The Initial Challenge
Despite having up to 50 active projects at any given time, the council lacked a standardized project management system, relying instead on tools like Microsoft Excel and Word for scheduling and reporting purposes, as well as knowledge of Association of Project Management (APM) best practice.
While project management skills within the team were strong, the lack of standardization meant project managers had to spend time completing manual reporting processes which meant less time resolving project issues.
Having successfully secured funding to deliver additional projects, the council decided it needed to gather all of its project information in a single location to encourage more efficient information sharing, and to empower strategic decision-making across the entire portfolio, as well as individual projects.
“The system has really driven efficiency and helped us to look at our processes and see where we can make them better. On the whole, everyone is finding the system easy to use and project managers are keeping their information up to date. This has been really useful for team meetings and involving workstream leads to capture the hard work happening on the ground that make our projects successful.”
– Megan Wakely, Project Manager at South Gloucestershire Council
The Solution
Using edison365projects, CPS provided the council with an end-to-end Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) solution that provides a unified platform in the context of familiar Office 365 tools. Using Project and SharePoint, project managers can complete all their weekly highlight reporting and issue/risk escalation in a single space, providing a joined-up view of work across the directorate.
The council is also able to store data in Datastore for use in highlight reports, helping to streamline processes and giving users the benefit of familiar tools, reducing training time.
“Due to the increasing volume of projects being delivered, it was difficult for our Executive Board to have an up-to-date, clear vision of all the projects across the portfolio. Now we have all that information in the one system, so that at a higher strategic level, decisions can be made in confidence and we can really see where the key issues are.”
– Emma Blackham, Head of Transport & Strategic Projects at South Gloucestershire Council
Business Benefits
- 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.
