Synergy management in program management
A program is defined as a temporary and flexible organization created to coordinate, lead and supervise the implementation of a set of interrelated projects, in order to contribute to the achievement of results and benefits linked to the strategic objectives of the organization.
The program management plan works similar to any project plan in the sense that it has specific policies, procedures, and processes to follow in order to achieve the goals and objectives of its program.
However, the management of programs and their success, unlike individual projects (these pursue the delivery of a specific product or deliverable), consists in obtaining benefits of strategic importance for the organization, in which synergies are maximized with the collective management of multiple projects under the operational guidelines detailed in the program management plan.
How can we identify synergies in program management?
From the planning of the IT strategy of a program, meetings are established with the sponsor/s and stakeholders involved, where a plan of interrelated projects begins to be designed that will help to achieve the expected benefits. In the design of the deployment of these projects, the aim is to analyse the possibilities of confluence and to reach agreements that allow sharing management models, data models, jointly defining services and transversal functionalities. This initial planning identifies the synergies present for an efficient materialization of the objectives set from a collective development approach, always from the interest for the result, plus the trust and mutual support between the different parties involved.
Benefits of managing synergies in programs
- Cost savings
When you think about synergies in the field of program management and their associated benefits, there is a tendency to think about the materialization of cost savings, but their importance goes further.
- Holistic view
The Program Manager centralizes the overall management and information point of the program, which provides it, unlike the Project Managers who make up the team, a cohesive comprehensive vision of the program's particularities, which will be key when identifying of synergies, dependencies, risks, etc.
- Competitive advantages: in-depth knowledge of the sector and its technologies
The identification of synergies allows acquiring a better and deeper knowledge of the sector and its technologies, which will act as a lever to obtain competitive advantages within the market in which it operates.
- Greater market visibility
- Improvement of the benefits and qualities of the products that are delivered
- Better recognition and positioning of the organization
- Attraction of talent
This greater market visibility not only encourages the improvement of the benefits and qualities of the products that are delivered, but also increases the probability of acquiring new technologies and talents that implicitly bring with them a better recognition and positioning of the organization.
At Izertis we make sure that the management of our clients' IT systems and programs master plans does not overlook a correct identification of synergies associated with the defined strategic objectives, in order to increase the success of the realization of the benefits expected.