Large Multinational Computer Corporation

Pcubed created a project management program that helped develop tool solutions for the "Tools for Your Job" (TFYJ) site, on the Office Online portal.

The Client

Bill Gates said it is the Client's "birthright" to be the productivity partner of its customers. The multinational computer corporation will share with the world effective business practices, organized by profession and business process. The Personal Solutions team within Information Worker New Markets develops Office 2003 tools for individuals and teams so that they may become more productive in their jobs when using the Office System. These tools are accessories that add new functionality within the Office System.

The Challenge

The Client has developed the TFYJ site, available via the Office Online portal. Within the TFYJ site are a repository of business occupations and respective practices that the Client has provided without cost. However, there has been an evident lack of Office add-in tools for the site user to employ. The Client's IWNM team has been challenged with a number of issues that have prevented developing "tools" for the TFYJ site including : resourcing, budgeting and visioning. In an effort to jump-start tool vision strategy and development, the IWNM Planning team explored developing "tool" prototypes that the organization could review and hopefully sponsor through the more formal, internal tool development process with the ultimate outcome being published on the TFYJ site.

Other key challenges included:

• To drive high-value usage and upgrades to the latest release of the product
• To allow individuals and teams to become more productive in their jobs when using the Office System
• To introduce additional content assets that expand existing functionality within Office

The Pcubed Solution

To address the need for Office 2003 add-in tools, the Planning team for the Client's IWNM embarked on a solution path that provided for development for prototype tool solutions that could be reviewed by the appropriate asset resources to help drive, and accelerate decision making for release of production tools to the TFYJ site. The Client's IWNM partnered with Pcubed to develop these prototype tools. WNM has used Pcubed as a key go-to partner for thought leadership and subject matter expertise not only with Project Management but with many other Occupation families including Sales, Marketing and Finance that has resulted in the delivery of hundreds of assets for the Office Online TFYJ site. Pcubed provided end-to-end tool solutions including visioning the tools, establishing tool requirements, creating a program planning environment, working with key organizational resources for adoption and developing the prototype tools. The prototype tool solutions developed, and accepted by IWNM, are provided below with a brief description including:

• Redaction for Word 2003 - This tool provides a powerful, user-friendly method to revise text in an encrypted manner in order to distribute sensitive and confidential content
• Worksheet Consolidator for Excel 2003 - Is used to help summarize information contained in many separate worksheets
• Category Reports for Outlook 2003 - This prototype tool provides a direct method for combining categorized entries and creating a report to view details, summarize and chart by time and %
• Office Shortcuts - this provides a powerful, user-friendly method for users to save favorite (frequently used) files from within the Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003 application the user is working
• Label & Category views for Outlook 2003 - this tool provides a simple means of exposing label and category functionality with the ability to create a filtered view of calendar entries tagged with notes
• Sales Cycle Process for Excel 2003 - This tool establishes a clear, process- driven set of simple tools that can be used to manage sales accounts and opportunities
• Milestone Summary Report - Provides an effective, integrated means for reporting project managers to update presentations with real-time project data thereby eliminating redundant data entry and potential clerical errors
• Milestone Summary Report - Provides an effective, integrated means for reporting project managers to update presentations with real-time project data thereby eliminating redundant data entry and potential clerical errors
• Office SharePoint Explorer - This prototype tool provides a direct link to the SharePoint sites and libraries that users need to frequent most without having to leave the Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003 application

Key elements of the solution included:

• Pcubed's ability to accelerate the development of Office tools for the TFYJ
• A productive collaboration that showed the IWNM organization an innovative approach for solving tool development
• A unanimous approval of the process and prototypes by the IWNM Assets Acquisition team