Pro­ject Data at the Push of a Button

Pen­si­on pro­vi­der impro­ves pro­ject manage­ment with PLANTA project.

Deut­sche Ren­ten­ver­si­che­rung Baden-Wuert­tem­berg (DRV BW, Ger­man Pen­si­on Insu­rance) has opti­mi­zed its IT and com­pa­ny pro­jects with the help of the PLANTA pro­ject and pro­ject port­fo­lio manage­ment sys­tem. Now, the pen­si­on pro­vi­der can effi­ci­ent­ly plan and con­trol its projects—from the initi­al idea right through to closure.

DRV BW is the govern­ment pen­si­on pro­vi­der for the Ger­man Sta­te Baden-Wuert­tem­berg. It has about 3.6 mil­li­on mem­bers and 3,600 employees. PLAN­TA-Soft­ware is being used in the IT depart­ment as well as in orga­niza­tio­nal and admi­nis­tra­ti­ve are­as and tech­ni­cal ser­vice by appro­xi­m­ate­ly 30 pro­ject mana­gers in Karls­ru­he and Stutt­gart plan­ning pro­jects with a run­time bet­ween three months and four years. Befo­re imple­men­ting the mul­ti-pro­ject manage­ment sys­tem of the Karls­ru­he soft­ware house PLANTA, DRV BW plan­ned its pro­jects using a varie­ty of incom­pa­ti­ble plan­ning and con­trol­ling methods. Month­ly pro­ject lists meant a huge manu­al effort was requi­red to col­la­te the date for report­ing pro­jects. In addi­ti­on, relia­ble infor­ma­ti­on about effort, cos­ts, dates and resour­ce uti­liza­ti­on when plan­ning a pro­ject and during its rea­liza­ti­on were unre­lia­ble and often out-of-date. Fur­ther­mo­re, pro­ject prio­ri­ty was not trans­pa­rent and suf­fe­r­ed from fre­quent chan­ges. A new­ly crea­ted pro­ject com­mit­tee defi­ned the objec­ti­ves for the soft­ware imple­men­ta­ti­on and the requi­red solu­ti­on. The exis­ting tools, Micro­soft Pro­ject (stan­da­lo­ne ver­si­on) and Micro­soft Excel, were repla­ced with the PLANTA sys­tem which has been run­ning live sin­ce May 2005 after a two month pilot phase.

Bet­ter Plan­ning and Controlling 

Sin­ce imple­men­ting the new soft­ware, pro­jects can be trans­par­ent­ly plan­ned and con­trol­led within a stan­dar­di­zed process—from the pro­ject idea to its clo­sure: The respec­ti­ve pro­cess sta­tus of the indi­vi­du­al pro­jects is imme­dia­te­ly reco­gnizable in the new soft­ware. Even the plan­ning results are trans­pa­rent and thus are a relia­ble base for pro­ject appr­oval. The imme­dia­te result of this is that plan­ning has beco­me much more sta­ble and accu­ra­te and the reprio­ri­tiza­ti­on of pro­jects occurs much less fre­quent­ly than befo­re. Sin­ce the imple­men­ta­ti­on of PLANTA, relia­ble pro­ject and for every pro­ject par­ti­ci­pant. This data can be inte­gra­ted into manage­ment reports requi­red by the depart­ment heads and seni­or management.

Wolf­gang Bär, the pro­ject mana­ger respon­si­ble for IT pro­ject orga­niza­ti­on at DRV BW notes: “For the first time, our pro­ject mana­gers have the chan­ce to plan pro­fes­sio­nal­ly, crea­ting sta­ble and rea­li­stic plans, as well as being able to eva­lua­te and prio­ri­ti­ze a pro­ject throug­hout its life cycle. Using PLANTA pro­ject plans can be com­mu­ni­ca­ted intern­al­ly and extern­al­ly in a trans­pa­rent man­ner.” Mr Bär explains that increased accu­ra­cy means that the pro­ject plan is respec­ted by all pro­ject mem­bers. Resour­ces are not so fre­quent­ly resche­du­led from one pro­ject to ano­ther and the enti­re pro­ject work is now more effi­ci­ent and sta­ble. “For the first time, relia­ble state­ments about actu­al pro­ject cos­ts after a project’s clo­sure can be made.” In addi­ti­on, the new soft­ware has a posi­ti­ve effect: the pro­ject mem­bers’ awa­re­ness of the importance of pro­ject work has increased, signi­fi­cant­ly. A hig­her level of respon­si­bi­li­ty with respect to pro­ject acti­vi­ties is cle­ar­ly noti­ceable from both pro­ject team mem­bers as well as employees within the pro­ject envi­ron­ment (purcha­sers, manage­ment, exter­nal companies).

The PLANTA sys­tem: bene­fits accor­ding to DRV BW

  • Ran­ge of func­tions (pro­ject base data, pro­ject plans, resour­ce sta­tis­tics) and easy handling
  • Wide spec­trum of cus­to­mi­zing possibilities
  • Inter­faces to MS Office, Lotus Notes and SAP
  • Trans­pa­rent pro­ject infor­ma­ti­on for all roles invol­ved wit­hout manu­al effort
  • Effi­ci­ent resour­ce plan­ning and avo­id­ance of resour­ce over­load and conflicts