iLeo
Opportunity
Greg Hamilton, CFO of iLeo, likes having control of his business. "With upfront system controls, I know who can work on what project, when, and at what rate. I control project financials up front, so I don't get stuck with bad data on the back end," he said.
iLeo—a subsidiary of Leo Burnett created after the merger of three business units—uses the Innotas PPM solution to set project budgets, capture time spent on projects, and manage roles, resources and billable rates. With the system, and a library of projects that can be used as templates, iLeo has improved accuracy in defining scope, setting project budgets, and tracking financial status, including percent complete. "I have a much better handle on project financials. I can sit across from an auditor at any time and report our financial status with confidence," said Hamilton.
Hamilton and iLeo's executive managers use reports from the system to optimize resource utilization and productivity, track account status, and report financials and metrics to the parent company. "The Innotas reports are a standard part of our monthly executive managers meeting," he explained.
Solution
The benefits are not limited to outputs for executives. "When we load a project into the system, we break the project out by deliverable," says Hamilton. "It makes us think through the project, to identify who has to do what and why they are receiving the budgets they get. By setting expectations up front, it's easier for each group to deliver the results we want to see."
But setting expectations up front took some getting used to. "At first the project managers said they didn't have time to put information into the system," says Wendy Negron, a Finance Manager and the Administrator for the Innotas solution. "Now the project managers are more empowered. They have more controls to manage their accounts themselves, and, with more budgeting information, they have the means to justify getting more headcount when they need it."
Results
The results have been significant. "With all the information in one place, we can slice and dice it as we need to," said Hamilton. "I'm interested in the profitability, health and status of accounts, while project managers gauge the status of the projects relative to goals and relative to other projects."
The system has also helped iLeo overcome the challenges of combining three different businesses. "Innotas helped us create a common language and set of definitions. Plus, with all the projects we have in the system now, we have improved our ability to learn project-to-project," said Negron.
The merger of the three units occurred in late 2002 and iLeo brought all the new Innotas users live just two months later. "That immediately got everyone working more closely together," said Negron. "It took some prodding, but in a couple months we could see processes working smoothly across the groups."
Hamilton was also seeing results. "We really focused on project financials, and we have seen improvements in three areas. First, our project planning has become more accurate, especially actuals versus budgets. Second, our utilization is up well over industry averages, and our billable percentage—the time spent on projects that can be billed to clients—has improved. That has enabled us to justify getting more headcount. Finally, we have also found a competitive advantage with the ability to manage financials to deliverables within projects, as opposed to projects overall. Our customers really appreciate our ability to report financials at a more detailed level," added Hamilton.
