Handling Multi-Office Challenges, Part 2

The Rovisys Company — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:57:03 GMT

In the previous part of this series, we discussed how GrandView has helped RoviSys handle multi-office environments by maintaining a lifeline of communication and business culture for our employees. In this part of the series, we'll discuss how we use GrandView collaboration and project management tools to handle the challenges of managing project teams from multiple offices.

Managing projects from a single office can be challenging enough but it is even harder with teams from multiple offices. Just adding a resource from another office to your project isn't necessarily the same as adding someone from your office. Without constant communication, team members feel isolated and sometimes fail to take ownership of their piece of the project. For a project manager who relies heavily on their team to execute the project plan, this can cause major problems. It ends up being more work for a project manager to manage a team split across multiple offices.

To help communicate project status and transmit drawings and documents, RoviSys uses the collaboration tools in GrandView. The Configuration Management features help keep the project documentation organized when working on project teams spread out over multiple offices. Project Managers also take advantage of Schedule and File Management features to distribute information to in-house, remote, or customer teams alike. Project Costs are updated in near real-time by employees on the project team using TimeSheet, Expense Tracking and Purchasing modules. The Order Entry and Invoicing features of GrandView give our project managers a complete financial view of the project in order to make good decisions to ensure the success of projects.

However, be aware that just putting a tool in place will not necessarily solve all your remote project team problems. Although GrandView may work well to aid communication, transferring of information, and managing projects across remote teams, we've also learned that it cannot replace good old-fashioned face-to-face communication. This is especially important at the beginning of the project so that the remote resources can feel like part of the team and take the necessary ownership in their part of the project.

During project execution, sometimes issues must be discussed in person in order to convey the importance and go over the necessary details that cannot be done over the phone, in email, or in a collaborative tool. It is also important at the end of the project to get the project team together to discuss the lessons learned for feedback into the process. Managing project teams across multiple offices requires a good mix of tools and a whole lot of communication to make it happen successfully.

In the next part in this series, we'll discuss how we use GrandView features to handle the international multi-office challenges.

Chris Engelmann
GrandView Business Solutions Manager

Handling Multi-Office Challenges, Part 1

The Rovisys Company — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:12:00 GMT

GrandView has played a significant role in handling the multi-office challenges for RoviSys especially when it comes to promoting employee communication and maintaining business culture. Features are continuously added that will allow RoviSys to adapt to whatever challenges that may lie ahead in a multi-office environment.

SQL Server Replication to the Rescue!

The Rovisys Company — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:48:15 GMT

Keeping data consistent across multiple offices is absolutely vital to any business, but it is made much more difficult when your offices are on opposite sides of the world...

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The Rovisys Company — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:44:38 GMT

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The GrandView Blog Is BACK!

The Rovisys Company — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:50:17 GMT

After a summer hiatus, the GrandView Blog is returning at full strength this fall.