Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC) serves a population of circa 216,000 people and is part of the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System. SMBC operates across 17 wards, represented by 51 councillors, and works with its partners and residents to ensure everyone has an equal chance to be healthier, happier, safer, and more prosperous through growth that creates opportunities for all. The Business Intelligence and Improvement Division, headed by Sarah Barnes, supports delivering council priorities that align with this vision.

Sarah is responsible for developing and assuring the council’s corporate business and change capabilities and for the Business Improvement Team, which provides corporate project support across the Council, including through Project Support Officer Jack Holland. The council has a variety of transformation activities underway across the different Directorates, including the Adult Social Care Transformation Programme managed by Hayley Boswell-Perks (Interim Transformation Programme Manager) and her team.

The council had been searching for a project management platform to replace its legacy system, and that contract was due to expire in June 2024. SMBC wanted a solution that would offer improvements across dashboards, templates, and reports, ease of use for all stakeholders, and the scope to scale out to additional users over time. Following the exploration of systems and suppliers, Wellingtone was selected as the partner to configure and deploy Project for the Web with Accelerator+, completing the implementation in just two months, as the council’s team explained.

Overview

Customer

Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council

What did we do?

We implemented Microsoft Planner Premium with Wellingtone Accelerator+, enhanced by custom Power BI report packs and supported by Author Training.

Key Highlights

• A rapid, time-critical deployment was completed in just two months.
• Enhancing project management functionality with improved dashboards, tabs, and templates.
• Improving portfolio visibility with customised Power BI reporting packs.
• Power BI author training to embed value-adding skills in-house.
• Fully adopted within Adult Social Care, with a recommendation to extend to the Corporate Transformation Programme.

“Before selecting Project for the Web, we evaluated several options,” says Sarah. “The council had invested in Microsoft 365 as an organisation-wide capability, so it made sense to look at compatible solutions. Our account manager at Microsoft introduced us to Project for the Web and recommended a number of possible implementation partners. When we talked to Wellingtone, they came across as flexible and adaptable, offering significant programme and portfolio management expertise on top of their technical capabilities. The numbers also looked good since we could adopt the solution cost-effectively within our existing Microsoft licensing model. It was clear that Accelerator+ offered a significant upgrade on Project for the Web’s out-of-the-box functionality. Overall, it was a great fit for our requirements, and we were confident that Wellingtone’s team was equipped to deliver what we needed.”

From Hayley’s perspective, Accelerator+ offered scope for quick wins and improvements. “While the core priority was to replace the legacy system and ensure continuity of service, we also saw the opportunity to implement some improvements to our project processes and reporting capabilities,” she explains. “The requirement-gathering process ran very smoothly. Wellingtone’s consultant ensured that our expectations were well managed, led us through the documentation and system capabilities professionally, and ensured that all follow-up actions were clearly documented and acted upon in a timely and efficient way.”

Jack agrees, pointing out that “We didn’t need anything extravagant in terms of implementation, but Wellingtone worked with us to identify several improvements to functionality, templates, and reports, which they implemented quickly and effectively. Both our dedicated consultant and the whole Wellingtone team were very responsive. I was confident they would answer queries and deal with issues promptly. Given that we only had two months to configure, train, and go live before our legacy contract expired, their ability to work at that speed was important to us.”

In terms of functionality, Wellingtone implemented a number of improvements to support users in their work, according to Hayley. “A particular headline for us is the Tasks tab, which allows us to input and assign tasks associated with project delivery easily.  The Status Report tab is also integral, as it allows project leads to update on the status of their projects and raise any early issues so that remedial action can be taken before it escalates to a significant problem. Anecdotally, all of our project leads have commented on how much simpler the solution is to use compared to our previous system. And, for our dedicated PMO staff in Adult Social Care who do the bulk of inputting project plans, that ease of use saves significant labour on tasks that were previously very time-consuming.”

Improving Portfolio Visibility and Value with Power BI Reports and Author Training

From a portfolio control and business intelligence perspective, Wellingtone worked with SMBC’s team to develop two customised report packs with Power BI. This was supported by specific Power BI author training to enable the PMO to develop its reporting capabilities further. “That training was extremely useful,” Jack confirms. “From both a portfolio delivery and a cost efficiency perspective, we wanted the in-house skills to be able to exploit the system’s potential and develop its impact. The training introduced us to additional Power BI functionality that even I, as a regular user, was not previously aware of. It gave us a confident understanding of how to link Project for the Web’s data into Power BI and extract that data into reports that add visibility and value for our sponsors and leadership teams.”

Speaking as a sponsor, Sarah appreciates the impact of the reporting enhancements that Power BI has generated. “Currently, the PMO primarily uses those outputs to report to the Transformation Board responsible for Adult Social Care. It is still fairly early days, but there is certainly an appreciation amongst sponsors and leaders for the intelligence the reports provide. It enhances our ability to govern effectively and to steer the direction of travel. We have also started using Accelerator+, and the associated Power BI reports for some corporate projects. I will shortly recommend adopting the solution across our entire Corporate Transformation Programme. What struck me about Wellingtone is the extent to which their expertise is rooted in project, programme and portfolio management – not just ICT. As a result, as well as delivering the technology we needed, they have enhanced our approach to managing our programmes and portfolios. We have had a really good experience with them. I wouldn’t hesitate to encourage anyone in a similar position to converse with them and explore what is possible.”

Global Award-Winning Microsoft Planner Experts

As the 2025 Microsoft Partner of the Year for Project and Portfolio Management, we bring unrivalled expertise to every Microsoft Planner and Planner Premium deployment. Organisations choose us because we understand how to take Planner further, combining Microsoft’s platform with our own Accelerator+ to deliver a scalable, intuitive project management solution that truly supports modern PMOs. Whether you’re starting fresh or transforming an existing environment, you’re working with the global leader in Planner-based project delivery.