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The Initial Challenge
Up until 2017, ideation and innovation was dealt with by using an array of tools and solutions. A major part of the research and analysis documentation consisted of Excel and Word files, which were simply emailed around the company to all. There was a pressing need for a modern and dedicated digital platform, with integrated solutions for handling initiatives, business cases and development projects.
Fredrik Lagerström, Service & Portfolio Manager said “we needed an efficient collaboration tool to support us in identifying, organizing and evaluating every business requirement. To carry on as before, using a multitude of solutions without an integrated structure, was just not an option. We had to have a unified solution enabling us to create, analyze and monitor our business needs and initiatives in a transparent, process, user role, and accessibility-based flow.”
NCC also wanted the platform to be seamlessly integrated with Office 365, which subsequently led to the implementation of Power BI and the project management tool MS Project Online.
The Solution
“Based on our demands and thorough market research, we quickly came to the conclusion that the edison365suite, comprising the edison365ideas, edison365businesscase and edison365projects modules, was our best option. Visuell Planering were contracted to implement the full suite in our environment since we were convinced they had the knowhow and expertise capable of meeting our needs efficiently and in close collaboration with us. And our teamwork has indeed turned out to be highly productive, with Visuell Planering delivering swift and professional support since day one,”
explained Fredrik.
The Results
- The council’s Executive Board now has greater visibility of the projects being delivered across the portfolio as a whole, making it easier to resolve issues.
- Automated processes and the ability to access documents anywhere using SharePoint mean that project managers spend less time on reporting – and more time resolving issues, helping to speed up project delivery.
- The Executive Board now has total visibility of projects, with access to real time information and aggregate reporting for faster strategic decision making.
- Now that all project information can be accessed from a single location, teams can work together more collaboratively. South Gloucestershire Council has seen high user adoption of the system and a reinvigorated project management culture.
NCC’s Business Relationship Managers are in charge of registering new development initiatives in edison365ideas. The Development Committee meets regularly to examine all initiatives and decide which ones are worthy of further evaluation. This is done in edison365businesscase, where each case is allocated to a business sector manager who will then be responsible for the provision of the data and resources required to further appraise the idea.
It’s then a simple matter for them to check the status of their business cases and act where necessary. Users are also automatically reminded about what needs to be done in order to ensure the progression of a case. When all necessary information regarding a case has been collected and analyzed and the Development Committee has approved its implementation, the case is then converted into an active project. Project Online is then used to operationally manage the project.
“The new solution has consolidated and significantly improved the structure and transparency of our evaluation and project management processes. Previously, we handled initiatives and improvement projects using a whole multitude of tools and diverse documents. Today, everything from financials to meeting agendas are accessible in just one place and follow a uniform process structure. This has boosted our efficiency dramatically. A report that could previously take up to two weeks to produce is now being compiled in just five minutes.
