Multi-Project Scheduling With Critical Path

PMWeb Scheduling offers a complete scheduling solution with critical path management, drag and drop Gantt chart, baselining, and more. Because Scheduling – like all PMWeb modules – is multi-project, features such as Resource Availability and Project Portfolio Management (PPM) views are ready to use out of the box. Build your schedule within PMWeb or link to MS Project and Primavera. The easy-to-use and powerful Scheduling module features:

• Claim analysis – compare schedules across periods and/or across projects
• Links to Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project included
• Timesheets that flow to the Cost Management module
• Use Gantt chart interactively to link tasks, enter completed status, flag tasks and more
• Cash flow and income reports directly from the schedule
• Use any schedule as a template
• Base percent complete on timesheets
• View resource availability across all projects and periods

PMWeb Reporting

Detailed insights for faster and more informed decisions

With the PMWeb Portfolio reporting tool, you can build reports in less than 1 minute with drag & drop functionality. PMWeb comes with over 100 out-of-the-box reports. Easily save, edit, and share these reports.

Microsoft Business Intelligence

Fast, secure, and powerful

The PMWeb Business Intelligence platform is included across all modules – built on Microsoft SQL Server with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), one of the world’s leading business intelligence and analytics platforms. The 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for business intelligence and analytics platforms has only 4 global leaders – of these, Microsoft BI is a leader for the 13th year in a row. In 2018, it was #1 for “Completeness of Vision” – and every year since it has been the undisputed #1 in all leader categories.

PMWeb’s use of SSRS also facilitates ready connection with Microsoft Power BI, making the power of PMWeb’s reports and dashboards available to key stakeholders without the need to hold a PMWeb licence.

Use of the powerful Microsoft tools for business intelligence allows clients to tailor dashboards and reports to exactly what they require – accessing any data in PMWeb’s unified database to create the most meaningful graphic representation of the available information – and with the ability to immediately drill down to the underlying data in real-time. Some examples of PMWeb reports and dashboards are below.

ITO – Important attributes when choosing software

When choosing a portfolio, program and project controls system, we always recommend that 3 key factors are taken into consideration:

PMWeb does an outstanding job of handling each of these areas through its easy to use interface, copy/paste capabilities with MS Excel grids, and lastly by its powerful Business Intelligence (BI) Reporting Engine.

Take Control of Your Documents

PMWeb helps construction professionals, facility owners/operators, and property managers effectively manage the Plan-Build-Operate life cycle of their portfolio and programs. PMWeb sets a new standard for usability combining the power of enterprise-class software with the ease of use of Excel and Word. PMWeb’s powerful yet easy-to-use collaborative features accelerate the processing of engineering forms such as RFI’s and Submittals and Field Administration tasks such as Daily Logs, Quantity Production, Timesheets, and Incident Tracking.

All of the documents you need to manage your projects in a revolutionary web design. Easily create and modify templated without expensive customization or use of a difficult-to-use proprietary report writer. Drag and drop to Daily Reports and Punch Lists; create Rich text Format Correspondence without leaving PMWeb; link multiple records together for quick reference; paste from MS Word without losing formatting; assign documents to users’ calendars, and merge to MS Word and Excel.

Organize, Understand, Act

The data used to plan and build a project is invaluable when it comes time to actually operate the asset. In PMWeb, all of that data remains linked to the asset so that none of it is lost nor does it need to be rekeyed. With Asset Management you can maintain real estate assets and equipment with a comprehensive system of work orders, manage inventory, perform space planning and shared assets management, and even track maintenance contracts.

Create on-demand or recurring Work Orders, link them to Maintenance Contracts and drop them on the interactive Dispatch Board to schedule them. PMWeb Asset Management lets you track unlimited Inventory Locations, link Inventory to any asset in the system, and pull from stock to Work Orders. Use Equipment Records to log usage and a detailed Work Order history, be alerted to upcoming Scheduled Maintenance milestones, and link to or nest other pieces of equipment as Components or Assemblies.

