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Greetings!
Welcome to the January edition of AMS News. Our aim
is to keep you informed regarding the latest news and
developments at AMS, with the AMS REALTIME
product range and associated services.
Our thanks go to all clients who have provided
feedback regarding previous Newsletters. Please keep
it coming in the new year. If you would like to express
any views or opinions regarding AMS News, or would
like to contribute to editorials in future editions, we
would be delighted to hear from you.
| X12 - wInsight Interface |
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 AMS REALTIME Projects has always been known for the
quality and variety of the reports it produces. Based
on organizations needing to manage projects for the
Government in the USA, the X12 format is capable, via
products such as wInsight, to produce a variety of
reports to strict standards.
AMS REALTIME Projects has just been extended to
utilize this interface and we believe this feature will
become more and more important in the UK and Europe
over the coming years. There are 5 key reports that
can be produced in wInsight with data provided by our
interface ...
(1) WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE (WBS) - used to
measure all cost and schedule performance by summary
level WBS elements including hardware/software/
services cost information, and provides critical/major
subcontractor summary level performance measurement
information in Cost Performance Report or Cost/
Schedule Status (C/SSR) formats. (2)
ORGANIZATIONAL CATEGORIES - As format 1, sorted by
contractor organization to the first level of
organizational structure (OBS). (3) BASELINE - shows
the budget baseline plan against which performance is
being measured, used to track changes to the
Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) and to show
workforce forecast information. (4) STAFFING - shows
workforce staffing forecasts for correlation with the
budget plan and cost estimates, and contains the
workforce baseline (updated whenever the PMB
changes). (5) EXPLANATIONS & PROBLEM ANALYSES -
narrative report used to explain significant cost and
schedule variances and other identified contract
problems. In addition to the AMS REALTIME Projects
X12 interface supporting these formats, wInsight
provides analysis capability of its own.
Thales Airborne Systems in the UK has recently trialled
the AMS REALTIME Projects X12 interface and are
considering rolling it out to all of their programme
support staff. John Peters, Planning & Support
Manager, says "We are very happy with the X12
interface so far, and have demonstrated it to Board
members and French colleagues who have all been very
impressed with the immediate advancement it can
provide to the EV aspect of the current programme
control processes."
for further information regarding the cost management features of RTP... »
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| RTR / RTP: Filters Explained |
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AMS REALTIME Resources Client supports application of
access level filters in Portfolio and Report interfaces.
This means that clients who want to restrict access to
data for reports and analysis based on access levels
can do so.
The effect is that when a user runs a query or a report,
the base data on which these functions operate is
already reduced based on the Access filter defined for
that user.
AMS REALTIME Resources Client also allows for user-
defined filters to be created against tables and
functions (e.g. the Workplan area). These filters reduce
the records the user can view/edit allowing the user to
focus in on only the records they need to see, thereby
improving performance.
Filters can be defined by the Data Administrator
globally (so they can be shared between all users) or
locally by individual users. Filter definitions also let
the users define sort orders based on any columns.
for help on how to use AMS REALTIME products... »
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| Embedded Scripting Language Supports Integration of Enterprise Information |
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Different business areas need to be in direct control of
their information and maintain specialized systems and
applications for managing their work. But by sharing
select information and integrating it with other
functional areas, businesses can remove the potential
for data discrepancy by having a single source of
information.
For example, AMS REALTIME Projects requires
information about employees and their skills, and using
our embedded scripting language (Python) to integrate
the data from the human resources database will
reduce redundancy and ensure that personnel changes
are automatically available in the project management
system.
The cost of materials, travel, and other direct costs
that are charged against project activities can be
integrated from accounting systems, providing the
information necessary to perceive the full cost of
project work. Even actual burdened labor costs can be
imported, providing a reality-based value against which
project performance can be measured. Automated
integration of information using our embedded scripting
language can dramatically reduce the time it takes to
get information, and increase the accuracy and
relevance of your project, resource and earned value
analysis.
