Unit 4 Agresso Business World Project Portfolio …...... (AD) -based PM market ... Work Order...

Gartner© 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to bereliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretationsthereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

DPRO-117434Daniel B. Stang

Product Report22 September 2003

Unit 4 Agresso Business World Project Portfolio Management Applications

Summary

Unit 4 Agresso is a Netherlands-based software vendor offering project portfolio management tools byfocusing on its core enterprise resource planning-centric strength and modular product set.

Note

On 17 December 2002, Unit 4 Agresso announced its intention to expand its 19 percent holding ofAgresso Americas to a 100 percent interest. This follows the August 2000 merger of Unit 4 with Agresso,which formed Unit 4 Agresso, headquartered in the Netherlands. Before the merger, the North Americanreseller, Agresso Americas, was spun off and was not part of the merger. Since that time, AgressoAmericas has become profitable while marketing products in North America and developing its ownproducts for the travel and educational industry.

Table of Contents

Overview

Analysis

Pricing

Competitors

Strengths

Limitations

Recommended Gartner Research

Insight

List Of Tables

Table 1: Agresso Business World PPM Applications 5.4 SP2: Features and Functions

Table 2: Agresso Business World PPM Software: Price List


© 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.DPRO-11743422 September 2003 2

Corporate Headquarters

Unit 4 Agresso NV

Stationspark 200

3364 DA Sliedrecht, Netherlands

P.O. Box 102

3360 AC Sliedrecht, Netherlands

Tel: +31 184 44 44 44

Fax: +31 184 44 44 45

Internet: www.unit4agresso.com

Overview

Gartner recognizes and categorizes a number of different types of vendors targeting the project portfoliomanagement (PPM) market, a market signifying the maturity of the traditional project management (PM)and application-development (AD)-based PM market. Unit 4 Agresso is an example of a PPM vendor witha modular enterprise resource planning (ERP)-style software product offering, called Agresso BusinessWorld, which includes modular office application sets — Financials, Project Costing & Billing, and HumanResources — supporting PPM processes and transactional ERP processes. More than a third ofAgresso’s customer base is made up primarily of “business services” customers — customers in theareas of business services and consulting, technical consulting and research, and IT services. Othertypes of organizations in Agresso’s installed base include government, higher education, healthcare,construction, energy, nonprofit organizations, trade, engineering, financial services and transportation.Customers include Det Norsk Veritas (a risk management services provider), LogicaCMG (a worldwide ITservices firm), Royal HasKoning (a worldwide consultancy engineering firm), IM Skaugen (a marinetransportation company), Halcrow Group (a provider of infrastructure-based business solutions), EidsivaEnergi (a Norway-based energy provider), Frontec (an IT consultancy), ESV (the Swedish NationalFinancial Management Authority) and U.K.-based Salford University (higher education).

Table 1: Agresso Business World PPM Applications 5.4 SP2: Features andFunctions

Specifications

Clients

Hardware • Power User — 300MHz Pentium II microprocessor and 128MB RAM

• Typical User — 233MHz Pentium II microprocessor and 64MB RAM

• Minimum Requirements — 100MHz Pentium microprocessor and 32MB RAM

Platforms • Microsoft Windows 98

• Microsoft Windows ME

• Microsoft Windows XP

• Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Service Pack 6 or higher

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional




Specifications

Browsers • Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0.2 or higher running on Windows 95, 98 or NT (for

saving Agresso documents in HTML format).

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or higher or Windows 200 client (for saving

Agresso documents in Extensible Markup Language [XML] format).

• Use of MS SQL Server 2000 in environment requires minimum of MS Internet

Explorer (IE) 5.0.

• Use of Oracle database requires Winsocket 2.0.

• Agresso’s Invoice Manager requires Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC)

2.1 and Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM).

E-mail Supported • Microsoft Outlook 97/98/2000

• Microsoft Outlook 98 or higher for Invoice Manager

• Novell Group Wise 5.2 or higher

• Lotus Notes 4.1 or higher

• Direct Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server

Other Requirements • Web client requires MS IE 5.5 or higher.

• Supports any Citrix Independent Computing Architecture (ICA)-supported client.

• Supports any Windows Terminal Server client.

Database Server

Databases • Oracle 8.1.7 or higher (including Oracle9i)

• Microsoft SQL Server 2000

• Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere (Only supported by Agresso Budget Manager)

Supports any operating system supported by the relational database management

system (RDBMS), that is, the server can run on almost any operating system (OS)

supporting the database, such as NT, Unix and Open VMS.

Hardware requirements include:

• Dual processor

• 128MB RAM + 6MB per user

• 2*9GB RAID 1 (OS, RDBMS, Logs), 2*9GB RAID 1 (Agresso temporary work

space), 4*9GB RAID 5 (database)

Database Client • Oracle8.1.7 or higher for Agresso Office applications

• Oracle8.1.7 or higher for Agresso Web Services

• MS SQL Server 7 client, Service Pack 2 (SP2) or higher

• MS SQL Server 2000 client

XML

Inbound/Outbound

Application Data Object connection used.

Supported Object Linking and Embedding Database (OLE DB) providers include:

• MS OLE DB Provider for SQL Server (SQLOLEDB)

• Oracle Provider for OLE DB (OraOLEDB.Oracle)

Agresso Server

Hardware Large systems:

• Pentium III 500MHz dual processors

• 512MB memory

• 9GB disk space (redundancy recommended)




Specifications

Small systems:

• Pentium III 500MHz single processor

• 256MB memory

• 9GB disk space (redundancy recommended)

Server • MS Windows NT 4.0 Server, SP6 or higher

• MS Windows 2000 Server/Advanced Server

• Internet Explorer 5

Web

Server/Component

Server

Platforms • MS Windows Server/Advanced Server, including Internet Information Server 6.0

• MS XML 3 or 4

• Internet Explorer 6.0 minimum

Hardware • Pentium III 800MHz dual processors (minimum)

• 500MB memory (minimum)

• 9GB disk space

Agresso Office — Project Costing and Billing (PCB)

Project Definition

Supports four main levels of a project structure:

• Main Project

• Project

• Work Order

• Activities

A fifth level supports drafting of projects.

Main Project Invoices can be produced at this level.

Invoices can be split between more than one customer.

