Verto Case Study: working with the City of Wolverhampton Council

The city of Wolverhampton lies at the heart of the Black Country and is one of three cities in the West Midlands region. The city and council are experiencing a period of unprecedented growth and transformation, highlighted recently when the City of Wolverhampton Council was awarded ‘Local Authority of the Year’ at the MJ Awards, 2017.

The council serves a population of around 250,000 across 20 wards. It has a mission to ‘work as one to serve our city,’ and a vision that by 2030 ‘Wolverhampton will be a prosperous and inclusive city that celebrates its diversity and heritage and plays its part on the regional, national and international stage.’

Like all local authorities, the City of Wolverhampton Council has a complex structure made up of the full council and its various committees, directorates and services.

The council works with a wide range of other organisations through several key partnerships, including the local strategic partnership for the area and the West Midlands Combined Authority.

It has to report regularly on its progress in delivering its plans, both within the council itself and to its various partners.

What the City of Wolverhampton Council wanted to achieve 

The City of Wolverhampton Council’s Projects and Programmes Team currently produces highlight reports on 59 projects and 32 workstreams. These are developed into an overall dashboard and shared monthly with the council’s wider leadership team.

Prior to using Verto the Projects and Programmes Team were preparing these reports manually. Now, with Verto, the process is automated, which makes best use of officer time and ensures information is prepared for senior managers in an efficient and cost-effective way.

How we’re helping the City of Wolverhampton Council achieve its goal 

When we started working with the council in 2015, we worked alongside the Projects and Programmes Team to configure Verto in line with their project management process, from a project’s initial proposal right through to its close.

We also worked with them to set up standard reports which can be produced at the press of a button.

“The team from TMI provided excellent customer service. They prioritised our change requests and are good at turning things round when we need them to – straight away if they can. And they use our feedback to help them develop Verto so we, and others, can get more from it.” 

Laura Palmer, Portfolio Delivery Manager, the City of Wolverhampton Council

How the City of Wolverhampton Council is benefiting from using Verto

Since using Verto the City of Wolverhampton Council has seen a number of benefits. Perhaps the most significant is that they now have a controlled management and workflow process across the council.

With Verto all the council’s programme and project data is in one place. This means the Projects and Programmes Team can support project managers and projects officers from start to finish. As Harpreet Riyat, the council’s Project and Resources Manager says, “Verto is very clear and easy to use. Everything is in front of you on one screen and it guides you through the whole process so it’s very easy to learn.”

The Projects and Programmes Team have established a bi-weekly Project Assurance Group (PAG). This has helped programmes and projects become more visible and made it easier for the group to establish links, find commonalities and break down barriers. As a result they have also been able to identify both financial and time savings.

The increased visibility of programmes and projects also makes it easier for the PAG to agree which proposals should proceed. And once projects are up and running, the Projects and Programmes Team can quickly and easily produce monitoring reports which show progress, outcomes and risks.

Because Verto is based in the cloud it allows for mobile working so staff can easily work on it where and when they need to. This also makes it easy for people to collaborate across partnership projects and programmes. They can then use Verto’s instant messaging tool to communicate with each other.

Harpreet Riyat also commented that using Verto has substantially reduced the Projects and Programmes Team’s need to use paper.

We continue to work with the City of Wolverhampton Council. Recently we supported their move to VertoPro and resolved small technical issues very quickly.

We are also due to set up and roll out a single sign-on which means users no longer need to log in to Verto with a user name and password. Instead Verto will automatically be available to them when they log on to the council’s system. This has removed a potential barrier to using Verto and encouraged more consistent use of the tool.

The Projects and Programmes Team would like to develop more intuitive reporting so are currently reviewing our latest reporting options. We will then configure the reports they’d like to use to suit their needs.

To find out more about how Verto can help your local authority please call us on 0118 334 6200 or message us here.


Verto Case Study: working with NHS West Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group

NHS West Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is one of 207 CCGs across England responsible for the planning and commissioning of healthcare services for their local area. Each CCG must assess its local needs, decide on its priorities and buy appropriate services. As local needs change, which they constantly do, CCGs must also adapt and respond to these changes.

 

CCGs have to regularly report on their plans and progress to NHS England, to their local Health and Wellbeing Board and to the public in their area. Their success is measured on how much they improve outcomes.

 

West Cheshire CCG serves a population of about 261,000 and has an annual budget of around £330 million. The CCG is made up of 35 GP practices from three localities each with 3-clusters. Together they work to secure high-quality, high-value healthcare that meets the needs of their local population. Their stated aim is: “Making sure you get the healthcare you need.”

