This is a great question and I hate to give the most obvious answer but “it depends”. Because TimeControl is designed to be able to link to so many different kinds of systems, a complete deployment can include many different facets.

Let’s say that you’re keen to deploy TimeControl on its own with some basic links for individual projects in Microsoft Project or Primavera. The installation, configuration and deployment are probably not more than a few days. We created the 5 day QuikStart program for this type of situation. Clients don’t need HMS’s assistance to do this either. Many clients have figured out for themselves how to do their deployment.

If we take another situation, let’s say a new TimeControl client wants to link to their centralized enterprise project management system like Microsoft Project Server or Oracle-Primavera and also to the finance system for billing and job costing.

If TimeControl is the first product to bridge the gap between Project Management and Finance then there may be many unanswerable questions when they start.

How should rates be tackled? What level of resolution of the timesheet will Finance require? Is that the same level as Project Management? Are there coding standards or other processes that have to be identified?

Very little of these questions are technical, they’re more likely to be process related but they are critical to how the configuration should be handled. Let’s take an extremely common example. A client says “We want to track overtime”.

Both Project Management and Finance agree that’s a key criteria. “Do you need to know what task the overtime occurred on?” we ask. “No” says Finance “Yes” says Project Management at the same time. Resolving the answer to that question might take several meetings between the two groups.

A TimeControl deployment in this situation might take several weeks to complete most of which is used by the client making process-types of decisions.