With the imminent release of Microsoft Project and Project Server 2010 many organizations are strategizing their migration plans from earlier versions of MS Project. There are multiple scenarios for doing a version migration but one of the most attractive will be a phased roll out of the newest release; using it for the new projects while old projects are completed in the older version. This gets around the technically challenging aspect of physically migrating the data.
There’s only one major fly in the ointment with that plan and it has everything to do with timesheets. Since newer projects in Microsoft Project Server 2010, the system would expect to use the timesheet in 2010. That won’t connect to the older projects in 2007 or 2003. They will expect timesheets from their versions.
Will users have to do two or more timesheets? What about non project time? How will approvals work?
TimeControl provides an easy answer to this challenge. As a timesheet which is independant from the project management system, TimeControl defines its link to scheduling tools like MSP and Project Server at the project level rather than the system level. This means that TimeControl can support multiple versions of Project and Project Server at the same time.
This is good news for those scratching their heads over how to migrate smoothly from one version or even one product to another.
TimeControl’s design means that an employee’s timesheet can contain lines from different projects and whether those projects are managed in MSP Desktop, Project Server 2007, Project Server 2010, Excel or even just in TimeControl, the user will be insulated from having to worry about that. The tasks the employee must accomplish and report their time on will be listed simply on their timesheet like any other task.
As Project Server Administrators and Technical staff make plans to migrate to the new Project versions, many will look to TimeControl as not only the solution to supporting multiple versions simultaneously but also for the additional benefits of a timesheet that can manage the needs of HOUR, Payroll and Finance at the same time.
Knowing that TimeControl has had links with MS Project since 1995 and with Project Server since its inception will make TimeControl a logical choice for many organizations.
Hi Chris V – it is great that one’s timesheet can source work assignments from multiple versions of one PM tool, or several different PM tools, BUT there is (to my knowledge) only one field in the Employee table that define the Resource Identifier for that employee. How would TC handle the situation where one employee had different Resource names on different PM tools – one could easily envision this happening if in moving from desktop MSP to MSP Central, there was a rationalisation of the resource names used in the Central system ?
chris@forgetrack.co.uk