Three Ways Verto Will Help You Survive the Summer Holidays
The mad summer holiday season is here again. As everyone heads off for their two weeks of sun, sea and sandcastles, you’re juggling having the kids home from school with the demands of your own work and making sure there’s cover in the office.
The holiday season is supposed to be a relaxed and happy time. But, keeping the kids occupied and the work flowing can be a nightmare. Every year you promise you’ll do it better next time. And then, before you know it, it’s August again!
Unless of course you’re using Verto. Because with Verto you have expert help at hand.
Verto: your summer holiday hero
We’re proud of how Verto makes project management and collaboration easy. And we’re proud of all the extra benefits it gives you. Like how you’ll find surviving the summer holidays can be a breeze.
1.Flexible working when the kids are at home
Verto is cloud-based project management software. This means, as long as you have an internet connection, you can access it from wherever you are, whenever you need to. Be that the kitchen table, the back garden or even the play park. At six a.m. before the kids are up, or at midnight when they’re asleep.
All of which makes it much easier for you to balance the demands of home and the office and work flexibly. Because flexibility is exactly what you need to keep your projects on track and your kids happy - at the same time.
2.Easy handover when people cover for each other
With Verto, anyone who has access to the system can see all your projects in one place. Everyone working on it will be working to exactly the same project management process. And real-time updates mean you can see exactly how your project is doing at any time.
This means it’s much easier for staff to help each other out and provide holiday cover. Handover will be a simple process as all a project’s information is in one place in a format that all your staff will understand and be familiar with.
3.Remote working for those who just can’t let go
We all need to take time off from work so we can relax and recharge our batteries. It’s good for our mental and physical health and helps us return to work refreshed and raring to go.
However, there are times when it’s less stressful if you can stay in contact with the office while you’re away. Perhaps a project unexpectedly hits a critical point just as you’re about to go off on the holiday you booked last year. Or a team member goes off sick and you need to help cover for them.
Whatever the reason, with Verto you can work from anywhere with an internet connection and use its instant messaging tool to keep in touch with your team. Which means, when you need to, you can enjoy the best of both worlds - a happy holiday and a well-supported, stress-free office.
To find out more about the benefits of Verto - both the expected and the unexpected - please call us on 0118 334 6200 or message us here.
7 things you should be doing to keep safe if you're a mobile worker.
These tips will make your mobile working safer.
Remember Apple’s iPod ads where you could have 1,000 songs in your pocket? At the time, it was revolutionary.
Since then developments in technology mean we can now have our entire business in our pocket. And changes in the way we work mean more and more of us do.
Easy access to data and the ability to work where and when we need to have enormous benefits. But they also come with some risk.
Devices can easily be lost or stolen. Remote access increases the opportunities for data to be breached. And inexperienced staff may not keep up with safe working practices.
Verto is cloud-based project management software, which means your whole team can make the most of mobile working. To help you make the most of these opportunities, we’ve put together some tips on how to make mobile working as safe as it can be.
These are really simple things you can do that will protect your data, your organization and your staff.
- Insist all your team use a password, or better still finger print scanning, to lock their screen.
- Set up all your devices to wipe their data after the passcode has been entered incorrectly a set number of times.
- Use remote management tools to track, lock and even wipe the data on your devices.
- Smart phones can’t be tracked once their SIM card has been removed. So accept we all lose things from time to time and encourage your staff to report a lost or stolen device as soon as possible without fear of penalty.
- Make sure all your mobile devices have up-to-date malware protection, exactly as you do for your desktop devices.
- Make sure all your staff are aware of the risks linked to mobile devices. For example, they should only use apps that your IT team have confirmed as safe. And they should only ever access sensitive data via a password secured network.
- Limit the types of devices on your network. This will help them integrate seamlessly with your back-office systems and make it easier for you to keep security measures up-to-date.
It’s worth taking the time to make mobile working safe as the benefits are significant. For example, mobile working means flexible working, which is good for both employers and employees. It can help you recruit the best staff. And it can help you cut costs. For more on this see our blog about how flexible working can make you a better employer.
