How to Save Money through a Project Audit

Michael Stanleigh, CMC, CSP is the CEO of Business Improvement Architects. He works with leaders and their teams around the world to improve organizational performance by helping to define their strategic direction, increase leadership performance, create cultures that drive innovation and improve project and quality management. He has been instrumental in helping his clients increase productivity and profits with his innovative approaches and focus on quality.

  Strategy  

I’ve been receiving some e-mails and notices from firms offering a discount on project health checks and project audits. Wait a minute…a discount to audit a project?

On average, our full fee to conduct a comprehensive project health check or project audit for a large project equals, at most, about 0.5% of the total project budget. The projected savings that result is usually huge in comparison to the investment that our clients make, providing an excellent return to our clients.

In fact, resulting project savings of over one million dollars for large projects is not uncommon. Obviously this is very dependent on the size and scope of the project. But it’s always a lot, and return on investment is high. So why the discount?

I often refer to the benefit of undertaking a project health check or project audit as moving projects from a state of crisis to one that is in control. This past year, we’ve seen many organizations struggle for a variety of reasons. I’ve worked with a manufacturer, university, healthcare organization, financial services organization and government department. Very different organizations, except for one common theme: their projects were in a crisis and they didn’t know what to do:

• The manufacturer was managing a project that had to be launched within 10 months, but thought this might not be possible.
• The …

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