Asset Explorer

The PMWeb Asset Explorer provides an interactive tree view of all your assets

Easily navigate to assets, create assets, delete assets, edit asset names, and move equipment and occupant assets. See the details of each asset broken down by location, building, floor, and spaces. This includes the budget, revenue, personnel, leasing details, projects, work orders, and more. With one click, you can generate work orders from within the asset explorer, and then view those work orders in a calendar format using the PMWeb Dispatch Board.

Maintenance Management

Track maintenance contracts and manage preventative maintenance planning. Maintenance management features:

Lease Management

PMWeb Leasing is a robust lease management solution that combines ease of use, always-on access, and direct integration with Planning, Project Management, and Workflow.

PMWeb allows you to define and manage an unlimited number of leases with ease and efficiency. Leases can be simple agreements or complex contracts with sophisticated charge calculations. Additionally, lease data can automatically merge into the lease forms you currently use.

One of the many unique features of PMWeb Leasing is that you can link together multiple assets as defined as “Suites”. Assets that can be linked to Suites include Locations, Buildings, Floors, Spaces, and Equipment. Leases can link to both assets and Suites. PMWeb Leasing allows you to develop a leasing history of the Suite.

The Lease Administrator automates the process of posting Lease transactions, including basic charges, recoveries, overages and escalations. Create, edit, and approve charges using PMWeb Workflow before actually posting them. Tenant Invoices can be added manually or automatically. Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable Payments can be applied to Location Programs, Locations, Leases, and Tenant Invoices.

Power + Flexibility = ROI

Combining the flexibility and ease of use of traditional project cost management with powerful features usually found only in enterprise accounting systems, PMWeb Cost Management is the platform you need to manage costs – from your smallest project to the largest. Highlighting the module are Cost Worksheets: user-definable, printable spreadsheets within PMWeb that display cost information the way you want to see it. Each spreadsheet automatically includes full drill-down capability, all the way to the transaction level. Create system worksheets to share across projects or create project-specific ones as needed. The solution is complete with advanced, easy-to-use Budgets, Forecasting, Earned Value Management, Contracts, Commitments, Invoices, Payments, Funding, and Change Management.

Find and mitigate problems with real-time project analysis

In the past, project managers were required to wait until the project was completed and all budget and cost transactions had been gathered, compiled, and analyzed before they could clearly understand their relative success or failure. Some call post-production analyses like these “autopsies”, and for good reason. At that point, the project really is dead, in the sense that nothing further can be done to affect its outcome.

A much preferable method is to submit the project to detailed periodic scrutiny, while it is in progress. If real and potential problems can be detected early enough, actions can often be taken to mitigate and even counteract them. In the past, this goal was difficult, if not impossible, to achieve because gathering, entering, and analyzing all the necessary data was simply too tedious.

The promise of PMWeb is that it eliminates the medium and inaccuracies that have made real-time project analysis so difficult. Individual project stakeholders can easily enter and collaborate on budget and cost transactions, guided by PMWeb Visual Workflow. Data entered is immediately visible to anyone with security rights.

Powerful and easy-to-use on-screen tools flag discrepancies and provide one-click access to underlying transactions. Two of the most important of these PMWeb ­­analysis tools are Forecasting and Earned Value Management.

Forecasting

Basic Forecasting

When cost code lines are added to the Details table, some of the fields are automatically populated based on entries in the Cost Ledger.

Forecasting with Periods

While basic forecasting is the simplest way to forecast, this approach has limited value if we are only partway through a project, particularly if the project is a relatively long one. A more meaningful forecast might be achieved if we enhance our data by breaking it down by period. A period can last a week, a month, a quarter, or any other duration you specify. All periods can be of equal duration or they can vary. In PMWeb, periods are defined by you and they can be customized for every project if you wish.

Earned Value Management

What is Earned Value?

Earned Value Management is a more precise and objective way to measure progress on a project. Simply put, Earned Value Management shows how much it actually cost to produce the amount of work completed at a given point and compares that to what your plan says it should have cost. This provides an accurate snapshot of a project in progress.

Who Uses Earned Value?

The US federal government often requires contractors working on projects to submit regular Earned Value reports. Also, more and more builders and owners are seeing the wisdom of using Earned Value on all projects.

