Drones have been used in NLS research and development projects, as well as certain production tasks. Sensors (cameras or laser lights) mounted on a drone are used for acquiring 3D geographical data. Image: Julia Hautojärvi.
The National Land Survey performs land surveys, maintains property data, produces map material, takes care of legal confirmations and mortgages, develops information systems and promotes geographical location data research.
Thinking Portfolio proved its user-friendliness from the get-go
“When the implementation of Thinking Portfolio was started, 90% of the project managers attended the introductory press conference. The introduction of the application received no resistance at all. Everyone was quickly able to see the benefits of the tool,” NLS Director Pasi Pekkinen describes the introduction of the new application. He provides another example of the Thinking Portfolio’s user-friendliness; during the initial transfer of projects, even the largest projects took no longer than five minutes to transfer, despite the fact that this was done manually.
“Currently, it looks like we have gotten off to a good start. Users have commented that they do not have to rely on Excel and Power Point documents for reporting any more.”
Reduced workload and fewer errors
Administrative documentation was previously handled with Office tools. This meant a significant amount of copying and entering identical content on several documents. NLS has been particularly satisfied with the clarity of Thinking Portfolio, in which the content comes from one source regardless of its end use. Furthermore, less work means fewer errors.
“Before, it was difficult to produce material that provided a clear overview of the portfolio. Now, we spend a lot less time reporting, as up-to-date reports can be produced with the click of a button.
The status report is an obligatory part of steering group meetings. The report covers all required areas in the government’s common portfolio; forecasts, outcomes, risk analysis, objective monitoring, communications plan and traffic lights indicating the status of projects.
Financial matters have a more central role in discussions with the tool providing a more standardised overview.
Budget monitoring and forecasting is easier with the new project portfolio application. This encourages more efficient forecasting and monitoring.”
Thinking Portfolio helps standardise operations
“The operating model we have built can be implemented at a portfolio level, which makes portfolio management more efficient. Other benefits of note include improved transparency, easy and consistent communication with the management group and the promotion of standardised operations,” Pekkinen lists.
All new projects imported into Thinking Portfolio have been presented to the management group directly from the tool.
Thinking Portfolio’s summary views with various grouping features help clarify portfolio-level reporting. The views can be easily adjusted, if necessary, to feature fewer project templates.
At the National Land Survey of Finland, another positive feature of Thinking Portfolio is that dependencies can be monitored in order to prioritise resources even for work that is not in the portfolio. This helps with annual planning preparations, as extensive changes can be viewed and included in the process despite them not being included in projects.
Interviewee:
Copyright MML
Pasi Pekkinen
Head of PMO
Maanmittauslaitos
