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We Can Help with Installing Microsoft Project
Server |
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We
offer assistance with the installation,
planning, implementation, and
successful use of MS Project Server 2003 or the
2007 version. We are available to assist and
augment your implementation team, or to perform the
entire implementation. Please
contact us and
we will address your specific requirements.
Most people will tell you that installing MS Project Server
and getting it right is not easy to do. Our enterprise
project
management specialists can come to your
location to do the installation or they can work with you remotely to perform an installation.
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Things to consider when installing
Microsoft Project Server and beginning the process of
performing a Project Server configuration |
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Review Microsoft's EPM
architecture
(MS Project Server and WSS on the application tier, MS Project Professional
and Project Web Access on the client tier, and SQL
on the database tier) Work hard to understand
all of the system components and be realistic about
the hardware requirements before you start.
Get help. Seriously, even 30 minutes talking to
someone who has installed Project Server dozens of
times could save you a lot of frustration and time.
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Conduct interviews. Determine how your organization
currently uses Microsoft Project and the skill levels
of users.
Perhaps review Microsoft's EIF (Enterprise Implementation
Framework) questionnaire for EPM 2003 to guide some
of your
thinking around your organization's current abilities and skills.
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Use code structures for projects, tasks and resources.
Coding structures provide the foundation for
analysis across task, project and resource
information. Consider the differences between codes
and user defined fields and their effective use.
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Enforce standards across your project plans. Use the
Enterprise Project Global template to provide views,
filters, tables, etc., for all of your project
managers who connect to Project Server.
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Enforce standards across your resource pool. If
resource information is maintained in a different
system, consider integrating MS Office Project Server
with the
respective system. Use code structures to define
resource attributes and when using resource user
defined fields, design it with a list selection,
versus free form text entry.

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Determine Enterprise Project Template definition and
use. Use Enterprise Project Templates to guide users
in project creation and planning. Ensure generic resources are
defined and assigned to tasks in the Enterprise
Project template. Provide all information regarding
static elements of your projects. When implemented
properly, Enterprise Project Templates can enable a
quick initial assessment of project schedule and
budget, which then facilitates enhanced 'what-if'
planning
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Create your enterprise resource pool. Resolve
naming issues across project plans.
Generic Resources. Generic resource skill sets
should match human and/or material resource
skill sets.
Human Resources. Your ability to search and find
individuals with the right attributes to perform work
will depend on how you establish your resource
code structures and your skill sets.
Material Resources. If you are going to do real
project costing, you will likely need to define
material resources.
Note: Do not use Cost type resources in Project
2007.
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Import historical data. Be careful to ensure
consistency in the resources and tasks across the
project plans being imported to enable immediate
reporting across your portfolio of historical
projects.
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Use
the Portfolio Analyzer (2003) or Data Analysis
(2007). This OLAP SQL service provides the core
for much of your EPM reporting. Coding
structures for projects and resources will determine
the reporting effectiveness of the OLAP cube views. Evaluate your organizational reporting
requirements and structure to help determine
Portfolio Analyzer views that facilitate corporate
initiatives
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Manage the administration and maintenance of project forms,
resource skill sets, security, and other maintenance
requirements. Consider the options in the role-based
security model and outline the desired
functionality. Don't accept the defaults;
investigate the security access you are providing.
Determine who will act as administrators and what
areas they will administer, i.e. Resource Skill
Sets.
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Archive Project Information. How will your firm
archive and access project data. Use of the version
functionality in MS Office Project Server, data warehousing,
and backup/restore features are all vehicles to
consider when determining archival methods for project
information.
EPM does not provide any mechanism (even with the
archive database in 2007 for archiving your
projects).
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Implement across two servers (at a minimum).
While MS Project Server and all components will run on
one server, we strongly suggest a minimum of two
servers for excellent performance even for prototype
and small deployments. EPM is a three tier system,
it wasn't made to run on one box.
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Establish alert notification vehicles, i.e.
email, Project Web Views with graphical indicators,
dashboards, etc. Provide alert notifications based
on project and resource attributes, i.e. overallocation of resources, cost overruns, project
slippage. Prove the tools to drill-down to analyze
the details.
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Role-based training. Users must be trained or the
system will not be effective. Role-based training is
our recommended solution. We provide the level of
training that ensures each "user" understands
exactly what their "role" is in the Enterprise
Project Management Environment. This includes
process, procedure and "tool" training. Don't
implement MS Project Server without having a valid and
realistic training program defined and ready to go.
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Support (on-site, phone, remote administration)
your users.
Your users will need support. Count on it. Questions
will come up. Our solution is on-site, phone, and
remote support. You focus on your core business and
we save you money by having a staff of experts
available to help you when you need it.
Our EPM Support Information
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EPM Solutions & MS Project Server Solutions.
Carefully evaluate all MS Project Server
consulting services, enterprise project
management specialists, products, and add-ins.
Microsoft boasts of more than 1800 partners that
provide EPM Solutions. Experts with the
system would provide a very short list of
individuals, companies that can support the claim of
"MS Project Experts." Time and money spent initially
finding the right support, solutions, and MS
Project Server consulting will pay off
handsomely during the final phases of deployment.
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Main Number: |
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813.282.8246 |
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Sales: |
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813.282.8246 |
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Support: |
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877.240.9777 |
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Customer
Service: |
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Fax: |
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