New software eases the job of making all the pieces fit

APARTNERSHIPMARKETINGREPORTPUBLISHEDBYTHEGLOBEANDMAIL P R O J E C T MANAGEMENT IN AN INFORMATION AGE
THURSDAY,MARCH 30, 2000 • P5
withthepiecesscattered in various loI cationsinstead ofbeinginonebox.Not
onl
aretheynottogether,youdon'tknow
Mych
whi
piecesare in which box, or even
whether
youneedthepiecesinBoxCor I)
A you
before
canconnectthepiecesyouhave
in
Gyourhand.
Thatscenarioresemblesprojectmanagement
I beforethe latestgeneration of softwaretoolscamealong.Projectswereoften
N haphazardly, with one department
done
within
acorporationnotknowingwhatanE was
other
doing, and neither havingany
w
a
y
of
checki
ng on progress or making
t
schedul
ingadjustments.And for the project
manager, the hits of dataneeded to
kreepontop of thingswerestored in many
lyocations,making it time-consumingjustto
trackthemdown.
i Now,however, projectmanagement is
precise,efficientandco-ordinated.Thekey
in
stohavethepropertools.
hebig player in thegameis software
gaTnt
gi
Microsoft Corp.Manysoftware-devel
o
pment
companiestool theirownprodt to fit Mi
ucts
crosoftProject.
oAndMicrosoftplans anewversion this
spring— Microsoft Project2000,which
shi
d psasa fullpackagewithMicrosoftProjectCentral.
o "Thisnewversion is veryflexible forthe
novice; it'seasytogetstartedwith it,"says
JaohnCorrigan,productmanagerwith Missij ssauga-basedMicrosoft Canada Co.
"There's a Web-basedinterface for help
and
it's easy to navigatebackand forth.
i henew
T
editionalsocaters to high-scale,
heavy-duty
projectmanagement,so it's reg
allyveryscalable in terms of theuserand
the
s sizeoftheproject."
Thelatest edition of Microsoft Project
before
a thisonewasintroduced inNovember,1997,hesays,andthechangesreflect
w thecompany'sclientsaredoingand
what
demandi
g.
p "We'renseei
ngagrowingtrendfrompersonal
productivity
to beingmoreinvolved
u theveryone in the
wi
corporationwhen it
czomesto projectmanagement,"hesays.
"That's built in to thisnewversion.That's
where
z the component of ProjectCentral
comesin: It'sWeb-basedandallowspeople
to
l collaborate ontasks. It alsomakesthe
datamoreversatile, in termsof storingand
e
accessi
ng."
AndyWelch, a principal with TorontobasedDaedalianSystemsGroupInc.,says
hiscompanyusesMicrosoftTools,Oracle
andIBMsoftware."We'reIBMBestTeam
partners,sothat'showwedevelopthesystemswe set up.Thesecompanieshave
tools for writinge-businesssites, andwe
usethem.WealsouseMicrosoft's or Oracle's built-in securityso that thesesites
aresecure.These are industry-standard
tools,andthey'rethebestwaytoserveour
customers."
todo multiple things,whohaveto switch
tasksa lot. It's all running in the backgroundandit's veryquick."
TimeTigerhasbeenonthemarketfor18
months,andthecompanyplanstorelease
TimeTigerforWorkGroups2.0onApril 3.
"Thegreatthing with this oneisnowyou
canlogyourtimeovertheWeb,andthat's
whata lot of clientshavebeenasking for,"
Mr.Goykhmansays."So if they'reworking
off-site oranywherein theworld,theycan
logtheir time."
ABTCorp.,whoseCanadianoperations
arebased in Mississauga,takesabroader
approach.DonnaMontrniny, regional director inCanada,says:"We'reasoftwaredevelopmentgroup.Ouronlyfocusis projectmanagement.Weumbrellaeverything
underourResultsManagementSuite,with
variouscomponents.
"Oneis a Webpublishingcomponent
calledARTPublisher. '11
ningandestimating tool calledABTPlan-ner, and a scheduling tool calledABT
W
orkbench,
ten
t h ewhi
r cehused
' s to becalledProjectWorkbench."
Hercompanysells its productsbycoma
ponentorasapackage.Alsoamongthose
component
p
l a snare-ABTConnect,which is
Web-basedtime capturingsoftware. Clientscan track their time, how long they
spendoneachtaskandenterthedata.
"Another of our tools isABTResource,
andthat's for capacityplanningand resourceutilization,"shesays."Thelastone
isABTIntegrator,whichallowsyoutotake
thatproject-managementinformation in
therepository and integrate it withERP
systemsorthird-partyapplications."
