Many enterprises are choosing to migrate from Microsoft Project Server to Microsoft’s cloud-based, scalable Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) solution, Project Online. Project Online offers many advantages over Microsoft’s traditional on-premises offering, however, even cloud-based solutions require planning and forethought. With some strategic preparation, your Project Online implementation can be immensely successful, giving your enterprise the visibility and understanding it needs to make intelligent business decisions.

Why should you migrate to Microsoft’s cloud-based Project Online?

Project Online uses flexible monthly subscription plans that allow your enterprise to manage its resources and projects without a significant upfront infrastructure investment. It is always up-to-date and offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Employees can access Project Online at any time from any device, making collaboration a breeze. As a core component of Microsoft’s popular Office 365 platform, with 24/7 support, your IT department can focus on strategic objectives instead of administrative ones.

How do you implement Microsoft Project Online successfully?

There are three main components to carrying out an effective cloud-based PMO solution:

  1. A prudent strategy – While you don’t need to have an IT degree to run a PMO, it does help to have team members in place that have expertise in the different technological areas that your project will encounter. With skilled input, you can lay out a strategy that is both forward-looking and risk-averse. Strategies should align and optimize your project to meet business goals and improve its outcome.
  2. Productive, dynamic project governance – To be productive, you need to put processes and procedures in place that will drive user adoption, diminish training time (and costs), and expedite Project Online deployment. Hammerhead by Projility does just that. Hammerhead is a tool that works with Project Online to decrease the need for time-consuming and expensive customization and maintenance. It provides on-demand, flexible dashboards that are role-based and designed to highlight important, best-practice metrics that can be drilled down to show data on a granular level. By composing dashboards specifically for key players like Executives, Portfolio Managers, and Resource Managers, employees can focus on their assigned work and avoid wasting time on unnecessary tasks. Hammerhead’s pre-built reporting library also enables communication based on your audience – which helps decision makers to adjust resources to keep projects on time and on budget.
  3. Insightful data and statistics – Accurate data is crucial for providing insight into projects. With a tool like Hammerhead in place to manage project data, you can create reports that will uncover trends on factors like resource utilization and product quality. This knowledge will help you to make informed decisions on future projects. Project statistics can also help you to support your actual achievements when you are approaching potential clients or merely reporting to upper management.

Best practices yield positive results.

Hammerhead gives enterprises a ready-to-use project governance tool that is comprised of best practices, adding value to Microsoft Project Online by driving more successful adoption and utilization. With a flexible, powerful tool like Hammerhead in place, you can focus on aligning projects to organizational goals and look towards the future. Realize a swifter return on your investment and stimulate your portfolio by implementing a Microsoft Project Online with Hammerhead today.

Projility provides expert solutions for effective change. We offer enterprise portfolio and project management solutions based on Microsoft Project Server and Project Online, with tailored dashboard reporting, analytics, and decision-making tools via our Hammerhead technology. Projility also implements professional services automation systems established on Microsoft Dynamics CRM Project Service, and presents cloud-based strategies, migrations, and hosting solutions through Microsoft Azure. Contact us for more information.