Over the next few months we will be showing you some of the new data management facilities available in AMS REALTIME Resources 6.0. This month we look at sorting/grouping capabilities.

You have always been able to carry out a normal sort in AMS REALTIME Resources. You simply selected a column and clicked on a Sort button. The 6.0 client provides the standard feature and provides the user with a visual representation of the sort order and direction (ascending or descending). Each field can also have its own definition that specifies whether that field will show aggregate, count, minimum or maximum data in the grouping. Users can add to an existing sort order, replace the sort order or override default behavior with key modifiers.

In addition to the standard sort, a new option is now available to use the sort criteria as grouping parameters and view the table data in the grouped form or summary/detail view. This is achieved by a single click on the Outline-sort button.

Not only is the data shown in summary/detail form, data can be rolled up or summarized at each of the group levels.

This feature will be available in Database Tab and other tabular views in 6.0.

AMS REALTIME Enterprise 6.0 provides a new and easy way to view the status of your organization's projects. The traditional Red-Amber-Green (or Red- Yellow-Green) representation for status, has been enhanced considerably into a multi-dimensional indicator representing project: technical progress, cost variance and schedule variance.

This indicator is shown in form of a pie with three pieces, the top one representing technical progress, the lower left representing schedule variance and the lower right representing cost variance.

Instead of the traditional three-color representation, we have used five colors, two of which represent the status in the threshold regions. The threshold percentages are symmetrical and default to 10%. User can redefine the threshold value.

Using our new Portfolio tool, the project status indicators can be reviewed and the user can then drill-down to specific projects and (if necessary) specific staff assignments to ascertain exactly where help is required to bring the project back on track.

In addition to being available in Portfolio at project level, these indicators will also be present at program level, task/activity (summary and detail) level, resource assignment (Workplan) level and employee level, allowing users to pinpoint issues (and performance) more easily.

Please check our web site to download the relevant service pack and release notes for 5.7 Build 188.

Many receipients of the newsletter are showing it (or mentioning it) to colleagues/friends who subsequently contact us so we can register them for receipt. A big thank you to you for doing this!

At the bottom of each newsletter is a forward email link. After getting permission from an interested colleague/friend, click on this and you can let us know about them (name and email address). This will speed up the registration process for future editions and has the added benefit of them receiving the forwarded current newsletter.

Thanks again!

Ervin