Reducing Risks in Development Projects

Your Development Department can now buy the proven Workbench package from Comino.

Workbench is a well established product in the field of project control and progressing. It is used extensively by construction and consulting companies to manage projects. It has been extended to handle the additional requirements of Housing Association development departments and is already in use at several associations.

Workbench brings all these advantages:

- Workbench helps Development departments control development projects.

- It provides a single source of information for the Development department to use for control and reporting (including KPIs). All relevant data needed to run and control the project is held in one place - The Workbench development database. This saves staff time for report production and allows up to the minute information to be shared.

- An extensive Standard report set allows fast and accurate reporting, covering both ad hoc enquiries and period end reporting

- An electronic checklist allows managers to ensure all the appropriate tasks have been carried out from an audit point of view. This list of actions can be added to on an ad hoc basis, allowing tasks to be allocated with due by dates to the appropriate officers. The progress of projects can be monitored and costly omissions avoided

- Workbench produces the standard letters needed during the course of a project and then files them under the project allowing them to be reviewed for content and completeness. This saves time, provides the benefits of standardisation with the flexibility of Word.

- It has a modern Windows interface. Because it is easy to use, members of staff are more willing to use it.

- Cash flow forecasting is easy to set up, update and report from, including dynamic reporting through the add on module in Excel. Making this easier means that it is more likely to be done on a timely basis. The ease of reporting saves time and improves accuracy.

- Interfaces to Housing management, Finance systems and even the scheme viability assessment systems reduce double handling of paper and re-keying of data improving accuracy and saving time.

- Workbench can be used to track opportunities for development from as soon as they are known about, helping to maximise the take up of sites by tracking essential activities.