I’m talking about a special system for optimal project promotion and resource management, which will be useful primarily for IT companies and their outsourcing departments.

For a company engaged in the development of customized IT products and outsourcing projects in the IT field, competent planning is fundamental. If you have mastered this complex skill, optimal employee workload will no longer be a problem, and every stage of development will be strictly controlled, regardless of whether IT outsourcing in the Philippines, the USA or Europe. And special tools, such as “Orion” from iFellow, allow you to organize and direct these processes.

“Orion” consists of several separate modules that form a flexible system for managing IT processes, organizing employees’ working time, assessing progress, predicting results and more economical use of resources – financial, time, and human.

“Project Passport” provides essential, basic information about the team that is working on the project, the manager supervising it, deadlines and other parameters. All this allows you to manage your budget and resources more efficiently than if you had a 24/7 virtual assistant.

Who needs it: project management office.

What's at the core: everything related to labor resources and record keeping. Here are reflected:

• Applications for replacement of team members, if necessary;
• Information about subcontracts for all contractors – Sole Proprietor, Self Employer, companies;
• Reports on labor costs in cases where team members' time sheets are maintained in an external system;
• Forecasts of future payments;
• Project cost forecasts.

All significant data is entered immediately during the work process, all changes occur in one window, which is very convenient, since it eliminates problems due to forgetfulness or carelessness of employees and low email deliverability. From here, if necessary, you can use a direct link to go directly to a specific IT development project.

Externally, the Web resembles a geometric figure with six corners, each of which reflects one of the defining parameters of the project: analytical calculations, costs, team composition, etc.

Who needs it: project management office.

What is at the core: a complete picture of the project’s progress, data on violations or compliance with deadlines.

The company’s register of projects is also presented here with basic data on the budgets and team composition, which are filled out automatically when one of the employees enters them in other Orion modules – for example, in the project passport. It is actually a kind of virtual assistant! If desired, the registry can be expanded and drilled down to gain access to backlog parameters (analytics, test results, actual values).

For example, in the screenshot above, the “Fact” section contains completed tasks, the “Plan” contains those that are currently in progress, and the “Open” section contains tasks that are waiting their turn to go into production. By managing the Web, managers can find out at any time how effectively the project is progressing, promptly receive data on deviations from the plan and their reasons, and take appropriate measures. This is especially important for large information technology outsourcing development projects, where it is necessary to constantly “keep your finger on the pulse,” while a series of incomplete tasks can be used to monitor small projects.

In the Web in the screenshot, several hexagons came together at once:

• Purple represents the ideal parameters that you should focus on – tasks here are completed in full, deadlines are met, the budget is not violated, the team composition is not subject to adjustments in the process.
• Green shows the actual state of affairs.
• Blue shows you how much of the backlog is covered and how current data correlates with planned values.

“Orion” is more than a personal va; it is a convenient way to visualize a project in order to control its progress at any time. It prevents the emergence of critical problems, helps take risks into account, and brings together information about the company’s entire portfolio of projects.

For example, click on the “Risk” field. We will receive a table with a complete calculation of the consequences that could threaten the company if the theoretical problem becomes reality. Here you can find out the name of the responsible manager and decide how urgent the issue of eliminating the risk is – perhaps the losses will be so insignificant that it can be ignored.

Mastering all this is no more difficult than mastering calendar management, and as a result, you get the opportunity to make timely and optimal management decisions.

This function is called Bench because it shows which employees are busy enough and who is “sitting on the bench.”

Who needs it: project management office, top manager, back office, team lead, sales department.

What it's based on: a table with employee occupancy marks to evenly distribute the workload. Red cells mean that the employee is idle, yellow ones indicate low workload, green ones indicate optimal workload, and purple cells signal that the employee is at the limit and some tasks need to be removed from him.

Even bpo employee working remotely, thanks to the Bench, always remain under control, and managers can see how many people and when can be connected to the project, as well as the competencies and technology stack of each employee.

The system sends alerts about fluctuations in the sales funnel and allows you to prepare for entering the pre-sale stage.

Who needs it: project management office, general manager, commercial department.

