CAMeLEAN Helps Measure Efficiencyof Projects

Doing more for less does not necessarily mean having great technology. More depends on managing time effectively so that not only productivity goes up but organizations are able to plan each task and at the same time get a clear idea of the concise amount of work completed at any given point of time.

Bangalore, Karnataka, India, February 23, 2007 — The timesheet management module in the recently launched CAMeLEAN®PM, a program management solution from Bangalore-based Ranal Software Solutions, a Ranal Group company, is an integral component of a program management tool.

Timesheets are used by organizations not only to track time utilized by each employee, manage online timesheet approvals and billing but also track and monitor non-project related work to collect data for analysis.

When each employee keys in the data to record the amount of work that he/she has done on a daily basis, it primarily serves a dual purpose. One, the project manager is able to obtain online information about the project – both in terms of the each team member’s performance as well as the status of the entire project as against the original plan.

“With our data capture ability, we can extrapolate and find out when the project is likely to be completed. Through this data the organization can also utilize its resources better. In case the project is behind time, workers can be added to get it on track or if it is ahead of time some team members could be removed and placed in another project,” says Mr Vijay Kumar Vice- president Ranal Software Solutions.

On the other hand, the timesheet module can also be used to calculate the cost of any future project through its in-depth data capture and analytic functionalities.

Today, timesheet management is becoming a crucial issue in organizations. Compared to 1999-2000 timeframe when companies had a price cushion to absorb project overruns, today’s environment is entirely different. The current wages and slashed pricing scenario along with a highly competitive environment had ensured that no such cushion for overruns exists. “Today, projects have to be completed as per the estimate. The margins are slashed by 50% and every company is extremely sensitive to time overruns. If it gets a project for 1000 hours it has to ensure that it completes it in 1000 hours to maintain its wafer-thin margins,” he explained.

Getting Employees to Use Timesheet Software

In an earlier blog, I discussed why people hate timesheets. Now, let’s look at ways to overcome this resistance. Education and Buy-In: The most effective way to get people to do something is to make sure they understand what’s in it for them. In the case of payroll for hourly workers, the desire to get paid provides the incentive. In the case of billing automation, it’s revenue for the company (i.e. a successful company). Most people can understand this, and they care about the success of their company. Project accounting is more abstract. If done badly, it can lead to unnecessary overtime, stressful blown schedules, bad estimates and cancelled projects. Relating specific examples from your company in which good time collection could have prevented problems helps to get employees on board. Adoption Dashboard:It helps to include graphs that clearly illustrate which departments and people are entering their time consistently and completely, and which are not. This helps managers understand early on who they need to badger about getting their time recorded, or who to reward for doing a good job in this area. Phased Rollout: Adopting a multiphase rollout approach that leads to per-person per-project profitability allows you to change the culture in more manageable steps. Incentives: Linking bonuses or other benefits with complete data collection is often used in customer relationship management (CRM) tools to adjust sales commissions. The same can be done for other forms of data collection. My company, Journyx Inc., has a patent—we call it the ‘frequent flyer patent’—for automatically rewarding your employees on your behalf for timely time reporting. Email Reminders: Getting an automated reminder when your time has not yet been recorded produces results…usually! Implementing Project Accounting: If you have more than five people in your organization and they are working on many projects or within many processes, it is time to start thinking about implementing time tracking. If you have 100 people in an R+D group and you’re not tracking time, then you’re wasting the lives and work of a significant percentage of your employees. You might have them working on projects that the market will not reward you for, which are over budget or otherwise in the ditch, and you don’t know that today. Curt Finch is the CEO of Journyx.

Multiforce Technologies Selects Tenrox Timesheet to Reduce their Billing Cycle and Improve Cash Flow

Monday April 10, 10:06 am ET

PASADENA, CA, April 10 /PRNewswire/ – Tenrox, the leading provider of workflow-driven timesheet solutions, today announced that systems integrator Multiforce Technologies has purchased Tenrox Timesheet for Time & Billing in preparation for the company’s anticipated growth. Tenrox was selected for its tight integration capabilities with Multiforce’s ACCPAC accounting system, its workflow-driven time, expense and billing controls, as well as its out-of-the- box executive dashboards and analytics.

Previously, Multiforce relied on a manual time and expense capture process, which was both labor-intensive and prone to inaccuracies in billable hours and invoicing, that led to lengthy invoice review and approval cycles. Prior to selecting Tenrox Timesheet, Multiforce evaluated and eliminated several other solutions due to the lack of flexibility or specific functionality required, such as the ability to define, establish and implement policies for time and expense reporting.

“We recently signed several multi-year IT projects including some government contracts, and we expect to double in size, with respect to projects and resources, within the next six months,” said Eric Giroux, V.P. of Operations at Multiforce. “As a result, we needed a project reporting system that could accommodate this anticipated growth. Tenrox offered the best value as a completely integrated workflow-based time, expense and invoicing system. It will help us centralize and automate the tracking of billable work, project status and ongoing cost/revenue updates, with the ultimate goal of reducing our billing cycle and improving cash flow.”

Upon completion of the implementation, Multiforce expects to create and approve invoices more quickly, thereby reducing its billing cycle from a typical ten days to one or two days. Tenrox will also enable Multiforce to run two or three billing cycles simultaneously on a weekly, bi-weekly and monthly basis to accommodate varying contractual billing arrangements with each Multiforce client. This flexibility, and a significantly shorter billing cycle are expected to have a marked improvement on the company’s cash flow.

By April/May 2006, we expect the Tenrox Timesheet solution to be fully integrated with our company’s ACCPAC system. Once completed, the implementation will eventually include integration with the payroll component of the accounting system.

About Multiforce Technologies

Multiforce Technologies is a leading systems integrator providing a complete range of managed services to design, build, implement and support end- to-end IT infrastructures. Leveraging a 15-year partnership with Sun Microsystems, the Company has developed unique expertise with UNIX, JAVA and Oracle applications, as well as Server Consolidation, Storage, Data Protection and Security solutions. Today, Multiforce is a leader in the area of online business services, designing, delivering and managing innovative IT infrastructure solutions for its clients. For more information about Multiforce Technologies, contact the company at 1250 Rene-Levesque West, Suite 2910, Montreal, Quebec, H3B 4W8, Tel.: (514) 931-9000, Fax: (514) 931-9001, email: info@multiforce.com, or visit the Company web site at www.multiforce.com.

About Tenrox

Tenrox is the leading provider of workflow-driven timesheet solutions. Tenrox Timesheet tracks budgets and billable work, facilitates compliance with project governance, labor and industry regulations, and improves productivity and decision-making.

Since 1995, Tenrox has served over 800 organizations in 50 countries including Blue Cross Blue Shield, Caterpillar, Corning Cable Systems, Wilmington Trust, First National Bank, Hydro Quebec, Invensys, Major Drilling, Pioneer Natural Resources, State of Wyoming, The Pentagon, University of Michigan, Fisher Scientific, and Wyeth. Tenrox Timesheet software is available through direct sales channels and a network of worldwide resellers and partners.

For more information, visit www.tenrox.com; call (626) 796-6640 or email us at publicrelations@tenrox.com

(x) All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their