Blue Ant is the 100% web-based project management software that supports you in the planning, regulation, evaluation and control of your projects.
The user interface is geared toward the process-oriented functions of project management. It focuses on navigation essentials and makes it easier for the user to accomplish their daily tasks. Regardless of their location, your project members will have access to a uniform and system-independent platform.
Using Web Services, Blue Ant can flexibly communicate with outside applications. Simple data interfaces and greater integration of work processes across multiple systems can be displayed using Blue Ant.
Test access and an online guide are available upon request via our website.
Project planning and controlling
Project planning
- Quick creation of a project using Assistants and Template Management
- Support of classical and agile planning methods
- Simple creation and modification of project plans in the style of Excel
- Import function of all project data from Templates, Projects and Excel
- Definition of standard, project or individual cost rates at the activity level
- Calculation methods (forwards/backwards), including critical paths and configurable conflict reports
- Creation of any basis plan based on current planning and/or any basis plans
- Limitless, comprehensive linking of activities in a multi-project structure
- Linking of documents with activities
- Planning interface to Microsoft Project
- Import interface with Microsoft Excel
- Predecessor-Successor-Relationships through drag and click
- Messaging function on completion of activities
- Zoom in and out functions, as well as the possibility of viewing selected periods
- Access to project plans as Gantt diagrams and network plans
- Internal/external performance settlement
- Activity transfer to MS Exchange
- Total- and single-risk management at the project or activity level
Budget and supply management
- Top-Down budget assignment for main and subprojects monetarily and/or in person days
- User-defined offers with freely definable status as Fixed Price or Time and Material Pricing
- Quotation value based on the project plan or freely definable positions
- Voucher proposals with payment deadlines for the settlement
Project Controlling
- Easily configurable status reports
- Generation of key figures (efficiency, profitability and earnings)
- Cockpit control over all relevant information, including linking
- Time and feasibility projections, Milestone Trend Analysis
- Performance overview using comparisons (Target, Planned, Base plan, Actual, Estimated)
- Tabular or graphic-amount and remaining-amount developments
- Cost and budget control
- Simple and quick configuration of planned values to estimated amounts
- Project Settlement recording for clients
- Modification directory for the whole project
- Archiving of projects
- Personal report generator
- Access to project information and data via Smartphone BlackBerry Curve 8310 and BlackBerry Pearl 8100
Resource Management
- Definition of working hour calendars/working hour models for employees
- Documentation of the firm’s available knowledge
- Resource/Application Planning, also available for freelancers
- Skill definition for all employees (Knowledge management)
- Search resources for necessary skills
- Automatic identification of reservation periods
- Quick, cyclical employee reservation through the Reservation Plan
- Employee simulation
- Employee, project and company forecast
- Querying and authorization of project resources
- Support of resource planning by the Resource Manager using desired skills
- Documentation of the change to a new department
- Contact management, including corporate organization and cost center structures
- Holiday and absence management, including approval policies
- Access to absence overviews via Smartphone BlackBerry Curve 8310 and BlackBerry Pearl 8100
- Levelling of holidays and absences with Microsoft Exchange
Knowledge management
Knowledge maps allow for a quick overview of the target profiles and actual skills of the employees.
When a new employee joins a project, their capabilities are entered into the system immediately using the “Employee Profile” function. The employee’s profile can easily be updated when the employee’s capabilities change.
- Free definition of the knowledge tree
- Creation of employees’ Target Profiles
- Allocation of skills and defined levels of the employees
- Search option via skills
- Document management at the project level
- Knowledge maps in the form of bars, grids or line charts
- Saved history of skill changes for development graphs
Document management
The document management function of Blue Ant makes it easier to administrate project-specific documents, which employees may create, change or delete during implementation. The documents will appear in a menu tree of headings to make them detectable using a search mechanism.
- Free filing structure for projects and templates
- Integration into projects at the push of a button
- Availability of all documents
- Linking of documents and activities
- Unlimited use of key words for quick access to documents
- Free granting of editing rights
- Versioning of all documents
Working time recording
The functions in Blue Ant allow for quick and easy feedback of completed working hours on projects and/or working packages.
- Working time measurement with calendar function and weekly overview
- Quick and exact recording with the Stopwatch function
- Reporting of weekly worked hours
- Recording and evaluation of estimated additional and remaining expenditures
- Record using “From/To” times or by entering “duration”
- Configurable overbooking of activities per project
- Use of cost centers to accurately account for worked hours
- Freely selectable release process for working times
- Deadline rule for working times
- Overtime ledger, including carry-over
Ticket System/Task Management
With Blue Ant’s integrated Ticket System, it is possible to collect, process and keep track of all open tasks, irrespective of whether they can be assigned to a project.