Projects or work orders under main projects can be billed separately.

Main projects must be defined as a project.

Main projects may have a different project manager to that of their subprojects and

work orders.

Project Can represent a “subproject” within a Main Project.

Must contain at least one work order or activity.

Invoices can be produced at this level.

Invoices can be split between more than one customer.

Individual work orders under the project can be billed separately.

Projects may have other project managers than their work orders.

May have other “customers” than the main project or work orders.

Work Order Individual work orders making up a project can be billed separately.

Work orders and their project may have different project managers.

Work orders may have a different “customer” than that of the main project or project.




Specifications

Activity Activities can be created as “common” and can apply to all projects.

Activities can also be created for projects, and multiple users can define them.

Each project, subproject or work order can be subdivided into an unlimited number

of activities.

Activities can be used in time sheet registration and on posting/invoicing of costs

and fixed price

An activity code can be shared among different projects, and the system can

validate the activity against a register of valid activity codes.

Draft Project Provides the ability to create a project in which only the most important information

is used to define it and user-defined security levels can be set.

Stored separately than active projects in the system.

Can be used to estimate and track proposed project work and prepare a proposal

for a customer before actually creating an active project in the system.

Relations Users select the attributes, postings and reporting they want to track for the project

or draft project as “relations.”

Relations can include project code, cost center, resources, project type, business

area, customer ID number and others.

Relations are also used to define the attributes the user wants to track for Work

Orders.

Project Tab The interface for a project includes tabs, as well as data fields for each respective

tab.

The Project tab includes the following data fields:

• Project ID

• Project name

• Project type

• Customer ID

• Reference contact

• Project manager

• Currency used for invoicing

• Method of value for currency (for example, daily exchange rate)

• Invoice rules associated with the project

• Cost center

• Business area

• Status of project (for example, active, parked, closed, terminated)

• The project’s “main project”

• Work breakdown structure

• Project start/end dates (activities and transactions can only occur within these

dates)

• Date project was created in the system

• Four available user-defined data fields

• Activity/work order check boxes — a project must contain activities or work orders

to be billable, so one of the boxes must be checked before the project can be saved




Specifications

Relation Tab Shows the relations (attributes) selected for tracking and monitoring.

Relational values entered in the Project tab are displayed here.

Other relations selections not performed in the Project tab are created here.

InvRule Tab Sets the invoice rule for the project.

Pre-existing rules created in the system can be selected here and applied to the

project.

New rules, created by the user, can be defined here and applied to the project.

The tab is divided into two table areas — one showing how the invoice type

(hours/days/weeks) is invoiced and another showing how all other invoice elements

are invoiced.

An “Invoiceable” value shows how much of the total project time has not yet been

invoiced in the project or work order.

An “Invoiced” value shows how much of the total project time has been invoiced in

the project or work order.

A “Used Hours” field shows the sum of hours registered on the project or work

order.

InvInfo Tab Defines the level on which the invoicing of a project will take place.

Defines how the invoice will look when produced.

Details terms of invoicing and tax information.

An “Inv.status” field indicates whether or not the project is billable.

A “Separate Invoice” check box, when checked, tells the user an invoice will be

produced for the project and all subprojects of the project that do not have the same

field selected themselves.

An “Inv.spec” field indicates if the invoice will be detailed or aggregated and whether

to use customer- or project-specific layout.

Activity Tab Allows either entry of a pre-defined activity across projects or entry of any activity

valid for a given project.

Fields include an activity code for activities pre-defined and used in the system as

well as a description of the activity itself.

A “B” field shows whether or not the activity is billable.

A “STD.RULE” field can include values that override the default invoice rules set for

the project as a whole.

A “Status” field shows if the activity is open, parked or closed.

Work Order Tab Shows the work orders (that is, subsets of a project) registered for a project.

Data fields provide work order numbers, descriptions of work orders, the customer

for which the work is being performed, the currency associated with the invoicing of

the work order, the status of the work order and the dates of the work order.

Additional work orders can be created in the work order tab, the project master file

or the work order master file.




Specifications

ConnControl Tab Controls the named resources allowed to post time against a given project within

the system.

Allows users to provide time entry access to groups of resources or individual

resources for a project.

A “Resource Connection” window provides a definition of all the projects for which a

given resource can enter time — from the resource’s perspective.

ProjInfo Tab Supports a milestone concept for use in following up on project work and invoicing.

Provides a window for defining project milestones, including milestone code,

description, date of fulfillment of the milestone, originating date, and time stamping

of last update to a specific milestone row in the table.

Users can delete a milestone if it is not in use on a project in the system.

Work Order

Definition

The system allows users to create and edit work orders.

Work Order Tab Fields of the Work Order tab in the Work Order master file include the following:

• Project — a work order must be connected to a project

• Order resp. — the manager of a work order

• Currency — the currency used for billing the work order

Other fields are populated with data relating back to the associated project for which

the work order is associated.

Relation Tab In the Work Order master file, it presents the same information as the relation tab

when defining a project in Agresso, although a different combination of relations

may be used for work orders.

A Percentage field supports percentage allocation for use when a work order’s

project belongs to two or more relations according to a defined percentage

allocation.

A Value field provides allocation via absolute values, as opposed to percentage

values, when appropriate.

InvRule Tab Provides the same information and data fields as described in the Project Definition

section of this table.

InvInfo Tab Provides the same information and data fields as described in the Project Definition

section of this table.

Draft Project

Definition

Agresso provides a simplified, Web-based project entry interface as a means for

recording only the most important information about projects and associated user-

access levels as defined by the user.

Draft Storing The system stores these draft projects so users can define a project and use

Agresso project estimation and tracking features outside of the scope of active

project transactions, including time reporting.

Users can delete draft projects as necessary and appropriate.

Attributes Users continue to add activities, work orders and milestones to a draft project after it

has become an active project within the system.




Specifications

Data Transfer to

Active Projects

An option allows a user to add hours or other costs to a project before it reaches

completion in the system and transfer these parts of the draft project to the active

system project when appropriate.

Project Invoicing

Fixed-Price Items

and Advances

Allows users to add fixed-price items and details to a project or work order or to

apply an advance payment for a project or work order.

Invoice Plan Allows users to create a plan for automatic invoicing of fixed-price rows on a project

or work order.

