Why Verto’s Cloud-based Software Will Make You a Better Employer
We designed Verto’s software to make it easier for you to manage projects and work in partnership with others.
And that’s exactly what Verto does. Its tools and cloud-based platform mean you can do all this, in an instant, whenever you need to and wherever you are:
- Manage risk
- Create reports
- Share information
- Communicate with one or more people
- See the status of all your projects at a glance
- Manage your team’s workload and performance
- Track your project’s progress and monitor its costs
There’s more to Verto
So Verto does what it promises. But it has other, less immediately obvious benefits. One is that Verto makes flexible working easy to put into practice and manage.
Increasingly, flexible working is becoming the norm. This is because it is good for both employees and employers. According to the 2009 Flexible Working Taskforce report:
65% of employers said flexible working practices had a positive effect on recruitment and retention
70% of employers noted some or significant improvement in employee relations
How to make flexible working work
Flexible working requires trust and confidence on both sides if it is to be a success. Staff need to be confident their managers are committed to flexible working and trust them not to abuse it. Likewise, managers need to allow their team members to have more control over their working week and trust them to maintain their performance.
Verto’s tools make it easy to manage a team, manage projects and maintain contact even when people are working in different places at different times. Exactly the support flexible working needs to be a success.
Key benefits of flexible working
One of the key strengths of flexible working is that it’s attractive to employees. So, as noted in the Flexible Working Taskforce report, it will appeal to candidates when you’re recruiting, it will help you retain skilled and experienced staff and it will help improve your employee relations.
There is a wealth of evidence to show (for example, Scandura and Lankau 1997) that flexible working leads to higher levels of commitment and job satisfaction.
This is because flexible working motivates and empowers your staff by giving them more control. For example, they’ll be able to more easily meet their family and other commitments. As an added benefit, they’re also more likely to take a flexible approach to work. So when you need people to put in some extra hours they’re more likely to do so willingly.
Less direct benefits can include cuts to travel time and costs, which can also contribute to your organization’s carbon management and reporting. Staff who are able to avoid the rush hour will probably arrive at work in a more positive frame of mind too!
At its simplest, trusting your staff to work flexibly shows that you’re committed to them not just the organization.
To find out more about how Verto can help your project management - and as a result, flexible working - please call us on 0844 870 8785 or message us here.
How Verto is helping the NHS deliver improvements
Health services are under constant and increasing demand. So the best way for healthcare staff to respond to this demand and meet the needs of their patients is through partnership working. As experts in collaboration, Verto is well placed to support the NHS in these partnerships.
In 44 areas covering the whole of England, the NHS, local councils and other providers are working together to improve health and care. Each area has developed a proposal, called a sustainability and transformation plan (STP), that focuses on the needs of the local population.
We have been working closely with the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) area.
The BNSSG STP
The whole of the local health and social care community in BNSSG has been involved in developing the STP. This includes hospitals, local authorities, community providers, mental health organizations, the ambulance service, GPs and other commissioners.
Their aim, under the STP, is to design and deliver health and care services that are affordable and sustainable. The different organisations are working together under one vision that focuses on keeping people well rather than treating illness.
We’ve worked in partnership with them to create a collaboration hub that makes it easier for them to work together and successfully deliver their STP.
The key numbers
1 vision
Covering 21 overarching projects
For 15 partner organisations
With more than 48,000 staff
Serving a population of nearly 1 million
Spending nearly £1.5 billion every year
What Verto is providing
We have created a cloud-based collaboration hub where staff can:
Manage projects and programmes together
Access their project toolkit
Read the STP and other project documents
Find information on new processes
Access a shared calendar with dates for events, meetings and workshops as well as key project deadlines
Find out the names and contact details of people working on projects
Complete standardised project management approaches
Complete and review reports
Share files and documents
Because Verto is based in the cloud it supports mobile working so staff can access the hub from any device, whenever they need to and from wherever they are.
It also means staff will receive real-time updates. These will keep them up to date with everything that’s going on. They’ll know when actions are complete and they’ll know if things start to fall behind. This will help make sure the STP stays on track to deliver its 21 key projects.
