From Excel to Resource Management

Obstacle:

Despite owning a feature rich PSA tool (Certinia PSA), this client was tracking their project delivery team in a spreadsheet. The challenge with that is that spreadsheets are not real time, there was no way to tell when the data was last updated, and the document was prone to complicated formula errors.

Project:

We helped the client identify key internal stakeholders because we needed to know who could best define the requirements for utilization reporting and delivery team tracking.  Once we had our team identified we met for a few sessions to understand why the ‘out of the box’ toolset wasn’t working.

Turns out there was a lack of understanding around the available data produced by Certinia PSA, more specifically the utilization engine. This can easily happen as utilization reporting is complicated, and undertaking a project of this importance and complexity can be daunting!  The client needed custom calculations which summarized employee counts by organizational unit, but couldn’t figure out how to get there with the ‘out of the box’ utilization data.  So they opted to use a spreadsheet instead of taking advantage of a product they already owned.

Working with the customer we found a way to track utilization by Region using Certinia PSA.  Using some customizations (clicks not code) we were able to display the number of employees available by Region and Practice as well so that this customer could get out of spreadsheets and into a centralized store of real time data.

End Result

The client is no longer relying on an outdated and error prone spreadsheet. Their original requirement (view of FTEs by Region / Practice) was delivered with some customization by a toolset they already owned.  Now their resource management team has the resourcing visibility they need for hiring and project delivery.