One project or work order can have several invoice plans.

An invoice plan includes the following data fields:

• Work order — the invoice plan’s work order

• Project — the project to which the plan is associated

• Invoice plan — the plan identifier

• Element — a list showing all the fixed price type invoice elements defined on the

project or work order

• Currency — the project/work order currency used to calculate cost values

• Cur.amount — the total value of the invoice plan

• Used hours — the total amount of hours worked on the project/work order

• Activity — defines the activity to which the invoice line applies

• Condition fields — appropriate invoicing trigger used to automatically generate the

invoice, including Date to invoice (the date on which the row will be invoiced),

Percentage complete (percentage that must be complete on the work order before

the row is invoiced), Used hours (amount of used hours that must be worked on the

project before the row will be invoiced) or Milestone (the milestone that must be

reached before the row will be invoiced)

• Percent of total amount — indicates a percentage of the total currency amount of

the invoice plan

• DK — a valid distribution key for deferring income posted to the General Ledger

(GL).

• Time period — for which the row applies

• Status — invoice status on the row, indicating that the row is to be invoiced when

the condition is met, has been placed on hold, is now closed, is part of an invoice

proposal or has already been invoiced

A Web version of invoice plans is provided.

Pre-Billing Allows users to create invoices in advance of completed work and invoice

presentation to the customer. Users then match the reported hours and expenses

against the pre-billed invoice amount, ensuring the customer is not billed twice for

the same work.

Deferred Income —

Distribution Key

Allows users to indicate that income associated with an invoice plan will be spread

over several months.

PCB server processes do not include the actual income spreading as this is handled

automatically on transfer to the GL.




Specifications

Financing — Many

Customers to One

Project

Supports scenarios where several customers are financing the same project.

Allows users to define the customers that will be financing a given project and the

rules for invoicing these customers.

Invoice amounts are distributed based on the invoice rules defined for the invoice

plan.

Users can limit the activities that can be invoiced, when a customer can be invoiced

and how much of a project can be invoiced.

Distribution is based on one of two principles: a percentage-based distribution of the

invoice amounts with each invoicing or invoicing a customer up to a given maximum

amount according to a given priority.

Invoice Processing

Invoice Base Validating time sheets and expenses via server creates rows of billable time

transactions and expenses in the Invoice Base window of the system.

The invoice base is a central billing register containing all items ready for billing to a

customer.

The entire invoice base is available to LAN-based users.

Once validation occurs on the server, the units and amounts of time transactions

are calculated by combining the registered time sheets with the categorized

resources and the invoice rules for a project.

Fixed-price items and advance amounts are registered directly into the invoice base

window while pre-billing items are entered through the pre-billing interface.

Web-Based Invoice

Processing

A Web-based invoicing feature through Web services allows nonfrequent users,

such as project managers, to manage some of the invoicing for their projects.

In the Web-based feature, the project manager can search for the projects and time

periods in which he or she wants to view the invoice base.

If new fixed-price items require entry, the project manager can add these items via

Web as needed.




Specifications

Invoice Proposal A server-based invoice proposal process generates an invoice proposal that can be

amended before final invoicing.

Hours, expenses, fixed prices and other invoice rows are retrieved from the invoice

base register.

The server divides billable items between projects or customers.

It generates a proposal according to the invoice rule for each project, subproject or

work order.

A project that is part of a main project and which does not have a separate invoice

rule associated with it is invoiced on an aggregate basis on the same invoice as the

main project, and vice versa.

Invoices include billable hours, fixed-price items and additional expenses.

Although hours exceeding the upper amount limit will be recorded into the invoice

base, they will not appear on the invoice proposal.

Invoice proposals can be ordered for a project, work order, customer, cost center or

a combination of these.

An invoice proposal can be reversed.

Via Web, a project manager can maintain and approve or reject rows in an invoice

proposal.

Actual Invoicing Actual invoicing can occur once invoice proposal server processes are completed.

When the server performs invoicing, an invoice is generated for each customer

based on the project and work order structure and invoice rules.

GL posting or proposals for GL postings of the expected income are generated.

Tax for each invoice is calculated.

When hours are invoiced, the system adds them to the “Invoiced Number” field.

Printouts include an invoice for the customer, a detailed overview of all invoiced

items and a listing of postings made to the GL via Crystal Reports or Agresso’s

native report writer.

Other Invoicing

Processes

A server process deletes hours and expenses that will not be invoiced and stores

them in a historic register.

An accrual hours/expenses/fixed-price server process accrues all unbilled items at

the end of each month to the GL.

A Copy Invoice process prints a copy of an invoice previously printed and posted to

the GL. This process can be run for an individual invoice, a range of invoices, an

entire batch or a range of batches.

A Credit Invoice process reverses an invoice already processed and supports partial

or complete reversals for the purpose of crediting part or all of a processed invoice.

A “Recalculate hour rates and product prices” server process recalculates all

income prices on billable hour transactions and product prices on product

transactions in the invoice base corresponding to selection criteria.

The server can also transfer any closed or temporarily closed hours and expenses

to a historic register, if necessary. Transfer can be based on time periods.

Tools




Specifications

A tools pull-down menu provides access to a number of commands, including:

• Work Order — to maintain work order information

• Hours inquiries — to access time transaction reporting

• Budget — accesses budget-related commands, including project estimation,

inquiries, amendments, closing and forecasting

• Purchase — access purchase order functionality or copying of forecasts

• Estimated at completion — accesses calculation of aggregate number of hours

needed to complete a project

• Positions — allows entry of project participant position in a project and override of

a resource’s given normal hour price when invoicing

• Income analysis — used to define how a project’s income will be accounted for if

the GL analysis is specific to the project

• Set date — allows users to change the valid dates for activities, connections and

work orders

• Price list — used to define product-specific invoice prices

• Invoice base — allows users to inquire against and amend rows ready for invoicing

for a given project and enter manual invoice transactions

• Invoice plan — users can enter, amend or inquire on the invoice plan of a given

project or work order

• Financing — used to define a set of customers who finance the project, as well as

the rules for the invoicing of customers

• Documents — allows users to connect documents and screens to a project

• Address — for entering address data about a project

• Copy activities — allows users to copy activities from another project

Project Estimation and Tracking

Office Interface

Allows users to create estimates for resources and expected costs and income for

proposed or actual projects.

