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Great Western Railway

Published 18/07/2025

Executive Summary

Great Western Railway (GWR), a major UK rail operator, partnered with CPS to modernise its project and portfolio management (PPM) environment. After more than a decade on a legacy platform, GWR required a more integrated, scalable, and user-friendly solution to support its growing portfolio of strategic initiatives.

CPS delivered a Microsoft-first platform built on Planner Premium, Power Platform, and Azure OpenAI. The solution now governs over 100 active projects across four strategic programmes, with a combined capital and operational value of approximately £40 million. The transformation has resulted in measurable improvements in governance, automation, user engagement, and reporting accuracy, while preserving and enhancing existing Power BI reporting capabilities.

Organisation Background

Great Western Railway (GWR) is one of the country’s biggest train operators, who manage 194 stations, calling at more than 270, and operate over 2,100 miles of track. The GWR network is diverse, connecting customers across an area of more than 11,000 square miles, and serving a wide range of differing customer markets.

The organisation operates in a highly regulated environment, with governance and compliance requirements set by the Department for Transport (DfT). As such, the Programme Management Office (PMO) is a central function, responsible for ensuring that projects are delivered efficiently, consistently, and in alignment with strategic and regulatory objectives.

Business Challenge

Prior to the engagement with CPS, GWR had been using the same PPM platform for over 11 years. While the system had served its purpose in earlier years, it had become increasingly misaligned with the organisation’s needs. The platform presented several challenges:

Inflexibility: The legacy system had a black-box architecture that was difficult to configure or extend. Customisation was limited, and adapting the platform to new processes or requirements was time-consuming and costly.
Lack of Integration: The system did not integrate natively with Microsoft 365, SAP, or document management tools. This created silos of information and required manual workarounds to bridge gaps between systems.
Fragmented Reporting: Although GWR had Power BI in place, reports were built on data pulled from a combination of the legacy tool and Excel files stored in SharePoint. This created inconsistencies and required significant manual effort to maintain.
Manual Processes: Reporting and governance processes were heavily reliant on spreadsheets, introducing delays and data integrity issues.
Low User Adoption: The platform’s complexity and unintuitive interface led to inconsistent use across departments. Governance processes were not applied uniformly, and project data was often incomplete or outdated.

The PMO needed a solution that could support approximately 90 concurrent projects, provide a consistent framework for programme and project management, and enable better governance, reporting, and collaboration across the organisation.

The GWR PMO required an alternative solution to our existing portfolio and timesheet management platform to provide a more dynamic platform to accommodate PMO processes, the management and delivery of projects, and integration at departmental level to improve collaboration.

Steven Wedge
Senior Governance Manager at GWR

Strategic Objectives

GWR defined a clear set of objectives for the transformation:

Adopt a Microsoft-first platform that would leverage existing Microsoft 365 licences and Azure services.
Embed AI and automation to reduce administrative overhead, standardise documentation, and improve efficiency.
Improve user experience and adoption through intuitive, integrated tools that align with how teams already work.
Enable real-time reporting and governance with a single source of truth across the portfolio, improving visibility and decision-making.
Preserve and enhance existing Power BI reporting by transitioning data sources to a more robust and integrated backend.

Enhancing Portfolio Delivery with Microsoft Planner, Power Platform, AI, and Automation

CPS worked closely with GWR to design and implement a modern PPM solution centred on Microsoft technologies. The solution includes:

Microsoft Planner Premium:

Used for intuitive task and project management, enabling teams to plan, track, and collaborate on work in a familiar interface.

Power Apps:

Custom applications were developed to digitise key processes such as project initiation, approvals, and change requests.

Azure OpenAI (ProBot):

A branded AI assistant that automates the creation of the Project Initiation Document (PID), saving 3–4 hours per instance and improving consistency.

Power Automate:

Used to orchestrate workflows, automate form processing, and reduce manual effort across the project lifecycle.

Dataverse:

Serves as the central data repository, ensuring consistency and integrity across applications.

SharePoint:

Provides document management and collaboration capabilities.

