it is much easier to track work throughout the lifecycle of a project or initiative. With greater insight into incoming demand, work in progress, and upcoming work, leaders can more accurately allocate their resources to meet increased demand.

By leveraging Planview AgilePlace to manage work and improve their operating model, the internal University has driven consistency and accountability across their workflow. The group has realized a 22 percent increase in throughput between 2018 and 2019, illustrating their ability to complete more work without a loss in quality. The reporting they generate from AgilePlace gives them greater insight into their processes and the value they are delivering to the business, such as the speed in which work is moving through their process to identify areas for improvement, where demand comes from so they can align with strategic initiatives, and if work is being allocated effectively to optimize resources and speed delivery.

As the internal University continues to leverage Planview AgilePlace, they expect to progress more rapidly in their journey towards agility. “Now that we understand work completion speed and distribution of demand, we can identify areas of improvement across our new operating model,” says the senior manager of Learning and Development. “We want to foster a culture of continuous improvement, and AgilePlace has empowered us to respond to incoming requests more effectively, manage capacity more efficiently, and adapt more quickly with changes to workflows.”