When the Finnish steel company Outokumpu
decided that it needed a project- portfolio- and resource management (PPM) tool
for research and development, their main requirements concerned streamlining
and harmonizing R&D processes. The use of different and partially dated
tools was an obstacle to achieving effective collaboration and knowledge
transfer between research and development and other departments. Taking all this
into consideration, Outokumpu chose the Antura Projects PPM Tool to replace all
of their existing separate R&D PPM systems:
-Antura provided a comprehensive set of
functionalities fulfilling our needs. One feature of Antura Projects that made
it stand out from competitors in our evaluation is the document management,
says Juho Talonen, Senior Manager Corporate R&D, Outokumpu.
Juho Talonen describes the implementation
process as smooth and fast. This was acknowledged with the Best Implementation
Award in the Private Sector at Antura Day 2017 in Stockholm. The introduction
of new ways of working together during the implementation period, including a
clearly defined joint terminology agreed in the organization, particularly
impressed the jury.
As of time of writing about a year after
initial implementation, Antura Projects is used at Outokumpu as support for
R&D projects.
-Having all the R&D work organized and
followed in a single platform has provided even more benefits than we expected,
in terms of increased cooperation, better information sharing, better
visibility to R&D output and resource allocation, Juho Talonen says.
The system is now established within
Outokumpu’s R&D, with more functionality planned to be implemented soon.
Feedback from the group will also influence the future development of the PPM
tool; Antura puts great value in user feedback to ensure that the system adds
real value to every customer organization.
-We have received good support along the
way and feel that Antura has been listening to our ideas for the future
development of Antura Projects, Juho Talonen sums up.