Project Management is the ultimate juggling act. There are always moving parts, several people involved, complicated project details, and critical accounting to track at every phase of the project at hand. It’s one thing to handle those details in typical checklist fashion and an entirely different scenario when leveraging a robust tool within Microsoft Dynamics 365.

What is Project Operations?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations, made available October of 2020, is THE tool used for project management, resource management, forecasting, project management accounting (PMA), as well as aligning projects with the sales cycle.

Project Operations makes it possible for companies to handle a project from inception to invoicing, and Microsoft productivity tools like Teams and Planner help your project teams collaborate and stay in sync every step of the way.

What’s the difference between Project Service Automation and Project Operations?

Microsoft first released Project Service Automation (PSA) – a module within Microsoft Dynamics 365 for project management and resourcing. Although that tool covered the basics of Project Management, there were a few gaps now filled by the release of Project Operations…

• Work Breakdown Structure: Project Operations is fully Integrated across the Microsoft technology stack so that projects align with the web to drive the work breakdown structure inside of Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

• Revenue Recognition: The End-to-End process flow within Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Dynamics 365 Finance brings in the ability to do revenue recognition on projects and greatly improves forecasting capabilities.

• Resource Scheduling Optimization: Resource managers can now leverage a schedule board dashboard to see details most relevant for assigning resources. They can search on role, skillset, proficiency ratings per skillset, availability, calendar, resource utilization, location, and more.

• Intuitive and Easy to Use: The advanced integrations with the web make project operations intuitive and seamless to use, easing planning and forecasting functions while also incorporating productivity tools like Teams and Planner.

Just How “End-to-End” are we talking?

Like most sales account managers, Project Operations offers the user the ability to track opportunities, setup cost, and bill rates for their accounts.  It also allows them to work alongside the project manager during contract proposal and concessions by building a work breakdown structure to define cost and effort for a project.  This ultimately assists in negotiations and provides a head start when it comes to project planning.  Once the deal has been won, the project manager can now begin requesting resources based on roles, skills, and proficiencies. 

These requests are then reviewed by the resource manager who uses the Dynamics 365 Schedule Board to find the best resource for the project task based on the requirements defined by the project manager as well as resource schedules and utilization.

Using various collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and Planner, a team member or resource is able to manage the tasks assigned to them and log time and expenses against those tasks, all while reporting progress back to their project manager.

Once the project manager has reviewed the time and expense entries submitted by various resources for the projects they are responsible for, they can approve these entries and review transactions for periodic invoicing.

And now our project accountant can actually submit those invoices and recognize revenue for various projects.

How can HCL-PowerObjects help companies bring Project Operations to the next level?

HCL-PowerObjects is already off and running with Project Operations’ deployments in the US as well as in the UK. Our team is also tied closely with Microsoft, allowing us to provide influential feedback on the product in terms of implementation and capabilities within the tool, directly impacting coming interactions and updates for Project Operations.

Our dedication to service, support, and education sets our clients up for success from the get-go. Learn more here and contact our experts if you have any questions.