Project Management Software & PSA Software
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SDWorx/Compuware
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SDWorx is continually growing, and with a number of business divisions using different time-tracking systems, the
company was keen to consolidate systems in order to reduce inter-departmental administration.
SDWorx has consultants in many different physical locations, either operating in the main office or its clients’ offices.
With the consultants having to bill different companies for HR consultancy, legal advice, payroll and related activities,
SDWorx was keen to find a system which would simplify tracking its consultants’ time, allow them to plan ahead and
link directly into the back-end billing system. In the past, SDWorx consultants would have to manually enter their timesheets into the system. SDWorx chose to use
Compuware’s Changepoint product to track how much time has been spent on which task, as well as automatically
invoicing each client for the appropriate amount of time.
Changepoint also allows SDWorx to allocate time to tasks in future fiscal periods, and calculate available time and
probable revenues.
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SIG (Services Industriels de Genève)/Sciforma
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SIG (Services Industriels de Genève) is an autonomous Genevan public company founded on 4 June 1895. Its capital
is shared between the state of Geneva, the city of Geneva and the Communes. Its statutes make it an entirely separate,
autonomous company. It supplies and monitors the quality of the water, gas, electricity and thermal energy, treats the
waste and waste water, and provides a fibre optic network for the region. In 2007, SIG decided to reorganise its resources and created a new organisation named ‘IPRO’, from the French initials
for ‘engineering project network work’. The implementation of IPRO was an opportunity to adopt a new project management tool and test it in the
new organisation. Several tools were
evaluated and three were installed and tested. In the end, it was Sciforma’s solution, PSNext, that was chosen.
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Pollard Thomas Edwards/IRIS Project Solutions
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Award-winning architectural practice Pollard Thomas
Edwards is benefiting from new functionality within IRIS
PROJECTminder to manage holiday entitlement for staff
who work flexible hours or part-time.
Pollard Thomas Edwards has more than 30 years’
experience in both the private and public sectors. At any
time it can be running over 50 live projects, ranging from
designing a bespoke building such as a sports hall to
creating a new town for 10,000 people. Its commitment
to quality and innovation has been rewarded with more
than 45 major design awards.
The practice headquarters are a converted canal-side wharf in Islington, London and it also has offices in Liverpool and
Brighton. The practice employs close to 100 staff, nearly a fifth of whom work part-time.
The extended absence request functionality was introduced into IRIS PROJECTminder to support employers like
Pollard Thomas Edwards in complying with holiday entitlement regulations for part-time workers and those working
irregular working patterns.
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Hudson & Yorke/Compuware
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Hudson & Yorke is a specialist consultancy providing large end-user organisations with strategy, sourcing and
governance services in the business-critical area of telecommunications and networks. From the company’s inception in
August 2006 its aim has been to create a tier one consulting company; in its first two years its consultancy workforce
grew from four to 20 and it intends to continue on this rapid growth path in future years. The company needed to automate administration and management reporting to support company growth and went out to the market in search of a business
automation platform. A long list of 20 to 30 applications and providers was narrowed to a shortlist of five. The key
criterion for the solution was that it had to be a fully outsourced service. After a thorough evaluation process, Hudson & Yorke chose Compuware’s Changepoint.
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Camco/IRIS Project Solutions – exclusive interview
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Camco is an international company involved in identifying and implementing solutions that help businesses address their
climate change risks and opportunities.
With a 20-year track record in advisory services and a diverse portfolio of carbon credits, Camco has established itself as a
leading global climate change and sustainable development company. It provides strategic, technical and financial solutions
for carbon-related issues, helping organisations to define and implement their carbon strategy.
Camco helps manage the main aspects of carbon risk and the key stages of the carbon management process, for both
public and private sector organisations in both the developing and developed world. Camco was acquired by a publicly listed company, becoming
part of the Camco Group. This was a time of significant change and it was obvious that its existing IT systems would no
longer cope with the forecasted growth plans. Camco looked at a number of systems but IRIS PROJECTminder was the only one that came close to meeting all of its
requirements.
