CPM Newsletter - March 2010 - Volume 4, Number 1

CPM News

---

CPM Announces the Broadening of its Software Footprint Offerings to Provide a Complete Project Controls Software Solution

---

In addition to being an Oracle-Primavera Certified Advantage Partner, CPM is now an Authorized Representative for the newly released Ares PRISM G2 Cost & Progress and Estimator software solutions.

The Ares PRISM Cost & Progress provides Cost Analysis, Middleware (Integration between ERP Financial and Oracle-Primavera P6), and Advanced Earned Value Performance Management software for a broad spectrum of industries. Ares PRISM Estimator provides high quality Estimating solutions for the Heavy Civil, Oil & Gas and Mining industries.

The following graphic describes the primary software solutions which CPM represents.

CPM Offers Three Ways to Take Training

---

CPM offers training the way you need to have it, the way which best suits your situation.  Training certificates are provided to all participants who complete CPM’s Instructor Led Training and self-paced E-Learning courses.

• Regularly scheduled Entry and Advanced level instructor led classroom courses are conducted in CPM Training Centres in Burnaby, BC, Edmonton and Calgary, AB.  Based on demand, these courses can also be presented regularly in your local city.  Please visit our Training page to view our 2010 schedu
• Virtual instructor led training courses are the same as CPM’s training centre instructor led training courses except for a few differences as described on the Virtual Classroom page.  A significant benefit for virtual training participants is the elimination of travel costs.
• The very popular CPM E-Learning 102 for P6 V7 and, soon to be available, E-Learning 101 for P6 V7 Web Access are web based training (WBT) courses.  Due to the self-paced learning nature of the WBT courses and their ability to be purchased on-line via Pay Pal, the CPM E-Learning courses have found popularity in many locations around the world. CPM’s E-Learning participants review the full course curriculum over the Internet on their own time.

 

CPM's E-Learning 102 Oracle-Primavera P6 Course Now Offers Paypal

---

Interest in the CPM E-Learning 102 Oracle-Primavera P6 Course continues to grow around the world. Since we introduced a Paypal auto payment procedure, users have found the payment process to be very efficient and they have been very complementary about the online course.  Try a demo of our Oracle-Primavera P6 Basics Online Course.

CPM's E-Learning 102 course includes in-depth content and the convenience of learning at your own pace. This course is not intended to replace the instructor led courses but to complement them. They are ideal for people who are interested in refresher courses.

Stay tuned for more E-Learning courses to become available in the near future.

CPM to Exhibit at the Upcoming Global Petroleum Show & Conference In Calgary

---

CPM Solutions will be an exhibitor at the Global Petroleum Show & Conference which will be held at the Stampede Park in Calgary, AB from June 8th to 10th, 2010.  Please come and visit us at Booth #5521.

CPM Solutions adds Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Functionality to its Website

---

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a way for content publishers like CPM to make news, blogs, and other content available to subscribers.  If you would like to receive automatic updates to CPM’s web site, please subscribe to RSS's functionality by visiting www.cpmsolutions.ca/rss.xml

You may need to use the most recent version of your browser in order to access RSS because it is a feature of more current web browsers.

 

Ares PRISM

---

As evidenced in the graphic below, Ares Corporation is more than a software company.  In addition to providing extensive training and implementation consulting services for its clients around the world, Ares also provides a variety of Value Added Consulting and Engineering services.

Ares PRISM Highlights

---

The project controls challenge which Ares software solutions address is:

•  How best to determine True project status in Real Time. 

An efficient project management system must provide:

• Early performance assessments
• User friendly information
• Accurate data collection
• Real time data

A World Class Approach to Successful Projects Requires:

• Management commitment to the project management tool
• Communication across business units and their external resources
• Make Earned Value Performance Management (EVPM) a standard from the beginning
• Trained and dedicated staff

Ares PRISM G2 Cost & Progress Software Module

---

The new graphical user interface based Ares PRISM G2 Cost Progress (PCP) software module includes Cost Analysis, Integration Middleware and Advanced Earned Value Performance Management functionalities. The PRISM PCP is truly the “Gold Standard” in integrated cost and earned value Project Management systems, empowering companies to consistently finish projects on time and within budget.

 

A significant improvement in the Ares PRISM G2 PCP software is its new graphical user interface which allows each user to customize his/her workspace.

 

 

 

 

 

PRISM Cost Analysis

---

In addition to both project and enterprise level cost management and reporting, PRISM PCP also contains the functionality for budgeting, tracking and measuring progress for engineering and construction tasks and deliverables.

PRISM Cost & Progress Benefits:

• PCP lowers project costs by up to 20% through reduced project management labour costs, increased data integrity and most importantly by providing project managers with timely data in an organized fashion so they can pinpoint potential problems before they occur and take appropriate corrective action.
• PCP facilitates resource planning and the import of detailed estimates for the project baseline budget.
• Project schedules may be integrated with PCP for the development of the time-phased budget and over 25 different algorithms may be used for measuring progress.
• PCP calculates earned value to facilitate performance measurement, variance analysis, change control and forecasting project data

PRISM Cost & Progress Integration Middleware

---

PRISM Cost & Progress (PCP) enables cost and schedule integration with Primavera, Microsoft Project, and corporate finance and accounting systems including SAP and Oracle.

