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"With more than 40 IT projects on the table at any given time, we needed to find a better way to assess and prioritize projects so we could present them to the governance committee for approval. We went live with Innotas in days, and within 2 weeks, we were actively reallocating resources to the top priority projects." Gary Rutz Project Coordinator of IT Athabasca University |
Leading Online University Embraces PPM Solution from Innotas
Bottom Line
"We were totally backlogged with IT projects. The last thing I wanted to impose on the IT staff was an arduous implementation of an on-premise PPM solution," said CIO Brian Stewart, Athabasca University. "Finding a SaaS solution was an absolute requirement. We chose Innotas because it’s entirely SaaS."
"With more than 40 IT projects on the table at any given time, we needed to find a better way to assess and prioritize projects so we could present them to the governance committee for approval," said Gary Rutz, Project Coordinator of IT, Athabasca University. "We went live in days, and within 2 weeks, we were actively reallocating resources to the top priority projects."
Athabasca University
Athabasca University is Canada’s leader in online education. Making every effort to deliver distance education to students located on its campus, and in disparate locations around the world, the University focuses on removing the challenges that often come between students and their education such as accessibility, 24-hour learning and affordability. IT plays a critical role in removing these barriers to enable students, wherever they are located, to learn anytime, anywhere.
Situation
When CIO Brian Stewart joined Athabasca, the organization did not have a formal IT governance process in place, and projects of high importance had been set aside while IT staff continually moved on to new, more interesting projects — leaving unfavorable, but important, IT projects de-prioritized and in various forms of completion.
He took action, immediately, and hired Gary Rutz to serve as Athabasca’s ITS Project Coordinator. Rutz, an experienced project manager, knew effective IT governance required real–time access to accurate business–critical data. Stewart had already begun the search for a Project Portfolio Management (PPM) solution, insisting that it be completely hosted (software as a service, or SaaS). So, in addition to managing the IT governance committee, Rutz began evaluating various solutions.
Additionally, Athabasca University had a significant amount of ongoing IT maintenance work to manage. The resourcing and scheduling of this work often conflicted with strategic project work, yet it required the same resources and deadlines.
Selection & Implementation
Athabasca selected Innotas’ SaaS PPM solution because the IT organization needed a standard system and methodology for tracking strategic projects, as well as ongoing IT maintenance projects.
Athabasca was able to get Innotas’ PPM solution up and running in days, not the months required for installed solutions. "The solution is very straightforward. It required little training and has extremely low administrative overhead," said Rutz.
Innotas enabled Athabasca to prioritize projects that were crucial to the student body and provided the executives the visibility they needed, while helping the IT staff to keep resources focused on key projects already under way.
Athabasca’s most urgent matter was prioritizing more than 50 projects, and aligning them to the overall goals and objectives of the University. With Innotas, Stewart was able to assess all of the IT projects on the table. He made the tutor–grading project the number one priority. By refocusing IT resources on this critical project, which had been in the works for more than five years, Athabasca was able to complete the project in just eight months.
Relationship
"Innotas is truly different from other software companies," said Rutz. "We had a dedicated account manager who actually listened and responded to our needs. That’s rare, and I feel fortunate to have found this trait in Innotas."
Results
Since June 2006, Athabasca has leveraged Innotas to drive more than 50 active projects. More than 25,000 hours have been tracked through Innotas, and more than one million dollars in labor costs are accounted for in the system.
"Now all IT projects are tracked in Innotas," said Stewart. "If it’s not in Innotas, it’s not brought to the IT governance committee for review and approval."
With the successful implementation of Innotas in IT, Rutz is now offering Innotas to other departments. The Public Relations department now uses Innotas to track all its job requirements, invoices and payments.
Customer Profile
Athabasca University (AU) is Canada’s leading distance–education and online university: Canada’s Open University. The University currently serves about 32,000 students per year, following a period of rapid growth, which has seen student numbers double over a six–year period. Some 260,000 students have registered in AU’s individualized courses and programs since the University was created by the Government of Alberta in 1970.
About Innotas
Innotas provides the only enterprise-class, on-demand Project Portfolio Management (PPM) solution specifically designed to meet the needs of IT organizations. With Innotas, PPM isn’t just for the large enterprise any more.