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Natural Environment Research Council/Compuware
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The Natural
Environment Research Council (NERC) has a key role to play, as the UK’s main agency for funding and managing
research, training and knowledge transfer in the environmental sciences. Although it receives public money through the
Department of Innovation, University and Skills, NERC remains independent of government. Each year NERC sets out its priorities, and the targets and milestones it expects to achieve, in a delivery plan. For
NERC, accountability to its stakeholders is key, and checking how well it does against this plan is central to running
NERC efficiently and effectively. In 2003 a review
of governance within NERC revealed the potential to improve its processes for the initiation, resourcing, funding and
control of projects. Traditionally work was planned on individual spreadsheets, which meant there was no co-ordinated
picture of workload and a lack of visibility as to how its people were deployed. A technology-based solution was required, NERC began the search for an application that would help and Compuware Changepoint emerged as the obvious choice.
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Novabase/Compuware
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Novabase is one of Portugal’s largest IT integrator and systems resellers, employing 2,000
people. Headquartered in Lisbon, Novabase also has offices in Portugal’s second largest city, Oporto, as well as
Spain and other European countries. The company was finding itself working in a largely reactive mode. Many of its
key business processes needed to be updated, improved and consolidated, as they were spread across various
systems. There was also a great deal of manual record-keeping done with Excel documents, resulting in poor
communication between lines of business and an overall operation that was far less efficient than it needed to be. After reviewing its options, the choice of Changepoint from Compuware became obvious to Novabase.
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Tornado Integrated Project Team/Risk Decisions
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The Tornado Integrated Project Team
(Tornado IPT) is part of the UK
Ministry of Defence’s Defence
Equipment and Support (DE&S)
organisation. It is responsible for the
provision of logistical support and
capability development for the RAF
Tornado F3 (Air Defence Variant) and
the GR4 (Ground Reconnaissance)
fleet until 2025, when it is due to be
replaced by the Eurofighter Typhoon. The management of safety-related risk has always been paramount within the Tornado IPT and it was recognised that a
similar rigour needed to be introduced to manage the risks and issues potentially impacting on all areas of IPT
business. In partnership with the MoD’s Risk Process Owner (Through Life Procurement Management Support Group), a
formalised project risk management process was developed for the Tornado IPT. Key to the successful implementation
of this programme would be the selection and deployment of a powerful risk management and analysis tool. After a comprehensive evaluation and assessment phase, Tornado IPT selected Predict! Risk Controller as best
meeting its requirement.
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Austrian Airlines/Compuware
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The IT department at Austrian Airlines faced a growing queue of major IT initiatives. The largest of projects involved
upgrading the airlines’ systems for booking flights and checking in passengers, a system that affects millions of users.
With commercial flights leaving daily to 130 destinations in 66 countries, the last thing the airline wanted was any delays
in executing projects that supported the very backbone of its business operations.
Management required a tool that went beyond time-tracking to ensure project success. Austrian Airlines started its hunt for a new solution with the Gartner Magic Quadrant, which listed 10 to 15 viable
options. Six months and several presentations later, the airline made its selection: Changepoint, Compuware’s
integrated solution for IT portfolio management.
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The Red Brick Road/Maconomy – exclusive interview
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The Red Brick Road Advertising agency was launched in March 2006, founded by six partners who are experienced and
respected members of the advertising industry. They include Sir Frank Lowe, one of the best-known figures in UK
advertising who was knighted in 2002 for services to advertising and charity.
In just over three years, The Red Brick Road has seen rapid growth and now employs over 70 people. It has become a top
20 marketing services agency working with a number of leading brands. Its client list includes Tesco (for whom the team
originally conceived the ‘Every Little Helps’ campaign), Gala Coral Group, Olympus Cameras, Thinkbox and Brewin Dolphin. The company's finance system was no longer fit-for-purpose and there was no
integration between the job costing and financial systems. It needed to move to a fully integrated solution that would streamline internal processes and allow it to manage the
business more effectively, so it chose Maconomy.
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Defence Estates/IRIS Project Solutions
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The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is one of the largest landowners in the UK and currently
spends over £1 billion a year on its estate. The MoD is responsible for more heritage
buildings than any other government department, and Defence Estates is the agency that
manages the MoD’s built and rural estate.
Until recently, only a few areas within the agency maintained a detailed account of how staff allocated their time
between projects. However, in 1998 a strategy review highlighted a need to adopt time recording across the board. The agency visited IT trade shows to see what systems were on offer. The choice was narrowed down by
the requirement for modularity. The agency also wanted its time recording package to be capable of interfacing with the
MoD-based accounting system. The agency evaluated product presentations from three suppliers. From the technical, user and financial
perspectives, SharpOWL from IRIS emerged as the strongest offering.
