Boston, MA - December 19th, 2008 - BrightWork, the leading provider of project management software on the Microsoft SharePoint platform, has announced pmPoint as a hosted on demand service.  Available in January, 2009 pmPoint Online delivers a complete project management solution on SharePoint as a low cost, low risk subscription service. 

Partnering with TeamPortal.com, pmPoint Online will be available in two editions: The ‘Project Manager’ and the ‘Program Management Office’.  The Project Manager edition extends SharePoint to provide the functionality needed to consistently manage single projects while the Program Management Office edition enables the capabilities on SharePoint for comprehensive multi-project lifecycle management.

With these configurations, customers can choose the edition they need based on the degree of project management process and structure they require.  Getting started is as simple as clicking on a subscribe button! 

“Through TeamPortal.com we broaden our reach, providing innovative SharePoint based project management functionality on a hosted platform with BrightWork’s pmPoint,” said Eamonn McGuinness, CEO of BrightWork.  “The distribution through TeamPortal.com helps push our project management solution past the technical barriers. We are working together to help companies reach their own goals through project management collaboration anywhere.”

Any organization that wants to learn more about pmPoint Online can join BrightWork on January 14th, 2009 for a live presentation and demonstration.  Register Today!

 

BrightWork pmPoint is a SharePoint add-on for managing projects and programs of all shapes and sizes for organizations of all shapes and sizes. Unlike ad hoc tools such as email and Excel, or even traditional project and portfolio management solutions, pmPoint delivers a complete project management system that is rapid-to-deploy, enables broad adoption, and has a low ownership cost.

But, don't take our word for it! See what some of our customers in organizations of various sizes with varying project management needs are saying about pmPoint:

"pmPoint on SharePoint was easy to implement and provided us with a tool that could
be mastered extremely quickly by our project managers."

George, Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General.
20 users of pmPoint.

"pmPoint for project management was accepted by our business customers so quickly I was amazed. pmPoint reminds me of Albert Einstein when he said, 'Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler'. Enough said!”

Sven, Up-Great.
50 users of pmPoint.

"pmPoint provides us with a project management tool based on how we work today and evolving to where we want to be."

Gary, Enterprise and Partner Group, Microsoft.
150 users of pmPoint.

“pmPoint is an innovative way to use SharePoint to manage different projects across 29 countries."

Morten, Columbus IT.
1,500 users of pmPoint.

Problem:

Each year, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General (PAOAG) – Information Technology Section (ITS) prepares an update to its IT strategic plan.  This update establishes an aggressive agenda of technology projects for the agency consisting of both on-going and new projects.  These projects include the development and implementation of critical line of business applications, enhancements to existing systems, upgrades and expansion of the agency’s core IT infrastructure, end-user training programs, and proof of concepts aimed at researching and evaluating new technologies.

The complexity of these initiatives, project interdependencies, resource demands and expectations of the end user community make it imperative that the ITS Program Management Office manages its project portfolio in an effective, efficient and well coordinated manner to ensure projects remain on schedule, within budget and meet established quality standards.

ITS required a comprehensive project management tool that could be implemented in a relatively fast time frame that would support the management of projects and facilitate communication and collaboration among its project managers.  Additionally, having already made a substantial investment in Microsoft SharePoint 2007 as the foundation for its knowledge worker infrastructure, ITS was interested in implementing a tool that could be effectively integrated with SharePoint.

Solution:

After completing a number of in-house efforts as well as evaluating a number of off-the-shelf solutions, ITS made the decision to implement BrightWork pmPoint as the system that would be used to manage all IT-related projects.  Key considerations leading to this decision was the ability to integrate pmPoint with the organization’s SharePoint-based intranet and leverage SharePoints collaboration features.  pmPoint also represented a solution that could be implemented in a relatively short time frame.  Additionally, pmPoint’s dashboard interface provided ITS with a highly effective means for communicating project status and progress to upper level management at different levels of detail.  ITS is currently in the process of loading all existing projects and new initiatives into the system and finalizing custom workflows to ensure project participants and key stakeholders provide decisions and input in a timely manner and are kept abreast of all project-related issues.

 

Problem:

Parker Drilling Company provides drilling services on land and offshore including drilling rigs, project management and rental tools to the energy industry. Their expertise extends to every region of the world. Parker were originally using spreadsheets to manage their business projects and required a more robust collaborative platform to provide structure to their increasing number of projects. They also needed to deploy an application that would support multi-phase Software Development projects throughout the project lifecycle.

