With increasing project complexity and growing order volumes, ATP’s existing project management system reached its limits. The operation was complex, the user interface not very intuitive – especially the manual transfer of Excel data caused unnecessary friction losses in day-to-day business. Project managers spent a large part of their time on administrative tasks instead of concentrating on planning, control and implementation.
Resource planning was also technically possible – but was hardly used in practice. The reason: the existing system was too complicated, not user-friendly and not sufficiently integrated into the day-to-day project. As a result, more than 250 teams planned independently of each other – sometimes in Excel, sometimes in OneNote, sometimes only in a file of the team lead. There were no uniform standards and a systematic overview.
What was missing was a system that not only supports project planning, but actively facilitates it – with clear processes, uniform structures and seamless integration.
The solution – further development instead of migration
Together with INKUBIT, ATP decided to further develop the existing system based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations – with the advantage that all project data was retained. The focus is on efficiency, transparency and user-friendliness.
The most important innovations at a glance:
Central project overview: Instead of complex navigation structures, there is now a clear, filterable list that clearly displays all projects – and thus significantly simplifies planning and control.
Role clarity in the project: Due to the clear separation between project management and team leadership, responsibilities are clearly assigned – this reduces queries and coordination efforts in everyday operations.
Resource planning for over 250 teams: All teams now plan in a central system – with a uniform structure, transparent availability display and clearly comprehensible responsibilities. Decentralized work with individual files is a thing of the past.
Accurate cost and capacity planning: Instead of calculating purely on an hourly basis, actual costs per employee are now determined – differentiated according to seniority level and planned effort. The system automatically calculates both planned and real project costs – providing a sound basis for budgets and forecasts.
Significantly improved system performance: The new scheduling logic makes it possible to minimize system resources, thus increasing technical performance by at least 10 times. In addition, system costs are also reduced for this reason.
Automated Excel Import: Project plans can be transferred directly from existing Excel templates – without manual transfer, without sources of error, without loss of time.
“Working with Dynamics 365 Project Operations has fundamentally changed our project planning. Instead of manually transferring project plans from Excel to the system, we can now enter them directly. This change alone saves us a lot of time per project. At the same time, with the new interface, we can finally plan resources correctly and have a much better overview of schedules and responsibilities. Overall, the system allows us to work more efficiently, but also more proactively, which is a real step forward for our entire organization. For us, this is a real step into the future.”
The result: measurably increased productivity
The introduction of the new system had a profound impact on the day-to-day project work at ATP:
- 400 hours less manual effort per year: Automated Excel import replaces error-prone copy-paste processes and saves project teams over 1,400 working hours per year – this step alone provides noticeable relief in day-to-day business.
- Planning with less effort, more precision: Project managers can now plan faster, assign responsibilities more easily and calculate budgets more reliably. The new overview not only simplifies daily work, but also improves the coordination between roles.
- Resource use on a new level: Resource planning now automatically takes into account real hourly rates and availabilities – differentiated according to seniority levels. This not only makes project planning more precise, but also makes cost estimation more realistic than ever before.
- 10–20× faster system processes: By switching to a month-by-month planning logic, employee assignment is much more performant – the system reacts faster, loading times are reduced, and the entire planning process becomes smoother. Technically measurable. Clearly noticeable in everyday life.
- Better results through better management: With clear roles, transparent data and well-founded decisions, project teams today not only work more efficiently, but also more effectively – from project initiation to capacity management.