Portfolio-wide PMO setup for a growing mid-sized contractor
A contractor scaled from three live projects to eleven in three years, with commercial reporting struggling to keep pace. Ashforte designed and embedded a portfolio-level PMO covering contract, commercial, claims and project controls disciplines.
The situation
The contractor had grown from a project-by-project management model to a portfolio operation without formalising portfolio-level governance. Each project ran its own commercial and contract discipline. Reporting was inconsistent across projects. The board couldn't get a coherent portfolio view.
Two projects had suffered material margin erosion that surfaced only at year-end. The board wanted portfolio-level visibility that would make recurrence unlikely.
The commercial director engaged Ashforte to design and embed a portfolio-wide PMO — covering contract management, commercial management, claims discipline and project controls — running to consistent standards across every live project.
Ashforte's intervention
The engagement was structured around the following workstreams, delivered by a senior-led team operating to Ashforte's standardized delivery protocols.
PMO architecture
- PMO charter with scope, RACI and reporting audience mapping
- Multi-project reporting structure — project to portfolio rollup
- Governance cadence — weekly project, monthly portfolio, quarterly board
- Escalation protocols with defined triggers
SOP library
- Contract management SOPs — notices, correspondence, obligations
- Commercial management SOPs — CVR, change control, cash flow
- Claims discipline SOPs — entitlement identification, evidence capture
- Project controls SOPs — document control, risk, action tracking
Embedding across projects
- Project-by-project SOP rollout over four months
- PMO team training and coaching
- First-cycle reporting supervised by Ashforte
- Handover to internal PMO leadership
The result
Portfolio-wide reporting operational within six months. Board received a coherent cross-project margin, exposure and risk view for the first time in three years.
Two additional distressed positions identified within the first three reporting cycles — both intercepted while still recoverable, rather than surfacing at year-end.
The contractor extended the engagement into a lighter-touch Portfolio Retainer covering PMO governance and cross-project claims oversight.
Lessons
The lessons from an engagement are usually more transferable than the specific results. What Ashforte's clients typically take away from case studies like this one:
Portfolio-wide PMO discipline delivers visibility that project-by-project discipline cannot match — and the visibility itself is what prevents late-surfacing distress.
SOP libraries only work when they're used. The embedding phase — rollout, training, first-cycle supervision — was as important as the design phase, and it took longer.
Six months is the realistic timeline for a portfolio-wide PMO to bed in properly. Faster timelines usually produce PMOs that don't survive the second reporting cycle.
This engagement sat within Project Controls & PMO.
Reporting, controls and document discipline that carry legal weight when claims arrive.
Explore Controls & PMOInitial Commercial Risk Assessment
By invitation, Ashforte provides qualified contractors with an initial commercial risk assessment on one live project. A structured senior review of contract, claims and commercial-control exposure, delivered as a documented briefing with a 30-day action plan. Qualification is determined in the first conversation.
A structured review of one live project — offered by invitation, at no cost, to qualified contractors.
Request an initial assessment- 01Review of selected project documents (contract, correspondence, variations, programme)
- 02Identification of key contract and commercial risk exposures
- 03Short maturity assessment across notices, variations, claims and payment controls
- 04A practical 30-day action plan
- 05Findings call with the project or commercial lead
- Contractors with active commercial pressure on a live project
- Variation or claims exposure requiring senior review
- Payment or certification issues affecting cash
- Stretched commercial teams needing external senior view
- Final account or close-out situations