Redundancies see demand for outsourced project management services

Pete Swan recently appointed managing director of Australian project services firm, PM-Partners group, said increased demand for the delivery or management of projects was being driven by a reduction in workforces.

He said with project consulting services, there was now a more short term focus.

"Organisations are asking how can you help me in the next three months," said Swan.

"Demand for services like project health checks is booming. Organisations have spent a lot of money on their projects but many don't have enough visibility to make informed decisions."

Swan, based in the company's Sydney headquarters, heads up the sales and marketing operations and is responsible for strategy and future direction.

He takes over from Philip Belcher following the end of his contract as CEO.

His looks after PM-Partners group client's needs in project consulting, delivery and training services in the current tough economic climate.

"We are seeing a shift in our business, there is high demand for professional certification with more people competing for roles and an increased demand for project delivery and outsourced project management services," he said.

"We have also seen an upswing in demand for short-term consulting services such as portfolio assessments aimed at identifying unnecessary projects and project health checks as a low cost assurance service.

"With smaller project portfolios, organisations are reluctant to hire. A project services firm offers a fixed price alternative for the delivery or management of projects with reduced risk."

Another area of high demand was assisting organisations build rigorous business cases for projects.

"Organisations are asking us to consult and provide training on things like business requirements gathering and business case development.

"Others are engaging us just to manage the first piece of the project, to establish the requirements and the scope and get things off on the right foot," said Swan.

"In a booming market, you can hide a multitude of sins and problems.

"In a contracting market, the projects you run need to have a guaranteed payback, and to achieve this successful establishment and delivery is essential."

Swan reports to the board of PM-Partners group, where he serves alongside the company's other co-founders and directors Steve Hewitson and Nik Samuelson.

Prior to the role, he was consulting director for PM-Partners group.

He and Hewitson founded PM-Partners in 1997 and merged the company with ITPM, an IT project delivery organisation, to form PM-Partners group in 2008.

Prior to that, Swan was services manager for Datacraft Australia where he headed up support and project services.

He also held positions with AT&T and IBM.