Project Information Management Solution
PIMS Introduction
PIMS is our Project Information Management Solution that provides an enterprise-wide intranet capability to manage the life cycle of your projects. PIMS provides the following capabilities
Based on Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Windows Server Operating Systems, our PIMS product features
PIMS Details
The remainder of this page elaborates on the outline provided above. PIMS is a robust tool providing great control of your Project Information. Our goal at InfoPathways is to provide a tool that allows an organization to conduct its business and make good decisions based on a sound Project Information Management process. Read more about our definition of Project Information Management. Continue reading for a further understanding of PIMS.
Contact Management
PIMS Contact Management provides for storage and management of all your contacts; contacts inside your organization as well those that are as external. PIMS provides the natural association of contacts with Action Items, Projects, Notes, Documents and more. Read on to learn more.
- Action Items – What Action Items has a Contact generated? What Action items has a Contact been assigned? When Action Items are created, PIMS sends an email notification to the Contact assigned that action.
- Job Title and Department – What is the Contact's job title and which Department does he/she work in? PIMS allows you to define the Job Title and Department your Organization uses, and then allows you to assigned Contacts to these Job Title and Departments. Further, PIMS allows you to search and sort Contact information based on these values.
- Associated Projects – Which Projects is a contact associated with, and in what capacity? Is he or she a Project Manager, an Estimator or a Project Administrator? You will find it easy to identify and track who is assigned each of these roles for each and every one of your Projects.
- Notes – Notes, which are similar to Action Items, can be tracked by each individual against each and every Project.
Organization Management
PIMS Organization Management provides for entry and management of Organization specific information. Imagine having the ability to track, review and compare the following types of information on every organization you deal with:
- Associated Personnel – Who works for each organization your deal with? Who plays the role of Estimator or Project Manager for an associated Organization? PIMS allows you to quickly locate an organization and identify the role of each person working for that Organization.
- Associated Projects – For which projects is a particular organization the Owner/Agency? Which Projects, regardless of their status, are associated with each Organization, and in what capacity? PIMS provides the functionality to make this easy to do and convenient to use.
- Associated Items – PIMS allows entry and management of the work items for each project, as well as the Organization that will act as the supplier or subcontractor to complete that Item of the Project.
- Contacted Subs and Vendors – Track when and how you contact your Subcontractors and Vendors, whether they provided a quote, notes, and their DBE, MBE and WBE status. Then print it out for each Project to demonstrate your compliance.
Project Information Management
Project Information Management is an important topic to everyone in the construction industry. Management of all your projects from inception through completion is vital to the efficient operation of your enterprise. It should include:
- Bid Tracking with Bid Results & Bid Tabs
- Project Status
- Action Items w/ automatic Email Notifications
- Notes
- Items and Details on Those Items
- Subcontractors & Vendors
- Change Orders & Addendums
Note & Action Item Management
PIMS Action Items provide a tool with which to track who should be doing what on your projects. When was the Action Item assigned, who assigned it, when must it be completed, who was it assigned to, what’s the current status, what are the details of what is expected or what directions were given? This is all tracked by PIMS. Even better, when the Action Item is assigned, PIMS sends an email notification to the person the action item was assigned.
PIMS Notes are similar to Action items, except that they aren’t assigned to anyone, and there is no due date, status or disposition.
Any number of Action Items and Notes can be added for each project. Action Items and Notes are listed together providing the story of the Project: “What happened when?”
Opportunity & Bid Management
Where does a Project start? We define the start of a Project as an Opportunity. Opportunities are the seeds that grow into Projects. Whether you discover your opportunities in bid books, on the web, or over lunch with an associate, managing your opportunities from the time they are discovered adds value to the Project Management Process, communicating to the rest of the team that there's something out there you might pursue. If there are simultaneously several opportunities available to you, managing them in one place and collecting the available information about them will allow you to determine which opportunities are the best potential projects you can pursue.
As you decide which opportunities (projects) to pursue, they become your bids. In PIMS you simply change the status of the project from 'Opportunity' to 'Bid'. Can you already see that PIMS will allow you to very simply look at your Opportunity list? And at your Bid list? PIMS provides the functions allowing you to define the life of the project through Project Status values that you define ... Opportunity --> Bid --> Bid Evaluation --> Awarded --> Work-In-Progress --> Complete. Read more about the defined life cycle of a Project.
Competition & Bid Result Management
PIMS provides for managing Bid Results, comparing you to your competition at the Bid level. PIMS also allows you to enter and compare Bid Tabs on your competitors, aiding you with price analysis Item by Item and Work Type by Work Type. How will you benefit with the ability to evaluate yourself against your competition on projects you've won and on projects you've lost.
