Microsoft Project Server 2010 Customer Solution Case Study

IT Department of Global Cosmetics Company

Cuts Time in Meetings by up to 30 Percent

Overview “First and foremost, with the Visual Studio Team Country or Region: United States Industry: Manufacturing—Consumer Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server Integration goods manufacturing Feature Pack we have reduced the number of project

Customer Profile planning and status meetings.” Founded in 1932, Revlon is a global Piotr Prussak, Vice President of Global Applications, Revlon cosmetics, skin care, fragrance, and personal care company based in New York City. It has 4,900 employees, and its net sales in 2010 were U.S.$1.3 billion. Revlon, a global cosmetics and personal care company, wanted to improve the way that IT developers and project managers Business Situation The Revlon IT department wanted a way plan and execute work. The company deployed the Microsoft to reduce the number of meetings, make Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server it easier to share project plans, and enhance collaboration between Integration Feature Pack to simplify data exchange between developers and project managers. software solutions and provide developers and project managers

Solution with the ability to share data to make project decisions. Now Revlon IT simplified data exchange by developers can create detailed tasks and record time against implementing the Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 and them in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN. Project Server Integration Feature Pack. Project managers can see all of this data in Microsoft Project

Benefits Server 2010. These employees have cut time spent in meetings  Up to 30 percent less time spent in by up to 30 percent and improved productivity by up to 5 meetings percent. Revlon also improved risk management, expects to gain  Productivity gains of 2–5 percent  Improved risk management financial benefits from capitalizing project work, and can  Improved time-recording procedures increase the responsibility of technical team leads.  Increased responsibility

Situation jobs, communication between the groups Revlon is a global cosmetics, skin care, often required a large number of meetings. fragrance, and personal care company. Its “We had too many meetings just to products—with brands including Revlon, coordinate detailed activities that required Almay, Charlie, Mitchum, and Gatineau— participation from the whole team,” says are sold in more than 100 countries. Prussak. “We would have large teams, Headquartered in New York City, Revlon distributed over multiple locations, all has 4,900 employees. Its net 2010 sales sitting down with project managers to were U.S.$1.3 billion. develop detailed work plans. Effectively, a majority of the team were idle during a In support of the global enterprise, the meeting, while only a few people were fully Revlon IT department runs projects able to participate.” including implementation and integration of enterprise resource planning software; The meetings were the best available custom application development, primarily method of communication for spelling out on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010; and detailed tasks and identifying issues such as development of customer-facing websites. potential project risks. But they were often Some projects are two weeks long and an ineffective way to develop and share others run several years. With the big insights. “As creative types, our technology projects broken into smaller deliverables, leads often had a passive-aggressive the IT department runs 200–300 relationship with project managers,” development projects per year. Prussak says. “For example, in a project meeting, they weren’t able to supply Revlon IT has 22 people on its development enough details for tasks in a project plan, and architecture staff. They do most of their because this wasn’t a conducive setting for work in the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 them to be thinking through those issues. Ultimate with MSDN development system. But then during execution they would The developers are quite happy with this come back to the project manager with software and with Microsoft Visual Studio complaints that the plan was not detailed Team Foundation Server 2010, the enough.” collaboration platform at its core. Part of the problem was that the two types Revlon IT has a project management office of employees were working in different with nine full-time project managers. “Our software solutions. Developers could use project management staff handles different Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 types and styles of projects, involving to create and manage tasks at a detailed infrastructure team, support staff, and level, but project managers, using Office external vendors,” says Piotr Prussak, Vice Project Server 2007, could not see those President of Global Applications at Revlon. tasks to incorporate them into the larger These staffers have long used project project plan. And without that broader management software from Microsoft. Until planning perspective, coordination was recently, many were using Microsoft Office difficult. For example, it was hard to Project Professional 2007 with Microsoft understand which tasks were dependent on Office Project Server 2007. other tasks. The lack of transparency could make it difficult to schedule developers’ Although the Revlon IT developers and activities, which both frustrated them and project managers were talented at their hampered their productivity.

Another frustration for developers was Enterprise data management system and recording their time, which was done in analyzes that data using Microsoft SQL Microsoft Project Web App. “Entering Server PowerPivot for Microsoft SharePoint timesheets in Project Web App was one of and PerformancePoint Services in Microsoft developers’ least-loved activities,” says SharePoint Server 2010. Prussak. Because they did all their day-to- day work in Visual Studio Team Foundation In the pilot—and, in the future, on all Server 2010, they resented having to exit projects—as development teams come up that software in order to record their time. with detailed plans and task assignments to accomplish their goals, the team leads will The Revlon IT department wanted a way to enter this information in Visual Studio optimize its project planning, reducing the Team Foundation Server 2010 (as they have number of meetings and bridging the gap always done). They will not be asked to between developers and project managers spell it out in a meeting. With the feature by improving the transparency of project pack, the details will be automatically data. visible to project managers in Project Server 2010. The project managers can Solution then see dependencies, potential risks, and In October 2010, Revlon learned about a other issues, and modify project plans prerelease version of a new Microsoft accordingly. Any such modifications will feature pack to simplify data exchange automatically display in Visual Studio Team between Visual Studio Team Foundation Foundation Server 2010—and again Server 2010 and Project Server. The information will have been conveyed Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation without the need for large group meetings. Server 2010 and Project Server Integration Feature Pack synchronizes planning and Developers will record their time against status information between the two those detailed tasks in Visual Studio Team systems, providing transparency that aids Foundation Server 2010. With the feature collaboration between project managers pack, project managers will be able to see and developers. and analyze that information using Project Server 2010. Project managers can adjust In December, Revlon installed a test of the assignments or schedules in Project Server feature pack and provided feedback to 2010, and developers will see those Microsoft. At the same time, it decided to adjustments in Visual Studio Team upgrade to Microsoft Project Server 2010 Foundation Server 2010. and Microsoft Project Professional 2010. At full rollout, Revlon expects to have Revlon successfully completed the upgrade successfully integrated data from 15 users in June 2011. It then installed the feature of Project Professional 2010 and 50 users of pack in its production environment. Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010. In the future, Revlon will further Revlon runs all of the software on enhance its project management by adding virtualized Dell PowerEdge R900 server Nintex Workflow for Project Server and by computers with the Windows Server 2008 starting to use the project portfolio R2 Enterprise operating system. In addition planning features of Project Server 2010. to the two major solutions connected by the feature pack, Revlon stores data using the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

