City of Fort Lauderdale Implements Project Management Software

The City of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., recently implemented project management software in its Information Technology (IT) Department.

"For us, the challenge was to implement a structured and formal approach to project management," said Tim Edkin, director of IT services for Fort Lauderdale. "About a year ago, we started investigating our options. We looked at four or five project management solutions ... Eventually, we chose Vertabase because it is easy to use, it's well designed and it's well supported. In the past, if a project was late there wasn't much we could learn from it. Now, we're very analytical. We see what's happening and manage accordingly. By providing an effective operational overview for City Hall, Vertabase has improved the way we manage our resources.

"We have about 20 IT projects ongoing at any given time, typically consisting of 20 to 30 tasks, executed over three to six months," Edkin continued. "We have integrated Vertabase with Crystal Reports software, which was very straight-forward, to provide comprehensive reports. We have been very pleased since we implemented Vertabase in the IT group about six months ago. And, on the basis of our department's success, we intend to roll out Vertabase in several other departments at City Hall."