Project-oriented companies cannot afford to `manage by accident` if they are to successfully manage ad hoc projects and avoid costly inefficiencies. This is according to Guillermo Hamity, director of Programme Management at JSE-listed trusted transactions company, Prism Holdings.
Prism, an early adopter of the concept of the `project office`, was one of the first organisations in SA to implement PSNext, a fully Web-enabled enterprise project management solution, to manage the roll-out of its complex projects.
Says Hamity: "The nature of our business involves the management of large multi-disciplinary projects and this requires that good project governance be imposed.
"For example, during a project with Telecom Malaysia, we extensively utilised the Web facilities of the Project Scheduler 8 (PS8) toolset. It therefore made sense for us to upgrade to the fully Web-enabled PSNext when it was released. This has now been fully adopted within our company."
Improved project management productivity
PSNext - developed by Sciforma Corp and supported in SA by Management Planning Systems - serves as an integrated ERP system for Prism. Yet it cost considerably less and was quick and easy to implement, and - because of the user-friendly nature of the system, easy to learn to use.
According to Hamity, PSNext has numerous benefits for the group in terms of functionality and cost savings resulting from improved productivity in project management.
"The system provides a central database for Prism`s projects and resources, which enables us to manage these at a third of the cost of traditional ERP systems. We are able to confidentially analyse resource utilisation across the company, ensuring key resources are available as needed," he explains.
Prism has found the PSNext report writer to be an effective tool in minimising risks associated with projects since the feasibility and profitability of projects can be properly analysed.
"The report writer allows us to identify and address areas of concern. We are able to easily create interactive, graphic reports, which show successive levels of detail," he says.
Projects covering multiple divisions
In addition to enhanced visibility, Prism has seen improvements in other areas including security, document control, issue management and work packages.
"The use of work packages allows us to plan a project across multiple divisions without losing network links between tasks - this is ideal for a matrix organisation like Prism.
"PSNext has had a significant impact on simplifying the management of our projects. There is no longer a need to open projects in order to approve timesheets or view reports; corporate standards are easily implemented; users can add detail steps for each task," Hamity concludes.
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