When you’re considering setting up a business to offer contracted PMO services, the services you offer need to be hammered out in the earliest stages.
Businesses will look for a contracted PMO option when they have a shortage of skills or people to complete PMO functions. These aren’t uncommon – you’ll already have spotted issues within PMOs, and that’s why you want to create a business offering contracted services.
Here, we’re going to cover some ideas for what you can offer to businesses that need a contracted PMO. It’s by no means exhaustive, but it will help you along the planning stages to help you understand the direction your business can go in. We’re looking at:
- How to decide where to focus your PMO services
- The short-term tasks you can contract
- What long-term contracts you can take on
How do I decide on the PMO services to offer?
As a PMO professional, you know the pain points that are common across PMOs in your industry. Whether it’s skill shortages, reports that need streamlining, or frameworks and methodologies that are implemented right, there’s something that you think you can do differently.
Next, you need to consider your skills in a PMO that are in demand:
- Are you a strategic thinker that can translate business goals into programme-level actions?
- Can you visualise a project plan and schedule easily?
- Do you look at reports showing off-track projects and understand how to fix them?
Whatever you can do in a PMO, you can offer this is a troubleshooting skill to take into businesses.
Also, look at your practical skills. PMOs might want to contract out creating spreadsheets or Gantt charts for projects or have someone else create a whole project within their PMO software. You might be a whizz at closing down projects and finalising admin – a task that often gets forgotten.
Next, look at the tasks that are in demand. Use your network to understand the type of tasks PMOs and organisations in your industry want to outsource. Once you know what businesses would be happy to pay someone else to do, you can start to offer that service.
What short-term tasks can a contracted PMO do?
There are lots of one-off or short-term PMO tasks that can be outsourced. You’ll know yourself that there are time-consuming tasks that add value to the projects and the office but don’t offer personal development for staff.
This can be things like populating data as a project gets going, organising project priorities based on work or assessments that have already been done, or managing the end of a project after it’s been delivered.
These one-offs can be a way to bring in income quickly, but you may not be able to guarantee a steady stream of work. However, you can quickly become specialised in one particular process, which will make you more efficient and hopefully lead to referrals and positive testimonials.
What long-term work can a contracted PMO take on?
Tasks that need to be completed weekly or monthly can tie up talented PMO team members. Your office can take these on and free up internal resources for clients.
A PMO may need to create a monthly presentation to the C-suite and doesn’t have the design skills to translate data into an easy-to-understand message, but you do. The monthly timesheets, expenses, and costs can easily be handed over to your office.
Even the regular training, upskilling, and support that a PMO offer to projects can be contracted out. If you have specialist project knowledge, offering your services on retainer to a PMO can negate the need to have a full-time employee while still ensuring projects have an expert on hand.
These types of tasks will give your new PMO regular income, but there is more chance of scope creep as your client starts to understand what you and your office can do.
What services can my contracted PMO offer?
A contracted PMO can offer a range of services that match the needs of PMOs in the industry you understand. Every sector will have different needs from their PMO, which could be supportive, administrative, or strategic.
The services you can offer as a contracted PMO will depend on your skills and knowledge as well as what is needed in your industry.
