ACCELERATOR

Smart service business news / Autumn 2009

PlanMill solutions
make visions reality

GETTING
OUT OF
RECESSION
WITH SAAS
Head in the clouds, feet PlanMill Chosen to
firmly on the ground 2 Support Centris AG 3 12.0 IS HERE! 4-5
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Ahead of Cloud Computing!

The IT world has been raving about Cloud Compu-
ting for some time. IT companies make references
to their heavenly new offering which incorporates
the acknowledged benefits through this apparent-
ly new phenomenon. What does it really mean and
should you be aware of its effects to your business?
Generically speaking, we are talking about a
style of computing which is dynamically sca-
lable with virtualized resources provided as a
service over the Internet. Users don’t need the
expertise in or control over the technology inf-
Thomas Hood rastructure in the ”cloud” that supports them.
CEO & Partner
Cloud computing ser vices usually provi-
de common business applications online that
are accessed from a web browser, while the
software and data are stored on the servers.
This all sounds wonderful and yet, to us in PlanMill,
also so familiar.
Cloud computing concept incorporates infra-
structure as a software as a service (SaaS) as well
as other recent technology advantages that have
the common theme of reliance on the Internet
for satisfying the computing needs of the users.
This is what we already provide our clients. It is not
just a buzzword and something to look forward to
in the future. Whether your needs are small and
local or large and global, PlanMill enables you to
enjoy the latest best practices as well as the new
editions. PlanMill’s service business solutions don’t
operate in clouds. They are at your service already
right now and inside your business accelerating
your success. You can keep your visions alive, but
still your feet firmly in the ground. SaaS is availab-
le to you today.
PlanMIll 12.0 RELEASE IS HERE: We are pleased
to announce the arrival of our 12.0 release accom-
panied by the SMART product family. The clear
and concise focus on your business needs has
lead our development at every step. The options
and features are available as you need to apply
them. You can read more in this newsletter and
from our website.
thomas.hood@planmill.com

PlanMill Solutions - a Smart Way

for your business to grow! PlanMill has introduced user-friendly, cost ef-
fective and quickly implemented CRM, Project,
PSA and ERP solutions, both in English, Finnish,

PSA and ERP solutions for service businesses. Our solutions help and in German, to the market in Software as a
Service form.

to improve the control of customer relationships, projects and

business processes, which in turn improves the productivity and
CRM PROJECT PSA ERP

PlanMill SaaS - Software as a Service solutions

profitability of PlanMill’s customer companies.

www.itpro.co.uk / June, 2009

SaaS gives SMEs the power to ride out the recession

Software as a service (SaaS) could be
the panacea for smaller business, ac-
cording to research published in ITPro.
Investing more in software as a service
(SaaS) and enterprise resource planning
(ERP) could help smaller businesses lo-
wer their operating costs and help them
grow in spite of the recession.
According to the report, recession-hit
SMEs put limitations on IT spending in
an attempt to reduce costs, with 19 per
cent making little or no investment in IT
for two to three years. However, the re-
moval of many costs by moving to Saas
and ERP allow SMEs to now focus purely
on business without the burden of IT,
and less down time obviously equates to
increased productivity.
“Many SMEs have already made a move
towards leveraging external IT expertise
for support, maintenance, and advice.
Making the move to SaaS is the next
logical step,” said Andrew Watkinson, ma-
naging director at Ardent Solutions.
SAAS STILL UNKNOWN ! Today, many
SMEs face huge disadvantages by not
having adequate IT resources in place
to support the running of everyday tech
operations. The report also suggests that
many businesses simply cannot afford
their hardware expenditure, with 43 per
cent of them opting to postpone such
investments.
“SaaS is gradually beginning to filter down
into business as a concept,” said Redshift
Research’s managing director.
However, the fact that 30 per cent of SMEs
are unsure what SaaS actually is
Jonathan Dawkins, a senior consultant at
Ardent, added: “It is vital that SMEs em-
brace alternative methods of not only kee-
ping up with the changing face of techno-
logy, but staying ahead of it.

