Project Management for Retail

Why Project Insight

The Business Solutions Group sought a project management solution that would provide:

• A way to add structure and consistency to their project management process
• The ability to accurately track resource allocation
• The capacity to include solid scope and impact assessments within project estimates

The Business Solutions Group used a tool for tracking time spent on their day-to-day end projects, but it lacked resource allocation and timeline aspects that are critical to their overall project-management capabilities. "It's easy to push for something like Microsoft Project desktop. However, it's not centralized and it is a little more difficult to get used to," the Director of IT said. An article on project management software in a Chief Information Officer (CIO) magazine caught the Director of IT's eye. He stated, "We thought it was a good time to bring the formality of the projects to the next level." It was then that the team began evaluating project management systems with an eye to structured projects and better project estimates.

The Results

• Enables detailed time tracking divided into projects and non-project activities
• Greatly improves ability to estimate and budget projects, including scope and impact assessments
• Establishes accurate resource allocation capabilities

The greatest impact of the Project Insight implementation for the Business Solutions Group is that, "Everybody is tackling every project as a project with a timeline with milestones, so we're in a better position for people to shoot for dates. It's not just tracking hours, as we used to." "Project Insight also helps with resource allocation," Business Solutions Group Manager noted. "If we've got a developer that's on three projects, now with Project Insight, we have the ability to say, 'Well, this person's going to have to work 90 hours every week in order to meet the timeline for the three projects they're on. That's not going to work. That's a capability that we didn't have before." Project Insight has improved their quoting process. "When a project request comes to us from the business departments, our change advisory board—with representatives from all parts of the business—are the ones that prioritize our IT projects for us. When a request for change or a project request comes in, we've been able to use Project Insight to route the project request through to all of the difference parts of IT for them to give a high-level estimate. So when that RFP comes before the Change Advisory Board, they have an idea of the scope and the impact." He finished by saying, "We now have a strategic view of where projects are in the pipeline as far as percentage complete, estimated hours, how many hours we've used, and where we are on budget. That's invaluable for our management team, and it helps our CIO to make a better business case for what's required to meet the business need."