Northeastern Grad Streamlines Project Management at Siemens Healthineers
Purvakshi Thakkar, a Northeastern University graduate student, found a real-world application for her project management studies during a co-op at Siemens Healthineers in Seattle.
Project managers at Siemens Healthineers, a company developing technology for health care providers, were manually entering data across seven different software tools to track software updates. This information then had to be re-entered into PowerPoint for presentations. “They would have to write all this data manually,” Thakkar explained. “It was really too much manual work.”
Siemens Healthineers brought Thakkar on board specifically to streamline their project management processes, a task for which she was well-prepared. She had previously worked as a software engineer and project manager after earning her undergraduate degree in information technology before enrolling at Northeastern to study project management.
Tracking software development and updates for advanced medical equipment required project managers to juggle numerous tools for scheduling and risk management. This process lead to communication problems and unnecessary repetitive work. Thakkar, who will graduate with a master’s degree in information systems from Northeastern’s Seattle campus in May, began by meeting with project managers to identify the pain points in their current workflows.
“I started having workshops to understand what are the pain points they are having,” she said. “Their information was everywhere and they had to add information manually because the tools were not connected at all.”
Thakkar used Smartsheet software to create customized project management tools, as well as real-time status reports and interactive dashboards for ultrasound systems, catheters, and transducers. This effort automated 90% of the manual work, significantly streamlining workflows.
“I gave them a solution which basically automates everything,” she said, “so that they can focus on their work instead of spending time on the tool, which was wasting their time.”
Project managers at Siemens Healthineers are tasked with ensuring that deliverables, including software and hardware upgrades for ultrasound systems, are delivered on time and within budget. The project management tool Thakkar developed allowed project managers to focus on core deliverables by automating reports and dashboards. Thakkar’s work has helped program directors access project updates in a standardized format, thereby streamlining executive reporting and improving project oversight.
Thakkar said the co-op experience helped her clarify her career goals. “I would like to explore any domain which can help me to reach a certain point where I can help others,” she said. She added that working at Siemens also gave her a valuable perspective on how teams work together, especially since some projects can span several years due to the varying international regulations.
