Project managers are responsible for ensuring projects are delivered in scope, on time and on budget while also collaborating with and managing the expectations of their firm, project team and client. Resource managers and operations leaders are responsible for ensuring that employees are engaged on projects, are not overloaded with work risking burnout or are idle and waiting on the bench. These two roles need to coordinate to ensure internal and external teams and clients are happy and retained. Deltek Vantagepoint seamlessly pulls those worlds together with tools that support managing the entire project lifecycle with estimate at completion (EAC) data to allow project managers (PMs) and operations leaders to be proactive while also analyzing current and future capacity of employees and future staffing needs.
With the latest release of Deltek Vantagepoint, several enhancements further empower these two roles by increasing visibility, focus and efficiency.
Analyze Detailed Plans with Sub-Rows
One of the most exciting features added to Deltek Vantagepoint is the ability to select multiple sub-rows when viewing labor in project planning. Users can select from baseline, planned and actual data and view hours, cost or billing amounts to view the project detail that matters most. Product users in our early adopter program agreed this is a big win for busy project managers when they need to dig deep into the details and analyze planned against baseline against actuals across calendar periods, even down to the day. This is now easily accessible on the screen while in the plan without having to run a report. This enables a project manager to track progress at a granular level and easily hide those details when a summarized status is all they need.
" The multiple calendar rows enhancement works great! I am able to modify and see planned vs. actual hours."
– Gina Worrall, Deltek Application Administrator at WestLand Resources
Add Assignments on Inactive Project Levels
Now project managers can add resource assignments to plans even when the project, phase or task is inactive. This allows businesses to set WBS levels to inactive until they are ready for teams to start charging time and expenses, while not disrupting the planning process for a project manager.
Search and You Shall Find: Expanded Resource Management Search
Finding the right resource for a project or selecting a group of resources to analyze capacity is now easier with an expanded search in Deltek Vantagepoint’s Resource View. Administrators can decide which standard or user-defined employee fields are needed within Resource Management and make them available for the resource search.
Increase Efficiency with Focused Views Using Project Filters
Additionally, resource managers and projects managers can filter the projects that will appear under the resources to make it easier to focus on specific project assignments without losing sight of total capacity. For example, a project manager can decide to only view projects where they are the project manager or resource manager can focus on projects that are awarded plus those in pursuit with a probability greater than 80%. This focused view increases efficiency while not losing sight of the big picture.
Revenue Forecasts on the Dashboard
The Pipeline Dashpart has been enhanced to include Revenue Forecasts in addition to the existing estimated fees. Firms can now choose which values they would like to see when viewing forecasted revenue across their organization, including the Revenue Forecasts, which are often updated by project managers providing a more detailed breakdown of revenue projections by period for the life of their projects.
Improved Employee Visibility with My Upcoming Assignments Dashpart
It is critical that all employees are aware of what is expected of them and have visibility into those details. Now every employee can view their assignments with the new My Upcoming Assignments dashpart. For firms that own resource planning, a system dashpart is now available for each employee that will display all their resource planning assignments, giving them visibility into which projects they have been assigned along with the planned hours by day, week, or month. They can also see totals for all assignments: total planned hours, utilization % and scheduled % by day, week and month. This gives every employee visibility into their upcoming schedule so they can better prepare and allows for better collaboration with team members and project managers around remaining hours, task status and deliverables. Users in the early adopter program immediately saw the power of this dashpart and are excited to share it with every employee in their firms.
" The My Upcoming Assignments dashpart is a fantastic addition!"
– Gina Worrall, Deltek Application Administrator at WestLand Resources
The latest release of Deltek Vantagepoint makes it easier for project managers and resources managers to analyze project performance without needing to run reports, to focus on what matters without extra noise and to manage the team (internal and external), projects and clients more efficiently.
