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Clients and Success Stories
Our reputation in the industry as the leading provider of Project Management Solutions is unsurpassed. We present customised training for organisations worldwide in IT, Telecommunications, Pharmaceuticals, Finance, Energy, Defence and many other industries. Over the last 25 years, ESI International has worked with many of the world's leading 500 companies. The following organisations listed on the left are representative of the many clients with whom ESI is working to provide integrated solutions such as onsite training, public courses, consultancy and e-training. When you become an ESI client, you join hundreds of successful organisations who have benefited from the project management expertise that ESI can offer.
Project success for Brasil Telecom’s employeesSince that time, approximately 150 out of the 250 employees required to participate in the training have completed the program, Ramos says. "Employee feedback has been very positive," he says, adding that students have been extremely impressed with ESI's instructors. "All of ESI's instructors have brought real-world experiences to the classes they have taught. It's clear they have worked as practitioners and know what life is like on the front lines of project management." The programme also offers an added bonus: it acts as a retention tool. Ramos says all 150 employees are still with the company. They now network with their counterparts in other states to exchange best practices and share information about how their competitors are performing. ESI training the key for future successBrasil Telecom reports that they have been so pleased with the programme that they are planning to train 500 project team members this year and 1,500 more over the next three years. "The training couldn't have come at a better time," says Ramos. The Brazilian government recently identified 45 goals that each telecommunication company must now meet. He says the company is in great shape, due in large part to the training Brasil Telecom has received from ESI. "In fact," Ramos says, "earlier this year, the Brazilian government recognised Brasil Telecom for its high performance in meeting quality objectives." ESI's project management training is already proven to be worthwhile for Brasil Telecom. "Our project managers are using the tools and techniques they learned from ESI's program and are delivering projects on time and within budget," Ramos says. "We now have consistency that we didn't have before. I feel confident this will be a key to our success in our industry."
Delta Technology (DT), a wholly-owned IT subsidiary of Delta Air Lines based in Atlanta, is committed to leveraging technology to create a competitive advantage for the airline. The ChallengeAs DT began relying more and more upon the use of outsourcing for its mid-tier server engineering and limited application development, the company identified the need among its employees for a consistent methodology to more successfully gather and clearly document requirements. In developing what DT called its Business Analyst Practise, the company was faced with several key decisions. These included determining:
The centralisation issue was particularly complicated because most of DT’s business analysts are also subject matter experts in their respective areas. As a result, they're often involved in tasks that stretch beyond business analysis. This, obviously, makes centralisation difficult. DT determined that in order to succeed, its business analysts must be able to fulfil their specific roles and then move on to their next projects. So, DT decided to keep its current decentralised group and also create a centralised group of business analysts within the Practise to be "matrixed" to various projects. The StrategyUpon creation of its Business Analyst Practise, DT implemented a number of successful initiatives, including the use of SharePoint™ to post and share information throughout the company, and the implementation of a coaching and mentoring program. They also more clearly defined their business analysts’ responsibilities based on a newly created Business Analysis Lifecycle, which aligned with the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA™) Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK®). "ESI helped us build the team of skilled business analysts we need to become a more effective, successful organisation." Still, to create and maintain a consistent methodology organisation wide, which was its ultimate goal, DT knew that it needed to provide its employees with a comprehensive training program. For that, in January 2006, they turned to the leader in project management and business analysis training, ESI International. Together, ESI and leaders from DT chose a training program that would create a baseline for success and ensure consistency in gathering and documenting requirements. The program consists of a suite of courses from ESI's curricula in business analysis and project management along witha four-hour workshop for managers that presents the expectations for the program and how it will ultimately benefit the organisation. ResultsThe initial phase of the ESI-DT training program lasted nine months and—despite the usual corporate challenges, including resistance to change and adaptation of new processes—it was a rousing success. In April 2007, DT found itself with a core team of business analysts equipped with the skills to coach and mentor others and to promote a set of best practises and consistent methodologies. The Next StepWith Phase One of training complete, ESI and DT are now preparing to begin Phase Two, which will not only enhance the newly established coaching and mentoring program, but will help DT's business analysts continue to effectively develop metrics, governance standards and assessment methodologies. The focus will be on identifying any existing knowledge and skill gaps as well as identifying any opportunities to further increase the overall effectiveness of DT's approach to business analysis. "ESI understands that every company is unique. From the very beginning of our relationship, they were interested in helping us choose the training options that were best not only for our individual employees, but for our organisation as a whole."
