Project 3 Project Managers Limited (PML)

A. Project Managers Limited (PML) is a fledgling company located in Mission Viejo, CA. They were created by Helmut Schmidt and Joanne Green in February of 2008. Helmut and Joanne worked for a leading software development company in the area and decided to start this joint venture that would more fully utilize their 30+ years of combined software development project management experience. Since the beginning they have relied on outsourcing of accounting, billing, and other related business services. Even though they are both very computer savvy they have not had the time to create a workable system in-house or even to install and setup a COTS (off the shelf) system. Both Joanne and Helmut spend 80-90% of their time on the road and rely on their PCs, Tablets, Cell Phones, etc. for communications and to get their work done. As Project Management consultants they work with many local firms and recently have been working with some international firms in Germany, England, Canada, China and Australia. This prompted them in 2010 to hire a full-time administrative assistant to handle calls, travel, and to interface with the outsourced business functions. With the great demand for their services they have contracted with 7 other project management professionals that work for PML but are hired on an as-needed consulting basis.

Currently, their administrative assistant Helen Joseph has been urging them to get more help as the workload is growing exponentially. They have hired Jeremy Smith to help with the office tasks and to help Helen with the process of migrating some of the business services over to PML to cut costs and to improve services to PML clients and their contracted consultants (their list has grown from 5 to 20).

Other facts: - They currently have 3 computers that are networked but no server (peer-to-peer) using a cheap switch with a DSL connection to the Internet. - They are at 20 consultants, and 2 office staff (Helen and Jim). - They have no meaningful web presence (Helmut created a very simple web site through their ISP that is not very functional and has not been widely accessed by clients). - They currently use Word, Excel, and MS Project within the company. Some of the specialty consultants have software that they have loaded on their own computers. - The Mission Statement of PML is to Bring practical Project Management principles to bear on realworld IT business solutions. They do this through making sure that ALL of their consultants are certified by the Project Management Institute (a link to PMI on their web site), and by offering a 100% guarantee on their services. - They need more ready access to the Internet and a solution for interconnecting their systems at the office and through remote access from consultants (a client/server network). - Consolidated Business Services currently does ALL of their payroll, AR/AP, and billing functions. The client list has been kept on Joannes computer and needs to be centralized for all to access within the company (she used Access with a VB front end).

B. Your job is to help them create a workable solution that achieves the following goals: - Recommend a solution to migrate their outsourced business functions back to PML (payroll, billing including AR/AP, contracts, etc.). - Create a Gantt chart that shows the timeline of bringing these functions back to PML. - Recommend an off-the-shelf software package that incorporates these functions (include the actual software program and cost).

So, your deliverables will consist of the following: ***NEEDED SOLUTION*** o Recommended solution, with Gantt chart, of moving the outsourced business functions back to PML staff. o Recommend an off-the-shelf software package for their accounting needs. o Recommend a communications system to enable more streamlined communications between the staff and consultants in the field.