Project management

PSA Replacement

1. Introduction/Background

Altura, a global organization, currently uses Casepoint’s PSA (Professional Services Automation) to support their Professional Services teams for US and Canada. Specifically, PSA helps project managers track billable resources and project progress from inception to closure. PSA is a heavily customized, outdated (2010), and unsupported solution. Additionally, there is a standalone resource scheduling application (MayChart) that interfaces to PSA which is also unsupported. Neither application interfaces to the HR system so redundant information is maintained in both systems for all new hires, transfers and terms.

Altura continues to have an increased focus on improving project delivery and increasing their number of referenceable customers. An updated system would provide more flexibility to meet end user’s requirements. Two prospective software vendors have been identified. The project team is tasked with performing additional market research to identify additional vendors which may be able to satisfy business objectives.

2. Business Objectives

Select and implement a web-based system solution that provides features, functionality, and flexibility to achieve business objectives more effectively and meet financial control requirements (i.e. budgetary projections). The solution needs to facilitate the field’s ability to do business, not hinder it. It should support organizational values, reduce sales efforts, and expedite the back-end administration required to support improved project delivery, including enhanced quality and timeliness.

3. Problem Statement and Opportunities

Current Situation/Problem Statement

The current system is heavily customized and therefore, unsupported by the vendor. The data has not been archived since the system went live in 2003 which is causing a degradation in performance (i.e. revenue recognition runs are getting longer and longer). As a result, Altura is looking for a system that is more flexible and efficient. The system needs to easily accommodate changes to business requirements and allow the end user (i.e. Project Manager) to manage their project budgets and timelines more effectively.

Opportunity

Improve the tracking of metrics:

Utilization
There is no mechanism in place to ensure budgetary projections are met. A more flexible system will allow ease of access to actionable data which will help meet revenue projections by converting nonbillable time into billable opportunities.

Write-offs
Easier access to data should facilitate a more effective way to schedule and monitor project resources, thereby reducing potential write-offs for disputed services.

NPS Scores
Increased effectiveness of project managers will result in an increase in NPS (Net Promotor Score) – customers’ rating associated with their likelihood to recommend a company, product, or a service to a friend or colleague.

Project

Profitability
This metric provides insight into a company’s financial health and average profitability of billable work assignments performed by employees with regards to total revenue and labor costs. A new system should provide the functionality to monitor project profitability.

Cost reduction:

Maychart
Elimination of Maychart annual maintenance ($25k/yr).

4. Preliminary Project Requirements

· Ability to manage project timelines, budgets, change orders, issues and resolutions.

· Ability to log time and expenses and convert that billing data into invoices.

· Ability to schedule resources based on skills and availability and forecast revenue based on these schedules – ultimately replacing Maychart.

· Flexibility to handle multiple pricing programs.

· Generate reports, dashboards and other analytical tools to help drive the business.

5. Assumptions/Constraints

Assumptions

· PSA replacement should eliminate the need for Maychart and the separate license and maintenance agreements for that system.

· No more than two years of history and only active projects will be brought over to new system.

· The field team will have some type of access to the “old” PSA data.

· New system has the flexibility to work with either billed or billable utilization models (TBD).

· Dedicated PM for the Service Operations team will lead this project from the business side.

· Data will be interfaced to the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) for general access by all teams.

· System will be used by all members of the Professional Services team, both US and Canada.

· International requirements will be considered for future phase, but not part of this original phase.

Constraints

· Ability for IT to support the solution internally given potential complexities of a SaaS (Cloud) solution.

· Competing priorities in IT, Service Operations and the Field team will make for a challenging workload once the project begins.

· System will need to go live all at once – no gradual pilot plan.

6. Prospective Solution Providers

· CasePoint 2016: Limited flexibility on the revenue recognition option. Partnership with Caseware is wearing thin.

· QuickPSA from Oracle: Does not meet all of the requirements regarding the replacement of Maychart.

______________________________________________________________________________

During the semester, you have learned the concept – “Progressive Elaboration”. Often time, you do not know what the future holds. As a result, short-term work is decomposed more granularly than future work. Once more is known and as the project progresses, the decomposition of all work occurs. This will hold true for this assignment.

Tasks:

1. Work with your team to identify the different components of work that will need to be completed to ensure a system solution is procured. While the system will also be provisioned and implemented, the immediate task at hand is “software selection”. The expectation is a software vendor will be selected within 90 days and the system implemented by the end of year. Use the Work Breakdown structure (WBS) to create a Project Schedule

a. Key the WBS (separate file) into Project Plan 365 to begin creating a schedule

· Include logical WBS numbering associated with each level of decomposition

b. Decompose the work packages (WP) associated with the following workstreams into lower level activities/sub-activities. The minimum expectation is at least 3 activities per WP.

· Project Management (Conduct PM Responsibilities)

· Market Research (Perform Market Research of Possible Vendors)

· Perform Procurement and Vendor Selection

Note: The Workstream “Conduct System Development” will not be decomposed into activities at this time.

c. Include the activity attributes listed below:

· ID number, activity name, duration, start date, end date for each item

· Assign activities to designated team member(s).

· Identify relationships between tasks (Predecessor/Successor).

2. RACI

Create a RACI Matrix that identify the roles and responsibilities of team members in relation to the WPs associated with the project.

· Include all team members and their corresponding roles (project manager, team lead, business analyst, procurement manager, administrator, etc.)

Please use these case instructions (
PSA Business Case


 
 Download PSA Business Case) for further details regarding the completion of the assignment (NOTE: Assume the initiative is starting in January with an  implementation by the end of 2022).  Additionally, you will need to use this Work Breakdown Structure (
WBS


 
 Download WBS) as a starting point. As a refresher, this 
podcast (Links to an external site.)
 will walk you through how to copy/paste/use auto numbering feature in ProjectPlan 365. The Assignment Deliverables are outlined below: 

A. Project Schedule – Project Plan 365 (
Download instructions
 are in Module 2)

· NOTE: While not ideal, the FREE academic edition of PP365 will not allow sharing the schedule. Please collaborate/create the schedule in excel and then have 1 member cut/paste into PP365.  The file CAN be saved/shared. Alternatively, you can create a virtual session with one member navigating/entering data. 

B. RACI Matrix

C. Project Kickoff Deck

You may need to reference podcasts, labs, etc. included in previous weeks’ modules.  Additionally, you may need to do a bit of online research. Make sure to include a reference page if outside sources are used.