Project Lifecycle Management: A centralised, agile system

Built for the needs of education institutions, TechnologyOne’s Project Lifecycle Management (PLM) product is a transformative tool that simplifies the project lifecycle.

Whether managing a ground-breaking research project or a campus-wide IT upgrade, Project Lifecycle Management helps academic institutions streamline project workflows and deliver more value with less friction.

From managing minor or major contracts, Project Lifecycle Management allows organisations to make evidence-based decisions with visibility across the full lifecycle of the project from start to finish.

Fully integrated with TechnologyOne’s enterprise suite, Project Lifecycle Management offers a single source of truth for all project data, financial tracking, automated workflows, and analytics.

Therefore, it allows organisations to make evidence-based decisions with visibility across the entire lifecycle of a project from start to finish.

Structured project governance from day one

Every project starts with an idea, an initiative, that requires documentation such as a business case and cost estimates. But with finite financial resources and increasing demands, universities need a structured approach to assess, prioritise and progress initiatives throughout the project lifecycle.

TechnologyOne’s Project Lifecycle Management guides projects through clearly defined stage gates, which can include:

• Project Initiative,
• Project Candidate,
• Project Execution,
• Project Closure, and
• Post Project activities.

Throughout each stage, information is captured and centralised, ensuring no details are spared and every decision is backed by data.

Project Lifecycle Management also automates approvals and governance workflows, allowing controls to adapt based on the complexity of the project. This not only reduces the administrative burden but also strengthens compliance and accountability.

Decision-making with ‘what-if’ modelling

Making the right investment decisions is critical, especially when resources are limited and the stakes are high. Project Lifecycle Management empowers universities with powerful "what-if" modelling tools that allow users to test different project scenarios and identify the optimal mix based on funding constraints and strategic objectives.

This shifts decision-making away from subjective guesswork and toward a more transparent, evidence-based approach.

By leveraging data-driven insights, institutions can ensure every funding decision is aligned with broader organisational goals, ultimately driving meaningful outcomes across the entire university.

A single source of truth

All project information is captured once and automatically shared across integrated systems, including Financials, Contracts and Assets. This eliminates the need for third-party integrations or duplication data entry, significantly reducing errors and saving time.

The result is a single source of truth that ensures consistency and accuracy, no matter where or how the information is accessed. Users gain confidence in their data through a streamlined workflow, critical for university institutions managing multiple projects and stakeholders.

Real-time visibility

TechnologyOne’s  Project Lifecycle Management offers a dynamic dashboard featuring inbuilt GANTT charting capability, giving users a clear, real-time view of project timelines, milestones and progress.

Fully integrated with the Projects and Works ecosystem, this visual planning tool allows teams to seamlessly plan, track, and manage every phase of a project within a single, centralised platform.

Real-world impact: University of Hertfordshire’s transformation journey

For over 15 years, the University of Hertfordshire has partnered with TechnologyOne. Like many other large institutions, Hertfordshire struggled with outdated manual processes, and with over 25,000 students and hundreds of concurrent projects, the weight of inefficiency and lack of visibility was overwhelming.

Prior to implementing Project Lifecycle Management with TechnologyOne, the University of Hertfordshire was experiencing administrative fatigue and drowning in manual process misery. Managing capital works, research projects and operational initiatives through spreadsheets and siloed systems. Teams were disconnected and stuck in email loops, project approvals were at standstills, and financial oversight was sparse.

TechnologyOne’s  Project Lifecycle Management solution revolutionised these processes. The platform not only digitised the University of Hertfordshire’s processes but also provided an end-to-end system to manage the entire project lifecycle.

At the heart of Hertfordshire’s success with Project Lifecycle Management lies the revolutionary dashboards that empower users to access real-time insights. It provides a single source of truth, in real time, from one platform.

The core benefits of Project Lifecycle Management include:

• Dramatically improved governance through automated approval workflows and audit trials
• Real-time financial confidence through live budget monitoring and forecasting tools
• Shifting from admin-intensive processes to strategic thinking and execution
• Reduced risk through greater visibility, control and compliance across the project lifecycle

The University of Hertfordshire’s journey with TechnologyOne stands as a powerful example of how universities can transform project delivery and governance. By replacing manual, fragmented processes with one, unified system, Hertfordshire has unlocked greater agility and strategic control.

This success story offers a blueprint for other institutions facing similar pressures. With TechnologyOne Project Lifecycle Management, universities can move beyond outdated workflows to embrace a whole new way of working – one that maximises resources, mitigates risk and ultimately delivers greater value to students, staff and communities.