Getting a Grip

While a company rarely complains about too much business, it may find itself under siege from the projects that business generates. For Fortis Benefits Insurance Co., which had been expanding through acquisition, it became imperative that important projects, especially integration of the dental benefits business it purchased from Protective Life on Dec. 31, 2001, keep moving forward. The dental people needed something quick, says Bob Bullard, IT director for Fortis, based in Kansas City, Mo. Their e-mail systems werent even synching up. They couldnt get anything to each other unless they went outside our firewall through a personal e-mail account.

However, integration of systems couldnt be done quickly or correctly, Bullard notes, unless Fortis got its hands on a project management system. The company established a project management office, but the office needed a tool to allow the company to communicate more openly. We looked for a tool that would primarily help us improve our project collaboration and project communication, he says. When Fortis closed the deal for the dental benefits division, the project load increased tremendously. We acquired a huge organization with its own separate set of systems, says Kathy Kelly, second vice president, marketing and sales communications. That alone involved over 100 different systems projects.