To find out more about how Verto can help you make the most of mobile working please call us on 0118 334 6200 or message us here.
How Verto helps you plan and deliver the perfect project
What does the perfect project look like? We think it has clearly expressed outcomes that you can easily monitor, measure, evidence and report on. It involves all the people who have an interest in it and can help it succeed. It comes in on time and within budget. And it makes a positive difference.
That’s easy to write. But harder to do. Especially for a large organization that’s delivering multiple projects under different programmes, often as part of a multi-agency partnership.
With Verto, you’ll find the perfect project is much easier to achieve
Verto brings every aspect of a project into one place, from the very start when you’re forming ideas and writing your business case, right through to your final evaluation and project report.
This gives you the transparency you need to be able to manage the project effectively and work in partnership with all the organizations you need to involve.
Verto gives you a shared dashboard and database and helps you standardize processes. This saves you time and makes it easier for you to accurately interpret your data and produce accurate, real-time reports.
Verto also automatically links your project’s outputs to its outcomes. This means you can:
- See how you’re meeting your key performance indicators
- Easily monitor and measure the outcomes your project is delivering as it progresses
- Measure and manage cost, both for both a single project and across whole programmes
- Accurately report on and evaluate what your project has achieved when it ends
- Measure your performance against national indicators and that of other organizations
All this will help you accurately and effectively target improvement, manage spend and identify savings.
Your Verto
So Verto will help you improve your performance and deliver efficiency savings using an evidenced based approach that is easy to report on.
What makes it so popular with our clients is how we they can customize Verto to meet the exact needs of their organization and reflect their existing terminology and practice.
This has helped different partners work together using the same processes, language and templates. It has given them transparency and so helped them develop trust and strong working relationships. It has helped them share good practice. And it has helped them easily produce accurate reports, both for use internally and as part of their statutory requirements.
To find out more about how Verto can make your project management easier please call us on 0118 334 6200 or message us here.
And for more information on how we’re helping different multi-agency partnerships deliver complex programmes and improve outcomes for the communities they serve, please see the case studies we post on our blog, such as this one for Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Sustainability and Transformation Plan.
Our five golden rules for a successful meeting
Our five golden rules for a successful meeting
In our post on 9th March, we looked at the top five skills all project managers should have. Number five on our list was being able to manage meetings. Because well-run meetings are such a vital part of a project’s success, we said we’d look at them again in a future post.
So today, we’re going to look at how you can make sure your meetings are a success.
The professional meeting goer
Many of us go to so many meetings it can seem like that’s all our job is. An endless round of agendas, minutes, background papers, reports, coffee, biscuits and hoping you’ll be able to park.
Will your morning meeting be over in time so you can go back to your office before your afternoon meeting? How many of the people who were in your last meeting will be in your next meeting? How many people do you only ever meet in meetings?
What are all these meetings for?
But, however much we may moan about them, we do need meetings. They’re a key part of how we share information, make decisions and keep a project moving forward.
Meetings can also be the only time different people involved in a project get to see each other. So they can be an important way to keep partners connected and involved.
How to make sure people come to your meetings
When people are confident that your meetings are relevant, useful, well run and overall a good use of their time, they’ll come to them. And, perhaps more importantly, they’ll keep coming.
This is key, because consistent commitment and participation from the right people is one of the things that will help your projects succeed.
So take a look at our golden rules for how to run a successful meeting. They’ll help your meetings succeed and, as a result, help your projects succeed too.
Our five golden rules for successful meetings
1. Make sure you invite the right people
Only invite people who are involved in the business of the meeting, can contribute to it and make decisions - or who have a direct link to those who can. This is particularly important with public sector organizations where the decision-making process can have several layers and be complex.
Generally, for a meeting to be effective no more than 12 people should be part of the core group. However, from time to time you may also want to invite people who you need to hear from or who need to hear what you’re discussing.
