PROJECT MANAGEMENT

PRAXIS EXAMPLE

Project Manager - FTSE 100 customer in UK

IT Infrastructur

2016 - 2022

For a global customer based in the UK (manufacturing industry) with approx: 35,000 employees, my primary roles were Business Developer, but and Project Manager. We delivered expertise, maintenance, support and projects for their entire Microsoft environment. I also spent a lot of time with the PMO to create the right conditions in all the small to medium projects (+100) that were carried out during the years I was at Enfo.
My first challenge at the start was to re-establish a trust that had been declining for some time. A project in itself. I spent a lot of time re-establishing relationships with stakeholders in the company and kept in close communication about progress and priorities. Internally, I fought to get the resources needed to create order and establish trust.

We quickly learned what their internal process and decision paths looked like and adapted an internal quotation and project structure that received good acceptance. We started a good delivery, and orders for IT infrastructure projects increased. Generally speaking, we migrated the customer from On-Prem infrastructure to Cloud based infrastructure to meet their growth journey which was huge.
We spent a lot of time with the client and developed methods to get the estimates right in terms of time and money for the projects.
In the end, the customer became too big to be run by a medium-sized IT company in Scandinavia, and the management chose to go with HCL in the future.

Customer value added

• Worked according to a common accepted project model that supported all parties. It gave an excellent result in all projects.

• Established a solid governance model where both parties had a good overview of all ongoing activities within support/maintenance and projects. Clear reports and close dialogue.

• Establishment of a Cultural Reciprocity Agreement (Manifesto) was a much appreciated part. Of course, we had a solid master agreement, but what we primarily reported against quarterly was the Manifesto, and of course the SLAs and KPIs that related to support and maintenance.

• We were proactive in proposing technical solutions for them to reach the goals that were set, and conducted many inspiration workshops that were appreciated.

• I acted as their advisor and was involved in budget design for upcoming IT investments.

• We continuously collaborated with other suppliers to achieve the best value for the customer, regardless of whether they competed with us or not.

• Our automated solution for all the M&A migrations meant that a newly purchased company could become part of the customer's environment with one click. It was an important part to get a good result from the merger. We also won an industry award (Real IT Award) for that solution.

Project Manager - Caperio

Migration of PBX/phone system

2012 - 2016

At Caperio, I became responsible for the business area Telefonica early on. It was a group of 6 people who were scattered in Stockholm, Örebro and Gothenburg. I was responsible for sales and coordination, as well as budget. In Gothenburg, we received an assignment to handle telephone migration for a large retail company with approx. 250 stores. As we were short on resources, I had to step in as main project manager and a colleague assisted me as PL.

My colleague and I worked closely to analyze and inventory the existing system and needs for the future. We designed a future-proof solution that also made opening new stores smooth, but also closing/moving existing ones. It also meant that we needed to procure telephony services, including cloud-based exchange, which in turn became a sub-project. Among other things, we created the basis for the offer invitation from all interested operators, and their selection process.

We received a good response from the customer and delivered the project within budget and time, and with a savings forecast that held. I was part of the steering group and took responsibility for the budget and reports.

Customer value added

• An important part of a successful project is to be transparent and communicative. We built solid reporting structures for stakeholders and information channels for end users.

• To get a good acceptance of a change among end users, we created a group of superusers (champions) that we trained early on. They contributed valuable feedback on both functions and materials (user-guides) to users.In the steering group, it is important to show progress, but above all how we live up to the set budget.

• A clear and honest dashboard helped. Trust was established when we always addressed obstacles or other problems early on. Everything can be solved. Mainly it was internal resource constraints or side projects that delayed some delivery.

• Taking an early inventory of the existing solution's cost on both investment parts, maintenance, usability and scalability, as well as getting an acceptance on conclusion, meant that we could easily show the effect of cost savings, user-friendliness and scalability that came as a result of the project. Much appreciated.

Project Manager - More ...

Several small - mid projects

1994 - 2024

The above-mentioned projects are examples in the near term, but there are many more where I acted as project manager. If there is interest, I will be happy to tell you more about them. Below is a brief description of some.

