Working with Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire STP
Verto Case Study: working with Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Sustainability and Transformation Plan
Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) is one of 44 STPs across England working to improve health and care in their local area.
The BNSSG Sustainability and Transformation Plan is focused on three priorities:
- Preventing illness and injury
- Providing care closer to home
- Personalized care
Under each of these priorities is a programme of work and under each programme of work there are a number of specific projects - a total of 90 across the whole plan. Each priority, programme and project involves several partners.
The difficulties BNSSG STP was facing
As with many other health communities, the context for the STP is challenging. They are dealing with significant financial, performance and delivery issues. So, to deliver the scale of change and improvement required, they needed to take a transformational approach.
Due to the nationally set timescale, BNSSG had limited time to bring together its 15 partner organizations and start to design and deliver their plan.
Because they’re working on such a wide range of projects, the STP wanted to make it as easy as possible for all the partners to work together.
They also wanted their processes to help create openness, trust and ownership.
But, as with any partnership, they faced key difficulties, including:
- Transparency
- Engagement
- Ease of communication
- Consistency of approach
- Effective monitoring and reporting
- Achieving demonstrable improvement quickly
How we’re helping BNSSG STP overcome these difficulties
Because they were up against a tight timescale, the STP originally thought there wasn’t enough time to develop an online, shared, programme management service. As a result they considered, for example, paper-based reporting, even though with 90 projects this would be a Herculean task.
However, one of the partners already uses Verto so we were able to “piggyback” off this and create a specific platform for the STP. We worked closely with the PMO team and had a cloud-based service up and running for them in just three weeks.
“TMI were amazing with a can do attitude. They were really responsive and sent people when we needed them, including spending all day in a freezing cold room and a half day on the phone. They went from nothing to complete build in three weeks. The portal is amazing too and we’ve had loads of positive feedback.” Ruth Hallett, Programme Manager, BNSSG STP
Now, Verto allows everyone working on the STP’s projects to access a common toolkit. This helps make sure they are all using the same language, processes and templates (to date the STP has more than 30 templates on the system). This helps the PMO do their job and makes it easier for people to adopt new ways of working.
For example, one project manager needed a stakeholder map for her project but had never created one before. With Verto she was able to download a template, guidance document and a completed example.
This made what could have been a daunting task quick and easy. In addition, she was able to upload her completed map to Verto where other team members have instant access to it.
This shared way of working also means reporting is standardized. This makes it easier for the PMO team to monitor progress and make comparisons across projects.
For example, they can see and understand where projects impact and depend on each other and so manage these relationships more effectively.
Verto has also highlighted where more than one project is trying to achieve the same results. This makes it possible to cut duplicate working and increase efficiency.
Verto’s document store is supporting collaboration across the partnership. All the STP documents are held in one place where all the partners have access to them. This means everyone can easily share information, be confident they’re looking at the most up-to-date version of every document and can clearly see what’s going on across the whole plan.
Verto has also made the STP contact list accessible to all the partners. This means people can easily see who is involved in each project and who they need to be communicating with. This helps the STP implement their feedback loop, where partners are encouraged to talk to each other, share information and comment where necessary.
The benefits the STP is seeing
After using Verto for only a few months, BNSSG STP is already seeing significant benefits.
For example, the online portal has created a shared place where partners work together to overcome difficulties and share good practice.
Consistent ways of working are helping the PMO monitor progress, identify risks and create accurate and useful reports.
And at executive level, the visibility Verto affords is helping people know where and when they need to intervene and where they can confidently leave things alone.
As Ruth Hallett said, “The right people are having the right conversations.”
We’re still working with BNSSG STP and are currently helping them use Verto to develop more detailed reporting and more proactively manage risk.
To find out more about how Verto can help your STP please call us on 0844 870 8785 or message us here.
How we can help you help your clients
Verto is widely used across both the private and public sectors.
For example, our clients include Capita PLC, Northgate Vehicle Leasing, NHS and councils across the country.
Many of our private sector clients also work with public sector organisations, helping them build shared services, deliver change and realize challenging efficiency savings.
Even when several organisations from different sectors are involved, Verto’s tools make it easy for them to work together. Because with Verto, everyone can work on the same platform and communicate with each other quickly and easily.
Here are some examples of how we’re helping our clients and what they have to say about us.
Capita
Capita uses technology to create and deliver smarter process management and professional support services across the public and private sectors.
They say:
“I have been working with the Verto team for the last 18 months and in that time we have built an excellent working relationship. The reason for this is that not only is VERTO an excellent PPM tool, but what makes the product stand out is the team behind it for their responsiveness, help, support and ability to go the extra mile in both promoting and delivering the tool to clients. The VERTO team understand real problems and issues and how to resolve them in a fit for purpose way and do so in a friendly and open manner that is very refreshing.”
Onesource
Onesource provides shared back office support services for local government and other public services. They use Verto to support their project and programme management.
They say:
“We have found Verto to be very flexible, especially when embedding our corporate methodology and workflow into a cloud-based application. [It] has enabled better collaborative ways of working and greater transparency in all aspects of project management and expenditure. Furthermore, TMI [Verto] has consistently provided an excellent customer service and [been] willing to support us at all times. We’ve enjoyed working with TMI to achieve our corporate PMO application requirements.”
Denbighshire Council
“The support from TMI Systems from day one has been outstanding, they are always willing to listen to new ideas and respond to all system enquiries almost by return.”
Wolverhampton City Council
“The support provided by TMI Systems has been brilliant to get the system up and running. The system enables us to have a cross directorate view of the projects and programmes currently being managed within the Council.”
To find out more about how Verto can help you and your clients please call us on 0844 870 8785 or message us here.
21 Reasons Why You Should Use Verto for Your Project Management (as told to us by our clients)
We’re lucky enough to have received some great testimonials from our clients over the years.
And, like you, we listen to all the feedback we get and use it to help us continuously improve what we do.
Here are 21 reasons you should use Verto as your project management software, taken from what our clients have told us.
We’ve summarised their comments but you can see them in full here.
- Verto is a flexible management tool that will support your PMO.
- It means you can easily keep all your project documents up-to-date and secure in one place.
- It’s easy to navigate.
- Verto gives senior leadership improved visibility of projects across the whole organisation.
- You can easily see exactly what is going on in a particular business or service area.
- Everyone involved in the project can access the system to view and update it as appropriate.
- It removes the risks of silo working and makes it easier to work collaboratively.
- It will help you improve communication.
- It will help you improve accountability.
- It will help you improve stakeholder involvement.
- Verto will give you a clear view of all project budgets.
- Verto will give you a clear view of all project risks and help you manage them effectively.
- Verto will help your PMO allocate their time more efficiently and effectively.
- Verto is preset with best practice templates and controls to help ensure the integrity of your data.
- Its reports are quick and easy to customise, update and run.
- It will help you produce your corporate and strategic plans.
- We can tailor Verto to your exact needs, for example by creating bespoke reports.
- Verto gives you automatic document control.
- It’s good value for money.
- We’re continuously improving Verto’s scope, tools and functionality.
- Verto is backed-up by fantastic support from a first-class team.
For more information on how Verto can help you please call us on 0844 870 8785 or send us a message.
With thanks to Brent Council, Camden Council, Cheshire West Council, Denbighshire County Council, Gloucestershire County Council, Harrow Council, Horsham Council, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, Basildon Council, Newham Council, Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council, Wolverhampton Council, York Council, Central Eastern CSU, Thurrock CCG and Basildon CCG.