PM3 Reviews

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.

Procurement, implementation and deployment of PM3 in an NHS environment.

Comments: Great overall first-hand personable support from the whole PM3 team including at [SENSITIVE CONTENT]. Responsive and understanding in procurement negotiations. Vastly experienced practitioners on hand to support the implementation of the tool. Flexibility shown with short notice changes in training requirements during deployment. Data is entered into PM3 once where oversight can then be sought through a suite of over 100 ready to use configurable reports, saving time at all levels from project teams to the PMO to Director level committees and boards. Project documentation can be uploaded onto the tool, again helping to ensure golden source data and information. Can be used for Agile projects along with the more traditional waterfall projects. The PM3 mobile app helps with being able to access information while on the move. For NHS users: The partitioning function allow for multiple organisations such as Integrated Care providers (ICP) and Integrated Care Systems to capture appropriate related programmes and projects therefore avoiding duplication of effort and misreporting. The Cost Improvement Plan (CIP) functionality allows for the planning, capturing, measuring and monitoring of CIP projects and schemes with a suite of reports built specifically for the NHS and financial savings programme.

Pros:

The easy-to-use, intuitive and ISO27001 certified (information security) PM3 tool plays an important part in the planning, governance and reporting of portfolios, business change programmes, programmes and projects. The tool provides a valuable golden single source, providing consistency and visibility across the organisation at all levels. It’s obvious that this award-winning tool has been developed by practitioners for practitioners and that the provider understands what success looks like for the client.

Cons:

Not all parts of the PM3 tool can be configured to local requirements but the benefits of a genuine long-term lasting partnership with the client and access to forums such as the Power User Group means that appropriate changes can be considered for future releases.

Great intuitive tool.Enables us to drive best practice and consistency across the portfolio.

Comments: PM3 has helped drive consistency and standards across our portfolio. Following our upgrade to PM3 Cloud, we have also been able to drive efficiencies through the removal of duplication (e.g. Excel RAIDD) and manual reporting.

Pros:

Great intuitive tool that enables us to drive best practice and consistency across the portfolio. We use it as the single source for our portfolio of change. It helps our project and programme management teams manage end to end delivery, as well as providing our stakeholders with timely status reporting. The ‘out of the box’ reports have been designed with stakeholders at all levels in mind and the choice is far greater than other project management tool that I have used. The inbuilt governance features are a great fit with our project governance framework and hep provide additional assurance of project control. The Bestoutome team are great to work with. They not only listen, but bring a considerable amount of practical PPM and technical knowledge, experience and expertise. Their support has been invaluable not only in preparing for the PM3 cloud upgrade and on boarding our users, but also the on-going embedding and service support. PM3 is a great tool for any organisation, regardless of maturity.

Cons:

Plan lock is a common issue when users finish their session. However, Bestoutcome have built in a flag that tells the user that the plan is locked and who to. Despite training and reminders, some users forget to do this correctly. It will be great if we could have a message appear telling the user that they have not logged out of their session, when exiting said session or logging out of the tool.

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

Brilliant experience of PM3 - perfect project management software!

Comments: We have around 104 projects in total on PM3, around 30-40 of them are live ones. I have had a very positive experience with PM3 and I do really enjoy using it. I think the Best Outcome Team are also very responsive and useful and are always happy to deal with any requests, which also adds to my PM3 experience. We have many projects which are completed and finished, and over the past year there has been an increase in the uptake of staff on PM3. I think there are many useful tabs/functions in PM3 which definitely support staff in completing their projects.

Pros:

I really like how PM3 is very methodical and logical and a very easy software to navigate round. You can capture all aspects of your project and it can keep track of all your actions/tasks/milestones as well as notifying users with email reminders. PM3 definitely ensures that your project remains on track and is fantastic in generating a wide range of reports that can be printed/emailed very easily. The layout is very clear and simple and when I first started my role in PMO, it did not take very long for me to come to grips with the system, there are also brilliant user help guides and videos that are available which provide you with lots of new information.

Cons:

The only thing I like least about this software is that unfortunately the milestone and task pages are not linked to the actions page which causes users to duplicate information (i.e. milestones that have been completed and closed do not appear as closed on the actions page). However, I understand that these are 2 separate and independent pages and it would not be feasible to join them together, this is only a minor issue and does not cause users problems. Apart from that I see no other fault with the software.

Flexible, versatile solution to managing portfolios, programmes & projects

Comments: Helping us to standardise our project practices, particularly the reporting process.

