First Sentier Investors harmonises project management across 14 offices, saving time

First Sentier Investors is a global fund manager, investing on behalf of clients across Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. With 14 offices and over 1,000 employees across four continents, First Sentier Investors is committed to creating sustainable solutions for their clients, their people and society. “Our vision is to be a provider of world-leading investment expertise and client solutions, led by our responsible investment principles” shares Iain Paton, Head of the Global Project Management Office at First Sentier Investors.

Putting 14 offices in sync

With many projects running at the same time, First Sentier Investors faced challenges in planning and delivery without a centralised project management office (PMO) providing the tools, frameworks, and guidance to the entire organisation. 

“We didn’t have a transparent view of which projects were running and who was in charge of them,” explains Paton. “This made it hard to plan resources or justify projects. We needed to simplify how we operated and remove manual processes to become more efficient.”

Additionally, project reporting was time-consuming. That’s because project managers had to manually create multiple versions of the same report for different audiences. “By the time we sent out a monthly report, we were already halfway through the next month. That’s why we wanted to move towards real-time reporting to free up project managers for more valuable activities,” Paton adds.

In 2019, the company established a Global PMO and centralised its project management efforts. The office handles activities like managing strategic projects and owning the project framework. However, First Sentier Investors still lacked consistency in adopting these frameworks across the board. Without supportive tools, consolidating information was difficult and reporting was still outdated.

Looking for the perfect solution

“We realised it was the right time to look for a project portfolio management (PPM) tool to address these gaps,” Paton shares. The company went through a request for proposal (RFP) process, defining requirements, conducting due diligence with potential providers, and running supplier presentations. “The RFP process allowed us to educate the organisation on what a PPM tool does and its benefits,” Paton adds.

First Sentier Investors had specific requirements. “We needed a partner that would fit culturally with our relatively small, agile, and collaborative organisation, and someone who would evolve with our processes,” Paton notes. As a small firm, First Sentier Investors didn’t have a huge capacity to support staff with adoption, so it also wanted something users could get up and running easily. Importantly, the solution needed to support the company’s hierarchy, enabling business teams to manage individual projects under broader programmes and consolidate these into a portfolio view for the executives.

Following a clear vision

After careful evaluation, First Sentier Investors chose Smartsheet and engaged its consulting services for the implementation. First Sentier Investors involved its project managers and other team members in the process to ensure buy-in and engagement. “The Smartsheet team provided guidance, but the vision and blueprint had to come from us. You can’t just ask for a PPM solution without a clear vision of your needs and processes,” shares Paton. The team implemented several design principles, such as keeping mandatory fields to a minimum and creating a single blueprint to accommodate projects of all sizes and types.

Then, First Sentier Investors launched Smartsheet for the Global PMO team. Following weeks of testing, it rolled it out to the entire organisation, where various teams adopted it as an enterprise PPM solution. The company also relied on Smartsheet to manage projects of all sizes, types, and business levels, as well as prepare long-term strategic plans.

A solution that took off

Smartsheet easily found its way into various daily workflows. “The tool’s growth surprised us,” recalls Paton. “It’s essentially no-code, so once users receive a licence, they can self-train and build powerful solutions themselves—some use it for task management, while others use it to manage the refresh of policies and procedures.” Employees at First Sentier Investors have already built at least 20 unique applications of the solution, and are finding new ways to leverage Smartsheet every day. 

Paton adds, “People found it very accessible and intuitive, and they saw what it could do. Even the CEO started using it, which speaks volumes about the solution’s ease of use!” 

In just a year, three-quarters of First Sentier Investors had already used Smartsheet in some capacity.

Today, First Sentier Investors relies on Smartsheet as its single source of truth for its project portfolio. Laying out strategic roadmaps in Smartsheet, the team examines the financial benefits of strategic initiatives and selects the best mix of projects for the future. “We also use Smartsheet for workforce planning, assessing team impacts, and balancing demands through better scheduling and prioritisation. As a small firm, this lets us optimise our resources and capabilities,” shares Paton. 

“Overall, we have greater transparency, which simplifies prioritisation and empowers us to improve the quality of our output.”

More consistency and productivity

With Smartsheet, First Sentier Investors can also more efficiently communicate this data with external stakeholders like partners and consultants. “We share project plans and status reports and the external parties can update them in real time,” notes Paton. “This replaces a lot of outdated communication methods like emails. We also use forms within Smartsheet to gather information consistently from external collaborators.”

With more efficient processes, First Sentier Investors has freed up its employees for more high-value tasks. “I personally save about a week a month on reporting—I just no longer need to do it,” adds Paton. “Project managers focus on projects instead of paperwork. It’s hard to quantify, but our savings are significant if we consider the opportunity we gain—enabling people to focus on more valuable, strategic activities.”

Strong ambitions

Planning ahead, First Sentier Investors wants to extend its use of Smartsheet to strategic planning, scenario analysis, and macro-level resource planning. It will also look for more ways to bring simplicity, efficiency, and standardisation to its global operations. “Two years ago, we didn’t use Smartsheet at all. Today, it’s widely integrated into our organisation, and we have plans to extend its use even further,” Paton concludes. “We’re a global organisation and we are trying to globalise our processes. Thanks to Smartsheet, we do things the same way, and we all speak the same language. This has removed ambiguity and vastly improved our collaboration for growth.”