The BackgroundHenkels & McCoy, Inc. is one of the largest privately held engineering, network development and construction firms serving the communications, information technology and utility industries in the United States. Additional offerings have traditionally included installation, maintenance and training services. Several years ago, the company, which boasts 4,600 employees in 80 permanent offices and operations facilities across the U.S., identified the need to establish consistent project management throughout its organisation. The ChallengeUpon winning significant utility infrastructure contracts ranging from the building of transmission lines to inside wiring for the Pentagon, which is one of the world’s largest office buildings, and Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies, Henkels & McCoy had firmly established itself as one of the country’s premier speciality contractors. However, as the company executed these large-scope projects—and set their sites on many more—senior executives began recognising a need for standardised project management methodology throughout their organisation. The benefits to improved project management practises, they determined, would be numerous, including increased efficiency internally and seamless communication with their many large general contracting partners. "Our industry has become increasingly more sophisticated over the years as people look for enhanced productivity and safety," said Kathy Mills, Director of Human Resources. "The complex projects we were winning required that our staff keep pace with industry knowledge" Why ESI?Henkels & McCoy sought a project management training provider with the global infrastructure required to easily and consistently deliver high-impact training to its employees. Additionally, the company was looking for a partner who not only understood Henkels & McCoy’s complex industry, but who would be attentive and mindful of staff workloads and differing styles. Henkels & McCoy chose ESI International. "We interviewed a number of project management improvement providers from around the country and selected ESI for a number of reasons," Mills explained. "One of the primary reasons was that our people could take courses on their own schedule. Our team is spread across a number of time zones, so we needed a provider that was as geographically diverse as we were. Most of our work is done in the field, meaning most of our staff members spend little time behind a computer. ESI understood this and worked within our schedule constraints to deploy a program that meets the needs of the entire company." The ESI SolutionFrom the beginning of its partnership with ESI in 2003, Henkels & McCoy’s executives were committed to providing training to staff members across a variety of internal levels, ranging from project team members to senior executives. Executive involvement, which included participation from the CEO/President, COO and CFO, helped staff members understand that creating a project management culture was a significant initiative supported at the highest organisational levels. "We strongly believed all along that, regardless of whether an employee is running projects or running operations, project management skills are important to have," said Mills. "So, we added everybody to the training program, not just project managers. Skills such as team management, motivation, resource management and planning were competencies we wanted all members of our staff to exhibit. ESI’s training program brought a formalised approach to these skills." Skills such as team management, motivation, resource management and planning were competencies we wanted all members of our staff to exhibit. ESI’s training program brought a formalised approach to these skills. In 2004, after one year of training with ESI, the executive team at Henkels & McCoy issued an internal "Project Management Challenge." The initiative challenged employees to establish and implement a methodology based on the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), which was customised to Henkels & McCoy’s industry and internal procedures. Continuing its project management transformation, in 2006, Henkels & McCoy established a Project Management Office (PMO). The office was created to be responsible for defining and maintaining the organisation's standards of process and acting as the internal source of documentation, guidance and metrics for all project management activities. The Impact"Our bottom line has improved year over year since we implemented the training," Mills said. "We used to bid a high number of projects. Today, we’ve learned not to bid as much. We have a solid methodology and bid review process in place, enabling us to look at the associated scope and risk before we get too deep. There was a time when we might have placed educated guesses on whether opportunities represented a good project for Henkels & McCoy. Now, we use our processes to more closely pursue work that fits our corporate strategy and that will deliver the return we expect." Like any major change management initiative, the move toward a project management culture at Henkels & McCoy was initially met with resistance. Many throughout the organisation were reluctant to change longstanding habits and procedures. However, through time, leadership and unwavering commitment, employees at Henkels & McCoy have come to understand that their customers and their highly competitive market required them to apply more sophisticated methodologies to their work in order to succeed. "Slowly but surely, you reap rewards as people recognise that the