The fully-integrated Ticket System combines difficult-to-plan daily tasks with project management.
- Free workflow configuration, including responsibilities and notifications
- Illustration of Service Level Agreements, including support time, reaction and warning times, as well as billing category
- Escalation via Smartphone BlackBerry Curve 8310 and BlackBerry Pearl 8100
- Configuration of escalation and warning mechanisms
- Full integration in the working time recording, project management, evaluation and controlling
- Copying of tickets as activities within projects
Voucher and Travel Cost Recording
The development of the new voucher and travel cost recording makes detailed recording and allocation of vouchers and collective vouchers possible.
As of now, single vouchers can include VAT amounts, country-specific expenses or kilometer allowances. Consequently, by recording vouchers, travel costs can also be recorded and settled. Condensing multiple vouchers into collective vouchers maintains the clarity of the overview.
By allocating collective vouchers to projects and activities, these can be settled with the current module within the Project Settlement. The flexible integration of additional controls for certain collective vouchers, such as bookkeeping and back office, ensures that entire collective vouchers are correctly recorded and checked.
- Free definition of collective vouchers and voucher types
- Individual workflows for collective voucher types
- Free configuration and controls
- Country-specific expenses, kilometre allowances and VAT amounts and their histories
- Simple updates for expenses and kilometre allowances using Import
- Quick and simple recording of voucher and travel costs by employees
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Easy settlement for voucher and travel costs in Project Settlement
Project Settlement
At the touch of a button, you are able to monitor the billable and open activities of a project.
If you require proof of the accomplished work and incurred costs of a project for your invoice, you simply need to use the Invoice function (Project Settlement) in Blue Ant. The Project Settlement function automates the data collection and accounting for all related cost items (labour, equipment and travel expenses).
The Invoice function allows you to select all project costs for a specific billing period. You can also choose the range and the content of the activity performance. The turnovers are automatically assigned to your project’s account. Using this, project heads get access to an overview of their projects’ profit situations.
- Selection of all settlement-related costs
- Configuration and editing of settlement data at the field level
- All-inclusive or automatic Project Settlements
- Issue of an Project Settlement in PDF format
Controlling
At the touch of a button you can receive departmental or company-wide workload, as well as preliminary planning of any of your employees, in graphic or tabular form. All projects (main and subprojects) of the company can, with the use of the main target/ plan/actual figures, be displayed and then compared to one another.
- Substantial, cross-project forecast overviews
- Possibility of different views, e.g. at the company, project or staff level
- Numerical and graphical representations
- Projected additional expenditures
- Expenditure and residual expenditure developments
- Various reports and queries
· Cost and budget
· Budget management
· Project labour costs
· Employee labour costs
· Amount of work
· Base plan evaluation
· Progress development
· Forecast
· Cost centre evaluation
· Client turnover
· Staff activities
- Access to various reports to the Smartphones BlackBerry Curve 8310 and BlackBerry Pearl 8100
Administration
User Interface
- 100% web-based
- Intuitive operation
- Access to Smartphone BlackBerry Curve 8310 and BlackBerry Pearl 8100
- Customize individual settings on the Welcome page
- Quick data supply by AJAX- Technology
- Optional language and format settings (date, time, duration)
- Simple and advanced search functions, as well as predefined search settings
- User-defined configurations of screens and tables
- Compact data overview through the use of file cards
- Dynamic adjustment of all graphics within the browser window
- Full screen function for complex illustrations
- Complete adaptation of all texts, fields etc. to the language of your company
- Adapts to the corporate identity of your company
- Freely definable menu options
Enhanced customizing
- Configurable workflows
- Master data management
- Individual settings for each employee
- DMS and project templates
- LDAP or ActiveX configuration
- SSO configuration
- Project settings
- Accessibility of report generators
User Rights Management
- User-defined allocation for users and user groups
- Individual storage of project-related user rights
- Access to the history of rights allocations
- Definition of visibility of employee, project and controlling data for every employee through the internal organizational structure
- Limitless use of alias user names
- Extra access rights for Web Services
- Import/export of rights groups and their profiles
Interfaces
- Smartphone BlackBerry Curve 8310 and BlackBerry Pearl 8100
- Web Services
- Data exchange via XML
- Microsoft Project interface
- Activity import via Excel
- Mircosoft-Exchange Server 2007 SPI
- LDAP/ActiveDirectory connection for user authentication
- SSO-access over Open-SAML
- Export all of data to PDF, HTML and CSV (Excel)
- E-Mail
- Direct jumps as links in theme-oriented areas of Blue Ant
- Integration of Wiki, forums or other applications by freely definable menu options with parameter transfer
- Various Add-Ons
Management, project head and project controlling of small sized and medium sized companies as well as in single departments of big corporations. Blue Ant is business neutrally applicable.
