Microsoft Office System Solution Showcase
Partner Solution Case Study
Overview
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Government
Customer Profile
Project Solutions Group (PSG), a
Massachusetts-based technology
company, creates consulting,
training, and systems automation
solutions for government agencies
and contractors.
Business Situation
A federal agency wanted PSG to
install an integrated, automated
solution to better manage projects
and programs and to address new,
stringent process, data
management, and reporting
requirements.
Solution
PSG deployed its Earned Value
Management Solution for
Government, a solution that uses
the agency’s existing Microsoft®
Office products.
Benefits
 Integration with Microsoft Office
products
 More consistent reporting
 Reduced costs
 Time savings
 Improved collaboration
Federal Agency Uses Earned Value
Management Solution to Boost Efficiency,
“Through the Solution Showcase, customers
can quickly learn what EVM solutions are
publicly available and how these prebuilt
solutions can add tremendous business
value and save time and money."
Jose Marroig, President, Project Solutions Group Government Consulting
Project Solutions Group (PSG) is a Microsoft® Certified
Partner that helps organizations better manage their
projects. PSG recently created an Enterprise Project
Management (EPM) reporting solution for a federal
agency that risked losing project funding if it failed to
meet stringent new reporting requirements mandated
by the Office of Management and Budget. The agency, a
division of the Department of Transportation, wanted
PSG to create a solution based on the agency’s existing
financial management applications. PSG built a
Microsoft Office System–based Earned Value
Management (EVM) solution that uses templates and
reports to help the agency integrate cost, schedule, and
performance data from multiple sources. By using this
centralized, integrated technology set, the agency has
been able to improve reporting efficiency, reduce costs,
meet regulations, and save time.
 Situation
Project Solutions Group (PSG), based
in Marlborough, Massachusetts, is a
Microsoft® Certified Partner that
provides consulting, training, and
systems automation services to
government agencies and their
contractors. PSG also works with
healthcare, manufacturing,
technology, and financial services
organizations.
The company’s Government
Consulting Group, based in
Washington, D.C., designs and
“The solution gives implements solutions that help
people better agencies meet new, rigorous
standards for project management
access to measurement and reporting.
information, so
The U.S. Office of Management and
they’re more Budget (OMB) recently began to push
inclined to pick up smaller (several hundred employees)
and medium-sized (up to 10,000
the phone to talk employees) federal agencies to
about a project.” become more fiscally responsible.
OMB now requires many civilian
Jose Marroig, President, Project agencies to produce monthly Earned
Solutions Group Government Value Management (EVM) reports that
Consulting detail how federal funding is being
spent on specific programs.
“It’s an early warning system that
allows these agencies to identify
issues before they become
problems,” says Rob Hirschmann,
Vice President of the PSG Government
Consulting Group. “It’s a way to keep
their projects on time and on budget.
Failing to comply with the new
reporting standards means that they
risk losing the funding for their
projects.”
A federal agency recently needed to
install an integrated, automated
solution to address these process,
data management, and reporting
requirements. The agency had been
using time-consuming, manual
operations for pulling together data.
“The process was overburdening the
agency’s human resources,” says Jose
Marroig, President of the PSG
Government Consulting Group.
“Teams were spending almost half
their work hours each month
gathering all the information for EVM
reporting because it was coming from
multiple systems and sources.”
Also, because the agency lacked an
integrated, consolidated method of
creating reports, it was spending too
much money on the tools needed to
help with reporting and analysis.
“Installing the necessary applications,
purchasing add-on tools, and
providing continued training and
support was cost-prohibitive—
especially in the current economic
environment,” says Marroig. “The
agency really needed a solution that
could help it reduce its costs while
allowing it to deliver accurate reports
on time to drive accurate decision
making.”
Solution
To help the agency solve its reporting,
integration, and cost issues, PSG
deployed its Earned Value
Management Solution for
Government, which uses the agency’s
existing Microsoft Office products to
support a centralized, integrated
method for creating EVM reports.
The solution uses templates, prebuilt
integration tools, and reports to
integrate cost, schedule, and
performance data culled from
multiple sources. It relies on
Microsoft Office Project Server 2003
 “The solution to build and maintain the scope, cost,
and scheduling details of each
integrates Earned project. PSG also added an Earned
Value reporting Value Management (EVM) data mart
to create trending data collected
capabilities into through Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000,
Microsoft Office which is part of
Microsoft Windows Server System™
products that the integrated server software. The data
agency already has. is then displayed in EVM reports and
generated using SQL Server 2000
For quick access to Reporting Services.
any EVM report they
“We use Project Server 2003 to take
need, users can the data and turn it into usable
employ familiar information,” says Marroig. “We store
that data in the SQL Server [2000]
tools.” database, and now the agency sees
Rob Hirschmann, Vice President, its project information in Project
Server [2003] as a source of strategic
Figure 1 Capture data required, intelligence.”
do auto analysis, and expose pre-
fabricated reports. While 20 percent of the solution’s The EVM solution was recently
users are project managers at the highlighted on the Microsoft Solution
agency, the rest are team members, Showcase Web site, which is helping
resource managers, or executives customers gain broader visibility and
who need to work with the data or education on available solutions.
collaborate on project issues and “Through the Solution Showcase,
risks. “Everyone who’s not a project customers can quickly learn what
manager or project lead gets his or EVM solutions are publicly available
her information through and how these prebuilt solutions can
Microsoft Office Project Web Access, add tremendous business value and
the browser-based tool for use with save time and money,” says Marroig.
Project Server [2003],” Marroig adds.
Benefits
In addition, all reports created With the centralized, integrated PSG
through Project Web Access are solution, the agency can use its
directly exportable to existing software programs to meet
Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet reporting requirements and use
software. Every EVM report the Earned Value Management (EVM)
agency accesses can use Office XML information to better manage its
Formats or be sent to a printer, added projects and programs. In addition,
to a PDF file, or inserted in the the solution helps the agency improve
Microsoft PowerPoint® presentation reporting consistency, reduce costs,
graphics program. save time, and experience improved
internal collaboration and
communication.

