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May 2013: Volume 3, Number 5
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In This Issue
 Getting the Correct Cloud-based Project Portfolio Management (PPM)
As Co-founder and President of BeMo the first company to offer hosted Project Server 2013, Bruno Lecoq appreciates the need for organizations to first understand what "Cloud-based PPM" is and then to match each organizations requirements to what the market has to offer. In his just published paper "Cloud-based Project Portfolio Management: Matching your business requirements with the correct cloud solution" he offers readers a comprehensive guide to meeting their PPM needs.
His paper includes clear definitions of Project Portfolio Management (PPM), Cloud Computing, as well as Cloud-based PPM. Most significantly for the readers he presents a clear and concise description of:
- Microsoft's Project Online - this is a multi-tenant version of Project Server 2013 hosted by Microsoft,
- BeMo's Project Online - this is Bruno's company's multi-tenant version of Project Server 2010 or 2013, and
- BeMo's dedicated Project Server 2010 and 2013 offerings.
Click here to download a copy of Bruno's paper that has a table comparing the 20 critical features of Cloud-based PPM.
Matan - Featured Add-On Partner for Project Server
 Matan is Israel's most professional and experienced Enterprise Project Management (EPM) company. Since the company was established in 1995, they have made every effort to provide their customers with tools that deliver a genuine business advantage. Matan is considered one of Microsoft's oldest and most experienced business partners in the implementation and integration of MS Project Server-based solutions. BeMo offers its clients Matan's MasterLink.
MasterLink is a unique management tool that was designed with the goal of making it easier for managers to control and monitor multiple projects - programs simultaneously. It provides advanced control capabilities for management in a matrix-based environment and for mega-project management.
The MasterLink tool was developed as a result of a recurring need among Matan's customers - project managers and program managers at different types of organizations. With MasterLink organizations can monitor links and perform inter-project integration in real time.
MasterLink significantly reinforces MS Project Server's existing capabilities and let's project managers manage integrative programs composed of sub-projects, easily and elegantly.
For more details on Matan's MasterLink click here.
Nintex - Featured Add-On Partner for Project Server
Nintex is the world's leading SharePoint / Project Server workflow company, with over 4,000 customers in 90 countries serviced by a global network of high quality partners and service providers, including BeMo. Nintex delivers innovative software and cloud services that empower organizations to automate business processes, quickly and easily. Nintex is focused on delivering technology that is powerful, easy to use, and addresses the needs of business users, developers, and IT professionals alike. Nintex Workflow, offered by BeMo is recognized by analysts as the most utilized third party tool for SharePoint.
Nintex Workflow is used to create workflows for Project Server. These workflows are assigned to Project Server's EPT's (Enterprise Project Types) and can be configured to present Project Detail pages (PDP's ) and set stage status through the entire lifecycle of the project. Use Nintex Workflow for Project Server to enforce and manage the creation / approval of project artifacts, automated reminders, and follow-ups on recurring Project Management Office (PMO) requirements, such as Weekly Status Reports, Risk Register reviews, and peer reviews. For more details on Nintex Workflow click here.
TRY NINTEX WORKFLOW for PROJECT SERVER and SAVE 20%
TRY NINTEX WORKFLOW with SHAREPOINT ENTERPRISE free for 30 days
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BeMo 2013 or 2010 Content Packs same low price of $59 per month for either
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The BeMo 2010 and 2013 Content Packs were developed to provide hands-on capability for the training of project managers, PWA users, PMO staff, anyone who will be working with Project Professional 2010 or Project Professional 2013 or Project Pro for Office 365 connected to Project Server 2010 or 2013 in an enterprise-wide project management environment. It can also be used as a demonstration framework to illustrate the features and functions of Project Server 20130 or 2010.
Each image has a 120 + Enterprise Resource Pool, over 20 projects and proposals, including a two comprehensive programs, all with customized Project Sites. A comprehensive cost-based Portfolio Analysis strategy. It also includes customized BI (Business Intelligence).
