ACME VALDA: managing cross-company IT Initiatives with GanttPRO
“There is no excuse anymore. People used to say, ‘I didn’t know I was supposed to do this.’ Now they just log in and see exactly what they have to do.”
A story about how EFG moved beyond scattered spreadsheets to bring clarity and structure to twenty parallel projects.
Company overview
Company: ACME VALDA
Role interviewed: Dainius Janeliūna, Project and Process Management Lead
Project types: complex cross-company IT initiatives
External pressures: numerous projects happening simultaneously, maintaining operational stability while executing new projects, yearly budget planning
Tool history: Excel, Jira
Problems hinted at: slow scattered planning, no clear bigger picture, Excel and Jira being strong but insufficient combo
Summary
Company Background
What does your company focus on?
ACME Group is based in Lithuania and includes 36 companies that distribute electronic goods across various markets. All operational and support functions are being managed in a shared service center, where the IT department runs projects for every company in the group. The leader behind project and process management, Dainius Janeliūna, shares how GanttRPO helps with strategic planning and overview. Among his main goals is understanding what projects are planned, how they overlap and whether the team has enough resources to deliver them.
As he explains, “We’re not focusing on one project. We look at the full list and the resources behind it.”
“GanttPRO helps us understand what’s happening in the next month, the next quarter, and even the next year. We can see clearly when too many projects are happening at once.”
Struggle
How did your approach look before GanttPRO?
Interestingly, GanttPRO had existed in the company before and was later rediscovered when the team’s needs increased. “It’s not that I was searching for a new tool,” says Dainius. “It was already here and we came back to it.”
Before returning to GanttPRO, ACME relied on Jira for daily work and Excel spreadsheets for long-term planning. This mix was accessible, helped with execution and is still widely used in the company. However, it was insufficient for strategic visibility.
“Jira is great for detailed tasks, but sometimes it’s too detailed,” he said. “We wanted to step back and see a bigger picture.”
As plans were shifting and the number of projects growing, Excel spreadsheets were gradually showing lack of flexibility. The team came to the conclusion that something visual, quick and simple was needed.
Solution
Currently, only a few people work inside GanttPRO, mostly project managers and governance roles, as the tool is being used for strategic purposes only. Other project participants, such as developers and technical specialists, manage their daily tasks in Jira and are used as virtual resources. It provides clarity without adding numerous users and has become one of the core functionalities Dainius highlights.
After adding all specialists to a project comes another essential layer which is understanding the capacity and resources distribution.
“Once you assign everything correctly, you can immediately see where the gaps are. You see who is overloaded and who has space. It becomes obvious right away.”For a shared service center that supports a lot of companies the project visibility is crucial in keeping everything on track. Project Portfolio is of the core reasons the team is using GanttPRO. “This is why we’re using this tool at the first place – to govern the projects, not really manage a single project but to list them all and understand the whole view.”
The interface was easy to adopt. “It’s pretty straightforward and intuitive. Like Excel sheets where you put the columns you want.” This simplicity was followed by the ability to create projects quickly, assign resources and visualize the entire year’s plan.
Impact
What does your work look like now with GanttPRO?
With GanttPRO ACME's project landscape has gone through some important changes: instead of switching between spreadsheets and detailed Jira boards, the team now has one shared space where all projects and resources come together.
“GanttPRO helps us understand what’s happening in the next month, the next quarter, and even the next year. We can see clearly when too many projects are happening at once.”
The tool also supports quick decision-making. Now, if a new project appears, they can instantly check whether the team can take it on and how it can be fitted into the workload. “You assign the virtual resources, and the picture becomes clear,” Dainius explains. “It shows you the reality.”
The simplicity and visibility in use made GanttPRO a natural fit for ACME’s team once again. “We widely use Jira for the daily work but GanttPRO works best for project governance and for seeing the whole portfolio. It really helps with visualizing the pipeline accurately.”