Even if you already use AMS REALTIME, our consultants
can help you examine your current system
implementation and business processes and provide you
with options to improve performance and efficiency,
which will save you money in the end.
for more information regarding our embedded scripting language... »
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| I didn't know you could do that! |
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AMS REALTIME PROJECTS - SPLIT GANTT, in the gantt
area in RTP, if you place your cursor on the far right
edge it turns into a finger, you can then click and drag
the right hand side inwards and you will see a dotted
line with a triangle at the top in the calendar ribbon.
This has split the calendar ribbon and you can now
adjust either side of it independently. For example,
weekly gridlines could be used for the current month to
display more detail, and quarterly gridlines to display
the remainder of the project.
AMS REALTIME PROJECTS - CROSS PROJECT
DEPENDENCIES, the multi-project capabilities of RTP are
extensive. Many clients use the Merge-Link option to
define cross-project dependencies. Constraints to
activities outside of your currently displayed project will
show up as a link to a read-only representative activity.
AMS REALTIME PROJECTS - TECHNICAL PROGRESS,
activity progress is by default shown on the lower half
of the activity bar as black shading, and the white
remainder indicates the Remaining Duration. It is
possible to make Progress and Remaining Duration
independent measures by using the Technical progress
mode. To set this for an activity, select the Progress
Mode field from the Activity table and set it to
Technical. Now the Progress and Rem Dur values can
be entered independently. These can be used to
measure progress accurately even if the level of
planned work is highly varied. You can also set the
default ProgressMode for new acivities via the $$$
button.
AMS REALTIME Solo - PRINT A TIMECARD, many
organizations require their contractors and staff to
produce printed timecards following completion.
Contractors often need to submit a timesheet signed by
their contract agency, so it is important to be able to
print your timesheet. To do this in Solo, simply click
anywhere in the timesheet and select Print from the
File menu.
for help on how to use AMS REALTIME products... »
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| Satisfying Finance AND Project Management Business Needs |
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Many organizations are looking to integrate their
chosen project management solution with their chosen
ERP solution (e.g.Oracle Applications, SAP, etc).
The Finance department are interested in time
recording to drive billing and to track project costs, and
so they tend to suggest that the time recording
solution that comes with the ERP system should be
implemented. Therein lies a problem for the project
management community.
ERP solutions have a project-accounting component
which allows actual-costs and resource-driven-costs to
be tracked and held. However, in most cases the Work-
Breakdown-Structure levels held in the ERP system are
not broken down to the same level that is held in
project plans. In fact it would introduce a high
maintenance overhead to do so. The result is that any
time-recording data captured in the ERP system (at the
WBS level it goes down to), is of little or no use to
project managers. Project Managers require this data
at the elementary level in their plans - usually called
the task-level or activity-level.
ERP systems are focused on capturing the hours
worked and tend not to be aware of who is assigned to
what project/WBS level combination, so it is possible
(some may say likely) that staff will book to the wrong
WBS level in a project. This leads to more overheads
when trying to resolve discrepancies and moving the
hours recorded to the right project/WBS level
combination. Also, ERP system time recording solutions
tend just capture the hours booked and calculate the
work remaining. Project Managers often want staff to
record their hours and adjust the work-remaining if the
calculated figure is not accurate. The combination of
the hours worked and the adjusted remaining-work,
booked at the elementary level in their plans is what
they really need.
What is the solution to this problem? The AMS
REALTIME solution includes AMS REALTIME Solo/Web-
Solo. This powerful time recording solution does
exactly what the project management community
needs and allows them to easily keep their project
plans up-to-date and realistic. To ensure that Finance
get what they want, it is possible to roll-up the hours
booked at the elementary level to the level required by
the ERP system and provide this data to the ERP
system via an interface. AMS has already provided this
type of interface for several clients around the world,
and we can provide an interface that meets your
organization's specific needs. We have the expertise
and the open database architecture to provide a best-
of-both-worlds solution to satisfy Finance and the
Project Management community.
for more information about systems integration...
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