What is at the core: reflects the entire progress of the company’s relationship with clients, records transactions, gives sales forecasts, opens up wide opportunities for planning the workload of the project office.

For example: negotiations between the commercial department and someone from the lead lists give hope for a favorable outcome. This means it’s time to plan the workload of the pre-sale department employees so as not to do it at the last moment.

CRM is used to analyze transactions, identify shortages of specialists and show who can be painlessly transferred from one task to another, in which cases it is advisable to hire another person, and offers forecasts for future sales.

The focus here is on progress toward project goals based on operational-level objectives.

Who needs it: heads of departments.

What is it based on: a registry containing tasks and subtasks addressed to department heads and top managers. It’s convenient to be able to track the progress of each assigned task using statuses at the top level, avoiding the risk of doing unnecessary micromanagement.

The table is conveniently color-coded in the same way as the Bench: red indicates tasks that are waiting their turn, light green signals that a task is about to be completed, dark green indicates completed tasks, and yellow warns of an expiring deadline.

Contains basic information about the specialists working in the company.

Who needs it: the project management office, the back office, the team lead and the employees themselves.

What is it based on: records about the employee’s position and professionalism, educational background, existing certifications, current projects and immediate supervisors. It also contains contact information and even such specific information as the employee's development plan.

So, from the screenshot, you can find out that this page belongs to Anna, a junior project manager, who works in Chicago and has almost a month of vacation that she has not yet used.

Thanks to the card, the boss can keep track of the projects Anna is busy with, assess the role of the woman in each of them, and see the level of her workload. From the screenshot, it is clear how she distributes her working time between projects (from 15 to 35% for each). The page contains links to the employee’s personal development plan and the opportunity to evaluate her capabilities. From the same card, you can go to the passport of each of Anna’s projects to view a detailed report on it.

Among other things, this module records employee calls to technical support in order to take into account all cases of system bugs or equipment breakdowns. Each time the task gets a performer to fix the problem, its status reports how things continue to progress. Since many companies resort to outsourced technical support services, this approach, again, makes all processes absolutely transparent and controllable.

The card allows any team member to see work tasks – their own and those of their colleagues, and allows the manager to be aware of Anna’s workload and take this into account when assigning responsibilities for new projects. It is important that not all information remains in the public domain: for example, the competency assessment and personal development plan can be seen only by the employee and his immediate superiors.

The module takes into account the employee’s hard and soft skills, allowing you to assemble more effective project teams capable of delivering the highest level of customer service.

Who needs it: employees themselves, team leads, HR, project managers.

What is the basis: an assessment of the competencies of each employee, collected using the “360 degree” method, including the results of assessments by immediate superiors, colleagues and, if there are subordinates, + employee self-survey.

The frequency of subsequent surveys, the characteristics being assessed, the list of questions can be adjusted, the answers will be automatically transferred to the employee’s card, where he and his boss, but not ordinary employees, can view them. Ratings are displayed both in general form and broken down by individual items.

Since nothing contributes to strengthening the reputation, sales leads and growth of the financial stability of a company more than the professionalism of its employees, the module, at the request of the employee, contains an individual development plan with clear definition of tasks, deadlines and the ability to monitor progress.

It is an optional, although very useful function and is compiled for each person at his request.

Who needs it: employees themselves, HR, managers.

What is at the core: assessment of the employee’s current skills and recommendations for their development, which can ensure professional growth.

This may contain advice to pay attention to, for example, negotiation skills with business leads, communication with team members, or recommendations for taking courses. The employee can personally finalize the plan, and if the boss approves of his initiative, will allocate a budget for training, set deadlines and monitor progress. The plan itself is compiled based on the HR-360 survey, and the results of repeated surveys are loaded automatically.

"Orion" is intended for large and mid-level companies whose activities are related to the field of outsourced IT projects, software development and implementation, development and support of internal IT solutions. Some of the tools used in the modules are already familiar to many IT business workers if they have ever dealt with, say, back office work outsourcing issues, and mastering new modules is not difficult and allows you to organize, streamline and raise the company’s activities to a new level of functionality.