How Amer Sports uses Altus to run its global project portfolio after migrating off Microsoft Project Online

Andreas Plodek is a project manager, PMO Lead and Engagement Manager in IT at Amer Sports, the group behind Salomon, Wilson, Atomic, Arc’teryx and Peak Performance. Like most large organisations, his team ran project management on MS Project, and like most large organisations they had to move when Microsoft confirmed the product was being retired within a year.

They’d already started. Holert had flagged what was coming, so Amer Sports picked up the plan early, went into development well ahead of the announcement and were finished while much of the market was still scoping.

Key outcomes with Altus

Migration finished early

Amer Sports completed its move off MS Project with months still left on Microsoft’s clock, while other organisations were only starting to plan.

Lighter load on IT

Support tickets are down and the business comes to IT with fewer questions about project data.

One portfolio, every methodology

Waterfall, agile and hybrid projects roll up into a single portfolio view for senior management.

Room to grow

Resource management is the next module going live.

“The real success is that we’re pretty relaxed now. A lot of companies are having to move off MS Project right now. We were already through it, even though we still had a good four or five months.”

Andreas Plodek, PMO Lead, Amer Sports

Waterfall, agile and everything in between

Amer Sports came out of a classic waterfall world that dominated 10 to 15 years ago. Agile has grown up alongside it with its own tools, and most delivery now sits somewhere between the two. The harder change is that everything’s far more integrated than it used to be, and someone has to pull it together at the top.

That’s the job Altus does. Larger projects run on Altus Scheduler, smaller ones on Altus Planner, and both roll up into portfolio management. Timesheets run through Altus too, and they’re one of the heaviest-used parts of the platform.

“At the end of the day it’s all projects, and senior management always wants to know what’s going on. They don’t care which operating model you used to manage it. Altus is a huge help in bringing those projects together so we can see and manage the portfolio.”

Andreas Plodek, PMO Lead, Amer Sports

Delivered with Holert

Building it in-house was never a serious option. “We’re too small for that, we don’t have the know-how, and at the end of the day we’re a sports company,” Plodek says. “We’re not a tool development company.”

Holert was already working with Amer Sports when Plodek joined 12 years ago. What keeps the relationship going, he says, is that Holert brings the technical build and the process expertise in the same team: “They’re far more than a Power Apps or Power BI development shop. They’re a consultancy that can then build what they’ve advised you to do.”

He’s never been handed a junior to keep costs down. “I always got the best possible resources, and I could always get more when I needed them.”

The results

Support load has dropped since go-live. Altus runs stably, the business comes to IT with fewer questions, and the integrated view across scheduling, timesheets and portfolio reporting has become the thing Amer Sports keeps building on. Further modules are going live as the team is ready for them, with resource management next.