Strengthen the management of the IT department's project portfolio through a consolidated capacity-based approach

The Company

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Swiss Life is a leading provider of insurance, retirement planning, and financial solutions in Europe. For more than 160 years, the Group has been helping individuals and businesses plan for their financial future, with a clear mission: to enable everyone to lead a financially independent life.

With a presence in Switzerland, Germany, and France, among other countries, Swiss Life relies on nearly 11,000 employees and a distribution network of more than 17,000 advisors. The Group offers solutions in life insurance, retirement planning, financial management, private banking, health insurance, property and casualty insurance, asset management, and employee benefits.

In an environment characterized by challenges related to performance, reliability, and transformation, the Information Systems Department at Swiss Life France selected Tabsters in 2024 to streamline the management of its IT project portfolio and strengthen its capacity-based approach.

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Challenges & Objectives

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Background

Swiss Life’s Information Systems Department wanted to upgrade its project portfolio management and time-tracking system. The existing tool no longer fully met the teams’ expectations: adoption remained incomplete, tracking data was not always entered consistently, and the IT department did not have a sufficiently reliable view of its capacity plan. This situation limited the ability to consolidate information, track activities accurately, anticipate team workloads, and gain a clear understanding of available capacity.

The main challenge, therefore, was to gain the support of all project stakeholders in order to centralize 100% of time-entry data in a single location and build a consolidated view of the IT department’s capacity.

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Key Issues

The main issues centered on:

• the implementation of a tool that is easier to use and more intuitive for teams;
• the creation of custom views based on user profiles;
• real-time consolidation of project data and activity tracking information;
• monitoring the portfolio of all IT projects, including contributions from business units;
• centralizing timesheets in a single solution;
• standardization of management practices within the IT department;
• improved visibility into resource allocation and the capacity plan;
• the automation of reporting materials for senior management.

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Objectives

With Tabsters, Swiss Life wanted a solution that would allow it to:

• manage the IT department's project portfolio within a common framework;
• monitor contributions from the IT and business teams;
• improve the reliability of time tracking and activity monitoring;
• consolidate project data in real time;
• better visualize the workload and resource allocation;
• make it easier to get started with interfaces tailored to each type of user;
• automate the creation of PowerPoint presentations;
• standardize management practices within the IT Department.

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Approach

The approach implemented with Tabsters was structured around several key success factors.

1. Customized views by user profile

Tabsters has made it possible to offer screens tailored to different types of users, in order to make the system easier to learn, simplify data entry, and encourage team adoption.

2. Optimized management of projects and resources

The solution allows you to aggregate multiple resources onto a single line while still providing one-click access to detailed information. This approach makes it easier to review resource allocations and helps users better understand the workload plan.

3. Automated reporting

The creation of presentations for senior management has been streamlined through the automation of PowerPoint slides, significantly reducing the time project managers and PMO staff spend on this task.

4. A Standardized Methodology

Tabsters has also helped establish a common methodology within the IT department, with the aim of standardizing practices, ensuring data reliability, and improving the consistency of management.

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How to Use Tabsters

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Use cases

As part of this partnership, Swiss Life uses Tabsters to address several key needs:

• Management of the IT Department’s project portfolio;
• Monitoring IT projects and business contributions;
• Time tracking and activity monitoring;
• Centralizing timesheets in a single location;
• Monitoring the IT Department's capacity plan;
• Visualization of resource allocation;
• Consolidation of resources and one-click access to details;
• Standardization of project tracking;
• Automation of PowerPoint presentations for senior management.

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User profiles

The solution is used by more than 60 users, including: project managers, PMO staff, IT teams, business contributors, portfolio management leads, managers, and decision-makers involved in portfolio monitoring.

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The benefits

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The deployment of Tabsters within Swiss Life’s IT department has yielded several major benefits:

• 100% of timesheets are entered each month in a single location;
• Standardization of project monitoring within the IT Department;
• More consistent and efficient management of the project portfolio;
• Greater transparency regarding resource allocation;
• Consolidated overview of the capacity plan;
• Real-time consolidation of project data and activity tracking;
• Automation of PowerPoint presentations;
• Project managers and PMO staff save 90% of the time they would otherwise spend producing reporting materials;
• Interfaces tailored to different user profiles;
• Improved decision-making capabilities thanks to more reliable, more centralized, and more easily actionable information.