“With“The feature the feature pack pack,allows Benefits Improved Risk Management Through Revlon is using the Visual Studio Team Better Data thepeople team to leads raise canflags take Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server Because the Visual Studio Team Foundation Integration Feature Pack to cut down on Server 2010 and Project Server Integration more quicklyresponsibility and in fora meetings, increase productivity, aid in Feature Pack can capture more detailed exactlymore comfortable what they are transparency to improve risk management, task-level data, the Revlon IT department enhance time recording, and distribute gains more transparency, which improves doingsetting—which and be more means responsibility. risk management. “With the feature pack, everybody can look into the project and accountablewe make fewer to the other Up to 30 Percent Less Time Spent in find any planning issues,” Prussak says. “We membersmistakes.” of their team.” Meetings used to spend a lot of time in meetings With the Visual Studio Team Foundation working through potential issues and Piotr Prussak, Vice President of Global Server 2010 and Project Server Integration asking people to raise flags. But now the Applications, Revlon Feature Pack, developers and project feature pack allows people to raise flags managers are better able to communicate more quickly and in a more comfortable and collaborate outside of meetings. setting—which means we make fewer mistakes.” “First and foremost, with the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project For example, the feature pack provides Server Integration Feature Pack we have project managers with data from Visual reduced the number of project planning Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 that and status meetings,” Prussak says. He was not previously available. “Project estimates that staff will reduce time spent managers can see data such as project in meetings by 10–30 percent. velocity, the number of bugs, and requirements management artifacts,” says Productivity Gains of 2–5 Percent Prussak. “So we can see when projects are Despite spending less time in meetings, going wrong and can manage the issues as Revlon IT employees have better, quicker needed. In fact, with the feature pack, we access to more information. This increases can pick up this information from their efficiency. “With the feature pack we anywhere, rather than having to always be have increased productivity by probably 2– in the office and talking to people in order 5 percent, because of the combination of to stay on top of every project.” spending less time in meetings and having higher quality information in the system,” Improved Time-Recording Procedures Prussak says. Developers can mark their hours against the detailed tasks in Visual Studio Team For example, project managers can see at a Foundation Server 2010. The feature pack detailed level which tasks have been automatically transfers the data to Project completed and adjust schedules and Server 2010. Revlon is the application to assignments accordingly. Prussak says, free developers from having to track day- “Because we have more detail on these to-day activities in the Project Web App. coordination activities, we can literally tell This improves the developers’ morale and people, ‘Experiment with something new,’ saves time and money. or ‘Spend this weekend with your family,’ rather than ask them to wait around until Increased Responsibility some prerequisite tasks are completed.” Because the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server Integration

For More Information Feature Pack helps developers plan their Microsoft Project Server 2010 For more information about Microsoft projects outside of meetings, the team Microsoft Project Server 2010 brings products and services, call the Microsoft leads are no longer locked in their passive- together the business collaboration Sales Information Center at (800) 426- aggressive relationship with project platform services of Microsoft SharePoint 9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft managers. Revlon IT can give the team Server 2010 with structured execution Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- leads more responsibility for delivery of the capabilities to provide flexible work 2495. Customers in the United States and project. Project managers are freed to look management solutions. Project Server 2010 Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing at bigger, more forward-looking decisions. unifies project and portfolio management can reach Microsoft text telephone to help organizations align resources and (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. “Team leads can no longer complain that investments with business priorities, gain Outside the 50 United States and project plans aren’t detailed enough— control across all types of work, and Canada, please contact your local because with the feature pack, they can visualize performance through powerful Microsoft subsidiary. To access control the level of detail,” Prussak says. “So dashboards. information using the World Wide Web, with the feature pack, the team leads can go to: take more responsibility for exactly what For more information about Microsoft www.microsoft.com they are doing and be more accountable to Project Server 2010, go to: the other members of their team.” www.microsoft.com/project/2010 For more information about Revlon products and services, call (800) 473- 8566 or visit the website at: www.revlon.com

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 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio − Microsoft Project Web App Technology Associates is an experienced − Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise − Microsoft SQL Server PowerPivot for Microsoft Partner and holds no less than − Microsoft Project Server 2010 Microsoft SharePoint three Microsoft Gold competencies in − Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 − PerformancePoint Services in Project & Portfolio Management, − Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Application Development and Enterprise Application Integration. The company  Microsoft Project Professional 2010 Hardware specializes in PPM & EPM and have  Microsoft Visual Studio  Virtualized Dell PowerEdge R900 server deployed more than 580 − Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 computers implementations. Ultimate with MSDN

− Microsoft Visual Studio Team

Foundation Server 2010

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Document published June 2011