2

Swiss Centris AG chooses
PlanMill PSA SaaS solution
Centris AG chose a web-based
PSA SaaS solution (Professio-
nal Services Automation) from
Finnish company PlanMill to
support its growing service
business in Switzerland.
According to Centris CEO Patrick Progin,
the company had an urgent need to find
a new project management system that
would be up and running quickly to sup-
port the biggest healthcare insurance rol-
lout project in Centris’ 60 year history.
The old system, used by 150 – 200 peop-
le, consists of multiple solutions such as
time tracking in MS Excel, planning in MS
Project and a separate billing system. Plan-
Mill CEO Thomas Hood explains that Cent-
ris needed to bring together all project in-
formation relating to a big rollout project
in one easy to use, integrated solution,
which could be accessed by everybody
working on the project – employees and
external partners alike. All the informati-
on would also be stored, enabling it to be
reused in the planning of future rollout
projects.
The main modules provided by PlanMill
are portfolio and project management,
work schedules, tasks & assignments, ac-
tions, change requests management, time
tracking including vacation planning, real-
time indicators and finance & billing in-
formation.
TIME MANAGEMENT AND BILLING !
During progress meetings the PlanMill
system can be used in real-time for tasks
such as managing actions and change
requests. With different groups using the
system, having project information up-to-
date and available in real-time means less
administrative work; it improves project
management efficiency and brings both
financial and environmental savings. The
next stage will see Centris extend the use
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ACCELERATOR
Patrick Progin
CEO, Centris AG
of the PlanMill system into time manage-
ment and billing, when the system will
be seamlessly integrated with their Swiss
billing software.
The SaaS (Software as a Service) solu-
tion also offers the advantage of being
available 24 hours a day from anywhere
in the world. PlanMill carries the respon-
sibility for the maintenance and updating
of the system. Thomas Hood summarises:
“Working with Centris has given us an op-
portunity to develop PlanMill to cater spe-
cifically to the service models and business
requirements within their sector.”
www.centrisag.ch
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Grow your business more and more!

12.0 is here!
The latest release 12.0 arrives with several new options available for
its users (Absences, E-Invoice, Import, Timer & Open API), as well
as features and enhancements along with major usability improve-
ments. These will allow you to work in a completely new, enjoyable
way. Get a glimpse here of the new arrival and get inspired!

PERSONALIZE YOUR WORKSPACE REMOVE CLUTTER FROM

The PlanMill 12.0 allows you to
design your own workspace in a
fresh new way. Whilst giving you
the necessary support for current
settings, it will give you tools to
customize content and lay-out.
With its drag and drop frames your workspace will
be the as you desire it to be.
PlanMill Workspace will from now on work only for
you following your requirements!
YOUR WORKSPACE
New at My indicators category:
! My open requests this week
! My open tasks this week
! My open actions this week
! My open opportunities
New at Finance category:
! Invoice & backlog analysis by quarter
New at Projects category:
! Projects (execution), TOP 5 by forecasted profit
New for the Workspace:
! Pick only favorite indicators to your Workspace

TIMER KEEP TRACK OF TIME REPORTS

This will truly make your work
routines easier. With the timer
you control your reporting by
starting, stopping and re-starting
a timer. You will find it useful for
real-time recording of daily tasks
which often are left without accurate reporting.
You can select the task for the timer recordings
later or change a task for several recordings.
With the Time List, see all your
time reports in one view, and
even personalize the list for
your requirements.
PROJECTS
Additionally, you can report Tasks/Performers tab (pr
time using actual clock values i.e. instead of repor- –function adds all team m
ting 3 hours, you report that you started at 8:00 task performers. You may
a.m. and finished at 11:00 a.m. as performers to a task w

PlanMill 12.0 in a Nutshell

The release 12.0 includes several new options, features and enhancements
as well as major usability improvements. New Workspace allows you to personalize your
workspace to fit your needs.

New PlanMill options

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4
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Hard Freedom with E-Invoice

at wor PlanMill E-Invoice solution has
k arrived and is now available to
24/7 our clients. The new service is

