Local Authority Reduce the Cost of Project Delivery with PM3

With Covid-19 and other cost pressures councils and local authorities are being challenged to do more with reduced funding. However, they still have to provide critical services to their residents but with less resources.

A reduction in funding will require some innovative thinking and we are seeing a number of councils launch projects and digitisation initiatives in order to become more efficient and reduce costs.

Launching digitisation projects and other related initiatives, requires investment in order for the payback or benefits to be delivered. Too often, however, the delivery of these projects  is mired in bureaucratic and inefficient processes. Rather than use a plethora of systems like Excel, Word, SharePoint, etc, you need to manage these important initiatives using a digital project, portfolio Management (PPM) platform like PM3., Bestoutcome’s award winning PPM platform.  Not only will an investment in a PPM tool deliver efficiencies in delivering projects, a PPM platform that standardises processes and keeps track of all initiatives in real time, will deliver a number of important benefits. These key benefits, are detailed below:

One Version of the Truth

Although Excel is a great tool, it is not a great tool for managing projects and programmes. Emailing excel files to team members and stakeholders causes problems with version control and are poor for team collaboration. To manage your portfolio of projects, you need to have one version of the truth that you trust so you can take proper action based on the right up-to-date information.

Reduced Staffing Levels in the PMO

If you are relying on a number of PMO analysts to compile portfolio status reports and / or monitor a range of projects and programmes then without a central cloud-based system, this will require a lot of chasing and manual report writing.  A PPM system like PM3 will require less chasing of the project managers by the PMO and projects can be interrogated in real time.

Less Time Spent Report Writing

The RIGHT PPM tool will produce project, programme and portfolio reports automatically. This will save significant time for project and programme managers. This time saving will translate into a reduction in costs and also allow the project managers to focus on delivering their project outcomes instead of compiling weekly status reports using spreadsheets. If you added up the time the PMO team and the project management team spend compiling status reports, often in different formats, I think you would be surprised by the amount of time and associated costs that this incurs.

Early intervention in Failing projects

One of the important roles of a PMO function is to identify, at the earliest opportunity, the projects or programmes that are failing or are in danger of failing. The quicker the remedial action can be taken to bring a failing project back on track the greater the cost saving that will be achieved. You can, of course, spot failing projects if you are using spreadsheets, but they are harder to spot and the failings can often be hidden. With a cloud-based PPM tool, the failings are often more apparent and easier to spot.

Killing Failing Projects

Some failing projects cannot and should not be saved but it is hard for the sponsor or the project manager to kill their own pet projects. With a PPM tool, that assesses each project against objective criteria, the PMO team can make a judgement on whether a failing project can be brought back on track or needs to be terminated.  If you are delivering projects to improve productivity in the Council but it has become apparent that the project will not deliver the necessary benefits then the project may need to be killed off so as to not waste any more money and resources. A PPM tool will enable you to have improved visibility of failing projects and kill these projects as soon as possible.

Summary

PPM tools cost money but by using PM3, local authorities can become more efficient and manage their portfolio more proactively.  Local Authorities need to do more with less and, our award-winning, PPM tool, is being taken up by many councils and local authorities so they can deliver their projects and programmes more efficiently.

Bestoutcome’s PPM Tool, PM3

Bestoutcome’s tool, PM3, is being used by many local authorities. To find out why local authorities are turning to PM3, to reduce their project delivery costs, please visit our website: https://bestoutcome.com/solutions-centre/local-authorities/