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ABOUT THE CUSTOMER The original Children's Memorial Hospital of Omaha was founded in 1948 with a vision that no child in need of medical care would be turned away due to an inability to pay. Today Children's Hospital & Medical Center is affiliated with the Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine, providing care for more than 250,000 children each year. Families from across a five-state region and beyond seek the experience and expertise the hospital offers, whether the child is receiving care at home, at one of the hospital's many advanced outpatient clinics or in their award-winning facilities. MAIN CHALLENGES Lacked visibility to manage all IT projects throughout the department and organization Lacked interactivity - IT staff had limited access to current project tasks and timelines Needed an interactive product to allow team members to update projects and issues Needed a competent project management solution to replace Microsoft Project for most project plans Children's Hospital & Medical Center's IT department consists of some 60 IT personnel who are responsible for keeping the hospital's technology up to date, whether it's installing new equipment, updating software, and troubleshooting day-to-day questions from clinical and business colleagues. The team embraces the mission statement "so that all children have a better chance to live." "As in any hospital, our IT department has dozens of projects going at any one time," explains the IT Project Manager. "In the past we relied on the regular version of Microsoft Project to track our larger projects. We wanted to track and report on projects at an organization level. To do this would have required a Microsoft Project's Enterprise license. We could not justify this cost, so we started our search for another, more cost-effective project management tool." "We wanted the ability for our staff to interact in real time. Since most of our technicians did not have access to Microsoft Project, we had to meet in person or rely on email to get updates. This was inefficient. Consequently, we didn't always know the status of each project. For example, a project might appear to be late but actually it was on time." "For IT Leadership and our project managers, we wanted the 30,000-foot view to see everything happening at once, and we weren't able to do that." WHY PROJECT INSIGHT Gives project managers more time to manage projects instead of tracking down updates Generates executive level reporting of all projects Provides IT staff with interactivity so they can see the project schedule, the tasks they own and inter-dependencies in real time The project managers wanted increased interactivity so everyone in the department has access to the same information. They wanted the ability to manage projects at a higher level. And, they wanted the capability of handling more projects without hiring additional staff. "The project management team wanted a solution that provided all their requirements and still remain affordable. They did their due diligence, evaluating 30 companies. The list was reduced to five, and the project managers interviewed each candidate." "In the end, Project Insight had the most of what we were looking for at a price we could afford," says the IT project manager. "This was important because we're a not-for-profit organization and we are very cautious on our spending." THE RESULTS Project team has been empowered to update their own statuses Reports are produced for leadership to help them understand the projects their teams own at an IT organizational level Eliminates some meetings that were primarily designed to get updates on task status Children's Hospital & Medical Center implemented Project Insight project management software over two years ago. Because everyone in the department has access to the projects they are working on, the software developed the interactivity the project managers desired. Project Insight also makes project management more efficient. System-generated emails notify team members when they have new tasks/issues or when issues are updated. System-generated reports provide an overview of current project status along with any new and pending projects. This allows managers to prioritize tasks, better allocate resources and gain tighter control over the entire process. "The Project Insight team has been great to work with," the IT project manager reports. "Their training was wonderful. We've had minimal problems, and they're very responsive if we have a question or problem. They even check in on us from time to time to make sure everything is working smoothly." "Because we now see the bigger picture, we don't have to worry whether a specific project was updated. We are able to target our follow up to issues and those tasks that are actually running late." "Project Insight project management software has truly helped our IT department." Contact Project Insight at http://www.projectinsight.net.
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Project Insight, Children's Hospital, project management software, healthcare information systems,
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