2. Plan the meeting carefully
When you’re putting the agenda together make sure you stay focused on a clear outcome (or outcomes, but not too many – see point about timing below). Think about what the meeting needs to decide, discuss and hear about now. If something doesn’t require immediate action or isn’t clearly relevant, leave it for a later date or don’t include it at all.
Show whether each agenda item is for decision, information or discussion. As people are usually more lively and creative at the start of a meeting, put items that need mental energy and clear heads at the top of the agenda. However, it can also be helpful to put items of significant interest and concern further down the agenda. This can help people get over the natural attention lag that happens about 20 minutes in to a meeting.
It’s also worth thinking about the impact agenda items will have on the group. Some will bring people together while others can create a divide. The order in which you include these items will make a difference to the whole atmosphere of the meeting. For example, it is worth ending the meeting with an item that creates consensus so that people leave on a positive note.
3. Time the meeting carefully
Set a time for your meeting and stick to it. And try not to let it last longer than two hours. Meetings that go on too long become less effective.
Include the start and end time on the agenda as well as the timing for each agenda item. This will help keep people focused and prevent the meeting from overrunning.
We all hate lengthy meetings that go on and on so doing this will help people look at your meetings in a positive way and encourage them to attend regularly.
4. Set the right tone
You, or the chair, need to set the tone for the meeting from the start. Make sure it’s purposeful, focused and energetic. However, you also want people to feel comfortable and able to contribute so make a conscious effort to include everyone and allow some time for a more easy-going approach.
The right tone also relates to what happens outside of the meeting. So make it clear you expect people to prepare, to turn up on time, to participate and to carry out actions they commit to.
5. Follow-up the meeting properly
Once you’ve held your meeting send the minutes to everyone promptly, preferably within a week. Include the actions you agreed on and the names of the people who will carry them out.
Minutes also help people who weren’t at the meeting catch up on what was discussed and agreed. If necessary, get in touch with them in person to share what happened and discuss any particular issues with them. This will show they were missed and encourage them to stay committed to the work of the group and attend next time.
Well-run meetings are particularly useful when you’re managing multi-agency projects. They can bring people together who otherwise wouldn’t meet. They can help to define the partnership. And they can help people to understand both their collective aim and the way in which they and others can contribute to and influence this.
To find out more about how Verto can make your project management easier please call us on 0844 870 8785 or message us here.
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.
The top five skills all project managers should have
We developed Verto’s cloud-based software to make the work of project managers easier. Because we know what a complex and demanding role it can be.
We understand how busy you are. That you’re managing people, resources, finances and time. You’re reporting on progress and outcomes. And you’re monitoring and evaluating your projects every step of the way.
With all this responsibility, to be effective project managers need to have a broad range of skills. We think there are five key ones that provide the foundation for all the others. These skills are also transferable, so whatever type of project you manage, they’re relevant to you.
- Effective project managers can communicate well
Communication is effective when the person receiving the information finds it easy to understand, knows why it’s relevant to them and is clear about any response they’re expected to make.
So whether you’re sharing information verbally or in writing you should be thinking about who you’re communicating with and why.
For example, what’s the best way to communicate something? Does everyone need a whole report or would a summary be enough? What do you want people to do once they’ve had the information?
Get this right and it’s more likely people will listen to you and read what you send. Get it wrong and you could end up being ignored.
And remember, communication works both ways when you’re talking to someone face-to-face. So be aware of your body language and use it to let people know you’re interested and listening.
- Effective project managers can lead
Although you may not be making key decisions about a project, project managers do have a leadership role. You need to inspire people to commit to the project and then help maintain their energy and enthusiasm throughout it.
You also need to lead by example. You help set the tone for how people communicate with each other. You make it the norm for people to stick to deadlines. You show how working to the processes you’ve agreed help keep the project moving forward and running smoothly. And, by accepting responsibility yourself, you help others do the same for the tasks assigned to them.