The PCP Integration Middleware solution addresses the challenge of reconciling many costs at the multiple project activities levels to the single cost code in the back-end ERP financial solution. A Many to Many relationship exists between Oracle-Primavera P6 activities and the Many Activities component in the PRISM Control Accounts. Within PRISM, the reconciliation between the Many to One occurs. The PRISM Control Accounts forward the One to One summarized data to the back-end ERP financial system.

This Many To Many, Many To One and One To One Reconciliation is described in the following graphic.

Ares PRISM Earned Value Performance Analysis

---

PRISM Cost & Progress (PCP) meets and exceeds all criteria for Earned Value Performance Management Systems (EVPM) allowing projects to easily comply with government validation requirements.

What is EVPM?

Collection of management practices used to:

• Plan a project’s work scope
• Breakdown a project’s work scope into finite pieces which are assigned to a responsible person or organization
• Integrate the work scope, cost, and schedule in a Project Management Baseline (PMB)
• Routinely access progress and actual costs
• Measure and analyze performance against the PMB
• Identify variances to the PMB
• Control changes to the PMB
• Forecast the project’s outcome
• Supports good decision-making

Why Use EVPM?

 Because it's becoming a world-wide industry standard

• Early Warning System
  • Significant variances detectable on any portion of the project when planned work has reached 10%
• Course Corrections
  • EVMS determines the cause of performance issues
  • Corrective action plan developed
  • Found early, problems are relatively small and provide plenty of time for a recovery plan to work
  • It’s too late when you're next to the iceberg
• Management by Exception
  • Projects segregated by control accounts allows management to  locate performance issues
  • Management can focus efforts on areas needing correcting
• Communication Tool – helps project personnel understand:
  • What is the work scope
  • When is the work planned to be accomplished
  • What resources are planned to be used to accomplish the work
  • What is the estimated cost of the planned work
  • What is the progress of the work; how much work has been accomplished
  • How much does the accomplished work vary from the plans
  • What are the reasons for the significant variations
  • What will be done to correct or mitigate the significant variations
  • What changes have we made to the plan
  • When is the project forecast to be completed and what will be the final cost 
• Communication
  • Stifled when problems are hidden
  • Backfires when there is an expectation that problems will fix themselves
  • EVMS exposes and communicates problems

  

Earned Value Process

Earned Value Performance Management Data Flow

---

This graphic describes PRISM’s PCP dataflow between the

Technical (Estimating), Cost and Schedule components of project controls management leading to the generation of Earned Value Performance Management Reports.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oracle / Primavera

Oracle-Primavera Announces Increased Functionality in P6 V7 Web Access

---

Oracle-Primavera P6 V7’s Web Access software module now includes 95% of the P6v7 PowerClient functionality. This means P6 power users can now realistically use Web Access to not only update their projects but to help manage them in real-time. P6 V7 Web Access now makes excellent use of screen real estate as described below. Users familiar with P3 functionality will find this feature particularly useful.

 

Oracle-Primavera P6 V7 Web Access Improves Efficiency Allowing Less Expensive Remote Access to PM Database

---

The major importance of P6 V7 Web Access improvements is its ability to allow users to use the web based Primavera software module to help manage projects in real-time all around the world. This means that remote users are no longer required to use the more costly and challenging Citrix remote access functionality to access a centralized multi-project database.

Many organizations currently manage their multiple business units using different solutions as described below. This discord among systems often gives rise to many inefficiencies and project failures

The P6 V7 Web Access software module now facilitates the easier deployment of an enterprise-wide IT and project management software functional solution for multiple divisions or business units all managing their own projects with their own Work Breakdown Structures and all having their respective data roll up in the enterprise allowing corporate-wide visibility to projects progress and problems.

VisionMonitor

VisionMonitor Announces Real-Time Environmental Performance Solutions

---

Designed to meet the needs of the most data intensive operating environments, VisionMonitor’s Real‐Time Environmental Performance solutions utilize the latest iteration of Microsoft technologies such as SharePoint and SQL Server for optimizing operational efficiencies while assuring corporate environmental risk management.  VisionMonitor Real-Time Environmental Performance Solutions also enable organizations to track and manage allowances, renewable energy credits, offsets, reduction targets, and trades in order to effectively predict future performance and derive as much value as possible from environmental assets, both now and in the future.  Please visit our VisionMonitor page for further information.

 

eTimeMachine

---

eTimeMachine.com Inc. is recognized as a leader in enterprise project management solutions. eTimeMachine combines its rich resource and work management, project and activity costing, operational compliance and integration functionality with other best-in-class systems to collect, integrate and consolidate all resource, project & activity related data from across the enterprise to achieve corporate-wide success.

Upcoming Courses

---

Please visit our Training page to view the complete 2010 schedule including times and locations for all CPM Solutions courses.  Please note that if you do not see a scheduled course in the timeframe which you would like to attend, please contact us as we continually conduct non scheduled courses that you may want to attend. 

---

If you have any comments about our e-Newsletter and/or our web site or if you have any questions regarding how enterprise-wide project controls focused software solutions might help your business, please contact Duncan Finnigan, Vice President, Sales and Marketing at Tel: 604 294 1577 EXT 118, E-mail: dfinnigan@cpmsolutions.ca.