When BDO South Africa, an organisation providing audit, advisory, tax and business service outsourcing services, set out to strengthen the project management discipline across its Financial Transformation Services environment, it quickly became clear that the project management office (PMO) needed more than just a task tracker or a collaborative workspace.

Instead, it needed a single system that could bring structure, visibility, governance and best-practice project management into its engagements, and that is ultimately how PPO, Project Portfolio Office’s scalable, cloud-based portfolio and project management solution, became the tool of choice.

BDO is widely recognised for its audit expertise, and its Advisory division plays a significant role, spanning services such as risk, cybersecurity, digital transformation, finance transformation, sustainability and strategic development.

Within this division, the Finance Transformation Services team positions itself as a strategic advisor to the chief financial officer (CFO), supporting organisations across four core areas of transformation: people, processes, technology and governance.

As Veronica Lukwago, Finance Transformation associate director, explains: “We help businesses to transform their finance functions so that they’re aligned to business strategy. Our work starts with diagnostics and roadmaps, and then cascades into the initiatives that sit under people, process, technology and governance.”

The capability is relatively new within BDO, established in April last year, and rapidly expanding.

Before PPO: workarounds and visibility gaps

Like many consulting environments, the Finance Transformation Services PMO believed it had a functional project management approach in place - until the team realised that essential technical components were missing.

Veronica recalls: “In the earlier days of Finance Transformation Services, everything lived on a well-known collaboration platform – all of our documents and tasks – and, at the time, we believed that this made sense. But, while it did give us some documentation visibility and allowed task assignments, it was not an authentic project management system; it was a workaround.”

Other business units within BDO South Africa had experimented with task management tools, but as Veronica notes, none of them offered the combination of workflow, governance, document management and visibility that the Finance Transformation Services PMO required to meet its project management needs.

“We weren’t looking for a tool that was necessarily a silver bullet, but rather an enabler of proper project management discipline. We wanted governance, quality, real-time visibility and proper document management, and reached a point where we had to acknowledge the limitations of our workarounds.”

When BDO’s Finance Transformation Services PMO began searching for a solution, the team defined clear objectives. Veronica summarises them as follows: “Firstly, we needed an embedded workflow; a solution that could provide the literal chronological steps to be followed in order to ensure good project management discipline.

“The second requirement was for visibility, where there would be dashboards that show task completion, project progress, risks and flags. And finally, we needed a tool that entrenched solid project management principles for best practice.”

It was also important for Veronica that the project management solution provider be a reputable South African company: “There’s so much capability in this country, and people underestimate local technology. PPO being South African mattered to me. Local support was another major factor. Many global tools offer little to no support after implementation. With a custom-configured system in a constantly evolving environment, ongoing support was non-negotiable for our PMO.”

Thorough evaluation and governance approval

The evaluation process of BDO’s Finance Transformation Services PMO was rigorous and, according to Veronica, exactly what one would expect from a professional services firm.

“As an auditing company, it was completely within character for us to do extensive homework before going to our internal committee. This included discussions with business unit leaders and managing directors from across our different offices on how they were managing their project management requirements and which tools they were using.”

The process took roughly three months and involved a formal governance committee responsible for approving all software, including security and compliance checks.

The discovery of PPO was, in fact, a referral from a long-term acquaintance of Veronica’s - now a project manager in the mining sector - who immediately recognised the fit.

“We started by downloading the free, 30-day trial version of PPO and from there requested a demonstration from Project Portfolio Office. We haven’t looked back since, starting with implementation in June 2024, which was then wrapped up by early November. The implementation began with 20 licences, which were quickly filled.”

The PMO team originally intended to implement five projects during rollout, but soon realised the value of focusing on just one as a foundation.

“We decided that if we could get one project running well, that would be our proof point, and it worked.”

A strong, transparent and scalable project management foundation

The projects now running on PPO represent the full scope of BDO’s finance transformation work, including a mix of public and private sector clients, both local and global, and embracing all sizes.

Through PPO, BDO’s Finance Transformation Services PMO has created a more reliable, consistent and transparent project management environment - one that supports both delivery excellence and client confidence.

“PPO has helped to improve our governance and visibility, team members’ accountabilities and even how we interact with clients. Having dashboards and structure in place brings credibility to our project management methodology. It shows we’re aligned with best practice; not just saying it, but proving it.

“Our visibility of task completion is substantially better than before. When you're in a large project with many people, you need to have some level of comfort that you are all pulling in the same direction consistently, and the PPO dashboard provides real-time usage statistics. Not only is this useful from a project management discipline perspective, but it also reduces a certain amount of time and effort for meeting preparation, and allows for more informed discussions.”

As an organisation, BDO South Africa has also started to consciously talk about standardising project management across the business. “This obviously began on the Finance Transformation side, but will hopefully extend to the entire organisation, not just bringing greater awareness to project management discipline, but standardising it.

“For the Finance Transformation Services PMO, the next step is to dig deeper and refine our approach so that we have a clear, accurate representation of the project’s outcomes - not only a status dashboard, but a strong, comprehensive close-out report that demonstrates full delivery. With PPO, we now have a structured workflow and a preconfigured format that brings greater discipline and consistency to how we manage and report on our projects.”

Lessons learned

Veronica’s advice to other organisations embarking on a similar journey is to never underestimate the time and focus required. Beyond the configuration of the project management system itself, there is also internal work needed to prepare for deployment and to embed new ways of working. “Even when teams believe they have well-established processes, a structured system will quickly reveal gaps and areas that need attention,” she explains.

Her key takeaway is the importance of treating change management as a practical, ongoing transition instead of a single event. “This means thinking carefully about the timing of the tool’s introduction, the cutover to using it in real time, and when it becomes realistic to expect accurate task completion and consistent reporting. Change doesn’t happen overnight, even with comprehensive training.”

She emphasises the need to plan for the human element, as people naturally cling to familiar methods, so organisations must allocate enough time for teams to adjust. “An effective approach is to allow at least a month for users to explore the new solution, build confidence, ask questions privately and gradually adopt new behaviours, supported by a phased timeline.”

Finally, Veronica highlights the importance of adapting communication and sharing accountability during the transition. “There’s great value in giving those doing the work more autonomy to shape realistic timelines. This shift not only improved accountability but also strengthened adoption across the Finance Transformation Services PMO team.”

Reflecting on BDO’s success, Guy Jelley, CEO and co-founder of Project Portfolio Office, says the Finance Transformation Services team exemplifies what can be achieved with the right tools and mindset. “Their dedication to building a disciplined, transparent project management culture has been inspiring. PPO is designed to empower teams, and BDO has truly embraced that. We’re excited to continue working alongside them as their project management capability grows.”