North-West University Strengthens Strategic Delivery with Enterprise Project Portfolio Management Platform

From strategy to execution

According to Ntsikie Kote-Nkomo, executive director: strategy and strategic projects at NWU, the move was driven by a fundamental need for the university to connect strategy with execution.

“A challenge I identified on joining NWU in late 2022 was to understand whether strategy implementation across the university was truly aligned to our intent and having the ability to track progress and pivot when needed.”

NWU’s strategy spans six core areas, including teaching and learning; research and innovation; community engagement; student life; management of people and talent; and technology and digital business, supported by key enablers such as governance, stakeholder engagement, sustainability and financial management.

Tied to this are several key priorities for the university, encompassing the following: impact; the realisation of growth; advancing its internationalisation; delivery through partnerships with local specialists; recognition of diversity; and emphasis on operational excellence as a proudly South African organisation.

“In order to realise these priorities, NWU needed to align these with critical projects,” Kote-Nkomo states. “This would then help to define our strategy and differentiate us from other universities.”

However, as initiatives expanded across faculties and departments, inconsistencies in project portfolio management and limited visibility into outcomes became increasingly apparent. This, according to Kote-Nkomo, led to the establishment of an Enterprise Project Portfolio Management Office (EPPMO), tasked with overseeing and coordinating key programmes and projects across the institution.

And as the portfolio of strategic initiatives continued to grow across multiple departments, NWU additionally identified the need for an enterprise project portfolio management platform that could support consistent project governance, provide visibility across the portfolio and improve strategic decision-making.

A disjointed project environment

At this point, NWU’s project environment was fragmented. Across departments such as IT, Smart Campus, Capital Projects and the Enterprise Project Office, project portfolio management practices varied widely. Each team worked in its own way, with different methods, levels of detail and reporting approaches. While the work was being done, it wasn’t consistently tracked, governed or communicated across the division.

Within the IT division, Yvette Labuschagne, senior project administrator, describes an environment where information was inconsistent. “Project data lived everywhere –spreadsheets, presentations, emails, Teams and even WhatsApp. There was no single, synchronised project portfolio management system. That made it extremely difficult to establish a single reliable view of our portfolio or provide management with real-time insight into project status, dependencies and risks.”

Reporting processes were equally challenging for IT. Monthly reports could take up to a week to compile, requiring manual consolidation of inputs from multiple teams.

In Capital Projects, a sub-support department falling beneath the facilities umbrella, the complexity was even greater due to the scale of operations. Petra Davis, senior projects administrator, notes that the department manages an extensive portfolio, including new buildings, infrastructure development and the renovation of existing facilities across NWU’s three campuses, namely Mahikeng, Potchefstroom and Vanderbijlpark.

“Prior to PPO, each project manager used their own tools, from Word to Microsoft Projects, with no central system for scheduling, change requests, path tracking or risks, and we had to manually consolidate everything into reports,” she explains. “Monthly reporting took several days, while major governance reports, such as those prepared twice yearly for asset committees, could take up to a month to complete due to the scale and complexity of the data required.”

Similarly, within the Smart Campus environment, which delivers electronic and smart systems (including security infrastructure like access control and surveillance, and the university’s audiovisual systems) as well as managing energy and water metering across the university’s campuses, reporting cycles were often extended due to the effort involved.

“Having also previously used Excel as well as a more basic type of project management software, we found that, while Smart Campus was able to manage individual projects, we couldn’t easily see the bigger picture, such as the amount of work per project manager, the health of our projects and whether we were running on schedule,” comments Danie Stoop, facilities director, Smart Campus. “Reporting was particularly challenging; largely manual, time-consuming and difficult to consolidate. We often stretched reporting cycles to quarterly because of the effort involved, and even then, it could take several days to compile a report.”

Introducing structure, visibility and governance

NWU had already begun designing an overall Enterprise PMO framework, with the assistance of management consultancy firm, African International Advisors (AIA). With a recommendation to adopt an EPM tool, NWU underwent a benchmarking exercise, evaluating a number of project portfolio management tools, before deciding that PPO met its specific requirements for local support, integration with the university’s existing systems, a straightforward licensing approach, user friendliness and experience within the higher education sector.

According to Kote-Nkomo, the implementation of PPO has transformed NWU’s project portfolio management environment by introducing a centralised, structured approach, while still accommodating the diverse needs of different departments.

Through phased implementation from early 2025 - involving 17 cycles - the project portfolio management platform has enabled NWU to standardise how projects are requested, tracked, governed and reported. The implementation was supported by AIA as the systems integrator partner for NWU.

“In project-heavy environments, like in the capital space, PPO has been like a dream come true. The project portfolio management tool has sanitised some of the information, created order and provided us with a portfolio view. For the first time, we can see our project portfolio in an organised, comparable way.

“One of the biggest shifts is that we now have a common language and a consistent reporting structure,” she states. “PPO has shown us how real information can have real impact and inform our strategy moving forward.”

Across the IT division, PPO has brought greater consistency and discipline across its portfolio, which ranges from a major cybersecurity project to the establishment of a digital academy for NWU staff to stay updated with digital skills, more specifically artificial intelligence (AI). “The PPO project portfolio management tool has helped us to move away from person-dependent tracking to a more process-driven approach,” clarifies Labuschagne. “Everything is now in one place, from scheduling and communication to reporting.”