Solution:

Parker Drilling chose BrightWork pmPoint as their project management application as it provided out of the box templates that suited their different project sizes and complexity.  The BrightWork reporting engine enabled them to create executive dashboards containing key reports for the management team.  The project methodologies that are baked into the templates also provided them with the phase gates and control points to

Boston, Mass., August 1, 2008 – BrightWork, the leading provider of work and project management software on the Microsoft SharePoint platform, today announced new versions of pmPoint and Reporter, the company’s flagship products for project management and enterprise reporting on SharePoint 2007. 

BrightWork pmPoint is a SharePoint 2007 add-on for managing work and projects, coming with a set of pre-built project management templates, web parts, dashboards, tools and lists.  This latest release of pmPoint includes new and improved project and cross-project management templates.  These templates bake the best practices uncovered while working with BrightWork customers straight into out of the box pmPoint.

“We have been developing and implementing collaborative work and project management since 1995, so we have a lot of real world customer experience.  The unique advantage of the pmPoint approach is that it allows customers to manage projects of different shapes and sizes in the one SharePoint environment”, said Éamonn McGuinness, CEO, BrightWork.

To learn more about managing projects on the SharePoint platform, visit BrightWork pmPoint

To download What's New in pmPoint v6.0 click here.

pmPoint for Sure Step was launched with this release.  It is a SharePoint based project management plug-in for Microsoft Partners that supports and enhances the Microsoft Dynamics®Sure Step methodology. 

“Columbus IT is very excited about this new offering from BrightWork, where they bring the Sure Step process directly into SharePoint. Columbus IT is one of the front runners implementing the BrightWork pmPoint for Sure Step solution. This tool makes our offices in 29 different countries work more efficiently when delivering projects and consulting services to our customers. This is a great step forward for the Sure Step offering from Microsoft.”, said Morten Selemyr, Country Manager – Norway, Columbus IT:  

To learn more about pmPoint for Sure Step, visit pmPoint for Sure Step

BrightWork Reporter is the first SharePoint reporting application that provides pre-built dashboards and reports for visibility across different lists in multiple SharePoint sites.  The latest release of Reporter simplifies the reporting of all the work information stored in multiple different custom SharePoint lists contained in multiple sites and site collections. 

“More and more organizations are using customized SharePoint sites to manage work and business processes and Reporter makes it possible to aggregate, report and distribute this information to business stakeholders”, said Éamonn McGuinness, CEO, BrightWork.

To learn more about managing projects with BrightWork Reporter, visit BrightWork Reporter

To download What's New in BrightWork Reporter v6.0 click here.

A SharePoint based project management plug-in for Microsoft Dynamics® MBS Partners

BrightWork, a global provider of innovative Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 applications for work and project management have announced the release of pmPoint for Sure Step. This new release will be launching next week at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston, Texas.

The Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step methodology is a resource created to assist with planning and implementing Microsoft Dynamics business solutions (i.e. Microsoft Dynamics AX; CRM; GP; NAV; and SL).

pmPoint for Sure Step is a SharePoint based project management plug-in, available exclusively to Microsoft Dynamics MBS Partners, that supports and enhances this methodology.

Klaus Holse Andersen, Corporate VP, Microsoft Business Solutions: "With pmPoint for Sure Step, BrightWork has successfully integrated the implementation guidance in Microsoft Dynamics® Sure Step into the highly-collaborative Microsoft Office SharePoint® platform. This integration provides Microsoft Dynamics partners an option to further enhance their productivity by allowing management of multiple Sure Step projects through SharePoint"

pmPoint for Sure Step proactively enables and supports the  main high-level roles in a typical project-based or services organization (e.g., Project Manager, Team Member and Services Manager). It includes customizable project management templates for the different types of Sure Step projects. pmPoint for Sure Step supports work and task management with enhanced SharePoint reporting that rolls up and filters data from multiple projects and work item types.

