In preparation for both the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the Department of Health has employed Post Vision Technology’s project management solution, Project Portfolio Office (PPO), to create a structured project environment, assisting the department in keeping close track of project progress and ensuring that deadlines are met.
Co-ordinating medical services from government’s side, Peter Fuhri, Director: 2010 World Cup for the Department of Health, explains that government is working together with the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and the private sector in an integrated effort to plan and implement an appropriate health and medical services plan for the two major soccer events.
“To ensure that we, as government, are able to guarantee the necessary health services at the time of these events, a structured approach was required and we therefore established a project management unit with specific work groups to deal with the different aspects of this intricate venture,” he says.
The workgroups include Command and Control, Communicable Disease, Emergency Medical Services, Environmental Health, Forensic Pathology Services, Hospitals, Port Health and Stadiums, with provincial co-ordinators and programme managers who report back to Fuhri on a national level.
According to Post Vision CEO, Guy Jelley, PPO is designed, developed and supported locally to assist organisations to manage projects and project portfolios. Provided on a software as a service platform, the Department of Health has access to the PPO application on a hosted and rental basis over the Internet, at a fraction of the cost and with no infrastructure-related concerns.
“In what is serving to be a dry run for the soccer World Cup next year, the Department of Health is using PPO to guide the concerned provinces, municipalities and workgroups to execute the necessary medical arrangements for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, which is currently under way. This is giving users the opportunity to become accustomed to and fine-tune the system according to their specific requirements,” he says.
According to Fuhri, with this kind of project there really isn’t any room for error and no other option than to stick to the deadlines, because the event will go ahead on the set date.
“There are many different aspects that need to be in place across the provinces and PPO is helping us set timelines, identify problem areas and control the phases. An event of this magnitude also involves a vast amount of documentation, including guidelines and policies, and PPO allows us to store our information in a central repository so that all relevant people across the provinces can access it,” he says.
“PPO further tracks and records all activities on the system and has excellent reporting mechanisms that allow us to hold people accountable for their actions or lack of effort. The benefit of this is twofold: we can determine problem areas and address issues; and at the same time see whether the co-ordinators and managers are equipping the users adequately.
In essence, it promotes a team effort with colleagues relying on one other.
“Another major advantage for us is the ease of use – one doesn’t have to be a project manager to be able to use PPO. Other than a computer and an Internet connection, we didn’t need anything else to acquire the service.
In fact, if we need to add more users, we simply have to obtain additional licences – nothing significant changes,” he explains.
“This flexibility is very important since we will need to increase capacity for 2010 as preparations will be on a larger scale. With eight of the provinces hosting games and all nine involved in tourist activities, the tool will be introduced across the board.”
The department’s current focus is training the users, ensuring participation and improving the reporting process.
Fuhri also states that PPO will not only be employed for these two events, but that the department will carry on using it post 2010 for the development of emergency medical services throughout the country and for other programmes such as the hospital revitalising programme.
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