for you
specifically suitable for small

! and medium-sized companies

enabling them to move into
e-billing smoothly.
This new cost-effective solution has been
developed together with Basware Plc and
is seamlessly integrated into PlanMill’s
Saas-based solutions, such as Project, PSA
and ERP products.
”With E-Invoice you can improve your
billing process with better timetables thus
increasing customer satisfaction. You can
also reach thousands of partners through
one platform - ecologically and not depen-
ding on network”, explains Thomas Hood
from PlanMill. PlanMill E-Invoice -service
handles invoices electronically and trans-
mits them to either electronic invoice man-
agement system or to printing service (ac-
cording to clients choice).
Use Your 30-Day E-Invoice (includes Basware Business BENEFITS OF PLANMILL E-INVOICE !
Free Trial to
Transactions) is a monitored service which " Fast transmission
ensures that e-invoices have been de- " Faster payment timetables
take control of livered to multiple suppliers and clients " No printing and posting expenses
your business! through one service platform fast and " Client service improves
safely. E-Invoice can include photos and " Manual operations decreases
images similarily to paper invoice. E-In- " Electronic archiving
voice is also VAT-compatible and you can " With printing service the whole invoic-
add your electronic signature to it in order ing can be managed electronically
to safeguard its integrity. " Creates competitive advantages
roject space): Add project team
members from project team as
y also add only team members
with existing performer. PlanMill Absence
This new module for workplace absences has the potential to change your company’s
HR culture entirely. Its possibilities in workplace management have been hailed alrea-
dy prior its release. The basic function is to manage the workflow for requesting and
accepting absences (Similar to Expenses). Additionally it will perform the Annual ho-
liday calculation (Finnish annual holiday law is implemented by default) based on the
absence entries into the system. Its abilities stretch even further into importing and
exporting data with HR systems.

PlanMill Open API

PlanMill now offers application developers and customers open API (application program-
ming interface) free of charge to enable information exchange between various business
applications and PlanMill (R11.5 or higher). Application Developers are offered an up-to-
date documentation of the information content (modules, fields, lists of values). PlanMill
customers who wish to use the interface, should contact PlanMill support.

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EKLEKTI Finland improves its

Business Flow Management with PSA
EKLEKTI Finland Oy is a typical,
busy marketing and communications
specialist with various projects
going through its creative and
operational processes.

EKLEKTI Finland operates in a fast expand-

ing, networking business environment
which requires effective management and
tracking.
“We are in the business of providing
tangible advantages to our clients, quickly
and efficiently. At the same time we need
to maintain our standards of quality and
added value for the end-customer. This
needs to be done profitably and within
timetables”, sums up EKLEKTI Finland’s
Communications Strategist, MD, Berit Vir-
tanen-Thewlis. project management, and that is truly and ensuring quality and flexibility.
“After testing other systems we quickly wonderful,” says Virtanen-Thewlis. “We can already see how the benefits
came to the conclusion that the PlanMill brought by the PSA system can be trans-
internet-based PSA solution would suit us HIGH EXPECTATIONS ! EKLEKTI Fin- ferred to our clients in quality and in price,”
best. Its features allow us to glance quick- land sees the new PSA solution as be- explains Virtanen-Thewlis.
ly over entire operations from finance to ing of key importance in maintaining
www.eklektifinland.fi

Stronger and faster together

FC Lahti and PlanMill!
A leading Finnish football club FC Lahti Oy (Ltd) and PlanMill Oy (Ltd) have recently sig-
ned a sponsorship agreement for two years.
”In FC Lahti’s operating principles we see many similarities to ours. It is an un-
compromising and ambitious, and most of all, a professional organisation with
high quality requirements”, says managing director Thomas Hood from PlanMill Oy.

FC Lahti competes in the highest level of championship football league of Finland, Veik-
kausliiga. The league not only has a strong following amongst football lovers in Finland,
but it also is one of the most developed media channel. With its professional organisati-
on it provides clubs and companies alike effective platform for sports related marketing
Rafael Pires Vieira is PlanMill’s
and publicity.
designated player in FC Lahti.
www.fclahti.fi

PlanMill Ltd | Westendintie 1 | FI-02160 Espoo | info@planmill.com | www.planmill.com

PlanMill Ltd develops real-time, web-based CRM, Project, ACCELERATOR is our customer and interest Magazine production:
PSA and ERP Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions for serv- group magazine, which is also available on our EKLEKTI Finland Ltd
ice businesses. Our solutions help to improve the control website. Please feel free to share your thoughts Palmrothintie 2,
of customer relationships, projects and business processes, and comments on the content and the format FI-33950 Pirkkala, Finland
which in turn accelerates the productivity and profitability of the magazine. www.eklektifinland.fi
of PlanMill’s customer companies.

WEB-BASED CRM, PROJECT, PSA AND ERP SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE (SaaS) SOLUTIONS FOR SERVICE BUSINESSES