Benutzer:Elbermakaay/Blue Ant English

Elbermakaay/Blue Ant English
Basisdaten

Blue Ant is a commercial web-based project management software application for multi-project management, developed since 2001 by Berlin software and consulting company, proventis.

Use and features

As multi-project management software, Blue Ant‘s focus is on Resource management, Portfolio management and Controlling. [2] In the context of Blue Ant, multi-project management is defined as the control and evaluation of cross-project processes. The aim is to gain an overview of the current project landscape of a company using overviews of all resource utilization, project progress and budget development. According to the manufacturer, the software can be used irrespective of business sector. Blue Ant is, however, not suitable for predominately manufacturing companies and companies in the construction and craft trade sectors due to its lack of materials management. Service providers, IT companies, the public sector, finance, healthcare and media agencies make up a large proportion of the users.

[3] The primary target group consists of medium-sized companies in Europe with 100 to 10,000 employees. [4] In addition to organizations and research and educational institutions, a number of smaller companies also use the software successfully. [5] The software is web-based, platform- independent and runs on all major web browsers. [6] The current Version 10.3 supports German and English language settings.

Functions

The range of functions extends from the ticket system, the planning and creation of projects and the recording of requests for travel costs and absences, up to complex controlling and evaluations at multi-project management level. Both classic and agile project management methods can be illustrated. [7] In addition to requesting resources, in the resource management section it is possible to create “virtual resources“, which are used as placeholders for real resources when tasks have been defined, but no definite employee has been assigned. [8] Checklists, requests, status reports and many other functions can be configured at project level. The various evaluation screens in multi-project management allow numerous comparisons of project costs, budgets, working hours and user-defined performance indicators. [9]

Distribution

Blue Ant is currently used by 20,000 users distributed over 400 companies across Europe, including companies in various industries from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Great Britain and Poland. [10] One of the largest customers is Porsche Computer Science GmbH with approx. 600 users. [11] Other users include Sparkasse Rating und Risk Sytems GmbH, Roland Insurance, Regional Tax Office of Lower Saxony, Charité University Medicine, Berlin Transport Services (BVG), Alba Group, Intershop Communications AG, TNT Post Holding Deutschland GmbH, Terex Material Handling & Port Solutions GmbH, Municipal Utilities (Städtische Werke) Magdeburg and FUNKE Digital TV Guide GmbH.[12]

Versions and licence models

The software is offered for sale in rental and purchase versions in various editions. The Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition and Cloud Edition differ both in the number of licences available and the scope of the interfaces. [13] A distinction is made between two licensing models. The Named User licence provides personalized access and is aimed at project managers, administrators, department heads and persons expected to make extensive use of Blue Ant. Concurrent User licenses are tailored to employees who record working hours and view their tasks in Blue Ant, and spend less time on the system. Each Concurrent User access can only be used by one person at a time. [14]

Interfaces

Blue Ant has interfaces to Microsoft Project, Projectplace, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SPI/2010, LDAP/Active Directory databases and other applications. In addition, web services for connecting third party systems are supported (SAP, Navision, Sage, DATEV etc). [15]

History

• 2001 Founding of proventis GmbH and release of the first Blue Ant version • 2007 Support of web services • 2008 Integration of ticket system • 2009 Integration of baselines, travel costs and receipt recording • 2010 Display of agile project planning • 2011 Integration of BIRT report generator and individual fields • 2012 Introduction of budget planning including dynamic costs and investment groups • 2013 Comprehensive redesign • 2014 Integration of interactive Gantt view

References

1. Company profile of proventis GmbH accessed on 25th September 25. September 2014. 2. ProjektMagazin 04/2013 edition, Software review, Blue Ant 10 – New design, proven solution 3. ProjektMagazin 15/2014 edition, Software review, Blue Ant 10.3 – Effective support for the PMO 4. ProjektMagazin 04/2013 edition, Software review, Blue Ant 10 – New design, proven solution 5. ProjektMagazin 15/2014 edition, Software review, Blue Ant 10.3 – Effective support for the PMO 6. Projektmanagement aktuell, 25.Jg., 03/2014 Fit for MPM and PMO 7. ProjektMagazin 15/2014 edition, Software review, Blue Ant 10.3 – Effective support for the PMO 8. ProjektMagazin 04/2010 edition, Software review, Blue Ant 8.0: Integration of projects and line projects 9. ProjektMagazin 04/2010 edition, Software review, Blue Ant 8.0: Integration of projects and line projects 10. Customer reference list of proventis GmbH accessed on 25th September 2014. 11. ProjektMagazin 15/2014 edition, Software review, Blue Ant 10.3 – Effective support for the PMO 12. ProjektMagazin 15/2014 edition, Software review, Blue Ant 10.3 – Effective support for the PMO 13. Customer reference list of proventis GmbH accessed on 25. September 2014. 14. ProjektMagazin 15/2014 edition, Software review, Blue Ant 10.3 – Effective support for the PMO 15. ProjektMagazin 15/2014 edition, Software review, Blue Ant 10.3 – Effective support for the PMO 16. Blue Ant interfaces accessed on 25th September 2014.