SAP Finance Integration:

Enables financial governance and alignment with corporate finance processes.

DocuSign:

Supports digital approvals, reducing delays and improving auditability.

PowerBI:

Delivers real-time dashboards and reporting, providing visibility into project status, risks, and financials.

The platform now supports 100 active projects across four strategic programmes, with a combined capital and operational value of approximately £40 million.

Working with CPS, GWR successfully implemented a one-stop shop for all things projects in the portfolio space, provided more consistency across finance and approvals, integrated better workflow management, reduced duplication through automated form filling, and provided a better user experience,

Steven Wedge

Implementation Approach

The implementation followed a phased approach to ensure minimal disruption and maximum adoption:

Discovery and Design: CPS conducted workshops with GWR stakeholders to understand existing processes, pain points, and requirements. This informed the design of a solution tailored to GWR’s governance model.
Development and Configuration: Custom Power Apps and workflows were developed to support project lifecycle processes. Integration with SAP and DocuSign was configured to streamline financial and approval workflows.
AI Enablement: ProBot, GWR’s branded Azure OpenAI assistant, was deployed to automate the creation of the PID, reducing effort and improving standardisation
Training and Change Management: CPS provided training and support to ensure successful adoption. Feedback loops were established to gather user input and continuously improve the solution.
Deployment and Scaling: The solution was rolled out in stages, with early adopters providing feedback that informed broader deployment.
Power BI Transition: Existing reports were reviewed and rebuilt to connect directly to Dataverse, eliminating reliance on Excel and legacy tool exports.

Outcomes and Benefits

The transformation has delivered significant benefits across multiple dimensions:

Improved Governance and Consistency: The new platform enforces a consistent framework for project and programme delivery. Stage assurance is now fully digitised and auditable, ensuring compliance with internal and external governance standards.
Enhanced User Experience: User satisfaction with PPM tooling has increased from 3/5 to 4/5. The intuitive interface and integration with familiar Microsoft tools have driven higher adoption and engagement across departments.
Time Savings Through Automation: ProBot has significantly reduced the time required to produce documentation, saving 3 to 4 hours per document. This has freed up time for project managers to focus on delivery rather than administration.
Real-Time Reporting and Visibility: Power BI dashboards provide real-time insights into project status, risks, and financials. This has improved decision-making and enabled proactive portfolio management.
Reduced Duplication and Manual Effort: Automated workflows and integrated systems have eliminated duplication and reduced the need for manual data entry. The integration of Outlook for approvals has further streamlined processes, allowing users to review and approve requests directly from their inbox. This has improved data accuracy and reduced administrative burden.
Scalable and Future-Ready: The platform is designed to scale with GWR’s evolving needs. New apps and workflows can be added with minimal effort, and the integration with Microsoft’s AI roadmap ensures long-term relevance.

This led to better engagement across the project space and offered a solution based on user feedback and requirements,

added Steven Wedge.

Conclusion

GWR’s partnership with CPS has resulted in a modern, intelligent, and user-centric PPM platform that supports strategic delivery across the organisation. By leveraging Microsoft technologies and embedding AI and automation, GWR has improved governance, reduced manual effort, and enhanced the user experience, while preserving and enhancing its existing reporting capabilities.

Through CPS’ direct support and delivery, the project has been a resounding success, as evidenced by great user adoption numbers and rapid benefit realisation – earlier than anticipated.

George Hart, Head of PMO at GWR

Future Roadmap

Looking ahead, GWR is preparing to enter Phase 3 of its transformation journey, with scoping planned for Q3 2025. This phase will focus on deepening the use of AI and predictive analytics to further enhance portfolio management capabilities. Key initiatives include:

Copilot Integration: Enabling conversational portfolio queries and risk forecasting through Microsoft Copilot.
AI-Assisted Mitigation: Leveraging historical lessons learned to generate intelligent mitigation recommendations.

These enhancements are designed to build on the strong foundation already in place, driving greater efficiency, insight, and responsiveness across GWR’s project and programme landscape.