Nato C3 Agency runs 500+ projects at any time for its customers, from IT Solutions to radar and defense systems, the spectrum is large. The needs for accurate time accounting, reporting, controlling over costs and schedules, were as many reasons for NATO C3 to follow the Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) route. A route equipped with Prince2 in terms of methodology and Microsoft Project and Project Server on the tools side.

« The business intelligence piece » says Nick Hillman, Business Management Executive for Project Management, « was one of the key selling points of EPM to management ». It is indeed a fancy and useful reporting utility that executives can understand, use and fully appreciate.

While time and task management was at the top of the priorities list, it also was an area of resistance for the 700+ users. It had to be cracked and this was achieved through pragmatic small customizations that truly facilitate the time entry. One of these that may sound trivial but was key to acceptance is the automatic feed by the system of bank holidays and admin tasks such as vacations. A second area of focus was to improve project management. Having the schedules (including the new timelines feature), Issues & Risks, Deliverables and templates in a single place allowed the automatic production of projects’ highlights reports, freeing up the time of PMs and gaining them to our cause.

And to close the loop, a bi-directional interface between the General Ledger (Peoplesoft) and EPM was put in place to get all costs to EPM such as travel costs and purchases.

With EPM, the project portal becomes the one-stop shopping for all project information and for all in the enterprise. That was also a key benefit.