Supports labor attributes, including cost by grade or costs associated with daily

labor rates, to estimate project costs.

Supports outsource attributes, including design costs or printing jobs.

Estimates can be run for actual projects to estimate the profitability of a project,

comparing the cost estimate to the agreed upon bid.

Estimates can be run for proposed projects to determine what a bid should be for a

given proposed project.

Estimates can be used as the basis for proposal of project work to a customer. If the

customer accepts the proposal, users can transfer the estimate information to a

budget and transfer the bid into an actual project budget.

Estimates can be entered at high or detailed levels.

An estimate can be split into details, and comments can be added to each line item.

A project estimate can be transferred into the PCB module as a budget.

Excel spreadsheets can be pasted into a project estimation window.

Estimates can be performed without defined work order or activity information.

Web Interface




Specifications

Provides most of the functions available in the Agresso Office interface, including

the following:

• Entering estimates on a high or detail level

• Specifying default elements in a template defined within the project estimate setup

windows of the system

• Splitting an existing estimate into details

• Registering comments on each row, if desired

Print Reporting

Output

Estimates The system provides a report-printing screen for printing out registered project

estimates.

Printouts can include high-level data or detailed information.

Aggregate printouts are printed on the aggregate level, using the account relation

on the estimate.

If “aggregate” is not selected, the system will print a detailed report, showing cost

and revenue account information as well as cost center information.

Users can select the sorting guidelines for the printed report (for example, by work

order or by activity).

Offers The system provides a report-printing screen for printing out an offer for

presentation to a customer.

Customer information is pulled from the project or draft project records.

Project information is pulled from the project estimate records.

Offers can be printed in the customer’s defined language.

If an offer is run for a project, the project estimate record indicates the offer has

been sent to the customer.

Resource Management

Resource Planning

Provides the following functions:

• Planned Capacity — creating a workforce overview throughout a given time period

• Requirement Planning — producing several variants to assimilate different

resource or period options

• Allocation — by project, resource or category, including simplified entry

procedures using mass entry

• Gantt — visual reporting on capacity, requirement and allocation

• Gap Analysis — producing graphical representation on over-/underplanning

Integrated with Agresso HR to share information regarding resource shortages,

recruitment and hiring based on skills and resource gaps, and training management

of new hires.




Specifications

Planning Planning functions use resource capacity estimates for the year and consider

scheduled time of resources to help users perform gap analysis.

The system uses an analyzer/chart function to provide a graphical overview of

resource capacity. Users can generate graphics-based charts showing the

percentages of relevant resources (position, resource or center) allocated to

projects.

Resource and other data tracked for resource capacity can be used to plan

forecasting for a given time period and include annual or maternity leave, seasonal

staff or other variants. Tracked attributes include description of the planning

requirement, position and type, user-defined “from-” and “to-” dates, and number of

planned capacity for the time frame for each requirement.

Provides a Gantt view of planned capacity.

An Absence Percentage function allows statistical absence data to be added to a

position for planning purposes.

The system provides “what if” and resource capacity analysis of projects or phases

of projects. It allows users to manipulate a base requirements plan, changing its

different variants for resource capacity and viewing simulated results using Gantt

and gap analysis functions.

Supports Web-based access to requirements planning function via Agresso Web

Services.

Allocation Once a project is planned, allocations can be done per project, per resource and per

category.

Once allocations are complete, users can perform Gantt and gap analyses to

identify over allocation.

Users can also allocate resources to projects using a standard weekly work plan

and hours instead of standard percentage allocation.

Once hours are allocated to each resource and saved to the system, users can view

a summary report of hours allocated per resource, per period and per project.

Using the analyzer/chart function, the data can then be viewed graphically.

Allocated standard hours per resource can be transferred directly to time sheets.

The system performs mass registration of resources to projects.




Specifications

Gap Analysis Allows users to run a search on a variety of different criteria to support effective

resource use and see instances of under- and overallocation of resources in project

work.

Users can run a basic gap analysis comparing the overall planned capacity with

requirements and allocations being managed in the system.

An hours gap function allows users to consider resource requirements when

allocating time to complete the project without time waste.

Analysis is provided in both tabular and graphical form and can be used to predict

any changes in long-term planning for resource numbers.

A “wide analysis” provides a broad search for any potential resource problem

periods, and then focused analysis over narrow time periods.

Once resources are allocated to a project, the gap analysis can be run to find

discrepancies in requirement or allocation.

A separate gap analysis function supports hours gap analysis. A 3-D graphics-

based report provides a visual representation of hours gap analysis.

Work Schedules

and Absence

Management

Allows users to do the following:

• Define work schedules — simple and multiple period work plans and days with

reduced hours.

• Generate work calendars for each of the work schedules and link these through

relations to the resources.

• Define absences, absence codes and groups and link these to groups via relations

on absence codes.

• Define repayment for leave without pay, linking these to relevant absence codes.

• Enter absence information in Agresso Office and via Web Services, and then

transfer these entries to the variable payments function via transfer of absences to

payroll process.

• Reverse absence transactions and amend and delete this data, including

amending and deleting via Web Services.

Work Schedules Allows users to do the following:

• Define several work plans for both full- and part-time resources

• Define a list of days with reduced hours (that is, bank or general working holidays)

• Generate work calendars for each work plan, seeing the effect the work plan and

days with reduced hours have on the calendar

• Link a work plan to the resource by defining a work schedule as a relation on

resource




Specifications

A weekly work plan is used to define and maintain weekly work schedules for

employees. It specifies the working days of the week, start and end times, and

number of hours worked.

Cycles can be created and set to repeat themselves every week, every two weeks

or by some other recurrence.

A reduced hours work plan defines and maintains a list of days off and days with

reduced working hours. It is combined with the weekly work plan or work schedule

to generate a calendar listing all the working days relating to the work plan.

Calendars are defined as a combination of time periods, a work schedule, and one

or more “days off” plans. Once saved, they can be viewed and amended.

Users link resources to work schedules to record absences by setting the work

schedule as a relation on resources.