1990 - Implementation of digital image bank for Gothenburg Post
1992 - Implementation of a new record system for health centers and hospitals
1994 - New network infrastructure for government agency
1995 - Implementation of firewall for the city of Gothenburg
1996 - Creation of basis for broadband expansion (fibre) for Vara municipality
2000 - Introduction of a new IP-based telephone exchange Hörby municipality
2002 - Introduction of a new IP-based telephone exchange University of Gothenburg
2008 - Investigation before changing the switch system for Mölnlycke AB in different countries
2010 - Action plan for network optimization for a large customer in Gothenburg

BUSINESS DEVELOPER

PRAXIS EXAMPLE

Business Developer - Enfo Sweden

Development of customer in UK

2016 - 2022

Business developer was my primary role at Enfo. I first took over responsibility for a large customer in the UK (FTSE 100). The delivery to the customer was quite large, but the trust had dropped as they did not give it the time it needed. It became a project in itself to assess the chance to save the situation and get the right resources to start working with. Hard work paid off and we managed to regain strong confidence.

Soon after, we began to expand the delivery further. In several parts of new projects that were started at the customer, I worked closely with my PMO to design projects. We could often have between 6-10 projects running at the same time for a customer. The delivery team consisted of approximately: 7 people continuously, but often increased to 15 people during periods. There was a lot of travel and we got an apartment in the town where the customer's IT department was located.

During the last years I also became responsible for establishing an Enfo Subsidiary in the UK. We hired people in the UK and started connecting more customers to similar deliveries. Then came the pandemic, but we persevered and took on several projects that were carried out completely remotely, without any major problems.

During the years of delivery in England, we managed to triple the turnover.

Business Development - More ...
2005 - 2024

Throughout my career I have had a strong interest in customer value. Even as a technical consultant or architect, I belonged to the sales department. A signal that meant that I gained a high level of trust from the customer, which generates business.

For several periods I have been a dedicated sales person, and for the last 7 years it has been my primary role, and I have developed a lot, and am used to handling CxO dialogues, contracts, cost estimation, cost models, reporting, and more. I am innovative and can find solutions where many people fail. Calm and structured.

PRODUCT OWNER / MANAGER

PRAXIS EXAMPLE

Product Owner - Visionael Inc.

Development of a migration tool

2006 - 2009

A US-based company commissioned me to design a tool for the migration of traditional telephony to modern IP telephony (Cisco Call Manager), as they had large customers who saw the need, including one of the USA's largest companies with 250,000 connections.I soon presented proposals that allowed an available development resource to build a "Mock-UP" to show to the customer. Customer snapped up immediately. The order came and we started to build an organization for the assignment.

We recruited developers for a team of 4 people on site in Gothenburg. We also brought in a Scrum coach from CRISP for a full 6 months, who tuned in a solid agile methodology for me and the team. I developed into an effective product owner (Scrum PSPO), and we quickly got results in our deliveries. The project lasted for approx: 3 years. At least once a month I was over to a customer in the USA and ran a demo, as well as going through the backlog and prioritization. There was also the occasional meeting with other stakeholders to report progress.

After a few months of development, we had sufficient technical base to initiate more teams. We contracted 4 more people in Sweden who were scattered for a second team and 4 people in the USA for the third team. Here too, the agile process produced good results, and the customer described it as "The Swedish Magic". They weren't used to exceeding the delivery promise pretty much every time.The product was completed and later adapted for other customers such as large telecom operators. I then had to act as a presale resource to sell to other interested parties.

Challenges:

The project was freed from major delivery disruptions. The biggest challenge was to challenge the client in terms of the functional requirements. Like so many others, they wanted loads of features that they couldn't quite justify when challenged.
Culturally, business dialogues still differ somewhat between Sweden and the USA. They are tougher in negotiations but quicker in decisions once you agree. Other cultures also needed to be handled as we traveled in many European countries, Switzerland, Belgium, France, UK, and South Africa. We were efficient and had relatively low costs.

Techniques:
Java EE, Angular, API'er (SOAP, XML, Restful) Glassfish (ESB), Jetty, GitHub, Hudson, Apache Ant, Jira.

Product Owner - Visionael Inc.

Development of a provisioning tool

2009 - 2012

In the same company, I got to take over the product ownership of a provisioning tool aimed at Internet Providers for large companies, mainly in the USA. This was run with a team in Sweden and a team in the USA. The development went on for approx: 2 years. We had good progress, but unfortunately it was not completely clear under our direction, when an acquisition company bought Visionael, and all production was to be moved to India. After handing over my products to Indian resources, I left Visionael. It was 6 years at Visionael

Challenges:

The provisioning tool had no clear client. We built it a lot on speculation, because we had the skills to technically automate internet operators' networks with e.g. MPLS.

Techniques:

(examples): Java EE, Angular, API'er (XML, Restful) Glassfish (ESB), GitHub, Hudson, Apache Ant, Jira ...