Product

Indonesian Telco Operator Standardized on A Single Project Management Platform

OverviewCountry or Region: IndonesiaIndustry: Telecommunication

Customer ProfileIndosat is Indonesia’s second largest telco operator and provider of 3G/HSDPA service with 58.5 million subscribers. It also provides and fixed data and voice, including IDD and fixed wireless.

Business SituationTelco business naturally is a complex supply chain. While transaction documents are integrated into workflow to comply with operational standards, network construction projects must be efficient.

SolutionMicrosoft® Project ProfessionalMicrosoft® Project ServerOffice SharePointTM Portal Server

Benefits Significant saving in labor cost, travel

expenses, and paper use. Greater efficiency and data security

from centralized project data Faster, more flexible communication

and collaboration

"We needed a project management tool that allows us to work together, while referring to the same project documents."

Mohammad Ichsan, Group Head Technology Deployment – Indosat

In such a highly competitive industry, telco operators need to keep up with changes to offer innovative products & services. Construction of network, towers, satellite, and transmission, creates an ecosystem of complex supply chain, logistics and distribution. Hundreds of engineers collaborate to meet project deadlines, while ensuring compliance with operational standards.

Project engineers are overwhelmed by number of regional offices and sites. Meanwhile, interfacing with foreign vendors gives extra task of integrating their documents and tools.

Indosat project managers had to deal with documents submitted in hard copy that not only took a lot of document storage, but also made searching for a specific document time consuming. Approval of project status also needed to be done in hard copy which took a lot of time and effort compared to automated digital form implemented now in PMIS.

SituationOne of the largest telecommunication operators in Indonesia, Indosat, introduces dozens of new mobile services every year, enhances existing products, and must undertake multiple IT projects. They have twenty project managers or business owners, responsible for nearly one thousand projects on a daily basis. They collaborate with hundreds of stakeholders, deal with piles of documents, and thousands of tasks to manage projects of network construction, towers, satellite, and transmission. This is an ecosystem of complex supply chain, logistics and distribution. Not only do these project managers race with project deadlines, they also have to ensure they comply with operational standards.

One of the major challenges is in regards with integrating vendor’s systems such as procurement or invoicing. For years, project documents were submitted in hard copy with no standardized format, resulting in a lot of space required for document storage, and creating new problem to search for specific document. Archiving and reporting become nightmare to library keepers.

Without central repository, project documents are scattered across multiple personal computers and servers; there is no single source of truth maintained. Everyone has their own versions and cause compatibility issues. Ultimately, no single database gives no guarantee of consistency & accuracy of information.

Things get more tricky when project managers need to monitor or approve certain project status that needs action, such as BAST (Berita Acara Serah Terima, or project completion report), as it must be

done in hard copy, which took a lot of time and efforts.

Project managers must proactively ask vendors for the progress of construction stages, delivery, payment, and inspection, all of which were done manually. They used a variety of tools, ranging from Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to custom applications to manage and keep track of construction projects. Lack of standardized tool or any form of reporting, making it difficult to track the status of each project, identify delays and roadblocks, keep projects on track, and create reports.

In fact, it took several weeks to gather the data to create a single report. By the time it was ready, the data has become irrelevant. What’s more, storing critical project data on employee PCs poses another security risk – if a computer was stolen or an employee quit, the data would be lost and unrecoverable.

SolutionThe development in mobile devices ideally needs to be harnessed for increased efficiency to help real-time decision making, and drives efficiency in cost and execution, and allows quick creation of project plans & reporting.

Fortunately, Indosat realized their problems. “We needed a project management tool that allows us to work together, while referring to the same project documents,” says Mohammad Ichsan, Group Head Technology Deployment at Indosat.

In January 2013, Indosat deployed Microsoft Project Server and Microsoft Project Professional with the goal of standardizing on a single project

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“Like an aircraft pilot, our project managers must have better visibility of their aircrafts (projects) to fly them safely (end-to-end) to support Indosat business. To do this, an integrated project management tool is required. Microsoft solutions enable us to provide such visibility so our project managers can manage their projects better than ever before.”

