Resource Management

Resource default rate and work time per day

As part of the resource management, ProjectCoordinator allows multiple currency types and a resource can be assigned to a default rate and default working time per day. This helps in calculating the resource utilization accurately, the resource rate is applicable through all the workplaces. As a next level, each workplace can have its own currency; in this case all the users associated to that particular workplace will have the same currency and rate. When you have multiple locations or departments spread across different region this helps in having different currencies/rates based on each of the region. As a third level each resource under a particular workplace can have their own currency and rate. This is useful for example if a particular resource is working on an offshore project where the currency and rate is different than local one.

Resource role and skill management

In order to give more clarity on the role of a resource and the skill set, resource manager can capture various information against each of the resources. Different types of roles as well as the proficiency level can be created and associated with each resource. Similar to roles, different skills and skill levels can be created and associated with each of this resource. Apart from the standard fields, user defined fields can be added so that more information can be captured against each resource.

Resource planner

Resource planner area allows resource managers to plan their resources effectively and see the utilisation of resources again different activities. A resource can be assigned to an activity that is planned in the activity planner, the start date and the end date will be automatically presented from the activity planner and the dates can be modified within that specified time period. The planned working hours can be entered and based on the time period, the hours will be equally distributed for that particular resource.

If the resource is working in another workplace on another activity at the same time, it will also be considered while allocating the time. If the total time exceeds the normal working time of the resource the over allocated time will be displayed in the resource utilization chart making easier for the resource manager to allocate the resource optimally. The resource utilization chart can be displayed on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.

Resource notification

Once the resources are allocated to different activities in the resource planner, resource manager can send notification to individual resources informing about the activity and the allocated time. Notifications are in two categories, one that allows the manager to just inform the resource the other one could ask the resource to respond to the notification. Resources could go through the activity details they have allocated and based on their current schedule they could accept, reject or respond to the manager with other details.

Custom defined resources

One of the advantages of ProjectCoordinator resource management is the ability to have custom defined resources. This would extremely be useful if non-human resources like machineries or other equipment needs to be associated with a particular activity. The custom defined resources contains information like daily availability time, hourly cost, fixed cost, currency and other user defined fields. These recourses can be allocated to activities in the resource planner and the resource manager could see the utilization report based the available time of that resource.

Resource management reports

Resource management in ProjectCoordinator comes with a wide variety of reports enabling managers to have optimal resource utilization and clear view on the resource allocation. The reports can be produced on portal level, organizational unit level, workplace and resource group level for a particular time period. Some of the reports include resource utilization, assigned activities per resource, assigned activities per unit and resource, resource allocation per user/unit etc. Another useful report is the one gives comparison between estimated, allocated, available and the reported time of resources. The reports can be exported to Excel and PDF and can be printed out directly.