In the Regional Council of Central Finland, the new project portfolio has quickly been put into active use. The portfolio was configured with the council’s project team and Thinking Portfolio consultants, and after this other staff was trained to use it. Heidi Kervinen is the person in charge of the portfolio at the council, and she was also the project manager of the implementation project. 

-We have received enthusiastic and positive feedback from users. The training sessions provided a comprehensive overview of the different possibilities of the portfolio. Some of the participants in the training had already become familiar with the portfolio on their own in advance. Their feedback was very positive, and they were particularly pleased that the portfolio provides so much information with so little effort. Among the examples mentioned were timetable updates and the fact that project information that is relevant to you can be displayed directly on the front page. 

When monitoring projects, it is important to be able to check what the initial objectives of the project were, and how well these objectives have been achieved. The Thinking Portfolio’s project portfolio also responds well to this need. The portfolio helps to create an overall picture and strengthens the council’s unified approach to project management. For a single project, it is practical to have all the project information in one place. The online visibility of the portfolio will be added in the near future and will then open up transparency also to actors other than those within the council.  

-No more separate Excel spreadsheets and memos, all the information is in the portfolio. Furthermore, the portfolio’s visualisation features make it easier to process the data. 

The project management process was further improved alongside the implementation of the portfolio 

The Central Finland project team found the supplier’s agile way of adapting the portfolio to the customer’s needs to be excellent. The initial workshops to define the portfolio were a great way to capture different perspectives and needs of different stakeholders. It also helped to streamline and review the council’s own process, says Heidi of the tool’s implementation project. 

-Together with Thinking Portfolio’s consultants, going through the financial model and sources also helped us to understand what we are doing and made us think about why we are doing it. To get the portfolio up and running as smoothly as possible, we checked to see if there were any stages in our process that could be rationalised. Our internal discussions about our processes also came to life within this context. 

Already during the workshops, many of the features agreed during the workshops were added to the portfolio and also the larger requests were added quickly. Once the organisational, project and financial structure of the portfolio was agreed, the team was able to test and practice the portfolio using their own projects. 

-The testing continued with a tweaking phase, which allowed the final project data to be brought in, while at the same time making the changes the testers wanted. Moving to the production phase, we were able to continue without having to re-enter project data, which really helped in the project management process. 

In the Thinking Portfolio, you can clearly see how funding is allocated to different projects  

The Regional Council of Central Finland grants funding for projects that strengthen the vitality and well-being of the region. With funding coming from many different sources and for many different projects, it can be difficult to make sense of it all, even within the council and especially for others needing information.  The Thinking Portfolio project portfolio now allows for a better overview and also management of the overall picture. It also shows how many projects are underway, how much funding has been allocated to them, how they are distributed among the strategic priorities of the region and how they are being implemented. 

-At the implementation stage and at the end of the projects, project officers will be able to assess how the project has progressed. The portfolio allows us to have a broader perspective on whether, for example, there is an area of implementation that needs special attention and also help for those implementing projects.  

The Thinking Portfolio project portfolio is the right solution   

User feedback from the Regional Council of Central Finland tells us that the Thinking Portfolio is the solution for monitoring and managing project processes that has been needed for years, says Heidi Kervinen.  

-I highly recommend the Thinking Portfolio and this kind of implementation project. We have a portfolio that suits our needs, it is a tailor-made solution for exactly what we use it for. 

Heidi Kervinen

Project Manager,
The Regional Council of Central Finland