Manufacturing company Frontside switched to the Russian project management system Advanta

2023: Transition to Russian Project Management System Advanta

On December 26, 2023, Advanta announced that the Frontside production company had switched to the Russian Advanta project management system.

According to the company, import substitution the manufacturing company Frontside turned out to be in the search for the system, which produces facade systems construction for objects with special requirements for their appearance or construction process. Frontside used the American a project management system. Wrike Initially, the system was used to control the work IT of the department and developers. Then other divisions of the company working with projects joined it. Although Wrike has not officially announced its withdrawal from the market, Frontside decided not to risk introducing a Russian alternative. Excel It will not be possible to abandon the use of such systems and return to traditional programs, or a Task tracker. First, the system is already used by dozens of employees, and keep projects manual at this scale is inconvenient. Secondly, the IT project management system can:

• monitor the current status of the company's projects, determine at what stage they are and the deadlines for completion;
• ensure transparency of work processes - the system shows who is doing what and what task will take the next one;
• Determine the total load on the company. Before signing a contract and announcing the deadlines, it is enough to look into the system, assess the load, allocate resources and understand when you can start the project.

Keeping all this in an Excel spreadsheet or task cards is hard and long work, so Frontside began searching for Russian software. Frontside announced its desire to create a full-fledged design office, and ADVANTA specialists offered their help. Despite the fact that employees previously worked in the same system, they conducted projects in different ways - there was no single approach and the processes remained opaque. This led to the fact that employees did not always have time to complete tasks and missed important points.

ADVANTA offered Frontside not only a functional project management solution, but also a methodology where key project management processes are supported. This facilitates the implementation of the project office and optimizes the efficiency of the entire team.

As of December 2023, the implementation of the project office is taking place gradually so that employees smoothly study the system and do not experience difficulties when working with software. The project office employs about 20 people, mostly managers. There are plans to increase the number of employees to 100.

Another important criterion for Frontside is that the control system should be developed in Russia. Foreign companies can suddenly leave, and then the business will be left without a working system. This will require urgent replacement and long settings, which will lead to time loss and disruption of workflows. In addition, the use of Russian software eliminates the risk of blocking, termination of licenses and the provision of technical support services.

Frontside highlighted three main reasons why the choice fell on ADVANTA as the "import-substituting" Wrike system:

• Speed of implementation. Aside from the risk of Wrike leaving, Frontside had another reason not to stay on the service. Long-term use will make employees addictive, and switching to other software after that is always more difficult. ADVANTA proposed to implement the system in a short time, namely in a month and a half, which was suitable for Frontside.
• Automation and flexibility. Frontside wanted to minimize manual settings and not involve specially trained developers for the program. ADVANTA took over the implementation and offered ready-made solutions for different tasks.
• A simple Gantt chart. A Gantt diagram is a visualization of a project. It shows who and what tasks must be completed in order to achieve the goal.

The main goal that the company sets for the project management system is the ability to monitor the progress of the task to make sure that everything is going according to plan.

ADVANTA has set up a Project Register solution for Frontside. The tool helps to organize all projects in a single list, which contains the characteristics of the project, the responsible person, information about the status of the project and problems that arise. Important deviations are immediately visible, which allows you to quickly make management decisions. A project tree and roadmap have also been set up to help the team achieve its goals by setting milestones and deadlines. They help determine which projects are progressing successfully and which require attention. If problems arise, the system allows you to quickly take action and adjust tasks.