Absences Users can perform the following:

• Define basic absence codes and groups

• Enter absence information, linking these to specific absence codes or groups and

defining limits on these codes or groups

• Enter absence information for historic and predicted absences, including using

Web entry, as well as looking at entering treatment information on these absences

• Amend and delete absence information on the LAN or via Web

• Transferring absence data and then reversing the absences data, if necessary,

and any reports using such data

Resource

Deployment

Allows resources to be taken from the planning phase through and into their actual

projects.

Provides coordination of large workforces, including time on and off of projects

using work schedules.

Features include the following:

• Set up of resource deployment, including validation of resources to projects and

absence functions

• Deployment and tracking of resources throughout mobilization (to projects) and

demobilization (removal from projects) process

• Use of work schedules, including generation of work schedules for use in different

deployment types

• Definition of validation parameters for resource deployment

• Use of absence data and scheduling with resource deployment, including use in a

resource yearly calendar and with payroll and absence reporting




Specifications

When a resource registers an absence, it becomes visible in the resource year

calendar.

If Agresso’s HR module is in use in the implementation, registered absences can be

recorded in an absence-to-payroll function.

Validation includes ensuring that resources are connected to the project within the

required dates and not outside the actual project requirements.

A Connections feature allows users to deploy whole groups of resources to projects.

Gantt charting and resource calendar views aid in resource deployment.

The system provides storage and user access to each given year’s resource

calendar and resource deployment information, as well as the Gantt charting

associated with the resource data and deployment for the given year.

PCB Time and Expense

Time Sheet Entry

Time sheet entry is supported via Agresso Office interface and Web-based

interface.

Both interfaces use the same database tables and workflow routine for entry and

approval of hours.

Providing both interfaces allows resources to report time while connected to the

LAN in the office or connect to the Web from a remote location outside of the office.

When time sheets are submitted, authorized persons are notified to take action on

them to approve or reject the time sheets.

If a time sheet transaction is rejected in the approval process, the person that

submitted the sheet is notified, and the sheet itself is returned to the submitter, who

then can make modifications and reenter the sheet for approval.

A resource can use previously submitted time sheets as templates for subsequent

time sheet reports.

Both the Office and Web time sheet entry windows allow users to select the data

fields they want to see in their time sheet entry windows.

Time Sheet

Approval

Because the Office and Web-based time entry windows share the same data tables

and workflow routine, authorized persons can approve or reject time sheets,

regardless of whether or not the sheet was submitted via LAN or Web.

Approvers open a “time sheets to approve” window to access sheets needing

approval.

Approvers can approve or reject reported time for each submitted item (that is, row).

In approving time, row by row, the approver can include comments in rows that are

rejected.

When time sheets or rows of a time sheet are rejected, the submitter is notified via

message in a task window, and the time sheet is returned so the submitter can

make corrections and resubmit the sheet.

Approval Follow Up

— Time Sheet

Transfer




Specifications

Once all time sheets for a given time period are approved, the authorized person

transfers the time data to the appropriate database tables.

The authorized person certifies that all the time data is in the right database table

and ensures that all resources with backlogs of time reporting or temporarily

nonbillable (that is, “parked”) reports have been found.

In transferring the active time sheets, the server adds all the sheets for the period

into a time database table.

Once the transfer takes place, approvers still have the option to change the

transferred time sheets via “periodic entry of time sheets” window.

The system allows users to define parts of time sheets to be transferred, even

though some parts are not yet approved.

Time Report

Generation

The system allows users to create follow-up time reports for time personnel.

Data can include both validated and nonvalidated time data.

“Missing Time Sheet”

Reports

The system can generate a list of resources without a time sheet for a given time

period.

Time sheets entered but not transferred are listed as “missing.”

The system allows users to identify these missing time sheets and the resources

associated with them, generate a report (the list) and use an e-mail command to

message each resource missing a time sheet for a given time period.

“Temporarily

Nonbillable Time

Sheet” Reports

The system can search for all time sheets in a given time period with a “parked”

(that is, not saved for approval) time sheet status.

Authorized time managers can then follow up on these sheets.

Group Timesheets Allows an authorized time manager to enter time on behalf of several workers at

one time.

It also allows time entry on a daily rather than weekly basis.

To control access rights, the time reporter (typically a project manager or team

supervisor) can only enter time for resources on their system-specified work team.

The system can also be configured to allow one time reporter to report time to the

system for a number of project teams, as opposed to allowing only the team

manager to report time for his or her resource teams.

Group time sheet transfer is similar to individual time sheet transfer, but it works on

a day-to-day basis rather than on a time period basis and occurs before time sheet

approval.

Group time sheet approval occurs after group time sheet transfer.

The entire time sheet is shown as opposed to just the line items needing approval.

Users can select to view only approved or unapproved line items, but only for the

team members for which they are responsible.

Under certain conditions, users can rescind a time item approval.

Approval follow-up is provided (using the same functions as described in the

“Approval Follow Up — Time Sheet Transfer” section of this table).

Expenses




Specifications

Expenses can be registered as GL expense accounts by means of supplier

invoices, employee expense claims or journals.

The Expenses balance table can pick up any GL/accounts payable transaction

fulfilling certain business rules.

The system can be set up to bill anything posted on an Expenses balance table

through PCB.

Expenses can be entered via LAN or from the Web.

When the server validates time sheets and expenses, these expenses can then be

used for invoicing purposes.

Expenses are recorded either as approved transactions or via Web entry queued for

approval and posting. Then a server process updates the GL and accounts

payable/accounts receivable records and populates an Expense balance table.

Approval of expenses and expense approval workflow are similar to that of approval

of time.

Traditional Project Management Tools Support

• Provides a bi-directional integration in which users can export data from Agresso

to Microsoft Project and import Microsoft Project data into Agresso.

• Users can export used hours, available resources and work progress data

(estimates vs. actuals) from Agresso to Microsoft Project.

• Users can import the structure of a new project, including milestones, and change

time limits from Microsoft Project to Agresso.

• The integration is possible by saving Microsoft Project (MSP) files to the Agresso

database. A window in Agresso shows the projects that are “external,” and the user

can view these projects and their data to enter values into Agresso data fields.

• All project dates are stored in MSP.

• All cost rates are stored in Agresso.

• Agresso manages the resource pool.

• Worked hours and project status is updated from Agresso.

