“How long will it take us to get completely trained?” I was asked recently.

“That would depend completely on your definition of ‘completely’,” I replied.

The challenge with enterprise products like TimeControl is that they can be configured to be so many different things for so many different people.  The strength of TimeControl is its flexibility.  This allows TimeControl to be a multi-purpose timesheet serving the needs of many different perspectives within the organization.  It can be used for time and attendance, time and billing, project management tracking, earned value, government compliance for R&D tax credits or the DCAA.  And all this from the same interface at the same time.

Yet not every organization is created the same.  Not every organization requires the same types of functions or tracking.  Even when two clients have a similar product to like to like SAP or MS Project, those products are not configured identically either.  So each implementation of TimeControl is often unique. Oh there are common elements but there are many elements that are different and not everyone even uses the same functionality.

What we’ve discovered here at HMS when we apply this challenge to training is that training is best done in layers.  The first layer or phase occurs during the original implementation.  If our technical staff assist with the implementation, we train the administration staff as we make decisions together on how to configure the system.  This has a high degree of success but does it mean that these administrators are “completely” trained?

If your definition is, “The administrators should be able to operate TimeControl in accordance with the configuration and existing processes we have defined at the time of implementation.” then the answer is Yes. 

But, let the company advance for 6 months or a year even and we find that the level of maturity in the use of TimeControl in the organization is now such that the types of questions the client would ask have evolved.  Now there are questions on functionality that would have never been asked during the original implementation because the questions are now able to be understood or because the organization itself has evolved to have new timesheet requirements.

This isn’t unique to TimeControl.  We’ve seen similar phenomena when we look at project scheduling tools like Primavera, Open Plan or Microsoft Project Server.

Our view is that training should be an ongoing investment.  Do a little less on the first day than you’d expected.  Let that training soak in; be absorbed; be implemented in practice.  Then having a trainer come back or do another remote session for a few hours.  Use that to advance your own knowledge but also to advance the capabilities used of the software.  As new administrators come on board over time, they’ll naturally just take up training that is regularly scheduled. 

Doing training in phases or layers ultimately gives the best return on investment.

My next speaking engagement is at ProjectWorld Toronto on Monday, May 14th.  The subject is “getting more resource capacity without spending more money” and focuses on how timesheet practices can help find resource capacity you didn’t even know you had.  ProjectWorld runs on May 14th and 15th at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (South Building) and my talk will be at 3:45 on May 14th.

For more information, visit ProjectWorld’s website at www.projectworldcanada.com.

Hope to see you there!

I will be in Las Vegas next week to speak at the Oracle Application Users Group meeting; Collaborate12.  The talk is entitled “Using Best Timesheet Practices to increase your Resource Capacity”.  The talk is scheduled on April 24th at 10:45am to 11:45am in Conference Room: “Breakers J”

If you are attending Collaborate 12 and wish to meet Mr. Vandersluis, please let us know at info@hmssoftware.ca.  For more information on the conference, go to collaborate.oaug.org.

We have many clients who use TimeControl with their Oracle-Primavera system.  Perhaps it’s no surprise.  TimeControl has integrated with Primavera since 1997 with P3 and we’ve maintained that link all the way up to the most recent P6r8 release even once Primavera was purchased by Oracle.  Primavera clients who need a single timesheet to update not only the task progress in Primavera but also Payroll, Billing, Finance, Job Costing or HR have looked to TimeControl to provide multi-purpose timesheet functionality that will allow a single point of timesheet entry and multiple back-end uses.
Our relationship with Primavera goes back to 1997 and our relationship with Oracle separately also goes back to 1997 when TimeControl was first able to store its data in either SQL Server or Oracle (We now also support MySQL which is coincidentally also owned by Oracle).  So the relationship has many facets and runs deep.
We’ve done a little work to remake our TimeControl and Primavera Solution Portal with a range of new materials that we hope you’ll find useful.  Aside from a remake of the portal itself, we’ve got new factsheets, slide presentations, white papers and an all-new on-demand webcast that shoes TimeControl 6 and Primavera’s P6 interacting back and forth.
The integration options between TimeControl and Primavera are extensive.  Not only can you bring into TimeControl Primavera tasks, resources, steps and assignments, you also have abilities on how to match employees to generic skills and Primavera codes to TimeControl user defined fields.  Updating your Primavera project data with TimeControl timesheets is incredibly flexible.  You can update hours and costs, Primavera Step progress, ETC, Financial periods and more.
The new and improved TimeControl / Primavera Solution Portal covers some of the benefits of integrating these two world-class tools including:

• Automated Business Validation Rules
• Extensive Rate Management
• Management of Vacation, Sick Leave, Personal time banks
• Management of Banked Overtime
• Included integration with P6 and other project systems
• TimeControl Mobile interface for tablets and smartphones
• Missing timesheet management
• The Matrix Approval Process for Labor Actuals™

Access to the portal and its resources is free.  Find out more at www.timecontrol.com/solutions/primavera.

