Skip to content 
Portfolio Visibility
All IT projects can thrive, with improved prioritization, governance and overall tracking!
Goodbye Guesswork
Power BI reports provide Syntrophos with the data to move confidently and accurate.
Built to Scale
Syntrophos have paved the way to onboard both municipalities into one centralized, scalable system!
Supporting the municipalities of Nissewaard and Voorne aan Zee in the Netherlands, Syntrophos are an organization delivering vital ICT and geo-information services.
With a lean team of 55 in-house IT specialists, Syntrophos actively supports more than 2,000 employees across 40 locations. The work they deliver ensures people across two municipalities can work smarter, every day.
This modern, IT powerhouse ensures its partners receives high-quality solutions which support long-term municipal goals. How? By staying up to date with the latest technology developments, and leading with four characteristics:
- Innovation
- Creativity
- Self-criticism
- Flexibility
It’s these qualities that helps Syntrophos offer efficient products and services that are affordable and impactful. But exactly how does edison365 fit into all this?
Syntrophos struggled with messy tools, limited project visibility, and inconsistent reporting. With edison365, they built a streamlined, scalable environment for smart IT project management. This provided clearer priorities, stronger governance, and real-time insights that support data-led decisions across two municipalities.
- 📍 Netherlands
- 💼 ICT
- ⚙️ IT Project Management
“edison365 has triggered talks about the projects and the priorities. It really helps in getting that conversation.”
Challenges
Before our partnership with Syntrophos began, there were several key challenges preventing this ICT organization from managing their projects. This ranged from project visibility to inefficient legacy tools.
Project Visibility Issues 🔎
One setback many organizations find with complex project management is a lack of visibility across their portfolio. Syntrophos needed to a consolidated view over all projects being run internally. This wasn’t just about project tracking, but governance, prioritization, and understanding what delivery really looked like.
“We needed a view on all the projects we do, and the lifecycle of it.”
Inconsistent Project Reporting 📊
Prior to adopting edison365, Syntrophos noticed some inconsistencies surrounding their project reporting process. There was a clear gap between the data powering their efforts and making informed decision-making.
As with any project, a lack of insights and analysis makes it difficult to understand what success looks like, and whether projects are performing as expected.
Syntrophos didn’t just need powerful reporting, they needed disciple, and a tool that would encourage this throughout their workforce.
“People putting their reports into edison365 was one of the goals before we could have meaningful portfolio discussions.”
Inefficient Legacy Tools 💻
The right tools will always provide the right results! Something Syntrophos discovered through their use of edison365 compared to previous solutions. They needed a platform that could grow with them.
This modern IT outfit found complexities in scaling their projects within one of the municipalities with tools such as Excel and Microsoft Project.
That’s because often, tools like Microsoft Project are limited in their flexibility, and can feel more like a “one-size-fits-all approach. Syntrophos required something a little more simple and agile, like edison365!
No Formal End-to-End Process ⚙️
One thing many PMOs praise edison365 for is its end-to-end environment. One that makes project delivery simple, from the planning stage through to execution. Something Syntrophos noticed right away, when reflecting on previous efforts.
“We didn’t really have a formalized process… going from the ideation stage to deciding to make things happen.”
This lack of end-to-end process made for fragmented project management, with a lack of understanding around project prioritization. Now, however, projects can move from stage to stage with ease, clarity, and confidence.
Solution
As is quite clear, edison365 provides the kind of tools that can grow with Syntrophos and it’s project portfolio management efforts. But besides that, what other reasons contributed to the start of a new era for PPM in edison365 for this Netherlands-based IT powerhouse?
Starting Small, Scaling Big 🚀
From day one, Syntrophos has adopted a ‘start small, think big’ mentality with edison365. They understand the ease of flexibility and configuration around our tools and were ready to break free from complex systems once and for all.
edison365 was the right tool for their needs. One that wouldn’t overwhelm Syntrophos’ team or yield a lengthy onboarding process. Syntrophos described this perfectly, saying “We wanted to start small, very simple, and grow from there.”