Until a project manager includes Earned Value in his/her progress report, there can be no real understanding of what it has cost to produce the work that has been completed so far and, even more importantly, no way to forecast with confidence where the project will be in the future.

Why Hasn’t Earned Value Management Been Used More?

Historically, it has been difficult to gather and organize the data needed to calculate Earned Value, particularly if you use spreadsheets to track projects. Standalone software applications can be used to calculate Earned Value. However, having to populate them with project data makes them as cumbersome as spreadsheets. Other applications require you to do your Earned Value entries within a schedule. Anyone who has ever tried to do that will tell you that it is a tedious and nearly impossible task.

Why is PMWeb Earned Value Management Better?

For the first time, PMWeb makes Earned Value Management simple and easy. It uses the records you need to enter anyway – your budget, subcontracts, change orders, etc. – and it does the Earned Value calculations for you. It can update percent complete from your integrated schedule with one click and features a powerful but easy-to-use forecast tool.

PMWeb Forecasting offers many optional settings, functions, and methods that let you tailor it to meet the needs of your enterprise. Rather than entering forecast values yourself, PMWeb can calculate them from Actual Cost and % Complete.

PMWeb Forecasts are based on data from the Cost Ledger. If you wish, you can post your forecast data to the Cost Ledger as well, completing the circle. Thus, your Forecasts can become an integral part of your regular job cost reporting, as they should. Additionally, PMWeb Forecasts lets you use Microsoft Excel to complete your data entry.

Cash Flow

PMWeb has multiple methods for generating cash flow. Users can spread across periods with a single click. Users can also customize cost periods to create the desired cash flow.

Multi-currency

PMWeb’s multi-currency capabilities allow you to:

All the Business Process You Need

The advanced tools of the Visual Workflow Platform lie at the heart of PMWeb. Because it was built from the ground up to work directly within each PMWeb record type – including Custom Forms – Visual Workflow gives you the advanced tools you need to design, monitor, and manage your collaboration and approval processes, all from a single sign in.

Using PMWeb Visual Workflow you can electronically route and track virtually every project and asset-related document. Workflow allows for both collaboration and formal approval and can be turned on or off for individual programs, projects, locations, and record types.

Why PMWeb Visual Workflow?

A number of features make PMWeb Visual Workflow the best choice:

• Optional DocuSign integration for secure, digital signatures
• Parallel or serial workflow
• Custom Form Builder
• Conditional workflow based on document content
• Drag and drop interface
• Unlimited workflow templates
• Single sign in for users creating and collaborating on records
• Review-only steps
• Automated Process Management Rules (such as limits of authority)
• Route digital files using Workflow

Each participant in a workflow fills a role. Visual Workflows can be built by linking a series of roles. One user may occupy the same role across the portfolio or the user in a role can vary for each program and project or location. After that, create workflows by defining a business process – a series of steps that a record follows. A PMWeb business process can contain two kinds of steps:

A single business process can contain only role steps, only branch rule steps, or a combination of the two. Event Types determine how approvers and CCs are notified. Generate Records setting allows setting up an automatic generation of one or more related records for each action taken for a step.

Reduce Duplicate Data Entry

Now you can allow employees and subcontractors to directly enter their time online, saving you clerical time and minimizing data entry errors. Supervisors can automatically be notified by email that time has been submitted and directly access the timesheets from the email with one click.

• Online data entry
• A built-in feature of PMWeb – no third party vendors or special apps to deal with
• A timesheet can be Resource or Project specific, or a combination
• Enter timesheets for Employees, Subcontractors and Equipment
• Option to immediately post time as project costs
• Receive email notification of timesheet transactions, if desired
• Route timesheets for approval using Visual Workflow
• One click to create a timesheet for the next period
• Link timesheet lines to Cost Codes and Schedule Tasks
• Link to contracts for billing based on actual costs

Protect your portfolio from avoidable risk

• Identify and mitigate risks
• Rank risk by probability
• Workflow tracks accountability
• Links to schedule

Mitigate risks in risk prone markets such as:

• Heavy Highway
• Mining
• Energy
• Petrochemical
• Environmental

Design and Deploy Custom Digital Application Forms

PMWeb Vendor Prequalification lets you design and deploy custom application forms over the Web and automatically collect incoming application data that flows directly into your PMWeb database. Applications are reviewed, due diligence checks are documented, and records are routed, all within the secure PMWeb environment. If an applicant is approved, a single click converts them to a PMWeb vendor. All of the application history remains linked to the vendor and you can even require periodic re-application using the same process.

