COCA COLA The companys Information Systems and Services Department needed to track all of its projects in a single

repository and to do more detailed cost reporting than its project management solution allowed. To address this need, CCBCC deployed the Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution, which includes Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007, Office Project Server 2007, and Office Project Professional 2007. With the EPM Solution, CCBCC can analyze its finances more accurately, easily comply with regulations, and better manage its resources. In addition, it has the visibility to make decisions and achieve its goals in less time.

In March 2007, the companys Information Systems and Services (ISS) Department began to look for a better way to forecast and capture project costs. The department had been using a project management software solution on which the maintenance agreement had expired, and CCBCC expected significant time, money, and effort to upgrade the solution. Problems: -It lacked many of the advanced functions that they wanted, including historical cost reporting and the ability to have multiple project baselines. -They could not track cost elements, such as labour and material cost, in one repository. -Senior management would want details on a project, including true cost to the company, and had to spend a lot of time and effort gathering data from several locations.

Solution
They chose the Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution, which includes Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007, Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, and Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007. -They wanted to simplify the software footprint to consist primarily of SAP and Microsoft products to reduce the maintenance costs. So the EPM Solution fit in with their overall strategy very well, while giving ability to handle expenses and resources efficiently. -They used the solution for financial accountingfor the costs of computer software developed or obtained for internal use. The EPM Solution custom fields are used to allocate project expenses to either expense categories or capital categories. -The EPM Solution is used to ensure that companys license and maintenance costs are captured. They rely on it to track and compare estimated to actual labour and costs for training, travel expense, communications, and internal and external labour. -Office Project Server 2007 is integrated with Windows SharePoint Services so that users can manage documents and track risks and issues using Microsoft Office Project Web Access. -They use SharePoint sites, known as project workspaces, to view and update project information and manage related items such as documents. -The project managers use project workspaces to check in and check out project-related documents. -They also rely heavily on the Data Analysis reporting capabilities in Project Web Access.

Benefits
-By using the EPM Solution, CCBCC is tracking its project finances more accurately. -The company can easily comply with regulations and better manage its resources. -It has the visibility to make decisions and achieve its goals in less time.

Analyse Cash Flow More Accurately

-Project Web Access custom fields and the Data Analysis tool helped to flexibly and quickly perform month-end analysis of project-related costs to ensure proper classification between capital and expense. -By using custom fields that correspond to vendor name, purchase order, capital, and expense, they can easily view the information needed by period, and know exactly what amount to capitalize for that period. -Because the EPM Solution narrows the information down to such a fine level of detail, they can more quickly prepare journal entries, and get the project capitalized. -Before implementing the EPM Solution, they would begin a project asking for one funding amount, and invariably would need to go back and ask for more because they would exceed the budget. With the EPM Solution, they can request the precise amount of capital they need from the start of a project. This solved a myriad of problems for them.

Comply with Regulations

By using the EPM Solution, the company is better prepared for audits. The EPM Solution reports are helpful throughout the year whenever auditors want to see or test data on capital projects. Auditors are able to test with reasonable assurance that everythings correct and that company is not making material mistakes. With the EPM Solution, everybody can do their due diligence more easily, making sure that they are capitalizing what they need to capitalize and that the processes are working correctly.

Manage Resources and Schedules More Effectively

In tandem with the implementation of the EPM Solution, the ISS Department created a project delivery framework that consists of five gates: qualified need, define, design, build/test, and deploy/measure. Previously, they didnt have gates. Their projects were more like checklists than project plansthere was no consistency. When they implemented the EPM Solution, all projects are on track, and so they can address needs or questions immediately. Based on the number of hours people spend on tasks, resource managers can see whether they have the right spread of resources, and they can take decisive and informed action by seeing where people are spending their time.

Make Timelier Decisions

The solution helps the CCBCC ISS Department to make more timely and informed decisions about its assets. The EPM Solution gives clear visibility of the project work and costs; they can quickly make decisions in the companys best interest.

Achieve Goals in Less Time

CCBCC is saving significant time by using Project Web Access workspaces to manage and exchange documents. Its very efficient to have the documents centrally located and to move away from e-mail, network drives, and hard drives. Microsoft EPM Solution gave them the centralized solution that they wanted very quickly. Compared with their previous solution, it saved many hours of work effort each month. For example, because the company didnt have the custom fields it needed, they would spend hours on the phone chasing down the information needed for month end reporting. Now they can make decisions and move through the day a lot faster.