And Verto’s instant messaging tool means staff can communicate with each other quickly and easily. Whenever they need to they can chat to one person, a specific team or everyone involved in a project.
We’ll include a case study of our work with the BNSSG STP area in a future post. In the meantime, to find out more about how we can support your partnership working, please call us on 0844 870 8785 or message us here.
Why it’s Worth Investing in Collaborative Working
No one ever said collaborative working is easy. To make it a success definitely takes effort. But making that effort is worthwhile because the benefits of collaborative working can be significant, for both your service users and the organisations taking part.
In future posts we’ll look at some of the barriers to collaborative working, what can go wrong, and how you can make it easier.
But for now, perhaps because we’re still in a positive New Year frame of mind, we’re going to focus on the benefits of collaborative working.
What is collaborative working?
Before we start, it’s worth being clear what we mean when we say collaborative working.
There are many definitions posted on the web and published in guidance documents, some of which will suit your organisation and specific collaboration better than others.
From our experience supporting people and organisations involved in collaborative working, we’re happy with:
Collaborative working is two or more departments or organisations working together. This may be to contribute to a particular activity, function or project, or to contribute to a new organisation. The arrangement may be for a fixed time or it may be permanent.
Why do we work in collaboration?
It’s also worth looking at what’s driving us to work in collaboration.
The impetus may come from public opinion, government policy and the ongoing public sector drive for improved efficiency and effectiveness – most likely it’s a combination of all three.
However, what initially led to the collaboration is less important that what the outcomes may be. Because when collaborative working goes well, these can be extremely positive.
- Collaborative working helps you save money
Organisations working together are usually much more cost-effective than, what we now call, silo-based working. From joint procurement to cutting duplication, there are many ways that collaborative working can lead to savings. As evidence of this, our clients are currently using Verto to help them track £13.2 billion of planned savings.
- Collaborative working helps you be more effective
At the heart of collaborative working is improving outcomes for service users. When we focus more on why we’re providing a particular service and work together to find solutions, both of which collaborative working makes us do, we’re more likely to make a positive difference.
- Collaborative working helps you learn, share and repeat success
Closely linked to the point above, working with others and learning from their knowledge and experience, helps us understand more about what we really need to provide and how best to do this. Over time, services can become more resilient and expertise in teams can grow.
- Collaborative working helps you build a strong and united voice
When we share our knowledge and experience, we may also uncover shared problems and concerns. If we then need to lobby for change, one clear message sent by many will have much greater impact.
We designed Verto to help make collaborative working easier and more successful for you. In future blogs we’ll look in more detail at how Verto’s specific tools do this. Because whether you want to make communication, reporting, risk analysis, task management, resource management, performance planning or document storage and sharing easier, we can help.
For more information please call us on 0844 870 8785 or message us here.
Three Key Ways Verto’s Project Management Software Will Help Your Projects Succeed
Managing a single project can be hard, never mind the challenges of being responsible for several projects at once.
Because even the simplest project will involve different people and activities. And more complex projects may also involve different organisations, teams, stakeholders and funding streams.
When you add in budget constraints, challenging time-scales and the need to produce accurate reports, it’s easy to see how projects can go off the rails.
To help your projects succeed you need to keep in touch with everything that’s going on and everyone who’s involved, while maintaining a clear focus on each project’s intended outcomes.
Verto’s project management software will help you do this.
Instant messaging
Because Verto is cloud-based software, you can use it on most devices, wherever you are and whenever you need it.
This means you can use Verto’s instant messaging tool to easily keep in touch with everyone involved in your projects.
Imagine you’re in a meeting and suddenly need a budget update from someone else on the project team. All you have to do is send them a message and straight away they can get back to you with the most up-to-date figures.
Whether you need to quickly check something with one person, brainstorm with a particular team or update a whole group of people, Verto lets you do this.
So you and everyone else involved in your projects can share information and ask questions, in an instant and at the exact time you need to.
