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Finance Program Manager

Program Governance for a $4.2M Financial Systems Migration

A three-year-old systems migration program with five work streams, two vendors, and no single accountable PM.

$4.2M
program delivered on budget
Finance Program Management Systems Migration Risk

The Challenge

A regional financial services firm had been attempting to migrate their core banking and CRM platforms for three years. The program had five workstreams run by different internal teams, two major vendors with competing priorities, a $4.2M budget with limited visibility into burn rate, and no single accountable program manager coordinating dependencies. The CFO had reached the point of considering a full program termination when PMOstart was engaged.

The Approach

Week 1–2
Program baseline

Established a single program baseline: consolidated all five workstream plans into one dependency-mapped program schedule, performed a budget reconciliation across all cost categories, and assessed each vendor relationship against contract obligations.

Month 1–2
Dependency and vendor reset

Mapped 34 cross-workstream dependencies and identified 8 that were actively blocking progress. Facilitated a joint session with both vendors to establish a shared integration timeline and escalation path. Built the first integrated RAID log across all workstreams.

Month 2–6
Delivery execution

Ran the program for six months as Program Manager: weekly workstream leads call, bi-weekly steering committee, monthly board update. Managed three scope change requests through formal change control, preventing $620K in uncontrolled additions.

Month 6–8
Go-live and close

Coordinated a phased go-live across the five workstreams over 6 weeks. Produced the final program closure report, benefits realization baseline, and post-implementation handoff documentation.

Results

Program delivered on revised baseline: $4.2M budget, 8-month execution window
Zero uncontrolled scope additions after change control was established
All five workstreams coordinated through a single reporting structure for the first time
Both vendor relationships maintained and contractual obligations met
Post-go-live stabilization period completed in 3 weeks, below the 8-week estimate

"Three years of scattered execution turned into eight months of structured delivery. PMOstart brought the discipline the program had always needed."

CFO
Regional Financial Services Firm

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