The Project Management Institute is a professional non profit organization based in the US. They provide services for developing standards in a professional setup. PMI conducts seminars, conferences and provides accreditation for managing projects. Every year the PMI honors organizations that excel in project management. The award is the prestigious PMO of the Year award.

A project management office or PMO can be a group of individuals or department in an enterprise. They are responsible for maintaining the standards as per the guidelines set by the PMI. The PMO follows a strict adherence to the practices laid down as per the industry standards. The PMO of the Year is awarded to a PMO which has shown exceptional abilities in project management. It recognizes the efforts of a PMO to drive organizational excellence through strategic initiatives.

Three enterprises will be on the shortlist for the award out of which one recipient is the winner. The other finalists are in no way less as there is one award to present. These three enterprises represent excellence in organizational governance and practices of execution in management.

The winner of the PMO of the Year 2016 is an electric utility called BC Hydro based in British Columbia, Canada. The company wanted to reduce its carbon footprint in the environment citing climate concerns. It invested $25 billion Canadian dollars to upgrade its infrastructure to be carbon neutral. The PMO team at BC Hydro centralized their project delivery approach. They applied PMI's Organizational Project Management Maturity Model to achieve outstanding project execution results. They were able to identify the risks and increase efficiency through reduced project failures.

The PMO team at BC Hydro ensured PMI principles were practiced through the governance process. They also ensured a clear vision for project delivery keeping in mind the long term benefits. This approach towards project execution helped them bag the award for the year 2016.Fellow finalists Entel and Parker Aerospace joined BC Hydro in the race to get the award. Due to robust governance processes and effective project execution, BC Hydro won the award.

Source: pmi.org