Prior to deploying BrightWork, Northamptonshire County Council (NCC) experienced some project management challenges. The council had adopted PRINCE2 methodology for project management but not everyone in the council was trained on how to apply those principles. Managing several wide-ranging projects became difficult due to varying levels of project management knowledge and experience across the council.

NCC also had required documents and procedures for project management, but adherence to those protocols was not always followed. They also found that there was a lack of openness and transparency of many projects because they were so large. As an elected representative body, NCC is fully accountable to the public so they needed a system to increase visibility into projects and their progress.

The Council deployed BrightWork to improve project management within the council and customized it to meet their specific project management needs. NCC was able to make sure that their strict project management guidelines are followed and provide management a transparent view into the status of projects and project milestones.

One of the most important features of BrightWork for them was the introduction of project milestones to be completed in all phases of a project. Using BrightWork, NCC set up a template that was pre-populated with all mandatory milestones that have to be completed in accordance with their established project management protocols. The introduction of project milestones enabled visibility, openness and accountability for project managers.

The template also enables top management to quickly see a high level view in to which milestones are being done correctly and which are being missed, enabling the complete transparency and accountability the Council required.

The project milestones checklist helps the project managers who are lacking in experience and project management knowledge to make sure they are following all the guidelines laid out by the Council.

NCC also added a document library which automatically shows up in every new project that is created. The library houses all necessary documents that would need to be filled in by the project manager to prove that they are following protocol in setting up and managing a project.