Document Management
PIMS Document Management allows you to track all documentation related to a Project and simplifies finding that documentation any time you need it from anywhere, assuming you have an Internet connection to your corporate network. Track the following documentation, and many others:
- Any type of document can be associated with a Project, including Change Orders, Contracts, Drawings & Photographs, Emails, Purchase Orders, Specifications, Spreadsheets, Submittals, Voicemail, and Wage Rates.
- Any document format, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Project, text files, log files, MPEG, AVI, JPG/JPEG, GIF, PNG, Microsoft Visio, AutoCAD and more.
- Limited only by your server’s storage, which can be expanded.
The only stipulation with the types of documents that can be uploaded and viewed via PIMS is the format of the files and the reader programs your users have. For instance, if you associate a Microsoft Project Schedule file with a project, but some of the users in your organization do not have Microsoft Project or any other program that can read the MS Project file type, they will not be able to read this file. However, if you save or print the file to a PDF file, all your users should be able to read this file because the Adobe Acrobat Reader is a free program and should be part f your corporate software suite. The same holds true for views of data from your accounting system. As a corporate policy Organizations limit the number of people with access to the accounting program and therefore the data. If a selected report is printed in PDF format and then associated with a Project, everyone can view the report.
Custom Link Management
PIMS Custom Links provide you with flexibility to extend the PIMS solution to include categorized lists of links to other corporate resources, including:
- Custom Reports – Every company has custom reports they need to review and disseminate on a regular basis. Providing a link from within PIMS makes easy work of it.
- Employee Manuals and Forms – Many company manuals and forms coming in electronic form. Why not provide a link to those manuals and forms instead of printing copies and copies of them?
- Other Web Based Solutions – If you have web based solutions in house, or if your employees use web-based resources, such as bid lists, on a regular basis, the easiest way to make them available to everyone is to provide an easy link. It's as easy as point-and-click!
- Link Groups – Your custom links can be categorized into logical subjects to fit the way your company thinks. Your custom links might include the following groups: Custom Reports, Monthly Reports, Employee Manuals, Health Forms, Safety Bulletins, Job Descriptions and Equipment Forms. Create as many as you like!
From the corporate point of view, PIMS will never provide all the references that an organization will need. But PIMS does provide a great work-around for this need: Custom Links. Point at anything, anywhere, as long as it is viewable via a web browser or helper program. View a sample screen with Custom Links.
User-Friendly Web Interface
We've made every effort to make PIMS easy to use. PIMS employs a common interface making navigation simple and straight forward. Search forms have been provided for all the key elements: Projects (Opportunities, Bids and Projects), Organizations, Contacts, Action Items, and Documents. Natural navigation is provided by including links from logical points, such as a Contact's name, to the detail that defines that element. In the case of a Contact, the link will take you to that Contact's detail page. View a sample of the PIMS User Interface.
Centralized Data Management & Storage
Every organization has a process and system for managing documentation and notes on its projects. Often, the organization's system involves storing documentation and files in many places: on user's laptops; on user's desktops; and in different locations on your organization's server(s). How easy is it for you to find a needed piece of documentation?
Wouldn't life be easier if you could go to one location and find everything? Everything to do with a single project in one location? PIMS uses a location on your corporate server to store and manage project files and documents, grouped by project. For organizations with the need to manage a heavier load of documents, PIMS can be configured to use a separate server for document storage, isolating the potentially heavier task of storing and serving up documents.
Using our Centralized Data Management & Storage Methodology, backing up your corporate data is easier because it is stored in a centralized location, reducing the risk of data loss. And finding it is easier because PIMS provides a power function for searching its contents, including locating associated files and documentation.
Standardized Project Information
The same type of data is collected across all your projects because your data is entered into and managed within PIMS, which leverages a strong relational database. And because PIMS provides professionally designed web views and reports, you know where to find the data you're searching for on any particular project.
Cross-Project Reporting
Reports specific to a project or and action item are provided, as are reports that span multiple Projects.
PIMS Design
PIMS is a compiled .Net Framework solution, targeted to run on Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 5.0 and 6.0. PIMS data storage has two pieces. The first piece leverages the power of Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Microsoft's Relational Database Management System; storing data in and retrieving data from SQL Server 2000 is very quick, providing great response time for your users.
The second data storage element comprises the document storage / document management component of PIMS; your documents are stored on one of your network resources, whether that resource is the same physical server that is running your PIMS application or a separate server used to off-load your document storage. Read more about PIMS design, hardware requirements and space requirements.
Related Links:
Project Information Management,
PIMS Architecture,
PIMS Online Help,
Project Life Cycle
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