TotalTek

PMI's Pulse of the Profession found that 89% of organizations have a PMO. Only 41% say it consistently delivers value.

The gap rarely sits in governance frameworks or methodology choices. It sits in change adoption: who owns what happens after the technical cutover is done, and whether the people doing the work can actually use the new system on day one.

In our experience, the pattern looks the same across industries: change management gets compressed into a training week near the end of the timeline. A few sessions, a quick reference guide, a Slack channel for questions. Then the project closes, the consultants leave, and the support desk absorbs a spike of "how do I" tickets that look like defects but are really unfamiliarity.

That pattern is expensive. Rework, workaround proliferation, adoption stalls that quietly erode the business case. PMI's own guidance on building a PMO for change management frames adoption as a full lifecycle, from initiation through sustainment, not a deliverable tacked onto the final sprint.

What separates organizations that close the value gap: change gets its own named owner, its own readiness gates before go-live, training coordinated against the actual release calendar, and adoption measured at 30, 60, and 90 days after cutover. The PMO Center of Excellence that governs the project plan also governs the people plan, under one operating model.

We wrote up the full evaluation framework, including seven specific checks to run on any CoE before you select a partner. The walkthrough is in the first comment.

38% more projects delivered on time. 33% more within budget. 31% closer to original goals. Those are the deltas PMI's Pulse of the Profession found between organizations with mature PMOs and the rest.

The gap is rarely about methodology. A shared framework will not resolve resource contention when one integration architect is committed to four workstreams. It will not stop a plant modernization from being quietly deprioritized because somebody escalated louder. Those are decision-rights problems, and no amount of process documentation fixes them.

A PMO Center of Excellence earns its keep when three questions have clear answers: who holds authority to say no, how demand gets scored before it becomes a project, and how the CIO sees portfolio status without waiting for a monthly deck.

Most of the operating model comes down to a short artifact set: intake rules with a scoring threshold, stage gates with written pass criteria, a RACI that names roles rather than departments, and a fixed portfolio review cadence.

Every added gate buys assurance and costs cycle time. If intake-to-approval stretches past a few weeks, teams route around the CoE, and shadow projects reappear. Track that interval alongside forecast accuracy and gate rework, then cut any approval that does not change a decision.

We wrote up the full operating model, governance structure, and partner evaluation framework on the blog. Read the full blog here: https://hubs.la/Q04z2Zk70

Steve joins TotalTek as our new Vice President of Maritime. He's a U.S. Navy combat veteran (Operation Desert Storm, Operation Provide Comfort) with 25+ years of leadership in shipbuilding, ship repair, marine operations, and maritime workforce development, plus a track record as an entrepreneur and technology innovator.

"Steve brings a rare combination of maritime operations, workforce development, and entrepreneurial experience, and that's exactly what TotalTek needs for our next phase of growth." — Brock Bauer, President, TotalTek

"Steve is ready and eager to carry this work to completion as TotalTek transitions to a full maritime services organization. I couldn't be more confident handing him the helm." — RDML Jason Lloyd, USN (Ret.)

Please join us in welcoming Steve to the team!

Today we're saying thank you to RDML Jason Lloyd, USN (Ret.), our VP of Maritime , who wraps up his time with TotalTek on October 9.

"Jason laid the groundwork for TotalTek's growth in the maritime sector, from building the foundation of SeaForge™ and strengthening our relationships across the U.S. shipbuilding and ship repair community to developing tomorrow's maritime designers through TotalTek Academy and building the quality processes our clients expect. Because of him, we're ready for the next chapter." — Brock Bauer, President, TotalTek

Please join us in thanking Jason and wishing him well as he retires “again” and continues to serve on various boards, most recently having joined the board of Operation Veteran Success, a cause for which he has a deep affinity. Fair winds and following seas, Admiral.

CTO confidence in scaling AI dropped to 48% this year, down from 82% in 2024, according to Akkodis' 2026 "What CTOs Think" report. The gap between buying AI tools and getting them to work inside real enterprise operations is growing, not shrinking.

That tracks with what we see across SAP environments, federal programs, and engineering teams: the platform demos well, but the pilot stalls because nobody mapped how it connects to existing systems, who approves its outputs, or what happens when it touches a regulated record.

We put together a comparison framework on the blog, built around five criteria that matter more than any feature list: workflow fit, integration complexity, compliance controls, implementation effort, and user adoption. It maps AI automation platforms to six operating needs, from SAP support and federal compliance to naval architecture and OCM, so PMO and IT leaders can shortlist by constraint instead of by vendor pitch.

We built the full walkthrough around one filter, and it is in the first comment: if the platform cannot connect to the right data, respect your approval chains, and show who changed what, it will not hold up in enterprise operations.

Time-and-materials SAP AMS billing rewards longer, repeat work. The incentives run backward, and most AMS contracts still work that way.

If the same ticket reopens three times, a T&M provider gets paid three times. There is no contractual reason to fix the root cause, stop the issue from coming back, or reduce your long-term spend. The SLA gets met. The dashboard stays green. Your costs keep rising.

A fixed-bid model changes that. The provider absorbs rework, so they have a financial reason to solve the problem the first time. AI aimed at root-cause fixes becomes an investment in margin, not another line item.

That is how we run SAP AMS at TotalTek: custom ABAP stabilization, SLA accountability, and upgrade risk carried by us instead of pushed back as change orders.

Before your next renewal, ask one question: does your provider make more money when your ticket volume goes down—or when it stays high?

We broke down the full evaluation framework in the blog. Link in the first comment.

Jason will join moderator Matt Garner, President of TAI Engineers, speakers Richard Mueller, President of SNAME and Paul Roden, Founder, Lighthouse Point Government Relations for a session on one of the quieter crises in American shipbuilding: we're running out of naval architects and ship designers before we've built enough of them to replace the ones retiring.

It's not just a talent shortage story. It's a national capability question — one Congress is now looking at through a proposed $50M naval architecture and ship design workforce development program.

Jason, Matt and Paul will open with a short first-hand account, then sit down for a panel conversation on what's actually working to close the gap — including a look at TotalTek Academy, our own effort to train the next generation of vessel designers.

More to come between now and December as we build toward this one. If you're planning your Workboat Show schedule, pencil this in.

We’re excited to be heading to the SSI World Shipbuilding Conference 2026 Americas in Biloxi!

Our TotalTek Maritime and TotalTek Academy teams are looking forward to connecting with everyone, catching up with familiar faces, and meeting new people from across the shipbuilding industry. If you’ll be attending, stop by our booth and come say hello. We’d love to hear what your team is working on and share a little about what we’ve been up to at TotalTek.

While you’re there, don’t forget to enter our YETI cooler giveaway! Just drop your business card into the cooler at our booth for a chance to win.

See you in Biloxi!

TotalTek Maritime is proud to provide detail design engineering support to Glosten for two new 122-foot American Class tugboats to be built by New Pacific Industrial for American Marine Corporation. These vessels represent an important investment in U.S. tug capability, and we're glad to be part of the effort.

Congratulations to everyone involved.

Read the full announcement: https://hubs.ly/Q04xDz7J0
Rendering image courtesy of Glosten.