Direct document sharing
Along with keeping in touch with everyone involved in your projects, having the most up-to-date information is also critical for success.
Verto makes this easy too.
Because you can store all your project documents in the cloud, you can access them wherever you are, whenever you need them. You can read the latest versions and make changes without having to go back to the office.
Anyone who needs it can have access to read or update documents. And because Verto has a clever, automatic document control tool, you can be sure you’re looking at the most recent version.
Get real-time updates
Another of Verto’s clever tools is its real-time updates.
You can set Verto’s notifications to keep you and other members of the project team on top of your tasks and on-schedule with daily notifications and updates.
And if things do start to fall behind on a project’s to-do list, Verto will let you know straight away so you can take action immediately.
Of course, there’s much more to Verto. From risk analysis to flexible reporting, performance planning to resource management, Verto gives you all the tools you need to manage your projects from start through to successful completion.
For more information on how Verto can help your projects succeed please call us on 0844 870 8785 or message us here.
From 1 to £13.2 billion: The Benefits of Verto in Numbers
Verto’s cloud-based software can help you in a number of ways. For example, it can help you cut costs and improve efficiency across all aspects of your project and programme management.
It can also help your shared practice become more effective, for example when you’re working with providers or local enterprise partnerships.
Our years of experience and understanding of the demands of modern working drive these benefits.
The numbers below tell you more.
1 Verto’s project management software has 1 clear landing page you can customise for the way you work.
2 You can choose which of our 2 systems will suit your organisation best.
7 Verto starts from only £7.50 per user per month.
10 NHS Blood and Transplant rate us 10/10 for training, configuration, hosting and system development and updates.
15 The team at Verto has been providing cloud-based applications for more than 15 years.
24 Verto’s instant messaging means you can easily stay in touch 24 hours a day.
25 We’ve helped PMOs cut their costs by 25%.
30 And helped projects secure savings of 30%.
50 We’ve helped more than 50 organisations set up and run their PMO.
60 You can trial all Verto’s benefits FREE for 60 days.
120 We’ve provided cloud-based services to more than 120 public sector departments and organisations including fire and rescue services, NHS CCGs and local enterprise partnerships.
26,000 We support 26,000 registered users.
38,000 And track 38,000 tasks and milestones every day.
13.2 billion We’re helping our clients deliver £13.2 billion of planned savings.
For more information on how Verto can help you please call us on 0844 870 8785 or message us here.
How Cloud-based Software Makes Project Management Easier
Here at Verto we understand the demands project managers face every day. No matter what sector you work in and the projects you’re responsible for, you’re in a constant cycle of planning, delivery and reporting.
You’re managing risk, people, performance, time, change and budgets.
You’re expected to know what’s happening with a project at any given time.
And you’re expected to make sure everyone else does too.
Cloud-based project management software, like Verto Go and Verto Pro, help you do all this. Quickly and easily.
Instant Access
We provide and maintain Verto on our secure servers and you access it from the internet. This means you and everyone else involved in the project can have instant access to your project’s data. Whenever you need it and from wherever you are.
So even if you’re working round the clock and only have your mobile with you, you’ll always be in touch
Instant Messaging
Verto has an instant messaging tool so you can easily keep in touch with everyone involved in the project.
You can update the whole team at the same time so they always have the latest information.
And you can message people individually to let them know exactly what you need them to do.
Automatic Document Control
Because all your data is stored securely in one place, everyone will always get to see the latest version of any file. Verto even has an automated document control feature that takes care of this for you.
Supporting Flexible Working
Flexible working may eventually become the norm as more and more organisations recognise the benefits it brings in terms of recruiting and retaining the best staff.
Cloud-based project management software has a key role to play here as it means you and your team can access your project’s data whenever you need to from wherever you are. Exactly what you need to work flexibly.
And there’s more…
Alongside the benefits that being based in the cloud brings, Verto has a whole host of other project management tools to help your PMO run smoothly.
Things like free automatic updates that mean you’re always working on the latest version of the software, tools to help you manage risk and best practice templates, all save you time and make your job as a project manager easier.
To find out more get in touch.