 

What West Cheshire CCG wanted to achieve 

 

West Cheshire CCG wanted to improve their programme management systems. They also had the challenge of needing to deliver a balanced budget in 2016-17 and again in 2017-18.  This meant they had to have a rigorous financial recovery plan in place that detailed how they would find savings of around £10 million in each of the two financial years.  As such it was essential that the CCG could:

 

  • Work to consistent processes
  • Easily and accurately monitor projects
  • Easily and accurately report on outcomes
  • Plan with confidence
  • Make efficiency savings

 

In particular, the PMO team were under pressure. They were managing all the CCG’s projects manually on excel spreadsheets. This was time-consuming and did not allow for robust risk management or confident reporting on milestones.

 

How we’re helping West Cheshire CCG achieve their goals 

 

We started working with West Cheshire CCG in July 2016. By September they were able to start introducing Verto to individual project leads. By March 2017, everyone who needed to be was working on the new system.

 

We configured Verto in line with how the CCG works and to make it easy for them to transfer their project data. This meant that when staff logged on for the first time they could immediately see all their project documentation.

 

“The team from TMI really listen. They’re keen to fix issues and do so in a really short time. They’re open to new ideas and see opportunities for development rather than problems. This makes the whole process of introducing a new system much easier.” 

 

Reza Rahmani-Torkaman, Head of Programme Management Office, West Cheshire CCG 

 

The benefits West Cheshire CCG is seeing

The way Verto is set up makes it easy for people to follow project management best practice. As a result, the PMO team say that since moving to Verto everyone is working in a more calm, controlled and consistent way. This means there is no longer a pressure to find funds to expand the PMO team. And may have helped the CCG deliver their planned savings in 2016-17.

 

Because Verto is based in the cloud, CCG staff and members can now access their data wherever they are and whenever they need. This is supporting more flexible working and is something people have commented they appreciate.

 

CCGs have to measure their progress against national data. Because Verto gives the PMO team reliable and current data they can now measure their progress, project future outcomes and plan with more confidence.

 

As well as the PMO team, Verto also gives individual commissioning managers, the finance team and the business intelligence team easy access to their project data. This means they can manage risk, monitor and report on projects in a much more robust way.

 

We continue to support and work with West Cheshire CCG as they introduce new programmes of work and develop new practices. For example, in the future they intend to work in partnership with other organisations and across boundaries to deliver some major projects. Verto will make this collaborative working much easier for them.

 

To find out more about how Verto can help your CCG please call us on 0118 334 6200 or message us here.

 


Verto Case Study: working with the South West Academic Health Science Network

The South West Academic Health Science Network (SW AHSN) is one of 15 AHSNs across England set up to deliver significant change in the way the health and care sector identifies, develops and adopts innovation.  Each AHSN works to improve the health of its local population and generate economic growth in the area.

 

AHSNs have to regularly report on their plans and progress to NHS England. They also have to report to their own board on the progress they’re making delivering their strategic objectives and work programmes.

 

The SW AHSN has a mission 'to improve the health and patient experience of people in the South West by supporting and accelerating innovation and quality improvement'. To deliver this, they have three strategic objectives supported by ten work programmes encompassing a wide range of individual projects.

 

They work with 18 member organisations and a wide range of stakeholder organisations from health and care sectors in the South West and nationally.

 

 

What the SW AHSN wanted to achieve

 

The SW AHSN’s staff team comes from a diverse range of backgrounds including academia, frontline health and social care, research, IT, analytics and NHS support services.

 

This means, while they are all committed to achieving a common aim, they have a wide range of work practices. This difference was causing an inconsistent approach to project management.

 

The SW AHSN needed a way to easily and clearly report back to NHS England and their board on their work programme, in particular in relation to individual project outcomes. They also needed a system that would make sure they had the most up to date information in their reports. This would mean they could clearly evidence the impact of their work and identify and manage risk.

 

To move to this position the SW AHSN committed to go through a change management process, including a change in culture, to one where they had:

 

  • A consistent approach to project management
  • A commitment to clearly evidence impact
  • Easy access to accurate information on individual projects and programmes of work
  • Comprehensive, easy and flexible reporting
  • Robust risk management

 

How we’re helping the SW AHSN achieve their goal

 

We started working with the SW AHSN in October 2016 and had their system live by February 2017. This rapid installation of the project management software helped them move smoothly through the changes they needed to make.

 

Because Verto is cloud-based project management software, the SW AHSN staff and its contractors can access the system. In the future their member organisations may also have access to the system, which will further help develop a consistent approach to project management across the network.

