Case Study: University of Michigan ITS achieves improved prioritization, demand visibility and a 23% reduction in active projects with Planview Enterprise

Creating, Implementing, and Enabling Demand Management Process Adoption at University of Michigan Information Technology Services

The University of Michigan’s Information and Technology Services (ITS) supports campus-wide IT for roughly 800 staff working across 200+ active projects. Facing rising costs, a new “Next Gen Michigan” shared-services model and the merger of three central IT organizations, ITS struggled with overpromising, lack of visibility into demand, and an unclear project pipeline — making it hard to prioritize work and control operational spend.

Working with Planview Consulting, ITS implemented a three-stage demand management process in Planview Enterprise with lifecycle tracking, a simple seven-field request form, and a schedule checkpoint driven by the Enterprise Portfolio Project Management Office. Complemented by role-based change management and eLearning under the “Right Work, Right People, Right Time” message, the program improved prioritization and transparency — cutting the active project portfolio by 23%, raising projects with baselines from 10% to 75%, and enabling better visibility into demand, capacity, and delivery timing.

University of Michigan ITS

Cathleen Curley

Assistant Director PMO Office