3 Big Benefits of Using the Project Center in NetSuite OpenAir

Professional services organizations are constantly evolving, and so are the tools that help support them. NetSuite OpenAir offers regular updates and added features that help users work more efficiently while keeping businesses aligned through reporting and visibility.

The Project Center within OpenAir is just one example of continual feature improvements. Over the last several releases, the Project Center has been an evolving feature within the platform and one that Oracle NetSuite appears to be invested in. It’s easy to see why – the OpenAir Project Center combines both project management and bookings into a single view, streamlining updates, booking and task creation, and edits.

Companies need to overcome a few hurdles to get Project Center working within their OpenAir implementation, so it’s natural to wonder if it’s worth it. We believe it is. There are several benefits your professional services organization gains when using Project Center, three of which we share here.

Setting Up the Project Center in OpenAir

Unfortunately, using the OpenAir Project Center is not just a matter of sitting down and clicking into the view – at least, not at first. Project Center requires some setup before you can optimally use it.

First and foremost, it’s important to know that you must be using the latest UI of OpenAir to take advantage of the Project Center feature. If you haven’t already moved to the new UI, let Project Center be the catalyst for that update. At some point – and we believe it will be sooner than later – NetSuite will require all users to be on the new UI, so there is no time like the present.

In addition to the UI requirement, Project Center requires some system configuration before use. Things like the Project Center outline view and booking worksheet feature must be set up within the platform, along with associated role permissions associated with the settings. There are optional settings, including inline editing and list view options, that make using Project Center even more useful. We discuss the various system changes that are required and which are recommended in our webinar, Are you Benefiting from the Project Center in OpenAir?

3 Benefits of OpenAir’s Project Center

As discussed in our webinar, there are many great reasons to turn Project Center on in your OpenAir instance. Here are just a few.

Quickly Edit Bookings for a Project

There is something to be said for the time savings of seeing the project and booking information all in one place. That’s one of the most powerful things that Project Center brings to the table. But it’s not just seeing both together. Project Center allows you to add bookings at the project level, too.

Adding and editing bookings and setting booking types can now all be done without context switching within the application. Once edited, the changes are updated and saved on the backend into the native booking data. Similar bookings can also be grouped together in the view, with each occupying its own line for clarity and simplified editing access.

Consolidated Project and Resource Management

For some organizations, project and resource management are handled by the same person and across projects. The Project Center offers a single window pane into both. Beyond that, it makes it possible to manage and update projects, resources, and even tasks easily.

New tasks can be added and edited at the project and resource levels. Tasks can be reorganized with a drag and drop interface and inline editing is supported once the appropriate settings have been added. Task and project management at this level go all the way back up to milestones, which can also be viewed, edited, and reorganized dynamically.

Streamlined Project Schedule Updates

Keeping project tasks, schedules, and bookings in line can be strenuous. However, Project Center automatically updates the schedules based on bookings.

For instance, imaging that part of the project requires four different resources and is baselined at five days. The resources that you have assigned to the project aren’t available at the same time, however. The project plan may show the project start and end dates based on the allotted time for the task. But if one person can start on Monday and would finish on Friday. However, another can’t start until Thursday. It will be impossible to adhere to that baseline schedule, but there will need to be some schedule manipulation to make it fit with the bookings.

Instead, Project Center will update the schedule based on the bookings. So the start date for the task will be Monday when the first resource is available. The end date would be five days after the last booked resource can start – or Wednesday of the next week. Project Center handles these schedule updates for you as bookings are set.

Conclusion

Teams want to be working on their client projects, not their tools. The OpenAir Project Center enables project managers and others to combine administration, updates, and reviews of projects and bookings in a single place. There is some setup involved, but once it’s ready for use, there are a wide array of benefits and efficiencies that can be gained from the feature.

At Top Step, we use the Project Center ourselves and have helped other organizations navigate the hurdles of getting on the latest OpenAir UI and configuring this valuable feature for their teams. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about setting up and using the OpenAir Project Center that aren’t answered in our webinar. We’re happy to help you get up and running with this or any other OpenAir use case that you can think of.