- Effective project managers can negotiate
Most projects involve different organizations, different specialisms and a wide range of people, all of which are likely to have competing interests and priorities. As project manager you need to make sure these differences are overcome so the project has the resources and commitment it needs to succeed.
To do this you need to be an effective negotiator. You have to balance the needs of the project with the needs of the different people involved, maintaining their support and the project’s momentum. Not an easy task, but an essential one.
- Effective project managers can manage risk
Effective risk management is being aware of everything that could go wrong and having plans in place so you can respond quickly if the worst does happen. As a project progresses the risks can change so the risk management plan must change too.
As an effective project manager you can’t ignore or hide any potential risk. And you need to monitor your project carefully so you know when risks become more likely and when they pass.
- Effective project managers can manage meetings
Any project, however small, is going to involve meetings. However much we may moan about them, meetings are vital to keep everyone informed and connected, to make decisions and to keep a project moving forward.
To be an effective project manager you need to recognize this and manage the meetings you run carefully. For example, you need to keep to the agenda you’ve set, only invite the people who need to be there and don’t try to cover too much in one meeting.
Because well-run meetings are so important to a project’s success, we’re going to look in more detail at how to manage them in a future post.
To find out more about how Verto can support your project management please call us on 0844 870 8785 or message us here.
PS: If we were to include a sixth skill we think it would have to be a sense of humour!
Happy New Year! We’d Like to Help You Get 2017 Off to a Flying Start
The merry and indulgent days of Christmas are behind us for another year and it’s time to get back to work. It can be hard to be enthusiastic during the dark days of January, so anything that helps us ease back into work after the holidays is always welcome.
We’ve pulled together some of our favourite comments on collaborative working and project management to motivate you for the year ahead. They remind us how rewarding and exciting working with others, planning and delivering successful projects can be.
Take a break for a few minutes and read them. We think they’ll inspire you and help get 2017 off to a flying start.
“Project managers are the most creative people in the world. We have to figure out everything that could go wrong before it does.” Fredrik Haren, author and speaker on business creativity, innovation and change.
“As a collaborative leader, you support people in their work – you remove roadblocks and help them win.” Kenneth H. Blanchard, American author
“They [project managers] are organized, passionate and goal-oriented, who understand what projects have in common, and their strategic role in how organizations succeed, learn and change.” Project Management Institute
“Collaboration is about team work. It’s not a cliché, it’s a practical reality.” JA Perez, humanitarian and author
“Project managers function as bandleaders who pull together their players, each a specialist with individual score and internal rhythm. Under the leader’s direction, they all respond to the same beat.” L.R. Sayles, Emeritus Professor, Columbia University
“Open collaboration encourages greater accountability, which in turn fosters trust.” Ron Garan, astronaut, speaker, entrepreneur
“Project managers rarely lack organisational visibility, enjoy considerable variety in their day-to-day duties, and often have the prestige associated with work on the enterprise’s high-priority objectives.” Meredith and Mantel, authors
“An outstanding project manager is able to take the team on a journey by sharing an appealing vision and a roadmap for achieving that vision.” Susanne Madsen, project leadership coach and author
“Project managers need to be unique when it matters; finish what they start and show strong leadership.” Lindsay Scott, careers specialist and director at Arras People, a project management recruitment company
“Project management isn’t just about working with tasks and deadlines. It’s about working with and understanding people. If you’re a good communicator and collaborator then you will also be a great project manager.” Jacob Morgan, author and journalist
“Project managers seem to forget that many of the conventional forms, charts and tables they must fill out are intended to serve as aids, not punishments.” Mantel, Meredith, Shafer and Sutton, authors
And finally;
“I’m a project manager, not a magician. Magicians have way cooler hats.” Merlin Mann, writer, blogger and podcaster
Whatever hat you wear (or don’t), we wish you a happy, healthy and successful 2017. And if you’d like to make success easier this year, with all your project management and communication tools in one place, Verto can help.
For more information please call us on 0844 870 8785 or message us here.