• MSP users can create a project in MSP, initialize the Agresso resource pool from

the Agresso server and put resources from the Agresso resource pool into the

created MSP project. The MSP project is then saved and stored in the Agresso

database as a project master file (see earlier description in this chart). Hours

worked against the project are then recorded and tracked in Agresso. Project

progress and status is updated based on the actuals reports in Agresso. The status

information, including hours worked, can be exported to the MSP project, and the

MSP users can then recalculate project estimates to determine estimated

completion and other information.

Analysis

Support for ERP processes, including internal processes via PPM, is what earns Unit 4 Agresso anopportunity and entrance into the PPM market. The vendor’s decision to position Agresso Business Worldfor use in service delivery was also an early indicator that other ERP vendors of the strength and might ofPeopleSoft, Oracle and others would attempt to enter PPM markets to exploit new business opportunities.



Unit 4 Agresso primarily targets the ERP mid-market and has a more significant presence in Europe thanit does in North America. More than 70 percent of the vendor’s customers are based in Norway, Swedenand the United Kingdom, and less than 10 percent are based in North America. Gartner, however, isobserving a continued “push” by Unit 4 Agresso in its marketing activities to target North Americancompanies, including Unit 4 Agresso’s decision to expand its holdings in Agresso Americas to a 100percent interest.

Unit 4 Agresso’s continued product development and marketing of modular products supporting specificPPM processes in a horizontal ERP suite continues to strengthen this vendor’s position as a player inPPM. Owning some of the ERP transactional processing and data collection mechanisms is what allowssoftware vendors with ERP offerings to compete in the PPM market space, particularly in the areas ofhuman and resource management, time and expense reporting, PM, and billing and invoicing. Unit 4Agresso leverages its PM, financials and HR implementations to target internal and external servicesdelivery organizations.

An ERP Suite Supporting PPM Functions

Unit 4 Agresso is a midsize enterprise ERP vendor with a horizontal suite of enterprise applications it callsAgresso Business World.

Agresso Office includes applications for the following:

• Financials

• PCB

• Procurement

• Human Resources

• Information Tools

• System Administration Tools

• Development Tools

The PCB product set is the core application set for PPM support. As an ERP vendor, Unit 4 Agresso’sPPM strategy and resulting implementations resemble a typical ERP implementation. A sampling ofAgresso PCB customers reveals only a small handful of customers utilizing only the PCB application set.Roughly 70 percent of Unit 4 Agresso’s customers are using Agresso PCB and Agresso Financials. About30 percent are using Agresso PCB, Agresso Financials and Agresso HR. But Unit 4 Agresso does notconsider itself pure ERP. It differentiates itself from ERP vendors, describing its target market as beingfocused on “people-centric” organizations, whereas the vendor explains most ERP vendors are “material-centric.”

ERP/PPM Application Integration

Considering the modular ERP approach of Unit 4 Agresso, the vendor provides inherent integrationbetween the PCB product and other applications typically used in an enterprise. The PCB moduleintegrates with Agresso Financials, allowing PCB to pick up costs and expenses from the GL in AgressoFinancials for billing purposes.

PCB can also perform the following as a result of integration with Agresso Financials:

• Post cost of time incurred on projects



• Post revenue from the sales of goods and services

• Post income actuals

• Pick up costs and expenses from Accounts Payable for billing

• Post invoices to the sales ledger

• Use a common customer master file shared between PCB and Agresso Financials

The PCB module can link purchase orders generated in Agresso Purchasing to specific projects and useforecasting functionality.

For HR, PCB shares a common resource master file and links time booked on time sheets to an absencemodule in the HR product. It can record employee expenses and use resource planning to plan andorganize resource usage on projects. Gap analysis in PCB can be fed to the HR module for recruitingpurposes, identifying the skills requirements of needed additional head count. Recruiting processes inAgresso HR, including applicant tracking and evaluation based on resource gaps and skills requirementsidentified in daily project tracking in PCB, can help support more efficient HR recruiting, hiring andtraining. For Payroll, PCB can derive hourly cost rates for employees from Agresso’s Payroll module andlink overtime recorded to payments to be made via payroll functionality. The PCB module can also derivehourly cost rates for contractors from Agresso’s Contract Accounting functionality.

The inherent integration of processes in Agresso Business World support recording and processing ofdifferent enterprise costs to the Agresso GL system. Purchases made by an enterprise are created in theAgresso Purchasing module. These purchases can be fed into Agresso Financials’ Accounts Payablemodule, then recorded as company expenses. Expenses to be billed to a customer can be invoiced, thentracked and collected as receivables and ultimately recorded in the master GL. Project work can alsoultimately feed into the Agresso GL system. Main projects created in PCB are tracked and segmented intowork orders and activities. These activities are applied to the system’s invoice rules. Invoices based onthe work orders and activities are then issued to the customer. The system then tracks and records theinvoiced items as receivables, and these invoices, when paid, are ultimately recorded in the system’smaster GL. Resource use can also be recorded at the GL level.

In the Agresso system, resources used in the enterprise for projects or daily general work submit timesheets with associated charge or cost rates. The charge rates (billable hours) are applied against thesystem’s invoice rules, and invoices are generated and submitted to the customer. The invoices aretracked as receivables and, when paid, are recorded in the system’s master GL. For internal cost trackingand control and payroll support, resources submit time sheets with appropriate cost rates. The accruedinternal cost for resources in the enterprise can then be recorded in the master GL.

Integration with Traditional Project Planning and Estimation Tools

Currently, Agresso provides a bi-directional integration with Microsoft Project, allowing users to sharedata, including resources, time reports and estimates, between the two systems. This integration,however, requires installation of a Visual Basic (VB) application on every MSP user’s system.Recognizing the widespread use and demand for integration with traditional PM tools, such as MicrosoftProject and others found in IT organizations, Agresso will soon be delivering deeper integration withtraditional PM tools. The integration will include MSP integration via Web services, in which Web serviceswill load MSP files in XML format into and out of the Agresso database. This will significantly reduce, if noteliminate, the need to provide the VB-based application on the MSP user’s client. By adopting Webservices and XML as the means for sharing data between traditional PM tools and Agresso’s PPM tools,



the vendor will also be able to build future integration to other PM tools, including Primavera. The firstiteration of this next-level integration will be available as of the Agresso Business World 5.4SP3 release.