Pros:

I liked the flexible structure of portfolio, programme and project which was easy to set up and adapt to our various departmental approaches. Lots of reporting options offered as standard, and easy to tweak these to suit our needs. All our portfolio of projects are now in one place where all the PMs can access them – it’s also an advantage that you can access them from anywhere rather than needing to be in the office. Helping us to standardise our project practices and particularly the reporting process. Support and training from Bestoutcome is excellent.

Cons:

Because the range of functions and options is huge, it's sometimes easy to forget where the option you need is... however, I'd sooner have the options than a simpler product without them

PM3

Comments: PM3 is in use at TCD to manage major capital projects and provide governance, reporting and query facilties for this portfolio. Our experience with the software and its support has been positive and we would definitely recommend it as a cost-effective option for any organisation seeking to manage project portfolios in a consistent and auditable manner.

Pros:

Very intuitive and well-designed, it contains all of the features you'd expect from a PPM tool, with greater flexibility in reporting and dashboards.

Cons:

While the interface has improved in the latest version, it still needs some upgrading to keep it in line with competitors. Not as much of an issue once you've become familiar with the product.

PM3

Comments: PM3 enabled us to get a large programme under control and focus on key milestone delivery resulting in a succesful conclusion to a major strategic project

Pros:

The ability to roll up projects into programmes and ultimately BCP's allow levels of detail to remain appropriate to those manage the activities but also allows high level reporting to Board level to be easily achieved. Customer service from the helpdesk is also a major plus with instant responses and high quality advice. The product also continues to evolve and develop to meet customer needs

Cons:

The occasional record locking is a bit disruptive but it is only occasional

Straightforward, comprehensive and clear

Comments: Driving consistency in reporting across the change community provides a balanced view of progress and challenges providing clear insight at multiple levels from delivery through to senior management enabling focus on prioritisation for dependencies and support for challenges.
From a Project management perspective you don't spend hours feeding information into the system and from a Programme, Portfolio or PMO perspective the output provides clear information regarding progress, trends, dependencies and issue management

Pros:

Focus on on top down visibility of core P3 metrics via dashboards that can be shared, without customisation, to senior stakeholders. From a delivery perspective updating is intuitive and efficient and drives consistency from all project and programme managers. Especially like the governance dashboard, an excellent tool to provide a clear presentation of change health and compliance

Cons:

PM3 isn't a one for all solution, still requiring planning tools such as MS Project for detailed scheduling, however I've not found a P3 product that does both effectively and efficiently. This is a minor gripe as most PMs are used to using separate planning and reporting toolsets

PM3 PPM Tool

Comments: PM3 is a very user intuitive tool. It is very easy to coach people how to use. There is new functionality which means that you can customise the experience for every different type of user that may require access to the tool, hiding the information they are not required to update and showing that they are.

Pros:

PM3 has recently moved to a new cloud based version and it has made the tool even more intuitive for the users. It is a great tool for users and administrators alike as you can make many setting amendments as an Administrator that will apply to the users in real-time. Customisable fields mean that you have the flexibility to build the tool to fit the needs of your business. The way the tool is structured means that the information captured by your Project managers can be easily sliced using the portfolios structure and reported either immediately or at specified times for your recipients.

Cons:

You need to think about the structure in tool when planning how you want to report as there are three levels within the reporting structure. This works well for a Project > Programme > Portfolio structure but needs amendment if you need to capture lots of detail around workstreams. However, there is always a work around within the tool that means it can work if you shift everything up a level or consider the levels you want to report at when structuring your tiers in the tool.

Easy to use and one version of the truth

Pros:

There is one version of the truth and projects could be shown in more than one portfolio, so that when a project moves through the project lifecycle it can be passed from one team to another without having to duplicate information. From drafting the business case, through to delivering the benefits and lessons learnt.The ability to have different gateways for different types of projects.The ability to have everything in one place including impact assessments.

Cons:

There are so many standard reports, it can be overwhelming initially, but the team are reducing some of these and making it easy to see the report style without having to run the report.

A practical, affordable tool for manging complex project portfolios

Comments: I inherited a complex set of projects, every one reporting in a different way and with no visibility of their contribution to programme objectives. PM3 allowed my staff to turn this into a simple well-controlled portfolio with everyone pulling in the same direction.