 

We tailored the Verto dashboard to match the brand colours of the SW AHSN. This familiarity helped their staff engage and feel more comfortable using a new system.

 

Verto has given them a shared database, which means they can generate reports at all levels. And Verto’s tagging facility means they can create reports from the data they choose.

 

“The team at TMI have been really helpful and Verto is proving to be an excellent project management tool. We now have a richness of information we didn’t have before. Being able to tag fields so we can tailor reports is a significant benefit. And we’re able to use Verto to quickly and easily create our quarterly reports and business plan for NHS England. All this has helped us to implement the change we needed to make in both our practice and our culture.”

 

Claire Higdon, Director of Corporate Services, SW AHSN

 

 

The benefits the SW AHSN is seeing

 

The SW AHSN have found Verto really easy to use. Some staff are happily using it without having had any training. However, those who have taken part in a short training session are, to quote Claire Higdon, ‘really flying.’

 

In particular, staff have found Verto is saving them time as they only need to fill in information such as project descriptions and objectives once.

 

The SW AHSN now has a much clearer understanding of how projects are allocated across the staff team and can clearly see who is working on what. They can also get an instant report on all the projects each member organisation is involved in.

 

They are able to capture more information on each project and programme of work. This is making it much easier to see what they’ve achieved and evidence progress. It also means they are better able to identify and manage risk.

 

One of the key benefits the SW AHSN has found is Verto’s tagging facility. This means users can tag the data they want to include to create exactly the report they need.

 

With Verto they can also produce reports as PDF documents. This has proved to be really helpful when staff need to take information to a meeting or share it with someone who doesn’t have access to the system.

 

 

 “The strength of working with TMI has been how they’ve tailored our Verto system to our exact needs – making it part of our organisation, not a bolt on.”

Louise Witts, Interim CEO, SW AHSN

 

 

In March 2017, the SW AHSN sent their first quarter end report to NHS England using Verto. Claire Higdon told us it was really quick and easy to do. She went on to say:

 

“Although many of the changes we’ve seen since we introduced Verto seem fairly basic, they’ve really helped us to engage and motivate staff and members.”

 

We’re still working with the SW AHSN and are currently helping them use Verto to capture more information from their projects and develop more detailed reporting.

 

To find out more about how Verto can help your AHSN 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:

  1. Preventing illness and injury
  2. Providing care closer to home
  3. 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.

 

 


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 Helps You Manage Risk

You’ll have noticed in our blogs that we often talk about risk and how important it is that you manage it well.

 

In our last blog we described effective risk management as being aware of everything that could go wrong, having plans in place to respond quickly if something does go wrong and updating these plans as the project progresses and the risks change.

 

Others say that risk management is about anticipating what could happen between where you are and where you want to be.

 

This means looking at:

 

  • What you’re aiming to do
  • What might go wrong and why
  • If it does go wrong, what would happen
  • What you can do to stop it happening or make it have less impact

 

You should identify potential risks as soon as you start to plan your project. And you should monitor them throughout the life of the project.

 

Verto can help you do this.

 

A quick and easy way to manage risk

 

One of the greatest risks to any project is poor communication. For example, John finds out that in order to meet the deadline for a bid a member of his team needs some information. He’s out of the office when he’s told this, so makes a note to sort it out when he gets back. However, events overtake him and his note gets lost in the pile of other things he has to do. The deadline passes and his project ends up short of funds.

 

With Verto, wherever John had been when he first heard about this risk, he could immediately have sent a message to however many members of his team he needed to. And they could have picked it up, wherever they were.

 

He could also have created a task to remind them what they needed to do and by when. He could then have set an alert to let him know when the task was complete or if it was at risk of being missed.

 

A quick and easy way to monitor risk

 

Of course, you’re aware of some risks from the start of a project.

 

Let’s look at another example from John. He’s managing a project and has six months to complete one part of it. From the outset, some of his team warned that it could take much longer than this. However, the management team chose not to restructure the whole project. Instead they asked for weekly progress reports and for John to have a contingency plan in place.

 

If John were using Verto he would have a clear and detailed view of all his projects, in one place. This would make it easy for him to keep a close watch on the part of his project that was at risk of overrunning. Verto’s automatic notifications would also alert him straight away if anything began to fall behind. So John would be able to step in and take immediate action. And he would be able to produce and share an accurate progress report so his management team were always well informed.

 

While this wouldn’t remove the risk, Verto’s tools mean John could stay in control of the situation rather than just respond to it.

 

After all, it’s better to manage a risk than manage a crisis.

 

To find out more about how Verto can help you manage risk 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.