Some months back, I heard back from a prospective client that they were still waiting for feedback from their core team before deciding to acquire the Acumen Fuse toolset. They were presently contracting out the Schedule Analysis to a third-party contractor.
A good business case study is part of the development process to a possible acquisition of anything that can grow and improve existing project investments. I went through the same rudiments while working in the Central Team of another big firm. We ended purchasing five licenses of Deltek Acumen Fuse, a decision that proved to be wise due to the following (but not limited to):
1) Ownership, self-reliance, and effective Governance
2) Capability to develop our own customized and in-house, fully-vetted Schedule Quality and Performance Metrics that every scheduler and contractor use and follows. It resulted in a more streamlined approach to qualifying our schedule.
3) Acquisition translated to a verified increase in efficiency, savings, and work productivity in the range of about 500% to 800% compared to the previous state.
4) It resulted in improved client's confidence due to first-hand knowledge of the inner workings of the toolset—the increased reliability led to better management of schedule quality.
5) Cross-checking capability. We believe in the saying, "Trust but verify." Many are not yet aware that Acumen Fuse is an excellent Forensic tool. It is one of the primary reasons I have recommended the same to many of my peers in the industry. No contractor, no one can play around with any of your schedule information without you knowing it. It can detect changes in dates, description, deletion, change in criticality, de-actualizing progress, etc.
6) Fuse can handle the quality assessment of portfolio projects periodically with ease. I have analyzed 55 to 65+ projects every month for a year with ease. It typically takes me an hour to complete all of them. This kind of assessment will take several days if done through Primavera P6 manually or some semi-automatic means. I don't know of any other application that comes close to Acumen Fuse. The tool is excellent for a project that has several associated schedules to monitor and assess.
7) Finally, owning Fuse creates a knowledge set and expertise that will become invaluable to the company when maintained within its tool arsenal.
I hope the above can help those making a purchase decision. Given the above, note that I based the above statements on my first-hand experience as a User of Acumen Fuse.
If anyone is interested in Fuse and wants to know more, you can get in touch with me. You can also send a query e-mail to PM Solution Pro using consultant@pmsolutionpro.com. Make sure to put on the subject line, Query: Deltek Acumen.
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About the Author
Rufran C. Frago is the Founder of PM Solution Pro, a Calgary consulting, product, and training services firm focusing on project and business management solutions. He is passionate providing advice, mentorship, education and training through consultation, collaboration, and what he uniquely calls, student-led training.
BOOKS AUTHORED BY RUFRAN FRAGO
- Risk-based Management in the World of Threats and Opportunities: A Project Controls Perspective.ISBN 978-0-9947608-0-7.Canada
- Plan to Schedule, Schedule to Plan.ISBN 978-0-9947608-2-1.Canada
- How to Create a Good Quality P50 Risk-based Baseline Schedule.ISBN 978-0-9947608-1-4.Canada
- Schedule Quantitative Risk Analysis (Traditional Method).ISBN 978-0-9947608-3-8.Canada
- RISK, What are you? The Risk Management Poem: Children's Book for all Professionals.ISBN 978-0-9947608-4-5 (Canada)