Mohammad Ichsan, Group Head Technology Deployment – Indosat

management platform and creating one place for project data. “We initially deployed Microsoft Project Server and Project Professional to collaborate and maintain our projects, but we didn’t integrate it with SharePoint to store our project documents. So we only solved half the problem. We still experienced delays in tracking down information or relevant supporting documents, so it still causes bottleneck in our coordination,” says Ichsan.

In April 2013, Indosat deployed a centralized document repository using Microsoft SharePoint. Now that transaction documents are standardized, it is possible to comply with standards such as SOX and ISO. This delivers competitive products & services from quality assurance perspective, and allows IT managers to backup the system as part of disaster recovery plan. Last but not least, centralized and digitized document management system uses less of space, and energy resources, making it environmentally friendly solution in the longer term.

“With integrated project information system provided by the new PMIS, Indosat project managers now have project tracking and monitoring system. They can keep track of multiple vendors’ activities, such as when Nokia are installing antennas. Project tracking and relevant approvals can be instantly done, making payment easy as a breeze,” says Leksmana Wardana, Division Head Project Assurance.

“Interaction with external parties allow vendors to view and update their status via web, while internally it allows 20 project managers allocate their resources across approximately 1000 projects.”

Top level management now can also be informed about what percentage of projects are completed, and what are still behind schedule. Consequently, they can take action to anticipate increased cost due to the lateness.

“Like an aircraft pilot, our project managers must have better visibility of their aircrafts (projects) to fly them safely (end-to-end) to support Indosat business. To do this, an integrated project management tool is required. Microsoft solutions enable us to provide such visibility so our project managers can manage their projects better than ever before,” added Ichsan.

Benefits Significant cost saving. The new PMIS is

integrated with existing system, so business owners can create a PO from within Microsoft Project. With Project Server, sharing experts or resources is now possible. After only 9 months of implementation, Indosat has saved over Rp 801 million in labor cost, Rp 31 million in travel expenses, and nearly 30,000 sheets of paper.

Greater efficiency and data security from centralized project data. Since the implementation of the new PMIS and document management system, all documents related to project can now be archived and stored digitally according to standardized format. The result is significant space saving previously dedicated for document storage. Easy navigation within SharePoint make authorized users find specific documents quickly.

Faster, more flexible communication and collaboration. Microsoft Project also allows business owners keep track of

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“Interaction with external parties allow vendors to view and update their status via web, while internally it allows 20 project managers allocate their resources across approximately 1000 projects.”

Leksmana Wardana, Division Head Project Assurance

their projects confidently, gives them better insight to help making decision faster. Project Managers can find status of projects requiring their approval, and they can take actions almost immediately, thanks to automated digital form now implemented in the PMIS.

Microsoft SharePointTM ServerSharePoint is the new way to work together. A simplified user experience helps you organize, sync, and share all your content. New social capabilities make it easy to share ideas, keep track of what your colleagues are working on, and discover experts you never knew existed.

For more information go towww.sharepoint.microsoft.com Microsoft Project Server SystemThe new Project Server 2013 and Project Online offer flexible solutions for project portfolio management (PPM) and everyday work, delivered either on-premises or as an online service. Enable your workforce to effectively execute with the intended business value to achieve strategic priorities with Project Server 2013. For more flexibility, take your PPM capabilities into the cloud with Project Online subscriptions through Office 365 as an always-up-to-date service with simplified IT management. Project Online and Project Online with Project Pro for Office 365 help your team deliver value from virtually anywhere.

For more information go to:aka.ms/project/success

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about Indosat products and services, call +62 21 5438 8888, 3000 3000, 3011 1111 or visit the website at: www.indosat.com

Software and Services Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft® Project Server− Microsoft® SharePointTM Server

Microsoft Office− Microsoft® Project Professional