Pharmaceuticals Company Improves Project Management Processes
Project Assistants’ Case Studies
Situation
With hundreds of research projects across 18 therapeutic areas and an estimated yearly Research and Development budget of $7.9 billion, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Group was looking for a standard way to initiate, view, report and make decisions on a broad range of global R&D projects. Additionally, the company’s project management system needed to meet the following specific requirements:
- Segregate projects from a security perspective between Worldwide and US organizations
- Produce a cross-tab report that allows a user to select a product and report on the selected milestones for that product across multiple projects
- Extend the Microsoft Project Professional project guide to produce a Study Initiation Wizard that captures required study-related information at the start of each project
- Report task information along with resource usage information together in a single view
Solution
To best meet Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Group’s stated objectives, Project Assistants guided the design, configuration and implementation of a Microsoft Project environment.
The implementation process began with a complete assessment of the current Pfizer environment, as well as gathering, documenting and reviewing the requirements needed to configure and implement the Microsoft Project environment. Through this process, Project Assistants was able to gain a better understanding of Pfizer’s key project planning, executing and control functions so that those requirements could be translated into detailed design points for software configuration and implementation.
The next step in the implementation process was to install Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Server. Key to the success of the installation process was teaching the Pfizer Administrator how to implement, configure and support Project Server.
The Microsoft Project Solution was configured based upon the requirements gathered at the beginning of the implementation process. The configured solution included the following customizations to better meet Pfizer’s unique needs:
Following acceptance of the solution configuration, system installation occurred at Pfizer’s site. Upon successful installation, training became the engagement focus. Project Assistants provided in-depth training for Pfizer’s Project Managers, team members and stakeholders.
Detailed technical and end-user support was provided to assist those using Pfizer’s project management solution. This support, which ensured the most effective use of the Microsoft Project solution, included the following activities:
The implementation process began with a complete assessment of the current Pfizer environment, as well as gathering, documenting and reviewing the requirements needed to configure and implement the Microsoft Project environment. Through this process, Project Assistants was able to gain a better understanding of Pfizer’s key project planning, executing and control functions so that those requirements could be translated into detailed design points for software configuration and implementation.
The next step in the implementation process was to install Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Server. Key to the success of the installation process was teaching the Pfizer Administrator how to implement, configure and support Project Server.
The Microsoft Project Solution was configured based upon the requirements gathered at the beginning of the implementation process. The configured solution included the following customizations to better meet Pfizer’s unique needs:
- Pfizer implemented a security model that allows project managers to have full access to only those projects they manage, and read-only access to all other projects in the system.
- By leveraging and extending the Portfolio Analyzer OLAP reporting capabilities of Microsoft Project server, a report was configured that presents task information along with resource usage information together in a single view.
Following acceptance of the solution configuration, system installation occurred at Pfizer’s site. Upon successful installation, training became the engagement focus. Project Assistants provided in-depth training for Pfizer’s Project Managers, team members and stakeholders.
Detailed technical and end-user support was provided to assist those using Pfizer’s project management solution. This support, which ensured the most effective use of the Microsoft Project solution, included the following activities:
- Collection of end user feedback concerning problems, and design improvement suggestions
- Fine-tuning the solution
- Assisting and mentoring Pfizer staff on the use and operation of the solution
- General consulting on Project Management processes, procedures, and tools
Benefits
After implementing Project Assistants Enterprise Project Management Solution, Pfizer has realized the following benefits: automated project initiation processes drive consistency; real-time and readily accessible data aids rapid decision-making; and long-term planning and resource allocation is much more effective.