Multiproject Management Software
Rillsoft Cloud is the hosted operation mode of the Rillsoft Integration Server and brings multi-project management for project-oriented industrial companies with 20 to 200 employees onto a shared platform with a German server location. The planning interface remains the Rillsoft Project desktop client; the portfolio-wide view of all projects, multi-user operation and cross-project capacity matching run through the Rillsoft Integration Server operated by Rillsoft. Project leads and management can see at any time which projects are realistically feasible in parallel with the available resource pool — and which need to be deferred or re-prioritised.
Focus on Multiproject Management
Multiproject management (MPM) is a demanding discipline. Unlike traditional project management, where a project manager leads and monitors a single project, multiproject management deals with coordinating and overseeing multiple projects simultaneously. It focuses not only on individual projects but also on their interactions and interdependencies.
A Project portfolio in multiproject management software refers to the totality of all ongoing, planned, and completed projects within a company or organization. This allows for organizing, managing, and strategically aligning projects to support corporate goals.
The challenges of multiproject management software are diverse, including:
Project Portfolio Management (PPM)
Companies must ensure that their projects support the strategic goals of the company. Project portfolio management software allows organizing projects within a portfolio and ensuring they align with the overall strategy. This helps concentrate resources on the most important projects.
Project prioritization in multiproject management is crucial to ensure that resources are directed towards the most critical projects. This function allows evaluating projects based on their goals, benefits, and strategic significance and planning them accordingly.
Portfolio Planning
Milestones and Project Timelines
Defining milestones and project timelines is crucial to track progress and ensure projects are completed on time.
Cross-project links
As projects often depend on each other, it’s essential to model and monitor these dependencies within the software to avoid delays.
In multiproject management software, projects can be linked to visualize dependencies and relationships between them. Cross-project links facilitate project planning and coordination.
Time Tracking, Gantt Charts, and Network Diagrams
The ability to accurately track working hours and represent projects in Gantt charts provides a clear view of project progress. This allows for timely responses to delays and adherence to schedules.
Resource Management in Multiproject Planning
Resource Planning and Allocation
Efficient resource utilization is critical for project success. With Rillsoft Cloud, companies can effectively plan and allocate resources like personnel, budgets, and equipment to avoid bottlenecks and optimize project execution. Central data storage on the Rillsoft Integration Server ensures that all projects draw from the same resource pool, making double bookings and over-allocations visible across projects.
Multiproject Capacity Planning enables companies to effectively manage the availability of resources such as employees, budgets, and equipment. This function helps prevent overloads and ensures optimal resource distribution across various projects. Capacities are planned on the basis of roles and qualifications even before specific people are assigned.
Reporting
Reporting and Real-time Views
The ability to access real-time data and reports on the progress and status of all projects within a portfolio is a key feature of project portfolio control software. This facilitates communication and swift decision-making at the management level.
Rillsoft Cloud offers powerful analysis and reporting in multiproject management to track the progress, status, and performance of all projects in the portfolio. This enables informed decisions based on real-time data.
Cost Management
Controlling project costs is a central aspect of multiproject management. The software assists in budgeting, tracking, and reporting project costs to ensure projects stay within the specified budget.
Risk Management
Identification and management of risks are crucial for project success. Multiproject management software allows for documenting, assessing, and taking measures to mitigate risks.
Project Documentation
Comprehensive project documentation is essential for traceability and knowledge exchange. The software should provide the ability to centrally store and easily access all relevant documents.
Agile Project Management
The software should offer the option to integrate agile methods, such as Scrum, into multiproject management to adapt to changing requirements and market dynamics.
Multiproject management software for agile project management is designed to support agile project management methods. It enables flexible planning, implementation, and adaptation of projects in an agile environment and promotes team collaboration.
The Difference between Project Management and Multiproject Management
It is important to emphasize that project management and multiproject management are two distinct approaches, even though they share similar principles. Traditional project management focuses on leading and monitoring a single project. The project manager is responsible for planning, executing, and completing this project.
In contrast, multiproject management deals with coordinating multiple projects simultaneously. It is not only about successfully completing each project but also ensuring that all projects align with corporate goals and are executed with optimized resources. This requires a higher level of strategic planning and coordination.
A multiproject management solution is specifically designed to meet these complex requirements. It provides a comprehensive view of all ongoing projects and allows for optimizing resources, schedules, and budgets across projects.
Alternative project portfolios allow users to create and compare different scenarios and alternative project portfolios. This helps decision-makers better understand how different project compositions would impact the overall strategy.
Advantages of a multiproject management software like Rillsoft Cloud
Using Rillsoft Cloud for multiproject management brings a variety of benefits:
Efficiency Enhancement
Rillsoft Cloud automates many tasks, reduces manual effort, and increases efficiency in project planning and execution.
Project Portfolio Management Suggestions are integrated recommendations and best practices for strategically aligning the project portfolio within the software. These assist decision-makers in selecting the right projects and implementing strategic goals.
Better Resource Utilization
By optimally allocating resources, companies can use Rillsoft Cloud to avoid bottlenecks and ensure that crucial projects are prioritized.
Improved Decision-Making
Real-time data in the form of views in Rillsoft Project allows executives to make informed decisions based on current information.
Risk Reduction
Rillsoft Cloud provides early detection of risks and the ability to take measures to mitigate them, significantly reducing project risks.
