Manpower Tools now released. A4 MPPS 2008 includes Silverlight Dynamic Charts within Groove 2007

A4 release a revised solution for 2008.

The A4 Manpower Planning Solution 2008 (A4 MPPS 2008) provide project planners, team leaders and workgroups with enhanced manpower planning decision-making capabilities.  Planners can seamlessly and optimally manage the entire manpower planning one solution across a vast number of staff and project assignments.

A4 MPPS 2008 resolves the complexity in manpower across teams.  The functionality includes:

• Project Value calculations
• Contact Management
• Project Assignments
• Monthly Loading
• Availability Loading
• Overload Loading
• Annualised and Monthly Viewing
• Graphing via SilverLight

The solution includes many advances planning features such as:

• Manual monthly assignment slippage (sliding assignments by one month to ensure incomplete assignment are reassigned to next month)
• Batch assignments and re-calculations to support automation monthly assignment slippage
• Replication of assigment data to ease tasking

This solution is robust and does allow total simplification of man power planning.  The solution supports project, staff and business area views of the assignments plus the Staff Summary Reports (show below) which provides direct access to the assignment sheets, graphing and data for export to Excel.

A4 MPPS 2008 is available via Activity4, for pricing and training please contact John on www.activity4.com.

Drop down (SELECT OPTION) menus in Groove 2007

Over the last year I have had to build a few custom solutions that require the following when using the Groove Form Drop Down Menu object. Features required

• Ability to type ahead… so, you can type the name of an option
• Sorted options
• Ability to ensure you retain the Groove data in options when using Groove Lookups
• Color in the menus
• Default options at the top of the Option list
• and… all of these options can be used selectively.

I have now created an set of functions that support the above methods.  You simply add to you OAS function, stating the Option list you wish to enable and it the function does the rest.

Send me an email if you want the function.

Silverlight 2.## working within Groove 2007

I have finally found time to look at Silverlight 2.## and get it working!!!  I have created a sample workspace to show the basic features.

Projects in progress for Silverlight with Groove are numerous!   Bring on the SDK!!!!

Download the sample workspace from here

See Groove Advisor: The Groove Blog : MVP's discuss the future of Microsoft Office Groove

See the latest MVP debate about Groove here.

Current List of Groove Custom Form Bugs/Features

See http://groove.tumblr.com/private/32610449/o5LQpvFBC858n7g3wM7ON6Xj

MVP Summit 2008

I recently attended the 2008 MVP Summit, a great event.  Well organised and a privilege to be with the Microsoft team and like minded MVPs.

I attended as many sessions as possible and I attend the Exec Session on Thursday.  My feedback on this session is markedly different from the reports on recent blogs.  I have a different takeaway from the headlines at Mary Jo Foley’s recap of the MVP Summit keynote session with Steve Ballmer and Ray Ozzie (see here).  A spin on the same story:

The MVPs who were questioning Ray and Steve were trying to ‘lead the witness’. 

The MVPs were challenging Ray and Steve to open up regarding the Groove story.  The MVPs were in a privileged position in terms of the level of technical details of the Groove roadmap and where attempting to get the story told in the open session. 

This story may have been different if Ray and Steve knew the atomic level details of the Groove roadmap.  I would not expect this of an executive.  They know the high level Groove roadmap, and they may have set very clear goals for the development teams – one of these goals includes not disclosing product plans until the product scope Quality stage gate has been completed.

Any questioning of the execs regarding Groove would have had a similar impact. 

Would a positive story have been told if the execs had been more informative?   

Or, if they had provided more detail? 

Time will tell, if the blogs were right about the lack of a  Microsoft game plan for Groove. Only time…..