Morten Selemyr, Country Manager – Norway, Columbus IT:  “Columbus IT is very excited about this new offering from BrightWork, where they bring the Sure Step process directly into SharePoint. Columbus IT is one of the front runners implementing the BrightWork pmPoint for Sure Step solution. This tool makes our offices in 29 different countries work more efficiently when delivering projects and consulting services to our customers. This is a great step forward for the Sure Step offering from Microsoft.”

pmPoint for Sure Step is available on your SharePoint server, or as a hosted offering. It provides a fully integrated project management discipline ensuring you are able to embed proven project management processes within the project.

Eamonn McGuinness, CEO, BrightWork: “The guidance, process and sample deliverables provided by Microsoft Dynamics® Sure Step provided us with a unique business opportunity, as a SharePoint ISV, to integrate Sure Step into pmPoint, our project management solution built on Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007. pmPoint for Sure Step helps Microsoft Dynamics partners – like Columbus IT & Hands ASA that are already using Sure Step – to drive more business by being even more collaborative with their customers and successful with their Microsoft Dynamics implementations.”

Meet BrightWork at the Wordwide Partner Conference in Houston

This year’s Worldwide Partner Conference will be held in Houston July 7-10. BrightWork will be launching the next version of pmPoint – our Project Management plug-in for SharePoint 2007- complete with optional Microsoft Project integration to SharePoint.

We will also be launching pmPoint for Sure Step, a free pmPoint add-on, available exclusively to Microsoft Dynamics MBS Partners, that supports and enhances the Sure Step methodology used in Microsoft Dynamics deployment projects, at the WPC.

Anyone attending the Worldwide Partner Conference can meet with BrightWork in a number of different spots:

• Tuesday July 8th at 4:30pm CT
  • Presenting at Session BP004 – “Office SharePoint: Architecting a Business Productivity Solution from the Ground Up”
  • Location – General Assembly Theater A
    
• Wednesday July 9th at 12noon CT
  
  • Doing a demo in the Business Productivity Area #580 – Demo Theater
    
• Thursday July 10th at 2.20pm CT
  
  • Doing another demo in the Business Productivity Area #580 – Demo Theater
    
• Visit the Expo area
  
  • The Microsoft Sure Step methodology is on view at WPC in the Expo hall
    
  • We are also showing pmPoint for Sure Step, our SharePoint project management plug-in for the Sure Step methodology
  • Come find out more at the “Partner Services and Sure Step” Kiosk in the Microsoft area of the Expo hall

Just Plug-In pmPoint to Detangle the Wires!

Brightwork's Project Management Solution Allows Sheppard Mullin to Skip Routine Fire Drills

As law firm Sheppard Mullin grew worldwide, the IT department spent great effort trying to manage many, many projects at once. The pain has ended with BrightWork pmPoint, the first collaborative project management application offering structure and flexibility. BrightWork pmPoint is a project management plug-in for your SharePoint environment that works great!

Start your project in pmPoint, and assign tasks to anyone on the project team or manage across multiple projects. Using highly customizable templates, pmPoint offers something new, process-driven project management – setting it apart from other project management programs, pmPoint lets you develop a methodology for the way your projects work. Read More on Microsoft Live Space

Problem:

The Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) is an Irish state agency responsible for ensuring the provision of light rail and metro infrastructure and top quality passenger services for Dublin City. RPA has successfully delivered two city tram lines, a number of line extensions are under construction; and five city tram lines and two Metro Lines are being planned.  RPA had already deployed BrightWork pmPoint on SharePoint 2003 and wanted to upgrade to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. RPA also required a process to manage Risks, Issues and Assumptions for their business in an efficient and automated manner. They decided that MOSS 2007 would be the ideal platform to host the pmPoint solution.

Solution:

RPA deployed BrightWork pmPoint on their MOSS 2007 environment and were able to customize the built-in Issue Manager template to meet their requirements. Using pmPoint's Issues and Risks' forms coupled with SharePoint 2007 Workflow, RPA were able to log Issues and promote them to Risks and notify Owners and Assignees accordingly. The pmPoint reporting engine was then used to rollup Risks, Issues and Assumptions.  RPA continue to deploy BrightWorks’ Solutions to satisfy both Project and Departmental problems. Moss 2007 and BrightWork form the basis for their Intranet, Project Websites and Internal Application websites. Maurice Foley of the RPA says, “BrightWork and MOSS 2007 are now an integral part of RPA’s suite of software applications”.