In Capital Projects, PPO has introduced a live, centralised view of projects across campuses. “Information is updated in real time, which means leadership can see what is happening on the ground as it happens,” adds Davis. “This is a major shift from the previous environment, where reports could already be outdated by the time they were completed.”

In fact, one of the most immediate benefits for NWU has been the improvement in project portfolio management reporting efficiency.

For the IT division, reporting time has reduced from up to a week to approximately one day. For Smart Campus, reports can now be completed within hours. And, according to Davis, Capital Projects’ reporting cycles, which previously took weeks, can now be completed in hours or minutes.

Beyond speed, the quality and reliability of information have also improved significantly. “Leadership now has access to structured, comparable data,” says Labuschagne. “That enables better prioritisation and more informed decision-making.”

Furthermore, PPO has introduced stronger governance controls across the project lifecycle.

“Previously within Capital Projects, moving between project stages often relied on informal processes,” explains Davis. “Documentation was not always consistently available, and tracking compliance with governance requirements was difficult. PPO has introduced gated approvals, which means that project managers cannot proceed to the next phase without completing the required documentation and receiving approval, which ensures that governance requirements are consistently met.

“It has also centralised key governance documents, which were previously difficult to locate. Auditors often request specific documentation, and retrieving it used to be a challenge. Now, these documents are stored and managed within the project portfolio management system, a step that has introduced much-needed discipline and accountability into the project lifecycle.”

Stoop concurs on the importance of gated approvals, adding that this step has instilled greater discipline within the Smart Campus department. “As part of this process, when a project is finished, we now have a gated approval before it can be administratively closed. This has introduced a moment to stop and look at the current scenario for that specific project, which I love.”

The PPO platform has also improved financial oversight by integrating with the university’s ERP system, enabling more accurate tracking of project costs and alignment between financial and project data. “There is now a clear expectation that financial and project information must align,” says Kote-Nkomo. “That has strengthened accountability across the institution.”

A single source of truth

A key outcome of the project portfolio management tool implementation is the creation of a single source of truth for project information.

This has improved collaboration across teams and departments, enabling stakeholders to work from the same, up-to-date view of project status, risks and dependencies. This is of particular importance for larger projects involving several departments, such as the construction of NWU’s new medical school on the Potchefstroom campus, which will also encompass two satellite buildings based at hospitals in Klerksdorp, lecture rooms, offices and more.

“Transparency has been one of the most significant benefits we’ve seen with the rollout of PPO. It’s much easier for teams to engage because everyone is looking at the same information,” says Labuschagne. “We can identify challenges earlier and respond more effectively and are also much more easily able to identify which projects are higher priority.”

In Capital Projects, the system also provides detailed visibility into contractors – with a mechanism to record contractor information and values - and funding, enabling better management of service providers and improved transparency for stakeholders.

The implementation of the PPO project portfolio management solution has been as much about organisational change as technology. “This was not just a system implementation, it was a change project,” says Stoop. “It required people to move away from manual processes and adopt a new way of working.”

The flexibility of the platform has also been a key factor. “The system was adapted to fit our environment, not the other way around,” continues Davis. “That made a big difference in how quickly teams could adopt it.”

Looking ahead

While adoption continues to grow, NWU is already seeing the benefits of a more structured, transparent and data-driven project environment.

“The foundation is now in place,” says Kote-Nkomo. “The next step is to deepen the uptake of the project portfolio management tool, particularly at leadership level, and continue building our project management maturity.”

NWU continues to work with AIA and PPO to drive further tool maturity, adoption and utilisation, underscoring the need of a strong tool, and disciplined implementation support. The university is also exploring the potential role of emerging technologies, such as AI, in further enhancing project portfolio management and governance.

“Tools enable, but people deliver,” she adds. “What we now have is the structure, visibility and insight needed to deliver on our strategy with confidence.”

Guy Jelley, founder and CEO of Project Portfolio Office, says NWU’s journey reflects a broader shift among large, complex organisations towards more disciplined and data-driven project environments. “Institutions like North-West University are recognising that it is the ability to consistently execute, measure and adapt that ultimately drives impact. By establishing a single source of truth and embedding governance into everyday project delivery, NWU is building a strong foundation for sustained strategic success,” he concludes.

About Project Portfolio Office:

Project Portfolio Office helps organisations achieve greater project success by assisting at every level of the project and portfolio management (PPM) process. From consulting to businesses on how to build a successful Project Management Office (PMO), to delivering the capabilities needed for effective project delivery, Project Portfolio Office can provide the services and solutions needed for companies to improve execution within a competitive business environment. This includes its PPM tool, PPO, which is used to plan, manage, collaborate, execute and report on their projects, programmes and portfolios.

Project Portfolio Office (PPO) is committed to advancing the project management profession through support of the Project Management South Africa’s (PMSA) invitation- only PMO Forum. The PMO Forum, aimed at senior PMO practitioners, is part of a series of forums presented by industry thought leaders. The forum hosted by Project Portfolio Office offers a quarterly opportunity for discussion and knowledge transfer by means of case studies, best practices, research outcomes and lessons learned presented.

As an active player in growing the project portfolio management profession, Project Portfolio Office manages and coordinates the South African PMO Awards competition. This annual competition identifies and recognises PMOs that are delivering value to their organisations. The winners get to suit up and tango with the best on the global stage through the annual PMO Global Awards.