The best part of pre-qualification with Vendor Prequalification is that it allows you to collect, verify, and record unlimited amounts of metadata about each potential vendor: the regions in which they can work, their bonding limits, DBE information, etc. With that information at your fingertips, selecting which vendors to invite to bid becomes much easier. Included with Vendor Prequalification is an unlimited number of External Users (Vendors) which you can provide with system access solely for the prequalification or requalification process.

Vendor Prequalification is seamlessly integrated with the other PMWeb modules and provides easy-to-use features for you to define and create vendor approval forms and to publish them on your PMWeb site to pre-qualify vendors. Vendor Prequalification enables you to manage the following tasks.

Using Other PMWeb Features with Approvals

Vendor Prequalification takes advantage of many PMWeb tools.

As with all PMWeb modules, Vendor Approvals are directly integrated with everything else that you need to accomplish your daily work.

Keep projects moving with PMWeb Stage Gates

Stage Gates ties major Stages (or Phases) with their default or custom tasks to move projects along from one stage (phase) to another. Not just a schedule, but an interactive tool that ties the actual task from one area of the system into a combined collaborative effort.

PMWeb Stage Gates allows you to plan the various stages for each of your projects along with the tasks associated with each stage. An unlimited number of stages can be created. Each stage can be composed of an unlimited number of activities. Activities can be any project-related task and can be linked directly to other PMWeb records, including Schedule tasks. This means that stage deliverables can be created within PMWeb and the stage is updated in real-time as each deliverable develops.

PMWeb Stage Gates are easy to build and manage. Templates can be created at both the portfolio and program levels. Each stage can be completely reconfigured for each project if desired. Records are automatically routed through your enterprise using normal emails that tie directly back to the PMWeb system. Administrators see at a glance where every record and document currently reside, who is responsible for them and when the next actions are due.

Create and manage information across the project lifecycle

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the practice of using digital data to represent real-world structures. Present this data as 3-dimensional models, spreadsheets, relational databases, and more. PMWeb offers a wide variety of tools that let you view, interact with, and create BIM data. This page introduces several of those tools and provides an overview of their uses.

PMWeb 3D Viewer

The PMWeb 3D Viewer can be used to view and interact with many types of 3D file formats. Use the 3D Viewer to inspect models, rotate them, explode them, and take measurements. The 3D Viewer can be opened from any Attachments tab, the Document Manager, and from a Model Manager record.

Use the image Snapshot feature to quickly and easily:

• Save the image as an attachment to the current PMWeb record
• Link to a PMWeb record – an RFI, for example, with the image attached
• Create an email with the image attached
• Print the image

Model Manager

Model Manager is a powerful tool that lets you interact with 3D models using the PMWeb 3D Viewer, store unlimited metadata about the model, and facilitate model discussion using PMWeb Visual Workflow, Collaboration, and Notifications.

Use the Model Manager to track models that you own or models created and maintained by others on your behalf. For example, one project might contain conceptual models that you create in-house, models created by your architect, as well as models from your specialty subcontractors. Model Manager gives you a central location from which you can organize and monitor all of them.

Use the standard PMWeb tabs to add:

Autodesk Revit® Add-in

PMWeb integrates with Autodesk Revit BIM models. Using the integration, you can:

With resources spread across different locations and projects, PMWeb helps manage them all with the Resource Management tool.