BrightWork's first German partner, UP-GREAT in Switzerland, recently announced their successful deployment of BrightWork pmPoint as a first application within the SharePoint farm in the IT Department (DIN) of the cantonal administration of Lucerne.  As an innovative solution provider and system integrator, UP-GREAT provides complete services for information, infrastructure and system management. The company, founded in 1995 and today with over 30 employees, has its headquarters in Fehraltorf near the city of Zurich.

Problem

The cantonal administration of Lucerne decided in December 2007 to follow a broad Microsoft Strategy. Besides the already existing platform strategies for Cisco, NetApp and SAP, Microsoft just fit in perfectly to complete the big picture. As an important part of that strategy, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server was chosen as a platform for various applications such as all portals (Intranet, Collaboration and Internet), document management, case management (GEVER), forms services with InfoPath and project management. In the conceptual phase for DIN it became clear, that especially for structured project management, SharePoint has not enough features that come out of the box. The goal was it had to aggregate information in project offices so the various departmental managers had one consolidated view of all their projects and status reports. Furthermore, the customer wanted to aggregate information even over site collections for top management reporting (green, yellow, red). Last but not least, it should be possible to work with project hierarchies and project room templates.

Solution

After thorough research UP-GREAT recommended a solution based on BrightWork pmPoint. No other product on the market could fulfill all the functional requirements. Unfortunately, the product was not yet available in German which was a killer criteria. So the client and UP-GREAT decided to translate the whole product to German to meet this last criteria. The translation and stabilization phase was incredibly short but successful. The customizing started after the deployment of the product. First, the templates for the used methodology HERMES were established. Second, the project hierarchy was created and with it the PMO structure. Third, the aggregation of information for top management (green, yellow, red) was developed by UP-GREAT. Fourth, the project request area was implemented with InfoPath forms services. As a last step, the aggregation over site collections came as a last feature. Since that first deployment within the IT department of the cantonal administration, BrightWork is now being used step by step in other departments as well.

Testimonial Sven Roth, Head of Unit Information Worker, UP-GREAT AG:
“BrightWork fits in perfectly in the whole IT architecture at the client site in Lucerne. It leverages the features of Microsoft SharePoint and therefore leaves the user within the well-known environment. It gives us all the tools we need to fulfill the project management needs we have. And the best thing? We can evolutionary develop the client organization from an email based project management, over a semi structured project management to a full structured project management – all with the same platform and product!”

Project Scheduling, Automated Status Reporting, Task Dependencies, Cross Project Resource Tracking,
Microsoft  Project 2007 Integration usher in new era of Project Management on the SharePoint Server 2007 Platform.

Seattle, WA, March 3, 2008 – BrightWork, a global provider of innovative Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 applications for work and project management today introduced a new release of pmPoint, the company’s flagship product for project management on SharePoint Server 2007.  Launching this week at the Microsoft Office SharePoint Conference 2008, this latest version of pmPoint adds greater capability and collaboration aimed at supporting the varying project management needs of the enterprise.  Organizations of all sizes in a wide variety of industries now have access to a highly flexible project office application that bridges the gap between email and Microsoft Office Excel and more complex enterprise project management systems. 

This latest release includes:

• Enhanced reporting delivering project summary reports from SharePoint Server 2007 work lists
• More advanced project management and scheduling including integration with Project 2007
• Introduction of Tasks Dependencies with task and sub-task functionality
• Automated Project Status Reporting
• Cross Project Resource Tracking
• 8 Templates for varying levels of project and cross project management from simple to more involved
• Improved Gantt level reporting including the introduction of flexible time scales
• Cross list, cross site and column aggregation

“BrightWork is dedicated to extending the SharePoint Server 2007 platform to deliver true project management functionality”, said Eamonn McGuinness, BrightWork CEO.  “Our goal in this latest release of pmPoint is to further simplify teamwork by providing tailored templates for many different project types.  We are confident our customers will continue to use the SharePoint Server 2007 platform to enable their project teams to get organized, stay in control and achieve unparalleled levels of productivity”. 

“We continue to see more and more customers use SharePoint products to manage projects,” said Tom Rizzo, Director of SharePoint at Microsoft. “BrightWork’s pmPoint is an excellent plug-in to the SharePoint 2007 platform, providing users with enhanced functionality and added value to their overall SharePoint experience.”

Any organization that wants to learn more about this release can visit the BrightWork TrialZone. Anyone attending the Microsoft Office SharePoint Conference can meet with BrightWork at Booth 811.