One of the reasons I’ve been remiss in not keeping up with blog posts here on the EPM Guidance site has been all the work we’ve been doing at the office on the release of our new TimeControl version.  Happily I can report that HMS has announced the release of TimeControl 6.1.  This version extends the TimeControl 6 family into its next evolution with a range of new features and an even more options in the configuration and architecture

In the architecture department, TimeControl now embraces MySQL along with the existing support for Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle and Sybase as possible databases.  In addition, support for mixed 32/64bit support has been improved.  There are also updates to improve our link to Microsoft Project Server 2010 and in particular for mixed environments where both Project Server 2007 and Project Server 2010 must be linked to simultaneously.

The table functionality has been rewritten in its entirety to follow the TimeControl 6 multi-browser interface architecture.  That’s right, you’re no longer required to use only Internet Explorer to manage your tables but can also use Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Mozilla.  Of course, if you like Internet Explorer, we haven’t forgotten you as IE9 is now part of our testing cycle.

There is a whole new feature called “Personal Pre-load” which we think end users are going to love and updated features for emails, releasing timesheets, tools like charge delete and timesheet audit logs and much, much more.

To see more details on what’s included in TimeControl 6.1 go to What’s the latest on the TimeControl website.  If you have a current TimeControl support contract or if you’ve purchased in the last year, then you can download the current version from the Updates area of the website.

Over at my firm, HMS, there’s a great case study on the use of TimeControl at EXFO.  EXFO has been a TimeControl client since 1999 and recently they were gracious enough to allow us to interview them and do a case study on their use of TimeControl.  EXFO wasn’t a publicly traded company when we first sold them TimeControl but they sure are now.  The company has expanded enormously since our first visit there years ago.  The case study is on our website and available in both French and English.  Our thanks to Andre Richard who took time out of his busy schedule to do the interviews for us and to review the final copy.  We invite you to read how EXFO has been able to enjoy some of TimeControl’s key benefits and see how the timesheet links to multiple systems for multiple purposes within the EXFO environment.

To see the EXFO case study in English, click here.

To see the EXFO case study in French, click here.

As part of our new R&D Solution Portal, we’ve created a brand new white paper that you may find of use.  The extensive paper covers an overview of how R&D tax claims work.  We cover something we call the “Triangle Audit” which describes how most government tax agencies go about doing an audit of Research and Development tax claims.  There is a section on how TimeControl timesheets work in an R&D setting and even instructions on how you can configure your own TimeControl to comply with auditing requirements.  There are screen shots of individual TimeControl tables and example reports.  The paper covers an overview of R&D claims in the regions we know best which includes: The US, Canada and within Canada, the province of Quebec where HMS Software’s headquarters are located.  HMS has extensive experience with doing our own R&D claims. 

For those who want to do more research, there are links to appropriate areas of websites at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the US, Revenue Canada (for the SRED program), Revenue Quebec, HMRC in the UK and in the EU. 

You can download the R&D white paper for free at HMS Software’s Research and Development Tax Credit Solution Center.

TimeControl Industrial

 My firm, HMS Software, has released a major new upgrade to the Industrial version of TimeControl.  This product is an organizational timesheet designed to serve both back office and field personnel simultaneously.  The TimeControl Industrial timesheet is ideally suited to heavy construction, offshore oil and gas or plant shutdown and turnaround situations.  As a timesheet, it can aid both owners and contractors in being more efficient and capturing both the financial billing and costing information and the project management information such environments require from a simple interface.

For more information on TimeControl Industrial, visit the website at: industrial.timecontrol.com.

Article: Third party project management tools – timekeeping
Third party project management tools come in many different flavors but I have a soft spot for the timekeeping category.  Since my own firm, HMS Software, produces TimeControl, a project oriented timesheet system.  This article takes a look at why looking outside of your EPM system for a timesheet is worth thinking about.

Article: What’s actually happening here?
Even though it’s been decades since project scheduling became a commonplace term, there is still a huge percentage of project managers who focus on the plan and not on the progress.  For some organizations, they can start their enterprise project management process just by looking at what is actually being done with time; by looking at the progress *before* a plannng process is formalized.