This ability to build an environment in a way that worked for them instead of against them was key. From custom workflows to reporting dashboards, Syntrophos can iterate and control complexity at their own pace.
Simple Hands-on Management ✨
Building on the simplicity of edison365, Syntrophos also praised the tool’s low-barrier useability, stating “It’s very easy, very low in management. We do the functional side ourselves.”
Too often, project management solutions require expensive consultants to make things happen. That’s not how we operate at edison365. We believe teams, big and small should feel confident in their own hands-on management of our tools
Power BI for Portfolio Visibility 📊
Finally, the last thing to note as to why Syntrophos found the right solution in edison365 is our platform’s seamless integration with Power BI reporting. This ensures Syntrophos can now review live project data amongst their team.
It goes without saying, but this freedom around as-it-happens project reporting is a huge improvement from static reporting often found with static spreadsheets.
Through edison365’s reporting functionality, leaders at Syntrophos could now see the following insights with ease and confidence:
- Which projects are on track
- Where bottlenecks are occurring
- How projects aligned with wider portfolio goals
“Now we can see where there are problems, and if we are ahead or behind. The management team finally has actual data to work with.”
Results
Now, let’s talk results! What makes the success behind Syntrophos so admirable is the impact they have seen with edison365 in a short amount of time. From improving reporting discipline, to portfolio visibility, and improved decision-making.
Visibility and Enhanced Management
Before edison365, conversations around portfolio management were unclear and limited by the data available. Without the right insights, decisions were always scattered, and teams couldn’t be confident they were making progress.
Now, the team at Syntrophos hold meetings with discussions that are more data-led than ever, backed by custom Power BI reporting in edison365. With live insights, they can determine what progress looks like, and how things are truly playing out.
What’s the Impact?
- This leads more structured, and productive project meetings.
- Improved confidence in the data behind projects.
- Faster identification of bottlenecks and setbacks.
Strategic Conversations and Prioritization 🎯
One thing edison365 has enabled within Syntrophos is more intentional conversation around projects and prioritization. This has encouraged a better way of managing projects at Syntrophos.
What’s the Impact?
- Enabled more meaningful conversations
- Managing a portfolio with a clearer focus
- Improved communication and collaboration
“edison365 has triggered talks about the projects and the priorities. It really helps in getting that conversation.”
Ready-to-scale Portfolio Integration
To some extent, Syntrophos has reached a level of maturity within edison365, and are now preparing to scale their use of the tools available to them. The end-goal is to bring both municipalities into the system for greater alignment.
By doing so, this will allow for integrated oversight and joint decision-making within their own project portfolios. This helps Syntrophos to continue delivering its high-quality services and support across both municipalities.
What’s the Impact?
- A shared view over all initiatives.
- More informed decisions.
- Improved alignment across entities.
Ready-to-scale Portfolio Integration
If one thing’s clear, edison365 has enabled improved discipline and accountability throughout this customer’s PPM efforts. Not only in project reporting, but in engagement throughout the project lifecycle.
With a stronger end-to-end project management environment, stakeholders are clear on what’s expected from them at each stage. Syntrophos have embedded workflows that only request relevant information at the right time.
This makes it easier and more purposeful for project leads at Syntrophos, and the experience has been described by the team saying the following…
“Nobody likes to put in information that’s not used… Now we only ask for what’s needed in the current state.”
Final Thoughts
That’s a wrap! Since onboarding, we have witnessed Syntrophos go from strength to strength in edison365. It’s clear they have progressed from a static and complex way of managing their projects into a seamless and forward-moving PPM environment.
One that not only supports the way they work and the high-quality services and products they offer to over 40 locations but is built to scale their operations. It’s safe to say this success story is one we certainly hope to update in the near future with many more accomplishments!
We want to take this opportunity to thank the team at Syntrophos for their help in producing this customer story!
