Benefits of Milient
As an international multidisciplinary consultancy, flexibility and accessibility were essential. Moving to a cloud-based platform allowed teams to work seamlessly across locations.
James explains: "Project Flow means we can work from anywhere in the world as opposed to logging into a server in the Dublin office. Project Flow has given us 24/7 access to our projects and information.”
Security was also a key consideration during the transition to the cloud.
"The Milient team made us feel comfortable with the security features of going to the cloud and the advantages of having our information backed up on the cloud."
OCSC also took advantage of Project Flow’s integration with Microsoft Power BI to transform reporting efficiency.
“Project Flow's integration with Power BI has been one of the biggest changes for us. We used to spend a lot of time producing the formatting for the reports that we require. It is very interactive and intuitive, giving us what we are looking for. From a board level, it used to take us 2 days to produce the information we needed for meetings. With the Power BI integration with Project Flow, it takes us an hour. Project Flow and Power BI have taken a huge amount of strain off our reporting, saving us time.”
Improved reporting has directly strengthened decision-making:
"Our decision-making has become more accurate; now our forecasting is based on scientific data, empowering us to make informed decisions quickly.”
Integration and Support
Over the years, Project Flow has continued to evolve alongside OCSC, with new modules and functionality delivering ongoing value.
"Project Flow has a lot of functionality, and with that comes the potential for customisation. Each practice can choose to display only the information it finds beneficial."
James highlights the impact of HR functionality: “Project Flow’s HR function is great, we are now capturing data to produce reports we wouldn’t have been able to before."
He adds: "By using the new skills matrix, we can have a balance with project engineers and CAD technicians across offices. All this data is readily available each month, allowing us to report on it with ease. We can see trends in people joining and leaving by month and discipline. We are also getting good information on our clients by company groups and sector, which we would not have had before. This has helped us keep on track internally.”
Customer service has remained a key differentiator throughout the long partnership.
“I think the main selling point was the customer service that Milient offers. Whenever there is a question, we know that Milient's response time will be prompt, with everything answered in full. Milient has better customer service than anyone else I have dealt with in the past.”
When asked what advice he would give to new users, James shared: “Companies new to Project Flow need to have a plan in place. Take a step-by-step approach with the software to avoid being overwhelmed by all the capabilities Project Flow offers. List the top priorities of what you want to get out of the software. Build the foundations up from there, ask yourself, ‘what’s my most important requirement and criteria that I need out of the software?’ It will take some time to build up the data in the system when you start using new software, so take it slowly. Data integrity is the absolute key, so you can analyse to get the insights you need, which Project Flow provides.”