Using PMWeb Viewer you can collaborate graphically online with colleagues down the hall and partners around the globe. A fully integrated PMWeb feature – no plug-ins to install – Viewer is really 3 tools in one:

Integrations and Interfaces

PMWeb’s 100% web-based structure allows interfaces via hyperlink to any system which has similar capabilities. System interfaces can also be achieved by a number of other means. PMWeb has several options for integrating data from existing systems. The method used is determined by several factors such as the type of data being integrated; the frequency of data exchange; and the direction of the data exchange. These aspects apply to both any up-front migration and subsequent data exchanges:

We always recommend that a Client look closely at the need for an API-based integration, as well as any need for PMWeb’s Integration Manager. These two tools have an inherent cost that may or may not be warranted according to the functionality to be used in the Client’s business. Just because an integration can be done does not mean that it should be done. Business needs should drive the integration approach. In major implementations for many major clients, integration was achieved by using SSIS packages to exchange information with other Enterprise systems – either directly or using client middleware. Each alternative should be explored on a cost/benefit basis.

Our integration experience includes:

• SAP
• Oracle Financials
• Timberline/Sage 300
• ViewPoint
• DB2
• Ellipse
• eCMS
• Epicor
• AS400
• SharePoint
• HP DeskSite
• Oracle Primavera P6
• Bluebeam
• DocuSign
• AND MORE!

Compatibility

PMWeb – out of the box – is compatible with a wide range of third-party software systems

Project Documents Are Data Too

Moving project documents from paper to an electronic file system is a no-brainer. Stakeholders can share and interact with documents in real time. Using a file manager that requires a separate login from your portfolio management system, though, simply replaces the paper barrier with a new (albeit digital) one. Project documents are data, just like estimates, schedules, purchase orders, etc. PMWeb Document Manager lets you manage all of your project data – including documents – from a single platform with one sign-on.

PMWeb Document Manager is a full-featured electronic file management system within the PMWeb platform. With Document Manager you can:

• Create a user-defined folder structure
• Upload and store any electronic files your enterprise needs
• Control document editing through Check In, Check Out, and Versioning
• Add unlimited custom metadata to any record
• Apply robust security settings that allow you to share folders without worry
• Search documents, including their metadata and their contents
• Drag and drop functionality
• Route files using PMWeb Visual Workflow
• Attach Document Manager files to any PMWeb record

Use Metadata

PMWeb Document Manager allows you to define and store unlimited file Attributes in each folder. Attributes metadata “tags” each document with characteristics that you define, giving you the flexibility to sort, group, and search your document archives quickly and easily.

Metadata and Content Search

All file data, including its Attributes metadata and its content, is searchable in Document Manager.

Manage File Access

A guiding principle of PMWeb is to make collaboration easy in a secure environment. For your peace of mind, Document Manager provides an extra layer of permissions that sits on top of PMWeb’s already robust enterprise‐class security. You control who accesses what and everything they can do.

Document Explorer

Flexibility and ease of use are hallmarks of every PMWeb tool and Document Manager is no exception. For each folder in PMWeb Document Manager, you can elect to enable document versioning. If Versions are turned on, users cannot upload and overwrite existing files; instead, they must save them as a new version or save them under a different name. The revision log is automatically maintained for you.

The explorer window can be shown in Card View or List View and features a Details Pane that displays file metadata and easy-to-see action buttons. The explorer window always shows only the contents of the current folder and you can double click any folder to open it. Because of this, it is much easier to see what each folder contains and what features are available in each folder. You can also navigate up and down the folder structure using the Fully Interactive Breadcrumbs, described in the next section.

Card View

In Card View, each subfolder and file in the current folder is shown as a card that can be clicked on to select it, clicked and dragged to be moved to a subfolder, and right clicked to reveal a context menu of available actions. If a file can be previewed, a thumbnail appears on its card. The file name at the bottom of the card is a hyperlink to its Linked PMWeb Record.

Fully Interactive Breadcrumbs

Each segment of the reengineered breadcrumbs is interactive.

Click the Folder Button to see Subfolders. Click a Subfolder to Open It.

• Online Help button – The first segment of the breadcrumbs opens the Online Help. See Version 7.1 Online Help for more details about Document Manager 2.
• “Document Manager” segment – Click this segment to open the Document Manager root folder. This special folder contains these subfolders: Locations, Projects, and Shared. If Folder Groups are enabled, this folder also contains a special settings button.
• Folder segments – Click any folder name in the breadcrumbs to open it.
• Subfolder buttons – Click any arrow button after a folder name and select a subfolder from the list to open it.

