Project Management in Public Research

Microsoft Project Server / Project Online (Microsoft PPM) is a powerful and easy-to-use tool for organization-wide project and portfolio management (PPM). Research directors, project managers and project staff all use a common work and information platform.
 

Microsoft Project Server / Project Online is a powerful tool for centralized, enterprise-wide project management. Used in conjunction with an add-on tool designed especially for multi-project management and program management, it enables users to easily monitor the status of sub-projects and communicate top-down targets from the program level to the sub-projects.

Bottom-up planning is also available, as project participants can report current plan data from their sub-projects to program management for further control.
 

Method and Benefits for Program Management

• The decision-making committee has a clear basis for decisions on all projects by simply generating a milestone overview of several projects
• The status of each project can be visualized by traffic light symbols in a chart. Other status information is available for the decision-making committee when needed
• Automatic milestone rollups at the click of a mouse! This enables users to visualize key milestones of the sub-projects in the program schedule
• Top-down planning: the program manager creates a plan on the program level with target milestones and important key data. These are automatically displayed in the operative sub-projects
• The project managers of the sub-projects now align their planning to the set targets
• Bottom-up planning: important milestones in the operative sub-projects can be transferred back to the program level for the next plan

More information on TPG ProjectLink or TPG MultiProject^(QS).

Microsoft Project Server / Project Online can be extended with “Softlinks” to show users important tasks in other projects. In the context of in-kind collaboration, users can easily share important information within Microsoft Project plans.
 

Method and Benefits

• Project managers can easily select important tasks from other projects to link or mirror them in their schedule
• The selected tasks are displayed for information in their own project plan
• Project managers can select the tasks to be mirrored without having to see entire external projects
• Links across organizations are easy to implement using “Softlinks” as well

More information on TPG ProjectLink or TPG MultiProject^(QS).

Project managers plan best in a PM system (e.g. Microsoft Project or Planisware), while financial controllers prefer to work with the ERP system (e.g. SAP). The integration of both systems streamlines processes and makes things a lot easier for everyone.
 

Benefits of the Integrated Environment

• Managers can import detailed budgets, actual costs, actual work and commitments from SAP enabling them to check the projects’ costs and time against the plan and the budget
• Project managers are always well-informed on the spent, assigned and available budget at the level of work packages
• Data sharing is triggered manually or automatically. This simplifies many steps due to consistent project management processes
• Project management and accounting staff each work with the tool that is best and most familiar for them
• Project scheduling, controlling, collaboration and document management are integrated
• Dual data entry is eliminated, providing better quality of data for project managers, controllers and management and a better basis for decision-making

More information on TPG PSLink^®.

Microsoft Project Server / Project Online provides important reports on individual projects or project portfolios at your fingertips. A role-based concept and access rights ensure that project members and managers only see the reports intended for them (“seeing instead of searching”). The automated reporting system is tailored to your needs, bringing a wealth of benefits to the entire organization.
 

Benefits of a Centralized Reporting System

• Current reports at your fingertips ⇒ elimination of manual work
• Standardization of reports ⇒ better comparisons
• Current data of all projects ⇒ strict compliance with reporting periods
• Immediate availability of important data ⇒ better decision-making ability
• Overview of all projects and statuses ⇒ consolidated project information (traffic lights, amounts and more)
• Focus on key projects ⇒ project selection criteria
• Details for deep-diving into individual projects ⇒ status report, cost report, risk analysis, etc.
• Output of the reports on demand ⇒ Excel, PowerPoint, PDF or other formats in the corporate design

More information on TPG ReportPack or Microsoft Power BI.