UniPhi 4.0 helps build Victoria's 21st century schools and science and language centres

New release of enterprise portfolio and project management software ensures accountability across Victoria’s BER programs

 

SYDNEY, 17 August 2009 – mbh management (mbh), a Sydney-based consulting and technology company, today announced the new release of the 4.0 version of UniPhi, a web-based enterprise portfolio and project management software tool. The SKM Davis Langdon Joint Venture, one of the key project managers for Victoria’s Building the Education Revolution (BER) program, is using UniPhi 4.0 to help ensure the successful delivery of construction projects for Victorian schools and science and language centres.

Building the Education Revolution is part of the Federal Government’s $42 billion Nation Building and Jobs Plan to create jobs, energise local economies, and invest in infrastructure. The Federal Government’s commitment under BER includes: $12.4 billion to build or upgrade primary school facilities (Primary Schools for the 21st Century); $1.3 billion investment to refurbish and renew existing infrastructure and undertake minor building works in every Australian school (National School Pride Program); and $1 billion to build around 500 new science and language laboratories in secondary schools (Science and Language Centres for 21st Century Schools).

This past April the Victorian government appointed the SKM Davis Langdon Joint Venture as a key project manager to assist schools in successfully completing their BER building projects. SKM, or Sinclair Knight Merz, is a global engineering, sciences and project delivery firm. Davis Langdon is a worldwide consultancy firm providing independent professional services to the property, development, construction, infrastructure and related industries.

mbh managing director Mark Heath discussed UniPhi 4.0’s contribution to the SKM Davis Langdon Joint Venture’s BER project management efforts in Victoria. “UniPhi 4.0’s enhanced document management and reporting capabilities enable the joint venture to provide the state and federal governments with clear and accurate reports on the construction progress of Victorian schools and science and learning centres. This helps ensure that BER funds actually go towards their intended purpose of building high quality institutions of learning for Victoria’s people, instead of wasted on costly, but avoidable construction mistakes. UniPhi 4.0 also provides relevant Victorian BER project management data to the Federal Government’s Economic Stimulus Package website at www.economicstimulusplan.gov.au, where the public can go to get updates on the progress of school and centre construction projects throughout Australia,” said Mark Heath.

“The Victorian government has already signed building and construction contracts worth more than $450 million under the Primary Schools for the 21st Century program, and allocated $135 million under the Science and Language Centres for 21st Century Schools program to Victorian schools. Given the large amount of BER funds yet to be allocated, it is important that the Federal and Victorian governments are able to accurately measure and manage construction projects so that the public gets the state-of-the-art schools and science and learning centres they deserve. UniPhi 4.0 helps by injecting a greater level of transparency and accountability into the construction review and management process,” said Heath.

UniPhi 4.0 features and benefits

The new UniPhi 4.0 release enhances the UniPhi platform in the areas of project portfolio reporting, project integration, document management, issues management, methodology deployment, and systems integration. “UniPhi 4.0 includes key tab additions and changes to support a more user friendly experience and to create an environment that is very responsive and adaptive to how an individual actually works,” stated Heath.

“For instance, we’ve added a ‘My Portfolio’ tab that lists all projects, with priority ratings, budgets, end dates and project stages. This feature provides a useful snapshot of where an individual’s portfolio of projects is at any given point in time. UniPhi 4.0 creates a ‘win-win’ situation for all project team members, because there is an incentive for everyone to diligently input data and use the system so they can easily ascertain the progress of projects and instantly determine whether they are ‘on’ or ‘off’ track,” stated Heath.

“UniPhi 4.0 also incorporates more robust e-mail functionality, such as a transmittal register at the end of documents to record name of sender and date of documents e-mailed, the ability to place a digital signature on documents sent from UniPhi, and simplifying how UniPhi-created documents are e-mailed. Besides individual work productivity improvements, UniPhi 4.0 also facilitates closer communication and collaboration among project team members from different functional areas, which is the key to how UniPhi drives real project innovation and value,” concluded Heath.

About mbh

mbh is a consulting and technology company that enables organisations to understand, manage and drive benefit realisation for key projects. mbh achieves results by utilising an innovative business management philosophy known as ‘managing by project’, which administers new organisational initiatives like projects and promotes creativity with cross-functional teams and key elements derived from several, interrelated management disciplines.

mbh’s operations consist of a main headquarters in Sydney and another office in Adelaide. mbh is comprised of three core businesses – consulting, training, and UniPhi, which is a web-based enterprise portfolio and project management software solution. For additional information on mbh, please visit www.mbh.com.au, and for UniPhi, please visit www.uniphi.com.au.

 

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