Introducing the Enterprise TimePortal
One Timesheet... Many Repositories

The Enterprise TimePortal(Tm) is a new component of the Marin Research Project Gateway(Tm) system. The ETP allows users to create a single weekly timesheet to report work on projects located in any number of separate project repositories.

The Enterprise TimePortal can be accessed from Web browsers and Notes clients. It can be used with Internet Explorer 4 and later and Netscape 3 or later. It can be used from Notes 4.6 or Notes 5.+ clients.

Background

For many organizations, a single Project Gateway repository is used for all projects. The timesheet facility within this repository provides a single point for time reporting for all users.

However, some customers need or prefer to maintain separate repositories for individual departments or for specific projects. Until now, people whose work spanned more than one repository would need to create a weekly timesheet in each repository.

The Enterprise TimePortal solves this problem by creating a central point where participants can fill in one weekly timesheet to report all their effort, no matter how many repositories are in use. This consolidated timesheet will contain current tasks from all the repositories in which they are assigned work. Once they have submitted their timesheet, the approved data is automatically moved to the individual repositories, just as if local timesheets had been created in each one.

CONVENIENT FOR USERS

The user opens the TimePortal from his or her Notes client or Web browser. They click a single button "Create My Timesheet" to create the new timesheet for that person or reopen the timesheet currently in progress. When it is completed, they press the submit button on the timesheet form. That's it. The tasklist for the timesheet is automatically assembled from the assignments and overhead categories of the connected repositories.

CONVENIENT FOR ADMINISTRATORS

The system administrator fills out a "Repository Registration" form for each repository. Then the system collects and maintains all the participant data required. Even a TimePortal for use by several thousand individuals takes only a few minutes to configure. The key to this ease of administration is that the TimePortal reuses all the participant data that was entered into the connected repositories.

SECURE OPERATION

All timesheets in the TimePortal are restricted in visibility to the individuals responsible for composing and approving them. A person cannot see the tasks or hours reported in another person's timesheet unless they have appropriate rights to do so.

INTEGRATED DATA EXPORT

An integrated query facility allows timesheet data to be exported to spreadsheets or as web tables for any time range using a variety of selection criteria.

APPLICATION SCENARIOS

1. A large organization has two business unit repositories and another one for systems group service projects. Most of the work for any one person is within a single repository, but there are some people assigned to projects in all of the databases.

Solution. An ETP is enabled and registration forms are created for all the repositories. Timesheet service in the individual repositories is disabled. All people use the TimePortal to create their timesheet. Once approved, the TimePortal will move the timesheet data back to the appropriate repositories automatically. Every employee reports time in the same place without regard to the particular project repository that contains their current tasks.

2. A service organization wants to maintain separate repositories for each of 150 clients. Some consultants work on many client projects.
Solution. An ETP is enabled, but configured so that only the firm's consultants report here. The project participants which are customer employees use the timesheet facility within their individual customer project repositories.

FLEXIBILITY

One TimePortal can automatically aggregate all participants from a list of repositories. Or, it can operate very selectively to provide centralized timesheets for a specific group of individuals while local timesheets are used for other participants in the individual repositories.

TECHNICAL OVERVIEW

The ETP is a Lotus Domino application. It maintains Repository Registration records, Participant Registration Records, and Timesheets. When a timesheet is created or updated, the system looks in all of the appropriate repositories to create an up to date integrated task list for that user.

Once the person's timesheet has been created and approved in the ETP, it is automatically translated into individual "subset" timesheets which pushed back to the individual repositories for posting. To those repositories, the final timesheet is equivalent to those prepared locally. You might think of this as a timesheet pipeline.

All of the repositories must be replicated to the host of the ETP, but they don't have to be hosted on the same server.

Operating Limits
Maximum Number of Participants: 16000**
Maximum Number of Connected Repositories: Limited by Domino Server.
Maximum Number of Repositories used in a for a single participant's timesheet: 256
Maximum Number of Unfinished tasks for a single partipant in all repositories: 8000
Maximum Number of Tasks in a single timesheet: for Notes users 128, for Web users 40.
**The actual number of participants that can be supported at a site will be determined by server capabilities and infrastructure limitations.


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

A Domino Server 4.61, R5.04 or later is required for hosting the ETP application. All repositories to be consolidated must have replicas on the ETP server but do not have to be hosted on this server.

AVAILABILITY
The Project Gateway Enterprise TimePortal will be available in mid-February 2001 as a upgrade kit. It can be connected to existing PG 5.04 Repositories. Existing corporate customers under maintenance as of 1/1/2001 will receive it upon request. It is separately licensed for new users. Contact Marin Research in the US or our regional distributor for pricing. Note that the ETP can be accessed only by licensed Project Gateway users.