Cincom UK’s new multi-user project management system, CPCS, operates in both DEC and IBM environments and runs on DEC MicroVAXs and IBM mainframes. It was jointly developed by Cincom’s operations in the UK, West Germany, and US, and is written in a combination of Cincom’s proprietary language, Mantis, and assembler. Cincom says that the history of information technology projects shows a lack of guidance and only a very small percentage are completed within timescales and budget. The company cites the contract between Electronic Data Systems and the All State Insurance Company as an example of how project management can go awry. In 1982, EDS was commissioned to automate the company operations, and the project was scheduled to run for five years at a cost of $8m. The completion date has now been shifted to 1993, at an estimated cost of $100m. Cincom says that projects may fail because of over-optimism, external changes such as government regulations, and lack of communications between departmental and project managers. The company claims that the Cincom Project Control System acts as a support and control mechanism to provide an umbrella over computer departments. CPCS is made up of several components including resource management, project planning, modelling, integrated documentation, on-line reports, and graphics. The shared resource management facility enables assignment across multiple projects and departments, a skills inventory and updateable experience rating, and on-line reporting. Project planning allows what if scenarios, real-time progress and exception monitoring, and inter-project dependencies. The Model Support feature includes a methodology enabler, model paralleling, and the copy of projects, models, and phases. Documentation includes specifications, forms, and the explosion or implosion of a document structure. Reports can be created by using Cincom’s Spectra query writer, and there is on-line access to all data. The cost of CPCS varies according to the hardware configuration, but a version for MicroVAX is UKP15,000, and for a top-end IBM mainframe, it’s around the UKP70,000 mark. Cincom shivered a little at the outlook after ownership of its major NetMaster product line passed to Systems Center Inc earlier this year, but now faces the NetMasterless future with confidence, saying that far from leading to a 15% slump in turnover this year, the loss of NetMaster shouldn’t make much difference to overall 1990 turnover as other products grow to fill the gap.