skills they are learning are helping their projects," said Mills. "When people begin speaking the project management language and using the methodology, you realise you’ve been successful in developing a project management culture." Since beginning training with ESI, 60 Henkels & McCoy employees have earned Associate’s Certificates in Project Management, including the company’s COO, and 10 employees have earned Master’s Certificates in Project Management. "Our team has taken great satisfaction in the accomplishment of receiving associate’s and master’s certificates from ESI," Mills said. "Another source of value is that ESI’s training is backed by The George Washington University School of Business. That affiliation is a significant source of pride for our people." Next StepsHenkels & McCoy has no plans of slowing down its training initiative. As of spring 2007, 119 Henkels & McCoy employees have enrolled in a total of 311 ESI courses, and the company is working hard with ESI to develop and further refine its new project management culture. Projects are currently grouped into one of four levels based on strategic importance and complexity. The current Henkels & McCoy project management methodology applies to Level 3 and 4. The company is now developing a leaner version of its methodology for Level 1 and 2 projects. With expanded project management expertise and systems, Henkels & McCoy is also considering new partnerships and taking on a larger number of complex projects, both of which are expected to help the company continue to grow and cement its reputation as an industry leader. "We’re committed to continuous improvement," Mills said. "We have a solid understanding of what has worked historically, and we’re also keeping an eye on what will make us successful in the future. A commitment to further developing the Henkels & McCoy project management culture is an integral part of our future success, and our continued work with ESI remains key to achieving these initiatives." Our bottom line has improved year over year since we implemented the training.
ESI continues to expand its curriculum, so HP Services is now able to offer relevant advanced courses to accommodate the growing number of programme graduates, who require a higher level of training. We offer 250 course sessions annually around the world, and ESI's delivery capability and curriculum are major contributing factors to the success of the programme. ESI has brought significant expertise and guidance in helping us design, develop and deliver our project management training programme, Kempf says. Since ESI offers its training in public classroom sessions, onsite sessions and online, HP Services project managers all receive consistent content, tools and techniques. Understanding the Business of ProjectsBefore we had ESI training in place, we conducted project reviews in business units around the world, and we found that in some cases, our project managers did not fully appreciate or implement risk management practices, change control or financial management. They understood they needed to bring a project in on time and they knew they had to satisfy the customer, but they didnt realise they had profit and loss responsibility for their projects. Yet they were on the front lines of managing our business, Kempf explains. HP Services complements its project management training in areas such as risk and contract management with training in selected business competencies, such as conducting effective negotiations, delivering presentations and managing financial aspects of a project. Not only are we developing more effective project managers, we are strengthening their business competencies as well, Kempf says. As a result of this two-pronged approach to training its project managers, HP Services has seen a marked increase in project management knowledge, skills and abilities being applied in its business units worldwide. ESIs training programme has helped HP Services reduce the number of troubled projects and heightened its project managers awareness of managing towards increased margins. Kempf says that this performance improvement initiative has resulted in 70% of their projects running at or better than budget (well above the industry average of 50%) and has increased margins by as much as 50% in some cases. ESIs training earns high praise on post-course evaluations, Kempf says. A clear majority of course attendees indicate that the training is directly relevant to their work and assert that the knowledge and skills acquired were a contributing factor in their efficiency and productivity. Another result of the training has been a new confidence in the managers abilities to perform complex project activities, Kempf says. Project managers are more open to taking over troubled or leaderless projects. Because our project managers are now using a consistent approach to project management, assuming control midstream of a troubled project is less of a problem than it might have been in the past, he says. Other, less-tangible benefits have come about as part of the HP/ESI partnership. Our employees recognise and appreciate that they have significant career-development opportunities here and, as a result, they are highly motivated. HP Services commitment to career development has given us a long-term advantage because we save hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on training, recruitment and orientation. Having well-trained project professionals on the job every day gives us a competitive edge in the marketplace, and ESI's project management training programme has helped us to achieve that.