Problem:

The Office of Development & Alumni Relations at the University of Chicago required a SharePoint Portal Site fortheir Division,specifically for immediate use by their Communications and Operations departments. Their need was to rollout a portal that could be used both division-wide and by other units at the University. This would allow them to have centralized Communication and Collaboration areas across units thathave similar goals yet different work processes. Their need had two main components; one for an overall portal that would contain information currently on their intranet, and also serve as a landing site for identified needs. The other component included an area for managing projects. More than 60% of their users needed to view project related information only, while the remaining users needed to capture and share information with others.

Solution:

The University of Chicago decided to deploy BrightWork pmPoint as the application to manage projects in the organization. pmPoint was able to integrate seamlessly into their overall portal structure and enable the project team to easily navigate from their portal into a dedicated Project Management area and get comprehensive reports on all active projects. Since pmPoint allowed for easy customization, the diverse work within the division allowed for easy reporting and standardization of a methodology across all teams.

 “Working with BrightWork in the deployment of our site was easy, thorough and informative. They took the time to understand what we needed and helped us customize the best site possible for our users. The excitement and energy from our users has confirmed that we made the best choice in purchasing pmPoint.” Jacquie Spearman – University of Chicago

Trend Watch: Revving Up the SharePoint Engine

By Kevin McLaughlin, CMP Channel

Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) Office SharePoint Server is hotter than a Phoenix sidewalk in July, and ISVs are using it in an ever-expanding variety of ways. What used to be viewed as a collaboration application has morphed into a full-blown application development platform that ISVs and solution providers are leveraging to streamline business processes.

The fact that organizations are using SharePoint to develop mission-critical applications for both intranets and extranets, as evidenced by companies such as Hawaiian Airlines and TV Guide using it to develop their customer-facing Web sites, shows that SharePoint has come a long way from its roots in collaboration. And many SharePoint ISVs believe the innovation engine that SharePoint represents is just now starting to heat up.

"What we're seeing with SharePoint is that people finally see it as a platform to build applications on, as opposed to it being seen as just a collaboration tool," said Eamonn McGuinness, CEO of BrightWork, a Boston-based SharePoint ISV. "I think people are realizing they can build serious business applications on SharePoint 2007."

- Major update to pmPoint and Reporter keeps BrightWork at the forefront of SharePoint based work and project management solutions providers
Boston, Mass., January 10, 2008 – BrightWork, a leading provider of innovative SharePoint applications for work and project management, has released a major update to the pmPoint and Reporter products. Leveraging over 11 years of experience in helping companies achieve greater efficiencies through process driven work and project management automation, BrightWork has further extended SharePoint 2007 to deliver true project management office functionality and bridge the gap between email and Excel, and more complex enterprise project management systems.
This major upgrade to pmPoint and Reporter includes:

• More advanced project management and scheduling including integration with Microsoft Project
• Introduction of Tasks Dependencies with task and sub-task functionality
• Automated Project Status Reporting
• Cross Project Resource Tracking
• 8 Templates for varying levels of project and cross project management
• Improved Gantt level reporting including the introduction of flexible time scales
• Cross list, cross site and column aggregation

“We encounter more and more organizations struggling to manage projects on email and Excel. With our history of leadership in the area of standards based and process driven project management automation, BrightWork has the know how to power the enhancement of SharePoint to deliver project office applications," said Eamonn McGuinness, BrightWork CEO. "Organizations of all sizes in a wide variety of industries have been using BrightWork software to achieve unprecedented levels of productivity. We look forward to continuing our high level of innovation and supplying our customers with exactly what they need to help their project teams succeed.”
This release is available at no cost to all customers who are on a BrightWork Annual Support and Upgrades plan. Customers who wish to upgrade should contact support@brightwork.com. Any organization that wants to learn more about this release can visit the BrightWork TrialZone. For further information contact sales@brightwork.com or +1 (617) 357-9000 ext. 701.

About BrightWork:

BrightWork is the leading provider of innovative SharePoint applications for collaborative project management and enterprise rollup reporting. Leading companies and government organizations around the world rely on BrightWork solutions to help them better manage their work, projects, and processes including FedEx, Microsoft, Tetley Teas, Skanska and University of Chicago.  For more information, please visit www.brightwork.com.

Press Contact:
Claire Keane
ckeane@brightwork.com