In today’s fast-paced world, efficiency is essential, especially in project management. Automation, when executed right, can be a game-changer. I wanted to share the processes I’ve automated in our project’s weekly reporting system:
Integration of Essential Apps:
Automate: For setting up automatic workflows and processes.
Excel: As our primary data storage and processing tool.
Power BI: To visualize the data and derive meaningful insights.
Other Tools: Including Forms and Approval systems, to gather data and approve processes respectively.
Scheduled Automated Flows:
Set to run every Sunday at 8:00 am, these flows ensure archive all last week data, create new folder with the new data date and update all the lists to be ready for the new inputs.
Diverse Data Capture:
The email will be sent to all of the team to update the different lists based on their responsibility.
Weekly Key Achievements: Highlights of the week, showcasing milestones reached.
Commercial Updates: Any financial or commercial changes or updates.
HSQE Updates: Health, Safety, Quality, and Environment-related updates ensuring we’re compliant and safe.
Ongoing Activities & Key Issues: Continuous tracking of active tasks and addressing any pressing concerns.
Project Control Validations:
Before any data gets finalized, it’s validated by the project control to ensure accuracy.
Any discrepancies found are promptly addressed, ensuring the data’s integrity.
Instant Automated Flows:
After validation an instant flow will be trigger, this flow contains many sub-flows to sort the data from different sources into the database.
Dashboard Updates:
Post data validation, the main dashboard gets an update, reflecting the most recent information.
Once updated, it’s published for all stakeholders to view.
Centralized SharePoint Integration:
Serving as the project’s digital nerve center, our SharePoint site provides quick access to all necessary templates.
It features a comprehensive dashboard giving an at-a-glance view of all ongoing processes and updates.
In conclusion, this automation journey has not only improved our efficiency but also increased our data accuracy. By integrating various tools and setting up automated workflows, we’ve ensured that our weekly reporting is both timely and reliable. Automation is undoubtedly the way forward in project management.