Successful Implementation of Blue Ant Project Management Software

How nowhow solutions AG Optimized Project Management and Time Tracking

Theo Pfaff has been a key part of the company’s project management for about 12 years. He introduced Blue Ant at the end of 2012, and since then the solution has been used operationally at nowhow solutions.
We took the opportunity to ask Theo Pfaff to share his long-term experience with us and our clients.

Your clients are very diverse – and so is your project landscape. Do you use Blue Ant exclusively for managing client projects, or also for internal projects?

Both. Of course, the focus is on client projects, including project structure plans and resource planning. But we also manage internal functions in Blue Ant. Internally, we mainly use Blue Ant for time tracking, including absences and vacation. Overall, we align internal and external activities to keep all deadlines under control.

How long do your projects usually run, and how many do you manage in parallel?

Last year, we handled about 40 client projects. Smaller ones involve around 50 person-days, medium-sized projects range from 50 to 150, and large projects go up to about 300 to 400 person-days. Organizing all of this and making optimal use of resources is definitely “no small task.”

You have been working with Blue Ant for many years. Looking back, why did you start looking for project management software in the first place? What was the main reason?

At that time, we used a small in-house solution for time tracking. Additionally, all planning-related information was stored in a wiki-based system. Keeping everything in view was the biggest challenge. It was time to finally capture everything in a single system.

Time tracking is a crucial basis for billing and post-calculation. Moreover, we had no reliable way to monitor and control workload across all projects and functions.

Why did you choose Blue Ant? What criteria were decisive?

Ultimately, Blue Ant met our needs the best and could integrate with our wiki. Most importantly, it offered single-project planning, resource planning across all projects, and time tracking as a basis for billing. After thorough evaluation, we concluded that Blue Ant was the best choice for us.

Do you remember the implementation? How did you launch and make the software operational?

We decided to install Blue Ant on-premises – that is, within our IT infrastructure – using the manuals for setup and configuration. This was followed by a two-day introduction training in Bern, conducted by one of your employees.

In the first part, all employees were involved, while the second part focused mainly on project managers and line supervisors. Together, we also reviewed the configuration and made any necessary adjustments.

What typical scenarios does Blue Ant help you with in daily project work?

First, it’s about setting up a project according to our standards and establishing functions. Project structure plans can be created quickly – this is typical at the start.

Next comes resource planning, which we do on a monthly basis. Although we communicate a lot in person, key decisions are made transparently in Blue Ant – adjustments, reductions, reallocations, etc.

Another typical scenario: monthly assignment of tasks, i.e., deployment planning. And of course, daily time tracking. All employees log their activities daily in Blue Ant, broken down by project and function.

Do you also use the absence management features, like vacation planning?

Yes, vacation planning is handled through Blue Ant. At the beginning of each year, we set the entitlement and vacation allowances. Employees then request vacation, and supervisors approve it – everything runs smoothly. We manage it entirely according to Blue Ant guidelines.

Many clients use Blue Ant in combination with other products. Data exchange and interfaces become important then. Do you have similar requirements?

We use Redmine as our ticket and incident management system, which is integrated into our wiki platform. Tickets usually contain manually entered information for each task – there is no interface.

An interface to Blue Ant would be helpful so we could better estimate remaining effort. Currently, this information is in Redmine but not transferred to Blue Ant.

Comment from Blue Ant: Good to know! There are definitely solutions for this. Various connectors exist for data exchange. Specifically, there are connectors for Jira that support remaining effort estimation. It is actually possible. We can find a way to regularly read these data so they can be transferred from your issue tracking system to Blue Ant.

The administrative effort required to operate such software is often asked about. Can you summarize it briefly?

The main effort is at the beginning, during setup and configuration. It’s all about adapting the system to the company’s individual needs. We completed this within about two months, but not full-time. Otherwise, the effort is manageable. The main tasks are monthly resource planning and status reports.

All in all, processes run very smoothly, and everyone knows what to do.

Regarding updates and service patches: What is your update strategy? Do you follow regular updates, irregular updates, or annual versions?

About four years ago, we decided to update Blue Ant only once a year. So far, we have installed the LTS version in spring when it is released. We currently use version 23.0.0. However, we are starting to doubt if this is the best strategy. Some issues that arise are already fixed in newer versions – we still report them as tickets.

We may, in the future, not use the LTS version immediately upon release. Instead, we might wait for one or two updates and then install a slightly later version, e.g., 23.0.2. Our goal would then be to run it for a year without further updates – unless it’s critical.

Comment from Blue Ant: For those unfamiliar with the terminology: LTS stands for Long-Term Support version. This means the customer uses a version for one year. Only critical errors – i.e., those that disrupt work or risk data loss – are fixed in this version. Other fixes and new features are included in the rolling release. If using rolling release, updates can be postponed but must be caught up later, which may cause more effort.

A few words about collaboration with Hypergene, support, colleagues, and consulting. How does it work?

When we have an issue, we try to solve it ourselves first. If we can’t, we create a ticket. Response times are very good, and we receive quick answers. Some requests can be resolved immediately, while others take longer – that’s just software.

Sometimes it seems that functions we frequently use are missing in a new release. We are software developers ourselves and understand that not all features can be retained, but it is a bit disappointing.

Overall, we always find a solution. Blue Ant supports us very well, and we can work efficiently with the software.

Thank you for the very open interview, and we wish you continued success with your Blue Ant solution!