The Challenge:

The University of Southern Mississippi (USM), located in Hattiesburg, MS, is a comprehensive, research-extensive university with a student population of more than 14,000. Founded in 1910, USM's primary mission is to cultivate intellectual development and creativity through the generation, dissemination, application and preservation of knowledge. USM's iTech department, consisting of more than 100 resources, is responsible for providing computer, telephony and strategic guidance in the use and management of technology-based solutions across the University.

During his tenure as chief information officer at USM, Homer Coffman put a solid IT governance framework into place. As part of this structured approach to strategically managing IT investments, iTech management realized there was a serious gap in the skills and tools required to successfully plan and deliver strategic and operational projects. USM was struggling with resource and workflow management, and needed of a uniform status reporting process and system that provided on-demand, consistent reporting across and among projects. 

Project plans weren't being kept up-to-date, and resource time wasn’t being tracked across different efforts, resulting in a lack of decision-making information for managers. A tremendous amount of time was being dedicated to manually creating spreadsheet-based reports, which were inaccurate, inconsistent, and prone to error. Further, IT managers wanted to track both project and administrative efforts to ensure resources were being best utilized across the department, in direct alignment iTech's IT governance framework.   

The Solution:

Based upon these core requirements, USM developed a plan that included planning, implementation and training users on an enterprise-wide project management system (EPM). After deciding that the Microsoft Project Server solution was the best fit, USM partnered with Project Solutions Group (PSG) to assist with the deployment efforts.

"To meet our objectives, we needed more than a piece of software. We needed real-world project management experience and technical expertise we’ve come to expect from PSG," said Allen Chamberlain, iTech project manager.

As part of the deployment process, PSG immediately identified a set of target solution goals, and drove all requirements based upon these. Critical input was sought from key iTech stakeholders and end users on ways to improve their project management process. PSG consultants determined process improvement, reporting and tracking needs. PSG then deployed and tested the EPM system, included all of USM's critical projects, and provided a set of hands-on, practical training sessions, in order to push rapid adoption and understanding of the solution across iTech project teams.

The Results:

iTech's key stakeholders now have the ability to quickly, easily view project status at the click of a button, all through web browser-based dashboards. IT managers can log in to a single web page and view how iTech's projects are performing, quickly identifying trouble areas by leveraging EPM "stoplights" that indicate strong or weak performing efforts. Issues are tracked and managed in a single repository, and team members can easily access a single web-based timesheet of all of their work, update changes and route them to the proper project manager for approval and acceptance. 

An additional benefit has been an increase in iTech employee morale, as the solution frees time team members once spent on manual entry of data, to deliver on projects and tasks more effectively. Further, stakeholders can now easily access information on how iTech resources are allocated across project and administrative tasks, allowing them to better plan for and manage current and new efforts. 

"Microsoft Project Server provides me with the method to conduct resource allocations and analysis. Now, with the EPM solution, I know the number and mix of staff and even the total and estimated cost of projects and IT central services operations," said Coffman. "Without this type of EPM it was always a guesstimate or swag on resources needed to run a complex organization."

Satisfied with the end results, and recognizing that deliverables far exceeded expectations, USM continues to move toward a long-term partnership with PSG. Next steps include working to extend the use of Microsoft EPM to improve project management processes beyond iTech, across the University, and in the planning and deployment of the next version of Microsoft Project Server, which will include more time tracking, workflow, and process management improvements, that will provide an immediate impact on USM's IT governance initiatives.

The solution and partnership with PSG allows Mr. Coffman and iTech stakeholders to more effectively deliver on their mission of providing project-based IT governance to the University.