PMO Organization Models
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commercial development solutions to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries. The company also provides strategic services to support healthcare decisions and healthcare policy consulting to governments and other organizations worldwide. Supported by its extensive information technology capabilities, the company provides a broad range of contract services to help its customers reduce the time to market for a new drug or medical device. The company’s commercial services focus on helping its customers achieve commercial success for their new product or medical device. The company manages its operations through three segments: (1) the product development group, (2) the commercial services group, and (3) the informatics group. The product development group is primarily responsible for all phases of pre-clinical and clinical research. The commercial services group is primarily responsible for sales force deployment and strategic marketing services, as well as healthcare policy research and consulting services. The informatics group provides market research and healthcare information to pharmaceutical and healthcare customers.
THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT SUPPORT OFFICE OF THE CLINICAL DEVELOPMENT SERVICES UNIT This case study focuses on the project office established within the clinical development services unit of the product development group. This unit is a global contract research organization, with project teams simultaneously executing over 1000 pharmaceutical development projects worldwide. In this environment, maintaining a standardized approach to managing projects is difficult. In September 2000, Quintiles’ Clinical Development Services Division established Project Management Support Offices (PMSO) at Research Triangle Park, NC, Kansas City, MO, and Bracknell, U.K. to help meet this challenge. These offices are led by experienced project directors and are staffed with project managers and support personnel. PMSO staff develop, introduce, and teach harmonized global project management procedures, author standard operating procedures, ensure the effective use of project management systems, and serve as project management consultants to operational groups. The PMSO commitment to mass education is impressive. Quintiles’ project managers follow a formal project management orientation program that is scheduled over a 50-week period and includes 21 training modules. As an example, over 600 employees (in the Americas, Europe, and Asia) have completed the 2-day “Managing Projects at Quintiles” course during the past year. This is one of the PMI Registered Education Provider courses