Transforming IT project management with a focus on continuous improvement based on performance measurement and benchmarking

Airbus sought a new partnership to support the transformation of its application portfolio project management for Corporate Services and Aircraft Program Management solutions.

The Challenge 

Airbus is one of the world’s leading aircraftmanufacturers, designing, building, marketing and maintaining the most advanced passenger aircraft. 

Its Airbus IM division manages a broad portfolio of more than 300 applications supporting Finance, Corporate and Aircraft Programme Management, < Enterprise Content Management, Business Intelligence and Value Chain Visibility.

Expansion in the airline industry and a need to keep pace with IT trends saw Airbus seeking a fast transformation of its information systems. This would support a growing production rate and reduce time-to- market.

Applications harmonisation and optimisation, as well as the alignment of project management practices to deliver faster, cheaper and better, were crucial to this transformation.

Key Points

• Project management IT governance framework delivering continuous transformation

• Fixed-price catalogue for project management

• Industrialised processes and tools ensure best practice consistency

Our solution

Airbus IM sought a partner to supply a bundled project management service built around a catalogue of services. Already working with a number of other Airbus divisions, IT-enabled service provider Steria proposed an innovative partnership-based solution. Steria would share the risk of IT project delivery and made an investment in the continuous transformation of the ITgovernance model. This aimed to improve the global performance of all stakeholders.

The solution comprised:

• Project management from initiation to completion, including management of development contractors

• Responsibility for defining business needs and system architectures

• Responsibility for validation, testing, acceptance support, as well as solution rollout

How we worked together

Airbus IM must adapt quickly as the demands of the business dictate. Teams have to scale up or down in line with the changing IT project landscape. Steria provides this flexibility with strict service level agreements relating to the speed at which new projects are set up and resourced.

Steria works closely with the Airbus project portfolio managers. They share information on and qualify the project opportunities identified by Airbus within the entire application portfolio.

All Airbus IT activity relating to these applications is carried out from two locations: in France and in Germany. In France, Steria works from the secured zone of a near-site facility sharing the Airbus IT environment. Although Steria operates as a standalone entity with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, there is a single team ethos between the two organisations.

Steria has deployed its IT governance project management framework with a transformation plan included. This ensures the continuous improvement of all project-related activities. It draws on Steria’s expertise network through centres of competence, shared services centres and partners.

Steria has also put in place the tools to measure ongoing performance, with a monthly consolidated view of key performance indicators and their evolution.

Results and benefits

In outsourcing its project management tasks to Steria, Airbus IM is free to focus on portfolio management in conjunction with its customers within Airbus. A number of business benefits are accruing, including:

• Reduced time-to-market with the ability to ramp up and down project resources to match demand
• Improved IT project quality and best practice consistency in an industrialised framework of processes and tools. These are based on IT best practices, such as CobIT, CMMi, eSCM, Lean PPM, NSP, Six Sigma, etc
• Reduced global costs at portfolio level due to shared, repeatable and optimised processes
• Price transparency with a 100% fixed price catalogue for project management, architecture consulting, testing and deployment
• Shared risks and objectives between both companies help to boost performance

 

We have found in Steria the right partner to drive our transformation, supporting our project management stakes well while ensuring best in class project delivery.

MICHEL BEILLARD

Airbus IM head of Corporate Solutions and Bundle Manager

• Continuous performance monitoring through comprehensive dashboards and scorecards support the transformation strategy

New opportunities for identifying areas of performance and cost improvement continue to be sought. For example, Airbus is implementing Steria’s diagnostic consulting tool Portfolio Assessment Method to identify the potential for value improvement and reduced TCO.