The Company: Headquartered in Switzerland, Evatec AG is a global manufacturer of vacuum coating systems for the semiconductor, optoelectronics and photonics industries. Its products are used in areas including MEMS manufacturing, in advanced packaging and in power electronics. The company operates in a market driven by a rapid pace of innovation. Consistent standards, efficient coordination and clear decision-making processes are key to project management.
The Challenge: Evatec used various tools, including Excel, PowerPoint and local databases, for project planning. However, as the number of projects grew, this led to an increased need for coordination and discrepancies in the planning stages. Approvals for critical project phases were sometimes conducted manually, and resource planning was not standardised across the board either. The aim was to map all project activities in a single standardised system that would support different project types and enable a structured stage-gate process for complex development projects.
The Solution: Together with TPG The Project Group, Evatec implemented TPG ProjectPowerPack, which is based on the Microsoft Power Platform The solution provides a standardised platform for all development projects whilst at the same time allowing for phase models, templates and approval processes specific to each project type. Key features include automated gates, centralised resource approval as well as integration with existing systems – such as for instance SAP. Thanks to its modular design, the platform can be expanded to meet future needs.
The Benefits: The new system for project, portfolio and resource management (PPRM) enables Evatec to plan and manage its development projects in a consistent and transparent manner. Manual work has been reduced whilst clarity and data quality have improved significantly. Project managers access the latest project data directly via Microsoft Teams. Approval processes and status reports are standardised and significantly more efficient – even when dealing with internal bodies and steering committees. The platform is the central foundation for harmonised development processes.
