identify new opportunities for improvement,” Mr.
Fejes says. ;e project is on track to be completed in
November 2014, on time and within budget.
Such a collaborative approach is critical for
innovation-heavy projects with high complexity,
but they require a signi;cant time commitment
from company stakeholders, Mr. Fejes notes. “;ey
need to make time to work with us and o;er regular
feedback on project progress,” he says. “;at’s how
you solve issues and deliver the best results.”
RETHINKING GOVERNANCE
;e most successful outsourcing strategies include
a more collaborative governance model as well, says
Scott Bewley, director of managed services for CSG
International, Dublin, Ireland. CSGI creates lasting
managed service partnerships with organizations
in various industries—including media, telecommunications and ;nancial services—to develop and
implement strategic technology projects, which
help businesses meet growth goals and expand into
new markets.
“We focus on using innovative technology to
achieve strategic business outcomes for our customers,” Mr. Bewley says.
Like EPAM, CSGI doesn’t wait for customers
to tell the company what to do. Instead, it works
strategically with customers to help them solve
business problems. “They come to us for advice
on how to proactively drive their transformations
with technology,” says Richard Ullenius, vice
president of managed services for CSGI, Stockholm, Sweden.
A three-tiered governance model supports CSGI
projects. At the top is the strategic governance board,
where CSGI leaders provide client executives with
AGILE OUTSOURCING
Mr. Fejes has seen the importance of a mature project management approach up close while executing
projects for ;nancial services companies. Outsourcing higher-value projects is especially prevalent in
the ;nance sector, where companies struggle to
implement more robust digital and mobile tools for
customers while meeting strict regulatory requirements, he says. For this reason, vendors are playing
highly strategic roles.
“When vendors act as innovators, they are often
the ones to drive the project plan based on a problem the client is facing,” he says.
As an example, Mr. Fejes points to a project his
team is currently working on to create a digital
platform for a global bank. ;e bank brought EPAM
Systems into the project in May 2013, before a project plan was even created or the minimum viable
product was de;ned, with one goal: It wanted an
immersive digital platform that would give the
company’s high net-worth clients a better customer
experience. Mr. Fejes’ team took it from there.
“We did the research based on the bank’s need,
came up with a design and built a business case for
the project,” he says.
After client approval, Mr. Fejes used an agile
project management approach to assemble 10
technology teams that work simultaneously on
di;erent pieces of the digital platform and deliver
biweekly prototypes to the client showcasing additional features and improvements. He also has 10
percent of his team co-located at the client site
to make sure everyone remains aligned to project
goals and that the client provides feedback as e;-ciently as possible.
“Having a team on-site helps us manage risk and
from company stakeholders, Mr. Fejes notes. “;ey
48 PM NETWORK OC TOBER 2014 WWW.PMI.ORG
“[Many organizations] know that cloud, big data, digital and mobile will take them to
the next level—but they don’t have the talent in-house to deliver these projects.”
—Balazs Fejes, EPAM Systems, Zurich, Switzerland