Pricing

Table 2: Agresso Business World PPM Software: Price List

Product Set Component Approximate Price

for 500 Users

Approximate Price

for 750 Users

Approximate Price

for 1,000 Users

Web Service Core

— $36,360 $48,240 $58,630

Web Financials/Logistics

Web Requisitions $130,610 $193,580 $256,550

Purchase Cards $11,870 $17,600 $23,320

Web Invoice

Manager

$138,240 $180,080 $206,370

Web Project

Web Time Sheet $30,910 $42,850 $54,510

Web Expenses

Entry

$11,000 $15,250 $19,400

Web Time Sheet

and Expenses

Approval

$11,000 $15,250 $19,400

Web Project Manager Tools

Project Manager

Toolsbox

$23,040 $25,570 $28,100

Project Planning

Estimates

$23,040 $25,570 $28,100

Project

Time/Project $61,800 $85,700 $109,020

Time Recording $30,910 $42,850 $54,510

Project Invoicing $18,540 $25,710 $32,700

Project Estimate

and Tracking

$24,730 $34,280 $43,610

Update of Time

Transactions

$15,450 $21,420 $27,250

Committed

Accounting

(Project)

For 128 users,

$97,600

For 256 users,

$135,310

For 512 users,

$172,130

GSA Pricing

No.

Competitors

Due to its mid-market ERP focus, Unit 4 Agresso primarily competes with other midsize- and large-enterprise ERP vendors targeting the PPM market as well as a few PPM vendors not specifically offering



ERP solutions as the basis of their PPM process support. Unit 4 Agresso’s competitors include Oracle,J.D. Edwards, SAP, Maconomy, Lawson, Deltek, PeopleSoft, Changepoint and Microsoft BusinessSolutions.

Oracle

Oracle is an enterprise application suite vendor offering Oracle Projects, which includes applicationmodules for project costing, project billing and contract management. Oracle added resourcemanagement functionality to its Projects offering to more vigorously compete against other vendorsoutside of the traditional ERP product roots. Like most ERP offerings in a large horizontal product linesharing a common computing platform and architecture, Oracle Projects is integrated with the othermodular offerings comprising Oracle’s eBusiness Suite of applications. ERP vendors like Oracle canserve up a number of different views of transactional data for status, reporting, analysis and decisionmaking via portal access and use of a Web browser. Unit 4 Agresso competes with Oracle significantlybecause both vendors provide ERP applications, including HR, financials and project accounting, amongothers.

J.D. Edwards

An enterprise application suite vendor, J.D. Edwards targets midsize and large-size professional servicescompanies and large corporate IT departments within Global 2000 companies. Beyond its own ProjectManagement and Time & Expense solutions, J.D. Edwards delivers professional services administration(PSA) functionality through a partnership with Augeo. Again, Unit 4 Agresso’s ERP focus is what drivesthe competitive relationship with J.D. Edwards. Both vendors offer HR, finance, PM and other ERPapplications. J.D. Edwards is best known for its manufacturing focus.

SAP

SAP, an ERP vendor targeting midsize and large enterprises, now includes PPM functionality in itshorizontal product lineup. The vendor has two approaches to PPM. SAP’s strategy, like other ERPvendors, is to bundle existing functionality supporting newly defined business processes and slowly buildout functions that make sense for its customers. The vendor offers two main PPM products — mySAP forProfessional Services and xRPM. The former targets professional services organization (PSOs)specifically and supports general project creation and tracking, as well as billing and invoicing support thatfeeds into SAP’s accounts payable and receivable modules for back-office financial management. ThexApp Resource and Program Management product is a cross application consolidating project informationfrom Microsoft Project, mySAP Project, mySAP HR and mySAP Financial applications.

Maconomy

Based in Denmark, Maconomy provides Web-based software products for project-oriented organizationsand vertical solutions for market communications, tax and audit, life sciences and PSOs, including IT,engineering and management. Maconomy offers financials applications and reporting, as well as modulesfor opportunity, project, engagement, scope, practice and performance management. These modulescollectively provide time-and-expense capture and reporting, project budgeting and planning, resourcescheduling, quotation generation, purchasing, change order management, billing and project accountingfunctions.

Lawson Software

Lawson is an enterprise application software vendor traditionally targeting the mid-market. Havingacquired PSA vendor Account4, formerly owned by Work Management Solutions, Lawson is focusingsquarely on service industries. Much like Unit 4 Agresso, Lawson has an ERP background and can



differentiate itself from best-of-breed PPM vendors by pointing to its single-source, inherently integratedback-office products, although its PPM products were acquired and assimilated into the Lawson fold. In itsServices Automation (SA) 5.1 release, Lawson introduced an online analytical processing (OLAP)-basedPortfolio Management tool, a rewritten time and expenses module and expanded demand managementfunctionality for IT and internal service departments.

Deltek Systems

Deltek is a provider of enterprise software solutions and consulting. The primary target for their solutionsis mid-market clients ranging in size from 50 to 750 employees within accounting; aerospace anddefense; architecture, engineering and construction; management consulting; and IT services andsystems integration. Deltek’s solutions include support for customer resource management and proposalautomation, employee time and expense, project and resource planning, budgeting and control,accounting and billing, procurement and materials management, HR and business intelligence.

PeopleSoft

PeopleSoft introduced its Enterprise Service Automation (ESA) product in 2001, but plans and a PSAroad map were in the works as early as the late 1990s. The ESA solution includes modules for resourcemanagement, contracts, planning, billing, time and expense and portfolio management, and analytics. AProjects module integrates with Microsoft Project and Primavera for project management. Primaverareciprocated, providing integration with PeopleSoft Projects as early as 1998. PeopleSoft Projectsprovides access to employee data in PeopleSoft’s HR module, and it offers integrated technology for e-procurement of contracted services. Its focus on HR and financials, inclusion of a projects module and theuse of the PeopleSoft Select program as a pricing model and rapid implementation service for midsizeenterprises puts this vendor in competition with Agresso.

