Greater transparency due to easy access to up-to-date information across central and local projects in over ten different healthcare facilities and locations
Reduced project risk with improved and more efficient project controlling
Less overhead due to increased use of synergy effects and a greater exchange of experience
More efficient usage of resources due to clear visualization of planned and actual values
Barmherzige Brüder Österreich is part of the worldwide operating order of the Brothers of Saint John of God. The order is deeply rooted in healthcare, with the first hospital in Austria being founded more than 400 years ago.
Even though Barmherzige Brüder Österreich is running a healthcare operation, they are, like any other business, carrying out different projects in individual institutions. Such projects include, for example, improvements of medication processes or bed occupancy.
But the overall project management situation is still more complex. Apart from projects in every institution, there are also province-wide projects, like creating guidelines for the ELGA implementation (short for the Austrian electronic health record standard).
These projects involve several institutions that the central administrative department in Vienna coordinates. This headquarter is also developing and managing projects on its own.
Every single institution has to execute these projects in line with specific general guidelines. At present, approximately 180 people are regularly involved in project management in Austria. These projects are mostly organizational, development, and IT projects.
Due to the lack of a comprehensive project overview and consistent standards, non-transparency increased, and project controlling became almost impossible.
In fall of 2012, the need for consistent project management became obvious. In 2013 the central administration started a project to develop PMI and IMPA-based in-house standards and principles to manage future projects.
Within this project, the organization also decided to use one consistent software solution for portfolio management, program management, and future projects to simplify operative planning and controlling in Austria.
Institutions in Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic have not been part of the project management rollout in the first step.
Barmherzige Brüder's Project Pipeline in Planforge
Head of Qualitiy Management Hospital St. John of God Vienna"Planforge gets to the heart of complex project management: Who is working on projects? Which projects are important for us? Where do we stand so far?"
After extensive Internet research, the central administration evaluated more than 20 different software products. Besides “real” PM functionality, outstanding usability was one of the key-criteria because most users are mostly involved in healthcare only and not in project management.
Furthermore, the possibility to provide reports for the top management at any time was also of great importance.
Planforge was chosen because it is intuitive and easy to use as well as IPMA and PMI compliant. Additionally, Planforge's clear visualization of planned and actual values was also crucial for the choice.
Barmherzige Brüder Österreich decided to use the server enterprise solution combined with the Program Management, Planning & Controlling, and Risk Management options.
Since fall of 2015, they have also evaluated their project portfolio using Planforge's Portfolio Analysis Option.
The implementation of Planforge was handled by the IT department of Barmherzige Brüder Österreich and Planforge. Afterward, Gerald Aquila, the CEO of Planforge, held a one-day workshop with future key users of the healthcare organization.
Planforge's customizability, simple configuration, easy handling, rollout, and adaption were carried out without any difficulties. Because most of the everyday Planforge users are doctors and nurses, it is remarkable that the application has been adopted quickly.
Following Planforges introduction more than three years ago, it is now deployed in the central administration and all relevant healthcare facilities. Currently, the focus is clearly on project planning, resource planning on the team level, project overview, and reporting when using Planforge.
The solution's most significant benefit is greater transparency enabled by the project overview providing more up-to-date information and facilitating overall project control.
The risk of things being done twice has been eliminated. The use of synergy effects and the exchange of experiences have increased.
Also, top management is delighted with having the possibility to monitor ongoing projects on their own anytime and anywhere.
Due to these positive effects, the Barmherzige Brüder Österreich constantly make efforts to roll out Planforge to even more users within their different institutions to be optimally prepared for future tasks.
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