September 30 is getting closer.
For organizations still using Microsoft Project Online, that date has been on the calendar for a while. But knowing a deadline is coming and being ready for it are two very different things.
Maybe your migration has taken longer than expected. Maybe you were counting on an extension that didn’t come through. Or procurement slowed things down. Or maybe your organization still hasn’t decided what to replace Project Online with.
Whatever brought you here, the problem is the same: you probably don’t have enough time left to complete a full migration before Project Online retires.
That doesn’t mean you have to lose the projects, configurations, reporting, and other work you’ve spent years building.
Advisicon’s Rapid Rescue for Project Online helps organizations preserve critical Project Online assets before retirement. Basically, buying you time to make the right long-term decision instead of a rushed one.
What Is Project Online Rapid Rescue?
Rapid Rescue is exactly what the name suggests: a focused effort to secure the Project Online information and assets your organization needs to protect while there’s still time to access them.
It is not a rushed, one-size-fits-all migration into whatever platform can be implemented fastest.
Instead, we first look at your existing Project Online environment, identify the critical assets that need to be preserved, and determine the appropriate approach for securing them.
Once those assets are protected, you have room to make a more thoughtful decision about what comes next.
Because the retirement deadline should determine when you protect your data, not which technology your organization uses for the next several years.
What Can Rapid Rescue Preserve?
Every Project Online environment is different, so the exact scope of a Rapid Rescue depends on how your organization uses the platform. Advisicon can help assess and preserve assets including:
Project Schedules
Your project plans represent years of planning, decisions, dependencies, and historical work. We can export and preserve Project Online schedules so they’re protected and available for future use.
Enterprise Configurations
Project Online is more than a collection of schedules. Your environment may contain years of configuration that reflects how your organization actually manages projects.
Rapid Rescue can capture important enterprise settings such as custom fields, Enterprise Project Types, calendars, views, filters, groupings, security settings, groups, categories, and other key configurations.
Enterprise Resources
Your enterprise resource pool and its related information can also be preserved, helping retain the structure you’ve built around resource management.
Project Sites and Documents
Project-related SharePoint sites may contain documents and other content your teams still need. We can evaluate the environment and determine how those assets should be preserved for continued access.
Power BI Reports
If you’ve invested in customized Power BI reports and dashboards connected to Project Online, those reporting assets matter too.
Because Project Online’s underlying data connections won’t simply transfer to every future environment. Reports may ultimately need to be rebuilt or reconnected. Rapid Rescue helps secure the existing reporting assets so they can be evaluated and adapted for the solution you choose next.
Custom Workflows
Organizations may also have custom workflows that have become an important part of their project management processes.
We can assess and document existing workflows, including their processes, inputs, outputs, and supporting code, so that functionality can later be recreated, modernized, or redeployed in the appropriate future environment.
Depending on your organization’s Project Online use, there may be additional information worth preserving as well. The first step is understanding what’s actually in your environment and what you can’t afford to leave behind.
Your Data Is Safe. Now Choose Your Future.
Preserving your Project Online investment solves the immediate problem.
Then you can solve the bigger one.
What should replace Project Online?
There isn’t one right answer for every organization. Your future environment might include Project Server Subscription Edition, a Microsoft-based PPM solution, Altus, OnePlan, Project Desktop, another PPM platform, or an entirely different approach.
The important thing is that you shouldn’t have to choose based solely on which option you can implement before a deadline.
Once your critical assets are secured, Advisicon can help you evaluate your requirements, compare solution and licensing costs, determine migration and implementation needs, plan training and adoption, and build a transition path that makes sense for your organization.
In other words: rescue what matters now. Decide what comes next with the time and information to do it well.
Is Rapid Rescue Right for Your Organization?
Rapid Rescue may be a good fit if:
Even if you already know where you’re headed, Rapid Rescue may help bridge the gap between Project Online retirement and a complete implementation of your future environment.
Why Advisicon?
When time is short, Project Online experience matters.
Advisicon has decades of Microsoft Project and project management technology expertise. We’ve helped organizations navigate complex Project environments, migrations, implementations, reporting, integrations, and modernization efforts across a wide range of business needs.
That means we’re not simply looking at Project Online as a database to export. We understand the schedules, configurations, resources, reports, workflows, and business processes behind it, and how those pieces may need to function in whatever comes next.
Don’t Wait Until Project Online Is Gone
If your organization isn’t going to complete its Project Online migration before retirement, waiting doesn’t create more options. It reduces them.
The sooner we can review your environment, the sooner we can determine what needs to be protected and build a Rapid Rescue plan around your situation.
You don’t need to have your entire migration strategy figured out today.
You do need to protect the work you want to take with you.
