Customer Story: Real-time Project Management with ProChain Solutions Inc. and Stormboard

As a Senior Project Management Consultant at ProChain Solutions Inc., Travis Glaze and the team’s project manager would often spend hours each evening, after the rest of the team had already left, in front of their computers. They needed the extra time after regular hours to transcribe all of the hand-written notes from the latest sessions, and then input that data into another software program.

In an effort to get back their evenings, the consultants at ProChain began searching for alternative solutions to hand-written notes and data. Travis was the Senior Consultant tasked with spearheading the effort to find the right tool.

After a long and comprehensive search, ProChain landed on Stormboard as the digital workspace and remote collaboration tool that could enable the capture of team-generated information electronically and in real-time.  

Having found the right tool for the job, the ProChain team then developed a process to enable their team engagements to reap the full benefits of this new approach. They wrote a conversion macro that allowed the Stormboard data to be ported directly into Microsoft Project.

When COVID-19 struck and business travel came to a halt, the process that had been developed by ProChain in conjunction with Stormboard went from being a nice-to-have to a necessity. Thanks to Stormboard’s ability to enable remote collaboration, the impact of ProChain's preparations was immediate and far-reaching.

About ProChain Solutions Inc.

Established in 1996, Woodbridge, Virginia-based ProChain Solutions Inc. is a complete project management solution provider that relies on proprietary methods and software to improve efficiencies for businesses in virtually any sector.  

“We are the premier implementer of solutions based on the Critical Chain approach; we have thousands of clients, many in the Global 500. Our A⁵ Project Management System, with its integrated software and services, enables our customers to:

• Dramatically increase project predictability while decreasing risk.

• Reduce project cycle times by 20% to 50%,

• Improve time to market, and

• Increase productivity.” 

The challenges? Wasted time and inefficient processes

Stormboard has not always been leveraged by the team at ProChain the way it is today. Several years ago, ProChain was trying to solve an all-too-familiar problem: the inefficiencies of working with teams spread across vast distances and different time zones.

Even the best-structured and well-run meetings end with the same challenges; one or two people in the working group are tasked with accurately transcribing and inputting every note, idea, and outcome of a meeting into some digital platform. "All data entry happens with one set of fingers on one keyboard, and so we spent hours manipulating [other software programs] as people would feed us information one at a time." Travis explains that even before COVID-19 turned much of ProChain’s work remote, the business was already searching for "something where we could collaboratively and simultaneously input data."

Back in 2017, when the group at ProChain first started searching for a way to make these team meetings better, there was some initial resistance from those who worried about the burden to the team that may come with adding an additional piece of software. "We were making progress implementing the new process using Stormboard, but at a cautious pace.”

However, they had enough success with Stormboard through both internal testing and testing with client teams, that when everyone was forced to conduct their business virtually, the pace changed. "When COVID struck and everyone was at home, we were comfortable with Stormboard and the process built around it, so we rolled it out without missing a beat. None of our engagements were delayed."

The solution? Interactive remote collaboration

In 2017 when the decision was made to find an interactive remote collaboration tool, from the dozens of tools evaluated, the decision became clear: “One thing we had to have, and this is a big differentiator that Stormboard offers, is the ability to export information into Excel so it is accessible to other software programs. The other thing that made Stormboard the easy choice was that it was so easy to use, the team would lose almost no time learning this new tool.”

After some trial and error to adapt the process to a digital space, Stormboard became the go-to tool for Travis and ProChain "It took some tweaks to our original process, but fundamentally we are doing what we did live, but now everyone is calling in from their own house and we are able to build the team’s project schedule collaboratively, simultaneously."

COVID-19 may have been the catalyst that drove ProChain’s meetings online, but as Travis puts it, "it's doing what we need...we will certainly continue using Stormboard and our virtual process."

As a project management business, ProChain has their own software and processes in place to fit the specific needs of their clientele, but after coming in as a solution to fill a gap caused by COVID-19, Stormboard has become an integral part of that process: "For our process, each team spends the first month working in Stormboard and then they transition over to our ProChain software and Microsoft Project…The more we use Stormboard, we find it fills other collaboration needs.  We are using it beyond what we envisioned as the original purpose.”  ProChain no longer needs to fly people in from India, Europe, or different parts of North America to truly collaborate, they can leverage Stormboard to eliminate inefficiencies and have better live meetings, virtually.

“It was COVID that made using Stormboard a necessity, and now that we’ve been here, I can’t imagine us ever going back.”  

The Result

ProChain immediately leveraged their years of experience into making this Stormboard-based, collaborative experience a success.

The consultants at ProChain have now successfully implemented Stormboard for collaborating on and developing complex project schedules for a variety of large clients spanning a dozen industries.

The capabilities of Stormboard complements ProChain's own software as a viable alternative to face-to-face meetings with team members geographically distributed across the globe.

Born out of necessity, the partnership between ProChain and Stormboard has revolutionized the way that Travis, his fellow Senior Consultants, the project managers, and their clients handle their work. "If we hadn’t had this tool [during COVID] we would still have been able to build schedules, but it would have been extremely frustrating for me and the team. They would have been doing it because there was no other choice, not because it was a better way to go. I think now people see that this is a better way to go — they want to do it — [Stormboard] is not something we are forcing on them, it’s a process they are excited about."

The impact for both ProChain and Travis himself has been tangible. Not only does he now find himself with more time and fewer frustrations, his teams now tell him, “we are going to use this [Stormboard] internally, even when we are back in the office together.”

Get Started!

Are you interested in learning more about how Stormboard can work for you and your team? Click here to sign up for a FREE trial or book a demo!

Keep Reading