Having implemented OnePlan over a year ago now, we’ve been able to reflect on its transformative effects on our company. This journey has not only optimised our project management and team collaboration, but it has also reshaped the way we approach finance, resource allocation, and strategic alignment across the organisation. Now, we’re seeing tangible benefits that extend beyond operational improvements; we’re truly enhancing our company’s resilience and growth potential.
In this article, I’ve highlighted the key impacts we’ve experienced with OnePlan and share lessons that might help your organisation gain similar benefits. From digital transformation and strategic alignment to increased productivity, our experience with OnePlan has shown us what’s possible when a system is implemented thoughtfully and used to its fullest potential.
1. Enhanced Visibility and Empowered Teams:
One of the most immediate and powerful impacts of OnePlan was the visibility it provided. For the first time, we had a centralised view of all projects and key activities across the company. This visibility has been empowering—not just for the leadership team, but for each project manager and consultant involved in our projects.
“OnePlan has enabled us to get a view of all our projects at a glance. We are able to seamlessly keep track of projects and effectively communicate project plans and report on progress to our clients.”
Norma-Jean Samuriwo – Analyze Principal Consultant and Head of Business Optimisation
2. Empowerment at Every Level:
Prior to implementing OnePlan, the project and operational insights were often funneled through a few key leaders. This limited the team’s access to real-time information and meant they had to rely on leadership for updates or strategic guidance. With OnePlan in place, team members are now able to directly access project data, update their progress, and escalate issues as they arise. This shift has decentralised our operations, allowing everyone to take ownership of their roles and responsibilities. The result is a more agile and responsive team that doesn’t need constant oversight to make informed decisions.
Additionally, accountability has become more organic. Project status, milestones, and resource allocations are visible to all relevant team members, creating a sense of shared responsibility. This transparency not only builds trust but also drives higher performance across teams.
“OnePlan allows us to clearly document tasks and responsibilities, providing the team with a central hub of information for the project. This functionality, along with the ability to track progress, enhances collaboration and effective communication among team members.”
Priyal Karson – Analyze Business Consultant
3. Financial Insights and Strategic Decision-Making:
For a consultancy like Analyze, the ability to connect financial data with operational activities has been a game changer. Previously, project budgets and actual expenses were often siloed within the finance department. Now, with OnePlan, we can track financial data in real time, directly alongside our project progress.
4. Real-Time Budget Management:
Integrating project budgets within OnePlan has given us real-time insights into project costs, enabling proactive financial management. We can now immediately see if a project is tracking above or below budget, allowing us to take corrective actions sooner rather than later. This has improved our ability to manage cash flow, allocate resources effectively, and prioritise projects based on profitability.
5. Informed Strategic Alignment:
What’s even more impactful is the way OnePlan has improved our strategic alignment. With all our projects and financial data integrated into a single platform, we have a comprehensive view of where resources are allocated and how each project aligns with our company goals. This helps us ensure that we’re not just delivering projects on time and within budget, but also advancing Analyze’s long-term strategy.
For instance, we’re now able to track internal initiatives just as we would client projects. This means that internal development projects, team training programs, and even strategic growth initiatives can be easily monitored and aligned with our business objectives. OnePlan allows us to put our strategic goals into action by linking them to specific projects and initiatives, ensuring that we’re always working toward our overarching vision.
6. Productivity Gains and Streamlined Processes:
OnePlan has been instrumental in streamlining processes and increasing productivity across Analyze. Previously, our teams were bogged down with manual updates, disparate data sources, and a lack of standardised processes. Now, by centralising these processes within OnePlan, we’re able to focus more on delivering value to our clients and less on administrative overhead.
“OnePlan can be used as the source of truth for the project – you can have your budget, project plan, timesheets, risks, issues, decisions and changes maintained and managed from one place.”
Tendayi Kandengwa – Analyze Principal Consultant
7. Time Savings and Process Efficiency:
One of the most significant productivity gains has been in the area of proposal creation and project setup. With OnePlan’s ability to store and reuse project templates, we’ve been able to reduce the time spent creating proposals by at least 50%. Instead of starting from scratch, our teams can now pull from past successful projects, allowing for faster turnaround times and more consistent quality in our proposals.
Additionally, OnePlan’s time-tracking feature, now linked directly to each project, has simplified the way we manage and report time. This integration has reduced redundancies and helped us better allocate resources to high-priority projects. We estimate that our senior leadership and executives have freed up around 20% of their time—time which can now be reinvested into strategy, growth, and client engagement.
8. Facilitating Digital Transformation:
The OnePlan rollout was a catalyst for digital transformation at Analyze. By moving away from spreadsheets and siloed data sources to a unified platform, we’ve created a more collaborative and data-driven culture. OnePlan has enabled us to automate repetitive tasks, create standardised workflows, and provide teams with real-time access to the information they need. This shift has brought us closer to our goal of becoming a digitally enabled organisation.
9. Standardising Best Practices:
One unexpected benefit of OnePlan has been our ability to standardise best practices across the organisation. The system serves as a central repository of all project knowledge, allowing us to share and replicate the most effective project plans, timelines, and resource allocation strategies. This has created a virtuous cycle of improvement, where lessons learned on one project can be easily applied to others, saving time and reducing errors.
“OnePlan has allowed us to easily and quickly draft project plans to assist with the estimation of project duration and effort during the sales process. These plans are also reusable and can be easily and quickly copied for use in similar proposals during the sales process which helps and provides a point of reference when estimating effort, duration, and costs for similar projects.”
Tendayi Kandengwa – Analyze Principal Consultant
Looking Back and Moving Forward:
The decision to implement OnePlan has fundamentally transformed Analyze. By empowering our teams, improving financial insights, and streamlining processes, we’ve created a stronger, more resilient organisation that is better positioned to adapt to new challenges and opportunities. As we look to the future, we’re excited to continue building on this foundation.One of the most valuable lessons we learned is that digital transformation is not a one-time event—it’s an ongoing process.
Our next steps are focused on further standardising our workflows and ensuring that OnePlan remains adaptable as our needs evolve. This journey from implementation to optimisation is about creating a flexible, scalable system that can grow with us.
Written by Amanda Budler, Analyze COO
