EPM2007 and Outlook Email Alerts and Notifications – enhanced team collaboration solution

The default EPM2007 – Exchange Server integration allows;

1. Users to set alerts and reminders. Note: This applies to all projects assigned to user.
2. Managers to set alerts and reminders for themselves and their Team Members. Note: This applies to all projects owned by user.

Sometimes this is not sufficient as the users are inundated with emails and the users cannot differentiate between critical and non critical tasks/assignments.

There are some enhanced collaborative solutions available from Project Solution Ltd for Executives, Resource Managers, Project Managers and Team Members;

1. Set Notification on key Project Tasks

This works in addition to default alerts and reminders, if set. The PMs can set the notification on say a few key critical tasks out of say 1000. This sends notification to the key resource(s) assigned to dependent tasks when the predecessor task(s) is completed or due to be completed.   

2. Resource over-allocation notification

This utility sends alerts to Resource Managers (RMs) on a daily basis if any of their resources are over-allocated based on % deviation from Capacity.  This includes the list of projects affected and duration of overallocation. This allows more proactive management of key/scarce resources. Often PMs reschedule tasks/assignments without consulting RMs, hence, causing overallocation and this is not picked up until either the bottleneck is realised or RM remembers to view the loading in the different graphs.

3. Project email from PWA

Let’s face it, majority of the project collaboration takes place via email. How often do we find users simply putting ‘help or crisis’ as the subject matter? It is not at all easy to retrieve emails, a few months down the line, if they do not have the correct subject title or category.

This utility allows Executives (and others) viewing the exception views/reports to quickly send email, directly from PWA > PC and Project Detail, to either the Project Owner/PM or the entire team regarding and an issue..perhaps one of the KPIs is showing Amber or Red. The email is launched in outlook automatically with the addresses filled in and project title in the subject. The user can then add his/her comments, as appropriate in the email body.

This utility allows execs to quickly send emails and improves traceability of project communication.

Note: currently this utility only works with MS Outlook. Other 3^rd party email clients are not supported.

Contact sales@projectsolution.co.uk for further information. When contacting. Please mention my name to get discount!

I will also be reviewing some new ‘cool’ (rocking! should I say) utilities available from ProjectExperts enhancing the functionalities of PWA > My Tasks. More later. Stay tuned…….

Author: PJ Mistry