Navigate/Search Toolbar

This toolbar appears at the top of each explorer window.

The Navigate/Search Toolbar

Controls in this toolbar include:

• Manager Page button – This button opens the standard PMWeb Manager Page.
• Recent records button – Opens an overlay of the last 10 Linked PMWeb Records you accessed. Each is a hyperlink.
• Bookmarks button – Opens a page showing folders and files you bookmarked.
• Quick Search bar – Type a keyword in the text box and press ENTER to search Document # and File and Folder Name fields.
• Advanced Search button – Click to open a dialog from which you can launch advanced searches.
• Settings button – Opens the Edit Folder Dialog. In the Document Manager root folder, this button opens the Folder Groups Dialog instead.

Folder Groups

Document Manager has always allowed you to manage folder permissions by user groups and individual users as well. Document Manager now includes the additional option of management by Folder Groups. Each Folder Group can contain several user groups, making it much easier to manage permissions on a large scale. To enable Folder Groups in your database, turn on the “Enable Permissions by Folder Groups” setting in Portfolio/Settings.

Explorer Toolbar

This toolbar appears in most Document Manager folders.

The Explorer Toolbar

• Add button – Opens a context menu. The options in the menu vary, depending on the system’s configuration and the user’s permissions.
• Latest Versions switch – Turn on to show only the latest version of each file.
• Details switch – Turn on to display the Details pane.
• Card View / List View toggle button – Click to switch between the two views.
• Layouts button – Only visible in List View. Allows users to create custom layouts for the List View table.

Floating Action Button

This button opens a context menu of actions.

The options in the menu vary, depending on the combination of folders and/or files selected when the button is clicked.

A Sample Context Menu

Details Pane

This pane shows metadata and action buttons related to the selected folder or file. The data and buttons displayed vary, depending on the selected folder or file. Some of the controls that might show include (from the top of the pane to the bottom):

File Name – This is a hyperlink to the Linked PMWeb Record.

Image Preview – If the file type can be previewed, a thumbnail shows here.

Action Buttons – Buttons for folders can include Open, Edit, Bookmark, Copy URL, and Subscribe. Buttons for files can include View, Download, Check Out, Bookmark, Copy URL, PMWeb Viewer, and Bluebeam.

System Attributes – Basic metadata about the folder or file. Folder metadata can include Instructions to users. File data can include Geolocation coordinates. To automatically display Geolocation data for qualifying file types, enable the “Store Geolocation Data when Possible” setting in Portfolio/Settings.

Custom Attributes – User-defined metadata fields. These fields can be edited in the Linked PMWeb Record.

Add Comment Button – Click to add a comment to the folder or file.

Comment Log – Saved comments appear below the Comment button, most recent comment at the top. Click on a comment to open it in a dialog.

List View

List View presents the same folders and files as Card View, but in tabular form.

Document Manager in List View

Attachment Tabs

Documents can also be assigned to records and viewed within the attachment tab. Version 7.1 also introduces completely redesigned Attachments tabs for all PMWeb records, reflecting Document Manager 2 enhancements.

Attachments Tabs Throughout PMWeb Reflect Document Manager 2

Linked PMWeb Record

Every file added to Document Manager is automatically linked to a full-featured PMWeb record.

A Document Manager Linked PMWeb Record

The linked PMWeb record has all of the standard features associated with other PMWeb types has tabs for storing additional data such as checklists and notes, can be emailed and reported on, and can even be routed for approval and collaboration using PMWeb’s Visual Workflow. In Document Manager, the linked file appears as a full-fledged PMWeb record, on a page of its own. Also, the redesigned record includes file action buttons – the same ones that appear in the Details Pane, in its header toolbar.

Conclusion

PMWeb’s reinvented Document Manager makes electronic file management fast, easy, and powerful and, combined with the rest of the award-winning PMWeb platform, gives you the tools you need to manage even the most demanding projects.