Pros:

A flexible structure of projects, programmes and portfolios allows you to easily group projects to reflect the organisational structures and strategic goals of your organisation. Fast setup out-of-the box, with no complex tailoring of processes, so managers start using the tool productively within a few days. The multi-level tracking and reporting creates valuable status reports with minimum effort. Easily controlled sharing of information across the portfolio means PMs can see what other projects are doing and proactively manage interfaces and dependencies. PM3’s huge range of standard reports has covered every reporting requirement I encountered.

Cons:

The breadth of system functions can initially appear a bit daunting to new users and support staff. I understand that unused functions can now be hidden when they are not needed but haven’t yet used that function myself.

PM3

Comments: Well beyond expectations. Our experienced project managers and project support offices have been able to embrace the tool without any negative impact on productivity and they are starting to see the rewards within days - measurably reduced reporting admin, increase visibility of other projects, increased consistency of approaches. PM3 has obviously been designed by, and for, portfolio managers which makes it instantly more usable than project scheduling tools that have been given a portfolio management wrapper or simple task tracking tools

Pros:

Very easy to use Very simple to configure out of the box Highly configurable for project, programme, portfolio membership Allows top-down portfolio management. You so not need to know minute details of projects before adding them and getting value form the tool Provides visibility of projects without having to do much different - project managers do all the same things just in this tool rather than their own dis-jointed files and folders. Flexible and responsive customer support during implementation Available via government procurement frameworks

Cons:

The planning function lacks some of the features of Microsoft Project so projects managers with advanced skills find it less useful. The supplier is working on enhancements for the next release. While there well over a hundred pre-configured report formats included none are exactly right for us. It would be good if there was a report-builder tool included. The lack of bulk-upload of pre-exiting documents like RAID logs or project registers increases the workload of transitioning existing projects to the tool.

Continues to impress and deliver

Comments: In short, this has been the most beneficial product we have used in the PMO... ever! Bestoutcome have been positive, supportive and responsive throughout. First-class experience.

Pros:

Continuous improvement and development of the product to enhance capabilities Only product that links benefit plans to delivery plans Intuitive and has clearly been designed by practitioners as it works the way we do. Unlike other products we have used it comes with over 200 high quality reports so you don’t have to design and build your own. Like the portfolio structure where you can have plans in multiple portfolios which gives you great flexibility to show different views of project information Training and configuration were completed by knowledgeable staff who retained the customer focus at all times Bestoutcome really do value their customers views and welcome suggestions for additional features/functionality Customer service is excellent both in terms of speed of response and the can do attitude of the Bestoutcome team.

Cons:

Truthfully, there are no aspects of PM3 that can be considered to be Cons.

PM3 has been a valuable tool for our business

Comments: Our overall experience has been incredibly positive. The consultancy and support we have received really helped lay the ground work for us to implement the tool in the right way. The training design and execution was brilliantly done, and made sure we understood the tool and had the support network in place to ask questions. There are plenty of useful features within PM3 which provides great scalability to other departments and areas of our business, as well as introducing more functionality once we are ready utilise further features within the tool. We were able to be up and running quickly with the tool, and it has become valuable for our portfolio tracking and reporting.

Pros:

- Intuitive design - very easy to use and navigate around which has helped us implement the tool quickly, customise the set up for what we need and onboard project teams to use it for reporting and tracking project and programme progress. - Scalability to develop multiple portfolios and manage your work is very well thought out with some useful report templates - Each project plan in the tool captures useful core information to track delivery progress, status, RAID, milestones and tasks

Cons:

- Initially there was not a plan on the page solution, but this was quickly developed thanks to Best Outcome's support and has been incredibly valuable! - Agile feature needs developing, but this is new within the tool and I believe the developers are working on adding to the Agile plugin

Best Outcome- Forward thinking supplier with ease to adapt to changing needs

Comments: My overall experience has been positive, our customer support [sensitive content hidden] has always been extremely helpful and worked in conjunction with us in terms of developments. He is friendly and approachable and goes the extra miles to ensure customer satisfaction. We have made huge development in the system and continue to develop and roll out to the trust and it is a pleasure to work alongside a supplier that is prepared to listen to suggestions.

Pros:

The software is easy to use and provides an environment in which projects can be managed successfully. It is self explanatory in terms of use and provides accurate reporting in various reports . I use this software daily in terms of the project plan and actions and i like how it allows for everything to be recorded in one place.

Cons:

Programme Management, milestones cannot be added to a plan unless a project is created and how linked dependencies cannot be moved as a series and each date needs to be amended individually. More work is required on the programme aspect of PM3

MIAA - Review of PM3

Comments: Overall the experience of using PM3 is a positive one.
Bestoutcome are very responsive to queries and always professional.
As an organisation we have improved our governance, reporting across a range of programmes is now consistent for all project managers in all organisations. We have saved time as information is only inputted once into the system but is pulled into multiple different reports.

