Sollers upgrades a project management system

On November 15, 2013 the companies Softline also Prof-IT Group announced upgrade of a project management system at the Moscow office of the company Sollers implementation Microsoft Project Server 2010.

Project Tasks

All potential projects of Sollers company pass certain phases of study: preinvestment (planning and calculation), investment (expensive part) and operating room (implementation). The progressive tense business planning at the first stage was under construction using Microsoft application of Project Professional installed by IT specialists of Sollers. Owing to limited opportunities for work with the client version of a product the complete information about the specific project was under authority only of one selected manager. At the same time all preliminary documentation was stored in a type of the Word and Excel files on the responsible's PC, or in network folders without differentiation of access rights to materials.

Such approach complicated process of interaction between employees and reduced effective management of projects in general. Also there was no tool for formation of the transparent and operational reporting for company management.

Project Progress

For the purpose of optimization of internal activity of Sollers and the organization of the uniform structured space of storage of project documents, specialists of department of solutions of Microsoft of Softline company suggested to add the available solution, having implemented a server part of the product Microsoft Project.

Entered the project: development of internal regulations of interaction of all divisions of the company participating in process of business planning of projects and creation of a system of the informative reporting for the guide of the customer.

At the first stage of works specialists of Softline jointly with specialists of Prof-IT Group developed the regulations describing the scheme of interaction of all divisions of the company which are taking part in business planning on a preinvestment phase.

Grigory Sotsky, the head of department of integration projects of department of solutions of Microsoft of Softline company, noted: "Importance of this document for Sollers demanded from us its careful study so as a result it was succeeded to create an optimal variant with uniform rules and requirements to the organization of all process - from initiation and project planning before its protection".

On the basis of the approved regulations engineers of Softline started implementation of the solution. On the basis of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 the Microsoft Project Server 2010 system is unrolled, the storage of the project documentation is organized by means of Microsoft SharePoint 2010. Authentication of users is performed using Active Directory accounts. In order that contractors had an opportunity to report on the course of accomplishment of tasks via the browser, the functionality of Project Web Access was configured.

Project Results

The created reporting system helps the management of Sollers to select projects with the top priority, based on resource availability from the set period and also, having analyzed a portfolio status in general, to make the final decision on financing. In case of the positive conclusion of investment committee, the approved project is exposed to detailed planning and is transferred to execution.

The problem of integration of Microsoft Project Server 2010 into the current IT landscape of the company, preparation of infrastructure of the project and the organization of user support is implemented by PROF-IT GROUP which performs IT support of Sollers holding. Individual preference of a system taking into account needs of users and project teams and also taking into account corporate standards of security of Sollers gave the chance to create the uniform effective tool for management of project activity of the company.

"The pilot implementation implemented on section of preinvestment planning is the first stage in optimization of all corporate management process projects and will allow to estimate operability of the corresponding system at the Moscow office Sollers. After the end of internal restructuring we intend to start further development of the solution. It is in the long term going to connect to activities for project management of staff of other divisions, thereby having increased efficiency of implementation of all tasks", - Evgeny Sudarkin, the CEO of PROF-IT GROUP emphasized.