Most importantly the BeMo Content Packs can be accessed using your IE and your own copy of Project Professional 2010 / 2013 / Project Pro for Office 365 there is no virtualization software or special hardware required.
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For more information visit www.bemopro.com
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The Power of SharePoint Task Lists in Project Server 2013
One of the major improvements in Project Server 2013 is the capability to fully support SharePoint task lists in Project Web App (PWA).
SharePoint task lists are ideal when you are developing a project schedule and you do not need the full power of either Project Web App or Project Professional. SharePoint tasks have all of the essentials of project tasks - see the screen capture on the right of a SharePoint task. Note that we can define the work [Task Name], the Start date, Due date [Finish] and most importantly the Work resources [Assigned To] that will be need to complete the task, do the work. We can also add Predecessors - they are Finish-to-Start but they can be defined / set.
In many people's opinion the single biggest reason to use SharePoint task lists is that the work assigned to Enterprise Work resources is reflected in PWA's Resource Center as soon as the task is "Saved". In the following screen capture the work assigned to Sharon Norris is displayed and her assignments on the Annual Report task list [project] are included.
The display of a Work resource's availability, etc. uses PWA's Resource Center. This allows PWA users with the appropriate security permissions, to select one or in fact more than one Work resource and then to have PWA display graphically the resource's availability. This feature offers users four graphical displays:
- Assignment Work by resource
- Assignment Work by project - this is the screen capture below
- Remaining Availability
- Work
And for the less visual PWA users there is a Table of the work and availability which is not shown in the screen capture.
What are some of the other advantages of using SharePoint task lists:
- 1. When the project gets too complex for SharePoint it can be switched so that it becomes editable in Project Web App. And if PWA is not powerful enough authorized users can open it in Project Professional 2013. It must be mentioned that this capability to switch is a Project Server administrator function. After the switch the tasks can still be viewed in SharePoint they simply cannot be edited.
And yes the reverse can occur - you have a schedule that is being managed by PWA and you and your team want to work on the tasks in SharePoint, the Project Server administrator can make the switch - the schedule can now only be viewed in PWA, but edited / revised in SharePoint.
2. You do not have to start the development of these type of projects in PWA. PWA allows you to import an existing SharePoint task list into Project Server. In fact there is a special tile that is part of the PWA Home page's "Getting Started with Project Web App" designed specifically for this purpose. This tile also allows authorized PWA users to start the process of creating a SharePoint task list.
Yes, but what if the SharePoint task list is in another SharePoint Foundation 2013 site. In this instance what you need to do is to add the Project Center Web Part to any page in the non-Project Server SharePoint site. Using this app you select the task list you want to import into Project Server. You give the list of tasks a name that will be used to identify it in PWA's Project Center and the app imports the task list into Project Server 2013.
3. When defining an Enterprise Custom Project field, they can be desig nated as one that applies to both PWA schedules, Project Professional schedules and also to SharePoint task lists. In the screen capture to the right observe that the first four Enterprise Custom Project fields are "Editable in Sharepoint Tasks List Projects and the last two are not. Also the first two are "Required" and the last four are not.
4. The last feature that adds to the power of SharePoint task lists is the ability to include or exclude them from specific Project Center views. Project Server has a special field named "Enterprise Project Type Name". Including this field in a Project Center view allows it to be used to filter the list so that only SharePoint Task Lists entries are displayed as shown in the following screen capture. 
Bottom Line: SharePoint task lists allow authorized users to start simple and when required switch to using the full scheduling capability of Project Web App and eventually Project Professional 2013. All work of the Enterprise Work resources assigned to tasks in the SharePoint task list is reducing their availability and this work is visible to all authorized PWA users, as well as being available to project managers using Project Professional 2013.
Note: For readers of the News who want to "play" with SharePoint task lists then the BeMo Content Pack 2013 is the answer. It already has SharePoint task list projects, as well as the Enterprise Custom Project fields and Project Center view filters just described. For more information on the BeMo 2013 Content Pack see above.
Next Issue
The next BeMo News will feature a very interesting and informative article by Cindy Lewis, Director of Knowledge Management / Senior Project Advisor at Advisicon.
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