ABThas its ownconsultinggroup that
assistsorganizations in selectingthe tools
andimplementingthem,helpingthem to
definesomeof theirstandardsand doinc
ningandmentoring.Andthere'salsoa
,trai
technical-supporthotline.
"Wearea MicrosoftSolutionsprovider,
soinstead of usingourschedulingtool, a
clientcanuseMicrosoftProject. If the client'salreadyinvestedin that tool,theymay
aswellkeepusing it.Wehaveateamdevoted to ensuring the integration of Microsoftsoftwarewith our tools,so it's not:
anafterthoughtwithus.
OnApril I,ABTwillreleaseanewissuesmanagement,time-tracking, project-collaboration tool, andexpects to havenew
Webproductsavailable in the thirdquarter:
ofthisyear.
RelatedWebsites
Thefollowingsitesprovideinformationon
projectmanagementandrelatedproducts:
www.abtcorp.com
www.daedalian.com
www.hmssoftware.com
WWW-microsoft.com/project
www.solutionsnetwork.com
www.indigol.com/timetiger
Newsoftwareeasesthejob
ofmakingallthepiecesfit
Daedalianstarted out with Project Invision,whichstoresplans for thousands of
projectsatthesametimeandrelatesthem
allbacktoonedatabase.Hiscompanyhas
200projectsgoingonatanyonetime,and
usesthesametool tomanageitsownwork
asit offersits clients.
Theadvantage to project-management
tools,hesays,isasingledatabaseandhow
it works."The Internet is only half of it; a
relationaldatabaseistheotherhalf.Letme
giveyouanexample.Acustomer in Chicagoownsthreemagazines.Themagazines
have80,000subscribers.Andthey'reabout
furnituremaking,and themagazinesare
fundedbyadvertisers, with freesubscrip-
'We'reseeingagrowing
trendfrompersonal
productivitytobeing
moreinvolvedwith
everyoneinthecorporation
whenitcomestoproject
management.'
tions.Theadvertisersmanufacture tools
usedbycabinetmakersandfurnituremakersandupholsterers.
"SotheWebsite that we'vedeveloped
builds on those relationships. It knows
abouteverymagazine,everyissue,every
pieceof editorial,everyadvertisement.Everythinghasreaderresponsecardsthatyou
canaccessoverthe Internet.Youcanask
for additional information; youcancommunicatewith theauthors of thearticles;
youcancommunicatewith themanufacturersoftheproducts."
Usingthis tool,hesays,thesitebecomes
aportal, a means of communication
amonga wholecommunity of interest.
"We'vegotthevendors,thebuyers,theadvertisersandthey're all tied intoonedatabase.Everythingeverybodydoesrelatesto
thatdatabase.
"TheInternet isacommunicationsrevolution, but it's alsoanintegration revolution.Wehaveawayto tie everythingback
toonesource.We'retrying tocreateeffective,two-waycommunication."
Sometoolsarequitespecificinterms of
whattheycandoandwhatmarkettheyare
gearedfor. ChrisVandersluis,president of
Montreal-basedHMSSoftware Inc., says
hiscompany'sflagship product,TimeControl, is atimesheet
systemdesigned for medium to
large-sizedorganizations
"Itextendsbeyondjusttrackinghowmuch time people
spendat the company for
payrollpurposes. It goes
downto the taskleveland
says,'Here'swhatI did with
mytime.'
"It's usually the cornerstoneof what'sreferred toas
activity-based costing. That
says,'We'regoingto trackourbudgetand
ouractualsbytaskinstead of just by person."
Anothercompany that keeps its focus
narrowed is IndigoTechnologies of Toronto. It originallywasaconsultingcompanyand developed a tool to help it
manageits ownprojects.That toolended
upbeingverysuccessfulwhen it wasmarketed,so thecompanyrepositioned itself
asasoftware-developmentorganizationfo-
BYRUI%%MA1.11E1130
cusingonthisproduct.
"It's calledTimeTiger
forWorkGroups,"companypresident Gene
Goykhmansays. "It goes
acrossthe board, but we
find ourbiggestsuccess is
with ITcompaniesandwith
smallerdesignanddevelopmentcompanies.
"It's actuallyvery tightly focused.It's atime-trackingpackage,so it helpspeoplekeeptrackof
howmuchtimetheyactuallyspendon
their project activities andcompare that
withwhattheythoughttheyweregoingto
spend."
TimeTigeralso ties in with Microsoft
Project."Ourpackageis reallygreat in the
fieldswherepeople don't want to keep
track of their time,wherethey don't like
theadditionalcostsandhassle of tracking
wheretheyspendtheir time,"hesays.
"Thesoftwareisalwaysrunningontheir
computer,soit's greatforpeoplewhohave