Changepoint

Changepoint is a Toronto-based vendor targeting midsize and large professional services companies aswell as large corporate IT departments within Global 2000 companies. Its software is available in bothlicensing and application service provider models. Changepoint provides a solution designed to improvethe performance of both externally and internally focused service organizations across their business lifecycle, but with a specific focus on billing and invoicing of services. Changepoint automates core businessprocesses, such as pipeline management, time and cost management, resource management,procurement management and financial integration, but also includes performance managementcapabilities addressing organizational, team and individual employee efficiency. Although IndividualPerformance Management has yet to show signs of widespread adoption, Changepoint continues to addfeatures targeting the needs of its customers. Changepoint prides itself on building its own products andrarely spends time acquiring and assimilating formerly competitive products. The vendor now includes anintegrated portfolio management and analysis piece to its product, which draws from data collected byChangepoint’s transactional features and functions.

Microsoft

Having reinvented itself as an enterprise software vendor, both through product development andacquisitions of companies like Great Plains and Navision, Microsoft continues to enjoy dominance on thedesktop in PPM environments via MSP. Microsoft first tested the waters of improving projectcommunication and plan sharing with the inclusion of Microsoft Project Central in the 1998 packagedrelease of MSP. Project Central was later leveraged and melded with other technologies, yielding MSProject Server, a server-based PM product designed to improve project communication and time reportcollection and introduce centralized PM with role-based and Web access to project information and status



on a Microsoft computing platform. Also with MS Project 2002, Microsoft announced its first attempt toprovide skills-based resource management as well as enhanced portfolio management capabilities. Thevendor introduced never-before-seen iterations of MSP, called Standard and Professional. Since the 2002release, however, Standard and Professional editions both accessed Server 2002 functions, and MSPcustomers were confused about which version to have in their specific situations. In the 2003 release,Microsoft stripped server-based functions from Standard and included them in Professional to moreclearly define the iterations. 2003 also includes some efficient integration with MS Office applications likeExcel, Word and PowerPoint.

Strengths

European Presence

Unit 4 Agresso is primarily based in Europe. Many vendors in the PPM space do not provide a strongEuropean presence matching Unit 4 Agresso and are building out European operations from a NorthAmerican origin. Potential European customers may see benefit in investing in a local vendor providingPPM and ERP software, suitable multinational functions and multicurrency support, and localimplementation and technical support services.

Existing Installed Base

As a PPM vendor providing back-office functionality, Unit 4 Agresso wields a stable installed base of ERPcustomers, providing opportunities for the vendor to sell into its customer base. It can make a case for asingle-source PPM strategy in which the benefit is the addition of modules, as opposed to adding anentire architecture and infrastructure. Having an installed base and an ERP product line, Unit 4 Agressoalso does not have to rely solely on PPM revenue alone to continue to function as a business. Othervendors in the PPM space continue to operate on venture capital and incremental revenue growth. Thesevendors, relying solely on PPM customers for profitability, face a threat of stronger vendors with productsin adjacent or complementary markets eroding their installed bases.

ERP Integration

In providing a PPM solution inherently integrated with its ERP modules, Unit 4 Agresso can provideseamless integration of data and transactions occurring in its PCB product and other project-relatedmodules. It can feed PCB and project data to its finance applications for payroll processing, billing andinvoicing, accounts payable and accounts receivable and eventually keep a permanent financial record ofproject-related expense and revenue transactions in a general ledger system. This integration is inherentand does not require application programming interfaces or custom-built interfaces for integration to theback office. Agresso PCB can also feed resource gap information to its HR system for use in strategicrecruiting, hiring and training purposes.

Experience in Implementations

Unit 4 Agresso sold its first product in 1989 and is an example of a PPM vendor that can providecustomer references at different stages and levels of implementation and use, including customers thathave been using their PCB and project applications for a number of years. In evaluating software vendors,it is important to examine the vendor’s ability to provide customer references at different stages ofimplementation, and the vendor can provide a number of customers in a number of stages.

Project Portfolio Management Support

In supporting the data collection of time and resource use, Unit 4 Agresso supports the consolidation,reporting and analysis of this collected data into resource, project and portfolio views. Such views are



beneficial because they can help users identify trends and areas needing efficiency improvements. Inimplementing changes in a people-centric project- or service-oriented organization, the tools can then beused to track changes set in motion in the organization and then report and analyze the success ofchanges, including process improvements.

Limitations

Traditional Project Planning and Estimation Tools

Agresso Business World’s PPM offering does not include an integrated project management toolset andscheduler; therefore, it cannot provide functions such as resource leveling, estimation of project durationor Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) charting. The PCB module is not specificallydesigned to support traditional project planning and estimation practices. The vendor does supportMicrosoft Project via bi-directional interface, but other PPM vendors are embedding MS Project Server intheir offerings, providing a deeper level of integration beyond an interface.

Lacks Some Portfolio Management and Analysis Functions

Unit 4 Agresso offers data collection, reporting and analytics associated with project portfoliomanagement, including cost, revenue, capacity, use and milestones data, with the ability to look at thisinformation by filtering the data across regions, segments, customer groups or business units. This isdefined as bottom-up portfolio management, in which data collection aids in the tracking of key projectsand initiatives. The vendor, however, does not provide best-of-breed portfolio management tools designedto help business development managers define and track initiatives and business investments and fromthese definitions articulate the IS/IT and other projects required to deliver on the initiatives. These types ofportfolio analysis tools are considered top-down portfolio management tools.

Individual Performance Tools

Unit 4 Agresso does not provide facilities supporting individual performance data gathering, metrics andmonitoring as a means to assist in individual self-monitoring as a way to promote increased performanceagainst individual goals and quotas and to help evaluate employees during performance appraisals.

Lacks a Graphical Workflow Process Modeler

Unit 4 Agresso does not currently offer a graphics-based workflow modeler.

Recommended Gartner Research

Project Management (PM) Applications: Perspective, DPRO-116024

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Applications: Perspective, DPRO-115841

Insight

Potential PPM customers should include Agresso PCB as a potential option for adding PPM technologysupport to their organization, while taking note, however, that Unit 4 Agresso is not a provider oftraditional PM functionality or top-down portfolio analysis tools. To realize the full benefits of using Unit 4Agresso for PPM, customers should consider the use of Agresso HR and Financials with the PCBmodule. Replacing such systems may also be more advantageous for midsize enterprises currently inneed of an HR or financials applications upgrade.

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