In early 2000, PeopleSoft took the decision to evolve their Global Services organisation so they would be better positioned to support their customers’ changing needs. This would involve a move from being primarily a provider of PeopleSoft-specialised technical skills to becoming a provider of best-in-class solutions for customers implementing, upgrading or optimising PeopleSoft products. Mike Barnard, UK Director of PeopleSoft Global Services comments, "Our offerings and services needed to become more sophisticated to mirror the expectations of our customers. We decided that in order to extend our service offering to a full project environment, we would have to restructure our services business and embrace a project management culture. This included establishing a formal project management office to focus on process, tools and adoption of best practise in the implementation lifecycle. We aimed to create standards and to ensure that techniques and methodologies learnt in class were implemented in the real world." One of the biggest challenges faced early on was the change to the organisational culture necessitated by the shift towards a “managing by projects” environment. With the structure aligned to support a project based environment, moving from a functional to a matrix structure brought challenges concerned with allocation and management of human resources. To facilitate this cultural change, Gary Fitchett, PeopleSoft UK Solutions Delivery Manager, set about further developing the team by recruiting a mixed group of project management professionals from a variety of both IT and non-IT backgrounds. This, he anticipated, would create a critical mass from which to build enthusiasm for project management and kick-start the change in strategy. Recruitment was based on a standard set of criteria including, most importantly, the hiring of those with proven ability to apply the tools, concepts and processes in project environments. Professional Certification Showcases PeopleSoft’s Commitment to Project ManagementBy implementing a change in capability, PeopleSoft wanted to clearly demonstrate the value this would bring to their customers. "In the IT industry, there has been many publicised reports on project failure versus success rates. This includes numbers of projects that, even when completed on time and within budget, have failed to fully deliver the anticipated business benefit," states Mike. “We decided that to differentiate the PeopleSoft offering through our people, then their skills, competencies and practises needed to be consistent and showcased through suitable professional certification."
Thus, in order to assist in the promotional process and support the new company direction, they set a goal of having all project managers within the PeopleSoft UK environment achieving at least PMP® certification. ESI’s Certificate Programme Meets PeopleSoft’s NeedsAt this time Mike approached ESI International to assist them in implementing this approach. "We needed to find a partner that could offer us a comprehensive training curriculum and a true global presence in order to maintain a consistency wherever in the world PeopleSoft are based. After extensive research we were convinced that ESI International were the ideal partner for us in this critical programme and embarked on a pilot,” says Mike The initial approach consisted of using ESI International's PMAppraise™ assessment tool to measure the knowledge and skill base of existing project staff. This, along with a number of face-to-face interviews, enabled the company's executives to establish a base-line against which they could set their objectives. With a complete picture of their project management knowledge and skills combined with an understanding of the behavioural competencies critical to project success, ESI and PeopleSoft devised a clear development path for all staff working on projects. Everyone involved in projects across the organisation was required to take one of ESI’s flagship courses, Managing Projects, that provides the foundation on which to build subsequent training. Project managers went on to complete ESI’s full curriculum to earn a Master’s Certificate in Project Management, awarded by The George Washington University. In doing this they were guaranteed to cover all 10 areas of the PMBOK® Guide and be fully prepared to successfully pass the PMP® Certification Exam. Project Success for PeopleSoft employees and CustomersTwo years on and PeopleSoft have been able to reflect on the success they have achieved through the initiative. Before the programme, all work undertaken by PeopleSoft Global Services in the UK was traditional skills augmentation. Now, in excess of 70% of services are delivered in a project environment where PeopleSoft Global Services is responsible for project success. This has significantly increased single vendor accountability, which is in turn recognised as offering considerable additional value to PeopleSoft customers. "Since we started this programme our staff retention rate has been excellent, which is something that has helped us to build increasingly strong relationships with our clients” says Gary Fitchett.