Figure 2 (PV) at any point in time,
Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled
(BCWS), the Actual Costs or Actual
Cost of Work Performed (AC or
ACWP), and the Earned Value or
Budgeted Cost of Work Performed
(EV or BCWP).
Integration With Microsoft Office
Products
The PSG EVM Solution for
Government enables the agency to
use its existing software products to
initiate plans, manage resources,
update schedules, and integrate
financial data. “The solution
integrates Earned Value reporting
capabilities into Microsoft Office
products that the agency already
has,” says Marroig. “For quick access
to any EVM report they need, users
can employ familiar tools.”
According to Marroig, many project
managers in government agencies
use Microsoft Project and Project
Server to build and manage their
work schedules, but they have limited
ability to integrate these work plans
with cost or performance data that is
critical for decision making today.
“The key with the PSG solution is the
level of integration with Microsoft
Office products and their ease of use
across federal agencies,” Marroig
says.
More Consistent Reporting
With the solution’s prebuilt Web-
based reporting features and
Project Server 2003, the agency can
standardize and streamline its data
collection. All the data enters the
SQL Server 2000 database in a
consistent way with the help of
SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services.
The agency can take data directly
from its financial system and use it to
update project costs within the
Project Server 2003 schedule, giving
project teams direct access to
integrated cost and schedule
“The agency is
actually saving close
to two full days per
week in reporting
time because of this
tool.”
Jose Marroig, President, Project
Solutions Group Government
Consulting
information in one single repository.
“The agency can now better align its
cost and schedule information and
still be compliant in how it’s creating
the EVM reports,” Marroig says.
Reduced Costs
The solution’s integration with the
agency’s existing Microsoft Office
products means that fewer resources
are needed to complete the reporting
work. “You’re talking about a lower
upfront and ongoing IT investment,”
says Marroig. “You can use the same
IT staff that you use for the rest of
your infrastructure, so you don’t have
to hire additional or highly specialized
resources to support a single
application.”
Time Savings
Previously, the agency was working
with data from multiple sources,
which created confusion and took too
much time for employees to
consolidate. They had information on
spreadsheets, white boards, and
various other places. The solution has
allowed the agency to save 20 to 30
percent of its reporting time. “The
agency is actually saving close to two
full days per week in reporting time
because of this tool,” says Marroig.
“People can spend that time on
improving their ability to deliver
projects and programs.”
Improved Collaboration and
Communication
Finally, internal teamwork is improved
because the solution provides
information in an accurate, easy-to-
understand way. Agency employees
can go to a central location for
schedules, task updates, and other
important issues. “People can have a
real conversation about the data now,
and they can focus on solving real
business problems like projects being
behind schedule or over budget,”
says Marroig. “The solution gives
people better access to information,
so they’re more inclined to pick up
the phone to talk about a project.”
For More Information
For more information about
Microsoft products and services, call
the Microsoft Sales Information
Center at (800) 426-9400. In
Canada, call the Microsoft Canada
Information Centre at (877) 568-
2495. Customers who are deaf or
hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft
text telephone (TTY/TDD) services
at (800) 892-5234 in the United
States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada.
Outside the 50 United States and
Canada, please contact your local
Microsoft subsidiary. To access
information using the World Wide
Web, go to: www.microsoft.com
For more information about Project
Solutions Group Government
Consulting products and services,
call (703) 740-9119 or visit the Web
site at: www.psgus.com
Microsoft Office System
The Microsoft Office System is the
business world’s chosen environment
for information work, providing the
programs, servers, and services that
help you succeed by transforming
information into impact.
For more information about the
Microsoft Office System, go to:
www.microsoft.com/office
For additional information about the
Solution Showcase for the Microsoft
Office System, go to:
www.microsoft.com/office/showcase
For Partner Sales and Marketing tools
go to:
http://partner.microsoft.com/iwshowc
ase
For additional information about the
PSG Earned Value Management
solution, go to:
www.microsoft.com/evm/partnersol.m
spx

Software and Services  Technologies

 Microsoft Office System − Microsoft Office Project Web
− Microsoft Office Project Server Access
2003 − Microsoft SQL Server 2000
 Microsoft Windows Server System Reporting Services
− Microsoft SQL Server 2000
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This case study is for informational purposes only. Enterprise Edition
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Excel, the
Office logo, PowerPoint, and Windows Server System
are either registered trademarks or trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or
other countries. All other trademarks are property of
their respective owners.

Document published February 2006