Fulcrum Business Solutions, together with its partner, Botswana-based Corporate Business Solutions (CBS), has been awarded the tender to supply a full enterprise project management (EPM) solution to the ministry of the local government of the Republic of Botswana.
The tender was issued for the design and implementation of a project information monitoring and evaluation system at the ministry, which could manage the entire lifecycle of projects at both a ministry and local level.
A stringent requirement to fit within the National Development Framework was put in place. In addition, the project management solution was required to enable management of a project from inception through the tender and execution phases, right to a close-out and benefits tracking cycle.
Key to Fulcrum`s strategy in developing this solution was to leverage a solid project methodology system. For this particular project, Prince-2, a methodology originally commissioned by the British government and then made available in the public domain, was used.
An additional requirement from the ministry was the ability to speed up and automate the approvals processes in the early phases of a project. To this end, Fulcrum Business Solutions integrated another partner offering in the form of the K2.net Workflow Solution from Sourcecode. The combination of technologies from Project Server and Windows Sharepoint Portal Server, together with the K2.net workflow offering, enabled the full approval process to be completed via asp.net forms and replaced the entire paper-based workflow system. The easy integration between these technologies, due to their inherent management components, led to a very rapid development cycle.
"The goal for Fulcrum was to build a customised solution that did not require monolithic bespoke development, yet delivered on the requirements for a highly scalable solution. The proof of success was in the removal of paper-based workflow and the integration of all elements of the project lifecycle in a single system that ensures consistent project delivery processes," explains Pieter Erasmus, Business Development Director at Fulcrum Business Solutions.
The Pretoria-based EPM system implementation specialist has partnered with CBS to provide a system that will be hosted at the central government offices of Botswana and used to enhance communication between regional and centrally-based project managers.
With CBS`s strong system integration skills and proximity to the customer site in Gabarone, it was able to complement Fulcrum`s specialist skills through the local delivery of the necessary hardware and software, as well as local project management resources. Fulcrum Business Solutions will focus on the implementation of the solution and training, and CBS will provide pre- and post-implementation support.
"With roughly 40% of the Project 2003-based system already deployed, the government of Botswana will gain a solution comprised of a centralised project scheduling and management system and a fully integrated workflow and document management system, based on solid project management methodology, within the next three months," concludes Erasmus.
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