Project Information Managemnt System

Project Management Information System (PIMS) Module, developed by FMO (1) in 2000 as direct result of Strategic FM review of 1999, integrates with the University’s financial system, PeopleSoft.
An investigation of ‘off-the-shelf products’, (including the PeopleSsoft option) that deal with Integrated Program Information & Financial issues related to Project Management, back in 1999, yielded the following results:

The PeopleSoft solution would have been too expensive to implement and it would have not covered all of FMO’s requirements.
No other off-the-shelf product would have covered all of FMO’s requirements as well.

For those reasons and with Strategic FM’s advice, FMO went out for an open tender and the successful tenderer advised that as FMO was already using ARCHIBUS, they could deliver the project through a custom built module and PIMS. The project started in January 2000 and version 1.0 of PIMS went live 01/01/2001.
PIMS allows project managers (PM) to manage projects and project funding details for past years (since 2001), current + 5 future years). It also allows PM to manage sub projects within a project and their financial plans, cash flows for unlimited future years and order details in terms of contract and order variations, figure 1. It also integrates with Microsoft Project in order to manage phases and milestones. PIMS is another critical module, since it plays a major role in the proposed ‘notification system’ of the FMIS.

Figure 1: diagram showing direct PIMS to PeopleSoft financial structural mapping.

In late 2005 CPS (2) decided to outsource project management functions to four external project management firms. Faced with the prospect of receiving four different types of reporting methodologies in addition to potential loss of corporate knowledge, CPS management decided to implement the online version of PIMS, ePIMS, in order to give external project management teams 24x7 access to manage their projects using the University systems rather then their own proprietary systems.
This gave the external PMs access to manage their; budgets, cash flows, orders/ commitments, contract variation management, risk management as well as MS Project program uploads thereby unifying business functions & reporting across the board. This way the University reduced the risk of corporate knowledge/memory loss & ensured business continuity by not relying on external providers systems.

PIMS / ePIMS provide an effective means of capturing data required for the administration of projects and programs of works undertaken by CIS as well as include the following functionality:

Acts as a sub ledger to the General Ledger in PS and interface with it with a one-to-one structure mapping.
Allow PMs to create Financial Plans (FP) or Budgets and be able to update them and get them approved by CIS management when ever required and review cost actual which is updated from PS on a
daily basis.
Allow PMs to carry out detailed Cash Flows on their projects for unlimited future months.
Allow PMs to create Order Requests (OR) and after approval within CIS, PIMS interfaces with PS to create a Purchase Order (PO).
Allow PMs to create contract variations, when and if the need arises, within an OR and then group multiple contract variations as one or more order variations and vary the PO in PS.
Allow the PMs to create detailed project programs in Microsoft Project, and import a summary into PIMS / ePIMS giving them the ability to report on timeline vs detailed budget & expenditure.
Allow the PMs to record project contacts, like consultants and PUG members, as well as any activity details, telephone calls/conversations, dealings with council & consultants etc… as notes or items for follow up in relation to their projects. This means all information relating to a specific project can be found in one place.
Allow the PMs to manage proposed funding commitments over 6 years, current year + five future years as well as cost actual from previous years.
Rolls up budgets/commitments & cost actual from the lowest level of FP, which is the activity, all the way to the Project and the Responsibility Centre.
Allows CIS management to better prepare the Capital Development Plan producing a range of powerful reports.
In the near future, would integrate with the Space Module in ARCHIBUS in order to send notifications to Faculty/Department managers, Asset managers, art Curators etc… when a particular project is being scheduled for their area of interest within existing buildings.

(1) FMO: Facilities Management Office from 1998 until 2005, currently as Campus Infrastructure Services (CIS)
(2) CPS: Campus Property & Services, from late 2005 until mid 2007, currently as Campus Infrastructure Services (CIS)

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