Status Reporting
Resource Management
Budgeting and Forecasting
Scheduling & Effort Tracking
Project Deliverables and Milestones
Issue and Risk Management

Status Reporting

Project123 provides you with an opportunity to use screen-based, dashboards, to gain a real-time snapshot of project status. This allows you to be less reliant on receiving document-based reports for project status which are usually distributed via e-mail or printed for meetings.

Project123 simplifies and automates the Status Reporting process, by providing a consistent reporting format at all levels that are visible in one place without the need for manual consolidation.

Project-level Reporting
Project Managers can produce weekly/fortnightly status reports for all projects. These reports can be reviewed and approved by team managers prior to being sent to business sponsors and Executive Managers.

Project123 allows you to automate status reporting across a Programme of work in a consistent and practical way.
Project123 moves you away from inconsistent status reports created manually in documents or from a template.

Programme-level and Portfolio-level Reporting
For those projects that form part of a programme of work, i.e. with related objectives, Project123 can produce a consolidated monthly status report for Executive and Steering Committee reporting.

Programme Office managers can each have their own portfolio of programmes and projects. And it is simple to generate status reports which show a consolidated view of portfolio status either visible via a dashboard or saved as a printable file. Back to top

Resource Management

Project123 allows you to build maturity in resource management to maintain a profile of skills and experience for each resource, so that you can allocate the most appropriate resources to each project.

Resources have a role and profile Project123ling their access rights to the system. Each named user is also allocated to categories to increase the amount of information stored about a particular resource, e.g. skills matrix, experience history, etc. This allows line managers and project managers to allocate the resources best suited to the work required, and to identify gaps in capability with sufficient notice to hire additional people.

Project Phase
A Project Manager is assigned to each project and then depending on the type of project certain other resource types should also be assigned based on the project type, such as a Business Analyst and Solution Architect for development projects.

During the project phases, the Project Manager can allocate and release other resources as the scope demands. The resources can then be allocated work within the project and their time can be recorded against the project and specific tasks worked on.

Resource Types
Resource types are entered into Project123, allocated to resources and are available to be assigned to projects. Each resource has bands of seniority or skill level which might map to a different charge-out rate, and provides a distinction between permanent staff and consultants.

Often Line Managers are responsible for allocating their team members to projects, which can result in no clear and consistent picture of who is working on what, and for how long. This makes it difficult for Line Managers to be responsive to demand for project resources due to a lack of visibility of planned activity for their team. Project123 can fix this problem by providing visibility of the work required across projects and assigning team members to the work.

Resource Assignment
Upon initiation and through the life of a project, resource requirements are set up in Project123. The resource profile established upfront will record how many hours per month have been estimated for each resource type. The Project Manager must request actual resources to be allocated to these requirements. Project123 allows a Project Manager to search for available resources, to select a resource and to submit a request to Line Managers for a certain percentage of his or her time.

Resource Utilisation
Project123 provides future resource utilisation information to allow Project Managers and Line Managers to see the demand and supply for each type of resource, and they can drill down to particular resources to view their current and future utilisation. Back to top

Budgeting and Forecasting

At each phase the accuracy of budgeting should increase as knowledge of what needs to be done increases. Project123 distinguishes between original budget and re-baselined budgets approved after Scope Variation processes.

Forecasting
The project forecasts roll up into a consolidated view of forecasted costs at the programme and portfolio level, to provide a view of how you are tracking against the budget overall.

The approved budget may be made up of people, technology and other types of costs as described in the Business Case at each milestone. You can forecast the cost of people as per the resource profile determined for each project.

You can track the changes to project budgets through the early phases in order to improve estimation for future projects.
The project budget can be split by calendar year and the companies financial year (July to June), thereby addressing typical finance issues around projects that cross over into multiple financial years. Back to top

Scheduling & Effort Tracking

Project123 provides scheduling capability, the ability to track effort and the ability to compare actual effort against estimates and to adjust forecasts. So you get an up to date view of percent completion for critical tasks.

Phase and task dates will vary as time goes by and you can use Project123 to map out the work breakdown structure of each project within the phases. Project Managers can still use MS Project to build and maintain schedules and the resources, tasks and milestones can be uploaded into Project123.

Task estimates can be entered and the actual effort is mapped against these tasks as team member’s work towards completion. The forecasts can be adjusted. If there is a change to the task estimate or due date then a notification is sent to the Project Manager to provide early warning of any potential problems. Actual effort is captured via a timesheet completed on a weekly basis.

Timesheets and Effort Costs
Project123 provides a time recording system that is simple, fast and efficient in order to remove as many disincentives to complete timesheets as possible.

As resources are assigned to projects, via resource allocation and schedule tasks, a timesheet is built that presents them with the ability to enter hours against each item without needing to know project codes, schedule details, etc. For each activity, it is possible to enter how many hours were spent and how many hours are estimated left to complete. This enables the Project Manager to keep track of the status of each task and to make the necessary adjustments to the schedule.

Project123 captures an hourly rate for each type of resource, which is used to account for the labour costs for the project. You can create separate rates for employees and contractors, and override the rate for a particular individual if required, e.g. a specialist. The effort recorded in the timesheet is converted to a monetary amount and applied to the project costs for the relevant week.

People can account for extra activities they worked on during the week which were unplanned or not covered by existing scheduled tasks. Operational tasks and HR type requirements e.g. Annual leave etc can also be accounted for.

Project task estimates are recorded in hours and this is automatically converted to a dollar figure against the required project by using the hourly rate set for the resource.

Timesheet Approval
The timesheet system has an approval step prior to the effort being apportioned to projects. The Resource Manager receives the timesheet for approval and they are able to accept the timesheet and record the time and cost against the project or reject the timesheet back to the user. The rejection process sends an email notification to the individual concerned to amend the timesheet accordingly and resubmit it.

In the event of the timesheet approver being unavailable to approve timesheets, an alternate approver can complete the process.

Also, if a resource is unavailable to complete his or her timesheet on the required day the Administrator can complete this on his or her behalf. Back to top

Project Deliverables and Milestones

Agreed deliverables and milestones are created and monitored for each Project. Each deliverable is tracked in terms of time and financials associated with it.

Only when all mandatory deliverables are in the required state can the project move through the governance milestone into the next phase.

Milestones have percentage complete and ‘traffic light’ status colours associated with them, which are reported on throughout the system. Back to top

Issue and Risk Management

Project123 provides a centralised repository and a consistent single process for managing risks, issues, dependencies, constraints and assumptions.

The escalation process enables managers to manage by exception. Escalating an action brings the action to the attention of the next level of management and advises that it cannot be resolved by the project team and requires input from managers or other experts.

Reporting can be customised to display all information, or you can select to display only the items marked for escalation to appear on status reports. This allows the executives to manage by exception and prioritise reviewing any escalated issues or risks.

The Risk Management process can be adapted according to your company requirements, and is based on a 5x5 matrix. The rules of this Risk Management process are built into Project123, so that you can classify and report consistently across all projects. Back to top