Strategy implementation thanks to comprehensive networking: Endress+Hauser optimizes project portfolio management and improves collaboration

In order to achieve the goals of its Strategy 2027+, the Endress+Hauser Group has launched a large number of strategic projects at various company levels. The group's Enterprise Project Management Office was faced with the challenge of overseeing and managing all these projects. To avoid initiatives getting in each other's way, appropriate management of the entire project portfolio was required. As part of this, Endress+Hauser had to optimize its existing processes and ensure that the entire company was connected.

Planview helps Endress+Hauser successfully manage its large number of projects and manage its entire portfolio. The networked platform covers the entire project lifecycle – from idea generation to implementation. Each initiative can be captured, managed, and tracked, so everyone involved has an overview of the current status at all times. By seamlessly integrating the systems into the existing technology landscape, the entire organization is connected, allowing for smooth collaboration between stakeholders at all levels. This newfound visibility ensures better decision-making and ultimately optimized project and strategy execution.

Endress+Hauser is a leading global provider of instrumentation, services and solutions for industrial process engineering, which are used in numerous industries. Customers thus gain valuable knowledge from their applications. In this way, they can improve their products, work economically and at the same time protect people and the environment.

The family-owned company, headquartered in Reinach near Basel and employing more than 17,000 people worldwide, is a reliable partner worldwide. Own sales companies in more than 50 countries as well as representatives in another 70 countries ensure competent support. Production facilities on four continents manufacture quickly and flexibly to the highest quality.

Endress+Hauser's Strategy 2027+ comprises seven overarching strategic directions. These are to be worked on intensively over the next few years in order to continue to meet customer expectations in the future. All seven thrusts each contain a series of measures to achieve the defined goals. The implementation of this strategy is essentially project-based, resulting in around 70 global projects at different company levels and from different business units. In addition, there are more than 500 supporting local projects, all of which have to be managed.

Executing all of these initiatives requires deep collaboration between executives and alignment of business processes at all levels of the organization. In addition to managing individual projects, careful management of the project portfolio as a whole is also required to avoid conflicts between individual projects. In addition to the numerous strategic projects, the Group's IT projects, customer projects and innovation projects also had to be managed.

This posed challenges for Endress+Hauser's Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO), which is made up of experts from various fields. Project management via static tools such as Excel was no longer sustainable. There was no central overview of the large number of projects, and the participants from the various departments were not sufficiently networked with each other. This made communication and cooperation more difficult. In addition, EPMO needed a solution that would support company-wide management of resources and finances.

To support company-wide project execution and project portfolio management, Endress+Hauser decided to implement the comprehensive Planview platform. The platform enables central management of the numerous projects and covers the entire project lifecycle. The different process levels can be linked to each other so that everyone can keep an eye on the big picture.

With its collaboration and innovation management capabilities, Planview IdeaPlace helps the company from the ideation stage to leverage the collective knowledge of the entire organization.

Planview AgilePlace enables visualization of individual projects and actions of Strategy 2027+. The company-wide Kanban board gives all participants an overview of the individual steps of strategy implementation. The cards on the board show all the important information about the projects, including the progress and the people responsible. Managers who are responsible for a specific success action can filter for their projects and check the status at any time. Colored indicators show on a dashboard when project goals have not been met, so that targeted improvement measures can be initiated. In addition, the strategic projects can be assigned to the overarching strategic directions and thus embedded in the overall context and the process landscape. It is also possible to link to the IT projects to visualize dependencies.

Project delivery in Planview ProjectPlace enables collaboration across all departments and levels of the organization. The software supports all different working methods of the teams, from agile to hybrid to waterfall-based. By connecting each tool, the status reports from ProjectPlace are sent directly to AgilePlace, ensuring accurate and fast data transfer.

Thanks to the resource management capabilities in Planview Portfolios, the EPMO can allocate the company's resources to the right projects at the right time, eliminating conflicts and enabling smooth implementation.

The Planview digital platform has taken project execution and the management of the entire project portfolio to a new level. "Planview helps us turn strategy into project outcomes. Because every single project is captured, maintained and updated, we have a fantastic overview of where we stand," says Sebastian Büchle, PMO Lead & PPM Platform Owner at Endress+Hauser.

Today, the Planview platform is used across the organization and to deliver all four project categories. The EPMO offers training courses that focus on different modules of the Planview solution. "We visit the entities to help them build a project portfolio and offer training in professional project management, which also includes agility as a working method," explains Stefan Segerlund, Manager Project Portfolio Management. More than 650 project managers have already been trained in the use of the various tools, so that more than a dozen entities are now working with them. And more and more managers are also seeing the advantages of process-oriented work with Planview. "A transparent and detailed view of a project or even a project portfolio ultimately enables better decisions," says COO Andreas Mayr. And the numbers speak for themselves: the company has already achieved savings of around EUR 3 million through extensive use of the Planview platform.

Endress+Hauser has further developed the platform and adapted it to its individual requirements. With the ability to integrate with other systems such as Salesforce, SAP, SharePoint, and Jira, the company was able to easily embed Planview into its existing technology landscape, providing complete visibility and connectivity.

Planview will continue to support Endress+Hauser in the implementation of its Strategy 2027+ and support the company in achieving its vision and goals. Leonie Feyl, XM Application Owner & PMO Consultant, emphasizes: "We are [...] happy to have an excellent and visionary partner like Planview at our side."