Overview

Silver-Owl Project Planning is one of nine modules that comprise the Silver-Owl Business Management suite of software. It can be purchased as a standalone module or as part of the suite - each module is compatible with each other and interacts as necessary, for example the scheduled milestone completion dates that are calculated automatically by our planning software can be syncronised with our Progress Reporting module, and the automatic scheduler automatically takes account of staff leave if you use our Time & Cost module.

Why is Project Planning important?

With any piece of work, whether you see it as a project or not, it is important that you complete it on time and to budget. Planning the work will be key to this.

Silver-Owl incorporates a planning tool that is very easy to use and intuitive, even for people who are not trained as Project Managers, helping you ensure that work is organised efficiently and you know in advance when it is likely to be completed. Our plans are built in a few simple steps:

• list the tasks involved, say who will do each and how long each will take
• identify any tasks that must be completed before another can start
• add a few other simple pieces of information
• identify anything that repeats daily, weekly etc (e.g. meetings)
• press a button and a complete schedule of work is produced automatically
• as work gets done, change the amount of work left to do.

Why is this relevant to schools?

In this respect schools are no different to any business or organisation - you need to complete your work on time, and you need to know in advance if there may be problems meeting the timescales you are aiming for.

As far a Silver-Owl is concerned, a "project" can be any piece of work, large or small, that has a beginning and an end. Obviously the more parts there are to it, and the more people that are involved, the greater the risk that things may go wrong and so the more useful it will be to have a plan for the work.

What makes Silver-Owl different?

• It is very easy to use, by staff or students at all levels
• It uses terms that everyone can relate to, so that everyone uses it the same way
• The anticipated timescale is calculated for you from the information you provide, rather than the other way around
• You can build many current project plans into one "masterplan" that automatically takes account of work that your staff are committed to on other projects whenever a new plan is created, reducing the chance of overloaded people not delivering on time
• It automatically takes account of leave etc (if you use our Time & Cost module)

What does it cost?

As a guide, the list price for a Standard Silver-Owl licence for Project Planning alone is only £45 per user, up to £220 per user for a full Standard licence covering all nine Silver-Owl modules. Depending on your requirements, we may be able to offer a special discounted rate.

The licences are a one-off cost.

There are no additional costs for hardware, databases etc assuming you have disk space to install the software and the data you record.

What are the other Silver-Owl modules?

The full Silver-Owl suite comprises nine integrated modules that can be offered separately if required. The full list of modules is:

• Project Planning
• Progress Reporting
• Minutes Of Meetings
• Action Tracking
• Workflow (including Change, Faults and Processes)
• Timesheets and Time & Cost Analysis
• Risk Management
• C.R.M.
• Information Database

Where can it be used?

It can be run on your server (or simply integrated into your network) or can be hosted at a third-party site.

It can be operated from your site or over the internet - much attention has been paid to optimising data download requirements to make response times over the internet almost as fast on your internal network.

Other key features

• Choice of simple navigation routes
• Everything is integrated, but you only use what you need
• You control who can see what data, AND who can update it
• Prevents concurrent data updates
• Optional help screens and tips throughout
• Separate, detailed User Guide
• "Retro" look means big buttons and no hidden drop-down lists. Everthing you need to use is immediately available to you
• Doesn't try to "second-guess" what you mean - it does what YOU tell it!
• You don't feel like you need a degree in it just to understand it.