French Department of Cher customer testimonial: Strengthen cross-functional project management with IDhall

The Department of Cher, one of France’s 101 departments, is responsible for managing several essential public services. Its missions include managing secondary schools, maintaining departmental roads, managing environmentally sensitive areas, as well as various aspects of social support, such as financing and managing the active solidarity income, accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people, maternal and infant protection, and child welfare. The department also manages the region’s cultural heritage, including the departmental archives.

In addition to its mandatory responsibilities, the Department of Cher is also involved in several voluntary initiatives, such as helping to fund AD2T Berry Province, which promotes departmental tourism, and the Departmental Housing Information Agency. These initiatives illustrate the department’s commitment to improving the quality of life on its territory.

Find out from Constance Dhorbait, Cross-functional Project Manager, how the Department of Cher is strengthening its cross-functional approach, introducing greater flexibility and optimizing time management in its projects, thanks to IDhall.

Look for a tool to optimize time management and reinforce cross-functional project management

Like many administrative entities, the Department of Cher is subject to changes in public policy, which can influence and modify its responsibilities. These changes require continuous and effective adaptation of its working methods to maintain optimal public service, particularly in project management. In addition, departments collaborate with a multitude of organizations, making the coordination of project activities even more complex. In this highly dynamic environment, it is essential to be particularly responsive and able to adapt quickly to new requirements and situations.

The Department of Cher depended on the use of Excel files to manage its projects; the only tool uniformly adopted by all employees. However, the non-collaborative nature of these files led to uneven use and a significant loss of time for them. This inefficiency with Excel files clearly highlighted the need for improvement.

In this setting, it became imperative to reinforce cross-functionality and optimize the time allocated to projects. Consequently, finding a tool that could support flexible, reactive and collaborative management was essential to improve synergy between different directions.

IDhall selection: meeting the challenges of project management in a departmental context

The Department of Cher urgently needed a tool that would meet several key objectives. The chosen software had to enable efficient monitoring of the administration project and the community’s strategic projects. It was also crucial that the tool should be accessible and easy to use for project managers and other staff involved in project management, requiring a rapid learning process. This need arose because, although some employees were already using Microsoft Project, its complexity did not suit all users.

The recommendation and demonstration by SDIS du Cher – fire and rescue service from the same French department and already an IDhall user – played a role in the local authority’s decision to adopt the platform for its project management. These interactions confirmed that IDhall perfectly met the criteria they were looking for, thus facilitating the choice of solution.

Improving project management with IDhall: greater flexibility and cross-functionality

IDhall was deployed at the Department of Cher at the beginning of 2023, making the software available to the divisions, service managers and other staff involved in the administration project. The benefits of this implementation, particularly in terms of information management, quickly became apparent.

One of the most appreciated aspects of the platform is its ability to provide comprehensive reports on the progress of projects, including those that have not achieved their planned objectives. This enables in-depth analysis of failures and delays. Transparency improves internal management and communication, especially in the event of staff changes or prolonged absences, by ensuring that all critical information remains accessible and up to date.

IDhall’s flexibility is also a strong feature, as the software can be adapted to the needs of both intensive project managers and those with more varied responsibilities. Unlike other more rigid tools, IDhall offers an intuitive user interface that simplifies day-to-day management and strengthens collaboration between different services.

The next step will be to integrate IDhall into the future intranet, which will extend access to project information to all employees and further strengthen cross-functionality within the organization.