PM3

PM3 in NHS Northumberland

Comments: PM3 has enabled us to move away from our previous PMO processes which were spreadsheet (MS Excel) based and cumbersome. PM3 provides us with the 'single version of the truth' in terms of the development and delivery of our operational plan and progress towards achieving our strategic objectives. PM3 is now the 'golden thread' which runs through all of our operational delivery of projects, change, and major transformation and the flexibility of reporting means that we can generate numerous reports and monitoring documents for operational and strategic delivery groups and corporate decision-making committees with ease and the touch of a button. The overall experience with PM3 has been excellent and we have quickly built excellent relationships with the team at Bestoutcome who have been very supportive and responsive to our needs. We look forward to further developing our use of PM3 as the CCG transitions into the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System and hope to be able to use the work we have already done as an exemplar to colleagues from other CCGs/ICSs.

Pros:

Simplicity, ease of use, interface, flexibility of reporting, innovative approach to management of multiple portfolios. Scalability and the ability to turn on/off various modules to suit the maturity and development of our PMO.

Cons:

There are no features, of those we currently utilise, that we are unhappy with and we have ample opportunity to discuss developments and improvements with colleagues at PM3.

Highly configurable and user friendly

Comments: Very positive. The Bestoutcome team have been very supportive through the initial trial to implementation and training. Looking forward to building on the current configuration and putting the system to the test fully.

Pros:

Easy to get to grips with. Particularly like how you can select which functions you can switch on/off so you can start small and build on that as maturity and familiarity with the system grows.

Cons:

Although you can configure some fields and change them to what you want, it would be useful if you could create additional fields to be able to capture more variety of information in the system.

Alternatives Considered: KeyedIn, monday.com, Wrike and Planview Projectplace

Reasons for Switching to PM3: Ability to configure functionality and start small was a key factor. Other products were too large/complex for our set up and culture, and often focussed more on project task management rather than portfolio management.

Refinement

Comments: As a business we are still in the very early stages of using the tool. Initial observations are that it is excellent on some things and other areas need much more work to make the tool intuitive to use. This can be resolved via more updates I'm sure.
Support via the help desk and via my account managers has been first class and Best Outcome have shown great flexibility around changes in Licence application during the Covid 19 period when our Programme was put on hold.
Management of updates is clear and very thorough with release notes easy to follow.

Pros:

The ability to draw a no.of projects together into a Programme and/or Portfolio and to draw in reports form all in selected views. The ability to hold all major project governance in one place e.g risks/issues/ dependencies. Reporting flexibility and range across plans/projects/programmes/portfolio Ease of user control and self configurable access controls

Cons:

Plans - Gantt Chart usage - This is clunky at best and not intuitive. Convincing users of Microsoft Project to switch to using the tool has been an on going challenge. An easier import function may help resolve this. Using X to exit the plan. Many users forget and has caused frustrations in plans with joint PM use. Inconsistency of areas with auto save functionality and those where it requires manual save.

PM3 in a healthcare setting

Comments: I would highly recommend PM3 for any organisation serious about having a single oversight of all their change work and for those who want to manage delivery in a consistent way. Implementation was painless and relatively simple with good support from the supplier who continue to provide first-class ongoing support and engagement.

Pros:

Easy to use, quick to implement and more used than competitor software previously deployed in the organisation. Customer support is first class and BestOutcome work hard at customer relations and ongoing product development

Cons:

Gateway management is a bit "clunky" but is on the development roadmap for improvement in 2022. The ability to develop customised reports within the software would be a great asset. Portfolio dashboards for executive use on an app version would really engage executives in the system and its capabilities

Simple to use, yet powerful to report

Comments: PM3 allows you to manage ever changing portfolios in a fast paced world - I was able to split my portfolio between Agile and Waterfall depending on my business segments. This often gets overlooked and you are usually forced to choose between the two - not with PM3. It allows you to slice the cake in many different ways.

Pros:

The simplicity of the tool allows users to be quickly trained and ensures the speed at which PM3 can be deployed is lightening fast. Don't confuse simplicity with inadequate - the tool is incredibly powerful to plan and manage a complex Portfolio and the reporting modules allow you to extract the data in clear format for Senior Leadership reporting.

Cons:

I have used many PPM tools and most fail due to highly inefficient methods of doing simple tasks. PM3 is not one of those tools.

Alternatives Considered: Smartsheet

Reasons for Choosing PM3: Better value for money, speed to mobilise and to get a quick handle on project delivery, beautiful reporting and full benefits and financial management.

Reasons for Switching to PM3: As above