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Planifi: Budget, forecast, and monitor Planifi founder J.J. Brantingham goes into detail about what makes Project Analyzer a must-have software for any project manager or executive. P R O F I L E
By LISSA ANDREASSEN Correspondent
ANALYZING PROJECT ANALYZER Wantman Group Inc. (West Palm Beach, FL), a 243-person multidisciplinary consulting firm, now forecasts revenues, expenses, and personnel needs more accurately, further into the future. In spring of 2012, Wantman Group had a good problem: Several big survey contracts each promised fees approaching $800,000, but as many as 400 field days of work all seemed to land in July. Fortunately, the multidisciplinary engineering firm’s project managers and executives gained a clear view of the schedule and its staffing needs. The Project Analyzer software made it easy. Project Analyzer showed the company that they would need to double their eight survey crews, to 16. It gave them 12 weeks to get trucks and prepare crews instead of leasing equipment and subcontracting the work, as they would have done in the past. Reliable data gave lead-time to make a significant investment in staff and capital equipment. Opinions confuse, but facts convince. executives the confidence and
I t’s called Project Analyzer, and it’s pretty hot stuff. Why? What can it do? In a nutshell, the Planifi Project Analyzer software allows architecture and en- gineering project managers and executives to make more informed decisions about schedules, staffing, and budgets. A single, comprehensive view of fore- casts and actual costs provides information in time to act upon it. “Project Analyzer enables firms to project resource needs further into the future to enable more effective planning ... They can also plan opportunities and active projects and view weighted projections in a single view to enable a firm to more accurately forecast future dollars and staffing needs.” We wanted to get a better understanding of the nuts and bolts, so we dug a little deeper and talked with J.J. Brantingham, Planifi’s founder. A CONVERSATION WITH BRANTINHAM. The Zweig Letter: What types of firms would benefit most from Project Ana- lyzer (small, large, all, etc.)? J.J. Brantingham: Basically, any firms that are trying to manage all their proj- ects in Excel or other tools, and often working with old or no real-time data. We offer those firms a simple process to manage their projects and staff, set profit-
J.J. Brantingham, Founder, Planifi.
ability targets, and forecast their needs. TZL: What are some of its best features? JJB: There are four that really stand out:
1)Visual. Most of our customers do design for a living and are very visual, so Project Analyzer contains a number of informative charts and graphs to convey informa- tion. 2)Efficient. Project Analyzer enables PMs to plan in summary and when needed add the necessary details, so they are not forced to spend time entering details that they aren’t wanting to maintain. 3)Target profit. Project Analyzer enables a firm to adjust target profit on a fee by fee basis and plan accordingly to ensure that target profit objectives are met 4)Forecast. If firms take that small step to just plan and schedule their projects at a high level, we combine all that data into firm wide forecasts on projects, billing, and staffing to give decision makers the information they need. TZL: What sets your product apart from competition? JJB: Here too, there are a few: We are focused only on the A/E industry and specifically firms that focus on the See PLANIFI, page 8
THE ZWEIG LETTER DECEMBER 7, 2015, ISSUE 1130
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