Enhanced Communication
As a hosted platform, Rillsoft Cloud facilitates communication and collaboration between team members, project managers, and executives — also across multiple sites.
Strategic Alignment
The ability to plan and monitor projects in line with the corporate strategy supports long-term business development.
German Server Location
Your portfolio data is hosted in German data centers, with no need for your company to build or operate its own server infrastructure.
In an increasingly complex business world, multiproject management has become a crucial factor for success. Especially for mid-sized industrial companies with 20 to 200 employees that regularly run five to fifty projects in parallel, the portfolio-wide capacity view becomes the decisive competitive advantage. Rillsoft Cloud bundles this view in a platform hosted by Rillsoft with a German server location, built on the multi-tenant Rillsoft Integration Server and the Rillsoft Project desktop client as the central planning interface.
Operation modes: Rillsoft Project, Rillsoft Integration Server and Rillsoft Cloud
Rillsoft’s multiproject management works through three components designed to work together:
- Rillsoft Project (desktop client) – the central planning interface for project leads and multiproject planners. This is where activities, dependencies, roles, qualifications and efforts per project are entered.
- Rillsoft Integration Server – the central platform component for shared data storage, multi-user operation, the portfolio view and cross-project capacity matching. Suitable for companies that want to run the server in their own infrastructure.
- Rillsoft Cloud – the hosted operation mode of the Integration Server with a German server location, operated by Rillsoft. Suitable for mid-sized industrial companies with 20 to 200 employees that run several projects in parallel, do not want to operate their own server infrastructure and are looking for a fast entry point into multi-tenant multiproject management.
FAQ
What is the difference between project management and multiproject management in Rillsoft Cloud?
Classic project management focuses on steering one project at a time: schedules, tasks, efforts, status. Multiproject management in Rillsoft Cloud adds a second layer: the entire project portfolio. You see all running, planned and completed projects together, evaluate dependencies between them and match the demand of all projects against a shared resource pool. Bottlenecks, double bookings and unrealistic deadlines become visible before they turn into problems.
When does classic project management stop being enough and when do I need multiproject management with Rillsoft Cloud?
As soon as your company runs several projects in parallel that share the same workforce, the same qualifications or the same machines, a single-project view is no longer sufficient. Typical triggers are: deadlines slip without an obvious reason, the same person ends up scheduled in two projects at once, or new projects are committed to without anyone knowing the impact on the portfolio. Rillsoft Cloud surfaces these conflicts across projects and enables resource-realistic prioritisation.
Which companies is multiproject management with Rillsoft Cloud suitable for?
Rillsoft Cloud is aimed at project-oriented mid-sized companies with 20 to 200 employees, primarily industrial companies in the DACH region that typically run five to fifty projects in parallel. The platform is not designed for pure enterprise PPM scenarios with hundreds of large projects and SAP integration, but for mid-market structures where project management, line management and the executive level need to share the same portfolio view.
Which platform components do I need for multiproject management with Rillsoft Cloud?
You need Rillsoft Project as the desktop client — it remains the central planning interface and provides Gantt charts, network diagrams, resource views and the entry of all project data. The portfolio-wide view, shared data storage and cross-project capacity matching run through the Rillsoft Integration Server. Rillsoft Cloud is the hosted variant of the Integration Server, operated by Rillsoft with a German server location, so you can start immediately with several projects and several planners without building your own server.
How does the multi-tenant architecture of Rillsoft Cloud support multiproject management?
The Rillsoft Integration Server is multi-tenant: several customers can use the same hosted server without their data being mixed. Within your organisation, the multi-tenant model also allows separate portfolios per site, subsidiary or business unit — with a central management view and fine-grained access control on individual projects. This way you can grow without reorganising the server landscape.
How does Rillsoft Cloud multiproject management differ from enterprise PPM tools (Planview, Clarity, Microsoft Project Web)?
Enterprise PPM suites such as Planview, Clarity or Microsoft Project Web are designed for large organisations with a central PMO, hundreds of projects and several hundred users. They come with correspondingly high licence costs, lengthy rollout projects and deep ERP integrations. Rillsoft Cloud sets a different priority: a hosted Rillsoft Integration Server with a server location in Germany, the Rillsoft Project desktop client as the planning interface and a multi-project capacity planning that makes bottlenecks visible before any specific person is assigned. This fits mid-sized industrial companies with 20 to 200 employees that run five to fifty projects in parallel.
Which cloud advantages does Rillsoft Cloud provide specifically for multiproject management?
In multiproject management what counts above all is the shared data basis: all project managers, planners and supervisors work on the same resource pool and see the same plan-versus-actual state. In Rillsoft Cloud this shared data storage runs through the Rillsoft-hosted Integration Server in German data centres – without you having to build, operate and secure a multi-user server yourself. Updates of the Integration Server are included in the subscription price, and new sites or business units can be connected without an infrastructure project.
Where is my portfolio and project data stored in Rillsoft Cloud, and how is GDPR compliance handled?
All portfolio, project and resource data is stored and operated in Rillsoft Cloud exclusively in German data centres. Rillsoft operates the cloud platform itself and signs a data processing agreement (DPA / 'AVV') in accordance with Art. 28 GDPR with every customer; access rights, transmission paths, retention periods as well as technical and organisational measures (TOMs) are documented in the DPA. The multi-tenant architecture of the Rillsoft Integration Server ensures strict separation of the multiproject data of different customers.