Dave Exall, European IT Director, Bausch & Lomb comments, “Initially, having chosen PeopleSoft software for Bausch & Lomb, we engaged their consultants to implement the project as we felt that they would be the strongest in the field. What became evident was the role of the project manager in the implementation of this project. Their strength and discipline in professional project management meant that we were able to keep a tight control over the project with processes in place to monitor its progress with detailed weekly and monthly status reports. It was a challenging project with tight budgets and timescales, but I always felt that the project was under control. From both a planning and risk management point of view the attention to detail with a strong methodology was invaluable.” “Working with PeopleSoft has taught me the importance of project management as a discipline in it’s own right,” Exall continues. “Having a manager driving a project management methodology keeps the project under control. In future projects I would certainly consider the experience and training of any project manager that we engaged, as a vital criteria in our selection process.” Using a consistent approach has meant that all PeopleSoft’s project managers are now getting the same training and have learnt the same tools and techniques that are deployed for every project. “Whilst you are learning new tools, techniques and processes you are also building your skills, and practical application in order to apply these to your specific industry. And the project management expertise of ESI trainers has enabled us to directly relate the learning to real life situations," says one PeopleSoft Project Manager. Great success realised with teams now working under a consistent and recognised process and methodology has meant that they can fully support their customers and effectively measure their projects with defined criteria, such as time, cost and quality of product, service and solution delivered. PeopleSoft Global Services can now offer a variety of engagements and commercial contracts - a goal that the programme initially set out to achieve. In the previous environment, working partnerships were based on time and materials only. Now the organisation can support its solutions business offering terms around risk/reward or fixed price contracts. Project management led through an established project office has enabled PeopleSoft to achieve this. Now PeopleSoft is aggressively focusing on leveraging these competencies to take market leadership in the provision of software and services for the real-time enterprise and surpassing their competitors’ ability to bring these solutions to the marketplace, both in time-to-market and cost effectiveness. PeopleSoft’s success in this fast paced, complex industry is due in large part to the success of their project management transformation initiative. Mike concludes, “more PeopleSoft customers than ever before are achieving their business goals and extending their enterprise through real-time applications. Furthermore, greater than 50% of these projects are going live in 16 weeks or less. This is in no small part down to PeopleSoft’s expanded services capability, our project management competence being underpinned by the comprehensive training curriculum and professionalism provided by ESI.”
Project Management competency, ESI Training Programme tied to job goalsSiemens’ new corporate project management office coordinates the company’s overall professional development programme. “We developed the PMO to create standards and ensure people are implementing the techniques and methodologies they learned in class,” explains Dummer. Executives are now measured annually on their own and their team members’ project management competency and their achievement of goals set in the training programme. The goals are tied to the completion of a set of internal certificates that are built around the ESI classes and other internal courses. Everyone involved in projects is required to take one of ESI’s flagship courses, Managing Projects in Organisations, Managing Software Project Management or Managing Information Technology Projects, that provides the foundation on which to build subsequent project management training. Project leaders must complete ESI’s full curriculum to earn a Master’s Certificate in Pr o j e c t Management, awarded by The George Washington University, and top-level project managers are required to earn PMP® certification . Since the programme’s inception two years ago, nearly 3,000 managers and project employees, including personnel from other Siemens divisions, have participated in this initiative. ESI ’s assessments measure training successSiemens measures the success of the training programme using ESI’s Project FRAMEWORK®, a maturity model that evaluates the company’ s organisational project management capabilities. This assessment tool also identifies areas for improvement, establishes a baseline against which to set objectives and gives Siemens a roadmap to improvement. ESI trained two Siemens employees to perform this assessment annually. Within the first 12 months following the launch, several groups improved their test scores significantly. This improvement in scores is statistically linked to participation in ESI’s training programme. Project success rates, certifications increaseSiemens estimates that the project success rate has increased by 30%, in large part due to the expert training received from ESI, as well as the work of the PMO. According to Siemens, the number of people testing for the PMP® has also increased dramatically due to the popularity of the professional development programme. Dummer adds: “Siemens Enterprise Networks has seen a corporate culture change that has developed as a direct result of training provided by ESI.” Project management has proved invaluable to the progressive business tactics of Siemens Enterprise Networks. By providing their project employees with the opportunity to increase their project management knowledge, Siemens Enterprise Networks has realised its goal of providing complex customer networking solutions to their customers successfully. Now Siemens is aggressively focused on leveraging these competencies to take the market leadership in VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) convergence solutions and surpassing their competitors’ ability to bring these solutions to the marketplace, both in time-to-market and cost effectiveness. Siemens’ success in this fast-paced, complex industry is due in large part to the success of their project management transformation initiative.
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