Pros:

The product is extremely easy to use and most importantly user friendly. The product can be configured to the users requirements. It is versatile enough to be used across a range of clients. The reporting functionality saves hours of time each month. The integration to our existing business process was easy. Ability to use the whole range of existing reports within the system and if needed commission a bespoke report.

Cons:

For our company sadly we cannot use the lessons learned functionality as they are shared across all projects which will breach IG rules (we run projects for multiple different clients so cannot share the details).

Use of PM3 at Thomas Miller (IT Change)

Comments: Overall experience is excellent. Adoption of PM3 was welcomed and usage now aligns to company's project management delivery methodology, processes and guidelines

Pros:

Excellent product suite for small to mid-tier organisations. Easily implemented and configured. Stage Gates is a powerful capability.PM3 is easy to use.Resource Management module works well.

Cons:

Some standard out of the box reporting is a little cumbersome but workarounds were provided by Best Outcome. Customised reporting not always easy to setup.Help / Search facilities need improving.

Great for managing projects, programmes and portfolios...I would definately recommend!

Comments: Before PM3, projects and programmes were managed on separate systems and there was no 'one version of the truth' across our organisation. PM3 has helped us to record plans in one place and provides an over-arching portfolio report at the click of a button. The time we save as a PMO collating this information means the software pays for itself. Also, the level of support and customer service provided by PM3 is exceptional as any queries are responded to within hours and any issues found are considered for future releases.

Pros:

The milestones plans are clear and easy to use and can be rolled up from project to programme level. Risk/issue management is made easier as everything is visible and only needs updating in one place. The portfolio reporting function and prioritisation matrix means that time spent collating portfolio level reports is significantly reduced.

Cons:

At a project plan level, the action log doesn't link to the millstone plan. The inherent risk scores are not included on the risk reports.

In my opinion, the best cloud-based PMO and change management platform in the market today

Comments: We are now able to drive the end-to-end delivery of all of our service improvement and change programmes consistently, and through robust governance. We will be able to provide executive delivery assurance, and manage each element of our programmes and projects effectively and efficiently.

Pros:

From initial discussions and product demonstrations, it was clear that PM3 was an industry-strength portfolio, programme and project management software platform that we could set up, configure and start using quickly and effectively. The product is very configurable and we were able to set it up to our particular specification. The Bestoutcome team were very easy to work with, and because of their expertise working with other clients in health and social care, they were able to help us with our implementation. PM3 is competitively priced and is fairly straightforward to use. Comprehensive reporting is included in the standard platform, and there are also extra plug-ins that can be used with BI tools, such as PowerBI, which we use. We were given detailed initial training, and then further specific training with the service improvement change champions and administrators. Overall, the process from purchase to implementation was simple and hassle-free.

Cons:

We have recently completed the initial training, and are now starting to upload our change programmes. To date, we have not found anything negative about the software.

PM3 - a year on

Comments: We are running our entire project portfolio out of the tool in a hybrid model. Large programmes are run directly in the tool. With small projects run in the business we just upload the business case and monthly progress data. This avoids us training people who will only ever run a single project in their careers. A bit more development on the resourcing module, and the ability for users to create new reports and this tool would be a world beater. Has immense functionality for the price.

Pros:

Very good value for money. Easy to install and get started with. Core elements are configurable so we have been able to easily customise elements to our organisation. Updates and improvements are quite frequent so the product is always improving. Customer service is good. Engaged account management and the support team are quick to respond.

Cons:

No ability to create new reports ourselves, which means we have to pay to have new ones created. Resource management tool is quite news and still evolving. It gets a bit slow when you add in lots of different resource types.

Since its introduction, PM3 has greatly improved our company's ability to track project progress

Pros:

Up to date Project information being available all in one place Improved accountability for tasks, milestones and work packages Created better communication lines between PMs and Admin in order to track project progress Introduction of new Resource Tracker has enabled better tracking of availabiity versus demand. Able to assign personnel to the appropriate project depending upon importance and the need to implement any mitigating actions

Cons:

Constraints in changing workflow dates Failed to fully replace the need for Microsoft Office tools such as Excel and Project Not always kept informed concerning server upgrades/system updates Can be difficult for PMs to remember certain user functionalities if they have not logged into to the system for a period of time following previous project completions. Can result in re-training.

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