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RAMBØLL/Maconomy
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The RAMBØLL Group is a knowledge-based group that provides consulting services and delivers system development
within the consulting engineering disciplines, information technology and management.
The acquisition of the Swedish company Scandiaconsult in 2003 made the RAMBØLL Group the largest and leading
Nordic knowledge-based company and number 10 in Europe within its field. The company is headquartered in Denmark
and employs more than 4,200 people across 70 offices. In the winter of 1998/1999, RAMBØLL decided to implement Maconomy for project and finance management. The
corporate parent organisation went live later in the year.
The desire to decentralise the financial responsibility for projects to project managers, and to improve the standard
financial tools available to manage the corporation, led to the decision to implement a new business management
system.
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New York City Housing Authority/Oracle
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The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) oversees North America’s largest public housing programme. In addition to
managing more than 2,700 residential buildings, NYCHA administers a city-wide Section 8 rent subsidy programme and a
broad range of educational, recreational and job-training initiatives. The authority’s funding comes from a combination of
government subsidies and grants, rent from tenants and other sources. About 420,000 people – 5.2% of the city’s population –
live in NYCHA housing developments in five boroughs.
In 2002, NYCHA launched a broad-based initiative to upgrade its business systems to support cost-saving improvements such
as more sophisticated budgeting and financial management, a more efficient procurement programme, and a streamlined
materials management system, among other capabilities. Called Project BEST (for Business Enterprise Systems
Transformation), the investment replaced NYCHA’s ageing IT infrastructure – a fragmented and expensive-to-maintain mix of
software applications and vendors – with a consolidated platform running a single-instance of Oracle E-Business Suite.
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Buro Four/Deltek – exclusive interview
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Buro Four is an independent project management and consultancy company with over 140 people. It provides project
direction and management, plus a range of consultancy services for business, property and construction clients.
Over the past 22 years, the projects it has managed include the Young Vic Theatre, new headquarters for the National Trust
and Vodafone, private houses, a centre of excellence for the Lawn Tennis Association, a new arts and media facility for
Goldsmiths College and 15 new city academy schools. Buro Four was using a 1990s accounting system supported by an ever-increasing number of spreadsheets, rather than a
specific project management system, to run the business. It needed a system that would grow with its needs and deal with the whole business, not just the accounts aspect or the
resource management side. An evaluation team was put together that represented the whole business. It looked at a significant number of products and eventually came across Deltek Vision at a trade show.
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HOK/Deltek – exclusive interview
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Founded in 1955 in St Louis, Missouri, HOK (Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum) has grown significantly on the basis of its aim
to be ‘the world leader in innovation for the built environment’. In its first year, the company grossed fees of $750,000. It
passed the $1 million mark seven years later and topped $15 million in 1976. Its latest results show fees of more than
$400 million. Today, HOK has over 2,100 employees worldwide and is a global provider of design and project delivery
services. Its expertise includes architecture, engineering, interiors, planning, lighting, graphics, facilities planning and
assessment, and construction services. HOK has developed its international presence over the years and now has 25 offices, some formed through mergers with
other architectural and engineering firms, across four continents. HOK needed a new accounting system and
wanted it to integrate with marketing and project management software in a single system so that project, client and contact
information could be shared among employees. Deltek had what HOK needed in terms of a single
package incorporating accounting, marketing and project management.
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Carole Nash Insurance/Asta Development – exclusive interview
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Carole Nash Insurance Consultants Ltd is the UK and Ireland’s biggest motorcycle insurance specialist, and one of the UK’s
top 30 insurance brokers, with a portfolio of insurance products covering modern, classic and vintage motorcycles, classic
cars, travel and mainstream motors. It employs nearly 400 staff and generates an annual income
of over £70 million. Carole Nash is headquartered in Altrincham, with offices in Dublin which were opened in 1999 by bike-loving pop star
Ronan Keating. Since 1996 the company’s policyholder base has grown from 30,000 to over 250,000. With the company changing and expanding, Carole Nash’s IT department led by Les Boggia can run up to 90 projects
simultaneously, often linked to business process improvement. The department has adopted Asta Teamplan project
management software to help in this, used by 25 IT managers and staff. The company is considering extending its use of
Teamplan to the wider business.
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