FluentPro Workspaces - New life for project sites in Microsoft Project Server 2010

Project Sites.

• Tired of grey, static and not-visually appealing project sites?
•  Don't like that information is in many places and I have to switch to see it?

We are tired of them too. So - we've developed a product for our customers that in its nature is a modified project site template that will change your experience with Project Sites in MS Project Server 2010.

• Microsoft Metro-style design with home pages based on tiles that every user can customize
• Easy access via links to native Project Web App pages - My Tasks, Timesheets, Project Schedule PDP
• Visualized and improved risks, issues, change request and action items lists
• Easy customization and re-use - add your own lists, pages, sub-sites (Wiki, Blog and other) and standard / customer webparts without any restrictions, save as project site template and distribute inside of your organization for different project types - this is just a native Project Site Template.

Video preview:

Visit our booth #209 at Project Conference 2012 and take a closer look on this amazing product.

Product will be launched at Project Conference 2012 and will be available for purchase.

EPM partners: Have your own products and would like to incorporate this product into your solutions? Let's talk.

New products launch at Microsoft Project Conference 2012

FluentPro will launch several products and versions at Project Conference 2012:

FluentBooks v 2.0

Configuration management software for Project Server 2010

FluentPro Project Migrator

Project Data import export software for migrating projects and templates between PWA and to/from other EPM systems

FluentPro Workspaces

Metro-style Windows 8  Project Site template for Project Server 2010 with intuitive and embedded access to all PWA functionality from one location.




FluentPro Charts Lite and Charts Pro

Technology that allow any user build visual dashboards and charts on Project Sites based on data from PWA

Come visit our booth #209 to learn more about FluentPro's products and check demonstrations.

My session at MPC12: Project Server 2010 configuration management, migration, merge and documenting (PC325)

I will be presenting on Project Conference 2012 with a session about Configuration Management in Microsoft Project Server 2010.

I will cover several areas:

• Configuration management in Project Server 2010
• How FluentBooks helps with configuration management and deployment
• How you can migrate project data and configurations from other EPM systems into Project Server 2010 with help of FluentPro's products

By visiting my session, you will receive 40% discount for purchase of FluentBooks and Project Migrator package.

Link to my session: http://www.msprojectconference.com/pages/sessiondetailsShort.aspx?sessionguid=5957f9eb-b85a-4f9c-8035-cf8833b079e7

Looking for several companies / consultants to test FluentPro Project Migrator - bulk MPP migration software for Project Server 2010

We've completed development cycle and are very close to complete internal testing cycle for FluentPro Project Migrator software that allows to migrate projects (MPP files) from other EPM systems (Attask, Daptiv, EPM Live - any system that can save to MPP) and from any Project Server 2010 PWA instance (in case of PWA - we support project-level and task-level metadata migration as well) into Project Server 2010 PWA.

We are looking for 5 to 10 companies to be a first beta-testing users. In return for the participation in test and feedback, you will receive one license at no cost right after public release (March 2012 at Microsoft Project Conference 2012 ).

Product is implemented as add-in for Project Professional 2010.

Please send your contacts to beta (at) fluentpro.com with potential problem / task that you have and after review we will send you copy of software installation package and links to several video on how to use the software.

We plan to distribute version on March 1, 2012. There will be 2 versions - Lite with some limitations and Pro without any limitations. Product will be distributed independently and as part of FluentBooks Pro package.

Preview video is available here:

Distributing project templates in Project Server 2010

Recently, we've implemented solution for template distribution to multiple PWA instances.

One of our customer had a multiple PWA instances ( really not recommended solution) and as result  problem of updating project templates from one centralized location to multiple PWA. They do it every 2 weeks, and problem of updating 20+ PWA with 10 templates each.

FluentPro has a product  - FluentPro Project Migrator (releasing soon) that supports migration of projects (MPP files with all metadata) between PWAs; And it supports project templates migration as well.

All that we had to do it to add ability to support a configuration script that will instruct product how to iterate thought multiple PWAs.

It took us only about 1 day to implement this solution with help of existing product and customer was spending 8-10 hours every month for this operation for last 14 month.

Great optimization of process.

Project Server 2010 : Working with Master Projects and Sub-projects from PWA programmaticaly

Recently, we had one project that required ability to create master and insert multiple sub-projects from PWA.

Unfortunately, PSI in Project Server 2010 does not support this functionality at all (you can read more here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee767706.aspx )

So there are 2 options:

• Manual insertion: Let user insert it in Project Pro. It can be problematic if we are talking about inserting let's say 35 sub-project
• Automate it

Both scenarios require user to have Project Professional installed.

To eliminate any manual work and reduce the human factor, we've developed a solution that does this as listed below:

1. When user click on a button on ribbon in PWA, window to capture user input for projects is shown;
2. User input is captured and "normal" projects are created using PSI based on specific EPTs; Special metadata (set of project level custom fields with XML data) is updated to provide instructions for add-in to build a relationship.
3. Master project automatically opens in Project Professional from PWA; Project Professional has add-in installed that using metadata inserts projects as sub projects, does save and publish for all projects. 
4. Biggest problem for Project Pro add-ins  that try to automate operations is suppressing the different dialog windows from Project Pro so it is an automated process with minimum or no user interaction required.

Not ideal solution (dependency on Project Professional and cost of license) - but worked out for us to solve the problem.

If you have similar problem direct your developers to this post so they can follow the "flow" or contact us and we might be able to help you.

FluentPro Audit Lite if available for Free download

FluentPro Audit Lite is available for FREE download from our website.

Quick overview of functionality:

• Audit changes in Enterprise Custom Fields
• Audit changes in Enterprise Lookup Tables
• Project creation and deletion
• Audit changes in projects (Project level custom fields, tasks add / delete)
• Application tracks Who, What and When
• Application is implemented as set of event handlers

Enjoy!

Customers, please install Cumulative Updates and Service Packs!

Customers - PLEASE install cumulative updates and service packs. You can wait for 3-4 month to make sure that CU is stable but PLEASE install them from time to time.

Working on environment - customer installed PS in 2010 and it was never patched. 14.0.4763.1000

Announcement of FREE Audit software for Project Server 2010

I am happy to announce that this Friday FluentPro will release a free edition of FluentPro Audit Lite product for Microsoft Project Server 2010.

FluentPro Audit Lite logs / tracks changes of:

• changes to custom fields (add / delete)
• changes to lookup tables (add / delete)
• changes to projects (project level fields)
• creation and deletion of projects

All changes are logged to SharePoint List; you can then export to excel, create views and build any type of reports as well as protect the list with permissions if required.

Software is absolutely free; although if you need more detailed level of audit, FluentPro Audit Pro will be available for purchase during February 2012.

Check out FluentPro Software website - www.fluentpro.com starting next week (Feb 6th, 2012) and get FREE Project Server 2010 audit software.