PORTFOLIO
With 2 decades of work experience under my belt, the following projects are merely a small sample of the successful client engagements that have been completed. If you have a challenge and can't find something like it among the following, let me know and I can tell you more about projects I have completed that are analogous to your particular challenges.
The automation robot at work for Rodney, completing his Cost Management Reports at a blazing pace. He's affectionately named "Rod-Bot".
PROJECT 5:
CSI Cost Management Report Automation
Background
CSI had a manual process of building up Cost Management Reports for each of their active jobs. Prior to their company's explosive growth, this manual process was a weekly event requiring 4 to 5 hours per week to handle 40-50 active jobs. As the job numbers grew and grew, now exceeding 150 active jobs in a given week, the requirement to produce the CMRs was so burdensome that the main POC for this task would be at the office late into the night, finishing well after midnight, and literally camping out in his office instead of going home after midnight. This missing of one night at home would continue week after week for years. Imagine the relief that came to Rodney when he learned that all of his CMRs could be completed before the end of a normal workday and have him home in time for dinner.
Challenge
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Potential proprietary solutions did not match up with CSI's business process and nomenclature
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With the growth of the company, cost management reports were increasingly important to make sure all projects were getting completed under budget.
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Building up the Cost Management Reports was a manual, error-prone process that involved references to the previous week's CMR and the impacts of Change Requests. Errors introduced in early weeks had the potential to throw values off in the successive weeks.
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Data validation needed to be more proactive to identify issues with unexpected cost overruns / underruns.
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Delays in having an accurate Cost Management Reports results in Project Managers working from stale financial data.
Solution
2 partial screenshots seen at left. Solution consists of an Microsoft Access database connected to a SQL Server database with Microsoft Excel templates for the CMRs which include the following features and benefits:
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SQL Server holds the existing financial data for all executed jobs.
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The active and tracked jobs are managed via Access user forms to define the following:
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Current Project Manager and Key Personnel
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CMR Template to use (multiple templates available depending on job type)
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User defined key-value pairs of attributes defining the job (used in other job-related reporting)
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Rod-Bot log of previously exported CMRs
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Standardized templates serve as the error-free data structure used in building up the Cost Management Reports
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CMR creation time is dependent upon the amount of data to process, but single-digit times measured in SECONDS were typical.
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Automated validation of unmatched Cost Codes where costs were applied against a line item with no budget
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Detailed Automation Progress Notification shows jobs completed and elapsed time, the current automation action for the worked job, and the pending jobs remaining in the queue
Implementing this solution had all of the tangible benefits of fast & accurate CMRs but also had the intangible benefits of worker morale being improved. Rod-Bot does his job so that Rodney can do other important tasks and still have a healthy work-life balance.
The automation menu showing 162 CMRs in the automation queue about to be built.