Microsoft Visio 2010Customer Solution Case Study

Agency Uses Diagramming, Collaboration Tools to Complete Projects 60% Faster

OverviewCountry or Region: MexicoIndustry: National government agencies

Customer ProfileThe Secretary of Economy of Mexico develops and implements policies designed to strengthen the country’s economic infrastructure and boost Mexico’s competitiveness in the global marketplace. The Secretary has 3,792 employees.

Business SituationTo increase IT project management efficiency, the Secretary needed to adopt a single, standardized professional diagramming tool and streamline the way it captures and processes project information.

SolutionIt chose to implement a holistic solution that involved several Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft Visio 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server, and Microsoft Project 2010.

Benefits Faster project completion Improved stakeholder collaboration Greater project management capacity

“By using Visio 2010 and SharePoint 2010 to automate our IT project management workflow, and through the application of best practices, we can deliver projects 60 percent faster than the original schedule.”

Edder Espinosa Arellano, Chief Information OfficerSecretary of Economy of Mexico

Mexico’s Secretary of Economy needed to improve IT project management efficiency and ensure that all IT initiatives aligned with business goals. Because the Secretary relied on multiple diagramming tools and lacked a centralized method of capturing project information, requests often took several weeks to fulfill. Following the decision of the Chief Information Officer, Edder Espinosa Arellano, to establish a Project Management Office, the organization began its search for a solution that combined professional diagramming capabilities with project management and collaboration tools. After deploying Microsoft Visio 2010, Microsoft Project 2010, and Microsoft SharePoint 2010, the Secretary has been able to handle four times the number of internal IT projects without adding staff—while fulfilling requests 60 percent faster.

SituationMexico’s Secretary of Economy is responsible for developing policies to foster domestic job growth and enhance the country’s global competitiveness. As a core part of its mission, the organization is committed to delivering citizen-centered service while keeping administrative costs as low as possible.

The Office of Information Technology (DGI) plays a fundamental role in fulfilling the Secretary’s objectives. To ensure that all IT initiatives support business priorities, Edder Espinosa Arellano, Chief of the Office of Information Technology at the Secretary of Economy, decided to create an Office of Project Management. He assigned the task of carrying out this strategic decision to his Assistant Director General of the Office of Information Technology, Carlos Benítez González. In alignment with the Digital Government Agenda, implementing the Office of Project Management was designed to take advantage of IT and Communications (TIC) technology to improve internal management of public administration functions. The purpose of

the TIC Office of Project Management is to assure that technology investments align with the strategic objectives of the Secretary of Economy. The DGI has a staff of 69 professionals, who provide technology solutions and training to help employees innovate faster and share information with greater ease. In the course of delivering IT services to the entire organization, the group responds to frequent requests to help improve workflows, enhance process diagrams, and create performance measurement tools, such as executive dashboards.

Although a number of departments had access to graphics and drawing programs, staff in these offices noted that the tools were hard to learn and offered a limited selection of design objects and templates. They also found that there was no easy way to connect the shapes in the diagrams they created to external databases.

Moreover, because each department used a separate drawing solution, IT staff needed to continuously adjust to working with different file types and application architectures. Use of disparate tools also meant that staff were unable to repurpose objects between existing diagrams to save time. “Because we lacked a single, comprehensive solution, straightforward design tasks such as building a simple workflow could take up to three weeks,” says Benítez.

Benítez and other IT leaders were eager to streamline IT project management. They needed a way to centralize all project artifacts in a single repository and apply standardized processes to govern requests for diverse types of work. To accelerate the response to project requests and drive greater staff productivity, they also searched for a single, easy-to-use professional drawing solution to replace the use of multiple tools. They also wanted to enable employees to broadly share their

Image 1—The Secretary ofEconomy works to promoteinvestment in the Mexicaneconomy to enhance thecountry’s global competitiveness.

Image 1—The Secretary ofEconomy works to promoteinvestment in the Mexicaneconomy to enhance thecountry’s global competitiveness.

data-linked diagrams through the web to promote dynamic collaboration and faster problem-solving.

Solution

"We gain a much better understanding of the specific constraints and goals of each project, which helps us create a higher-quality deliverable, usually in less time.”

Carlos Benítez González, Assistant Director General,

Office of Information Technology,Secretary of Economy of Mexico

To enable its workforce to communicate complex concepts more easily and help its IT team fulfill project requests more efficiently, the organization decided to adopt a holistic solution that combines several Microsoft technologies. For assistance in implementing this solution—which incorporates Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Project Server 2010, and Microsoft Visio 2010 drawing and diagramming software —the organization engaged bSide, an IT consultancy and member of the Microsoft Partner Network based in Mexico.

In early 2010, bSide worked with the Secretary’s leaders to develop and document a new process for managing IT projects. First, bSide consultants generated a governance workflow template in Microsoft Project Server 2010 to define the standard resource control guidelines, approval processes, and tasks that will inform all of the organization’s IT initiatives. The team then used Visio 2010 to modify and extend the governance workflow by linking it with a diagram that delineates the six main stages of each project. Next, bSide helped the Secretary create custom lists in SharePoint Server 2010 that are used to store and dynamically update status information as projects advance from one stage to another. Approximately 250 Secretary employees use SharePoint Server 2010 on a daily basis. The organization hosts seven collaboration sites on SharePoint Server 2010 and has used the platform to build five applications.

The team also added rich, interactive functionality to the workflow—all without writing any additional code—by using the Visio Services JavaScript Mashup application programming interface (API). For example, the team introduced an overlay feature that reveals status details when users hover over each different stage. Finally, the bSide team was able to simply export the diagrams to SharePoint Server 2010 and then use Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 to test, stage, and deploy the workflow to production.

Figure 1—Microsoft Partner bSide used Microsoft Visio 2010to help the Secretary ofEconomy model a new projectmanagement workflow.

Now, employees can initiate and track the progress of IT project requests from within the organization’s intranet portal. And they can use the intuitive drawing tools in Visio 2010 to communicate ideas for process improvements in a visual way. At the same time, IT staff can use Project Server 2010 to

centralize the collection, prioritization, and management of projects in alignment with the organization’s own governance standards to maximize efficiency.

BenefitsMexico’s Secretary of Economy has experienced the following benefits by implementing a business process management and collaboration solution built on Microsoft technologies:Accelerated Project Completion By 60 PercentBy documenting and incorporating governance procedures and project lifecycle stages into a standardized workflow process, the Secretary’s IT team can finish projects in less time. Benítez estimates that it previously took an average of five business days to fulfill requests. The team can now complete the same work in two business days on average. “By using Visio 2010 and SharePoint 2010 to automate our IT project management workflow, and through the application of

best practices, we can deliver projects 60 percent faster than the original schedule,” says Espinosa.

Improved Collaboration Among Project StakeholdersEmployees can use tools in Visio 2010 to quickly create visually compelling, data-linked diagrams and then publish them to the intranet to solicit assistance from department colleagues and other stakeholders. Through the use of document management and collaboration tools in SharePoint Server 2010, employees can more effectively communicate strategic goals and requirements for each project. This, in turn, means that IT staff can provide better-informed, more comprehensive support from project initiation to closure. “We gain a much better understanding of the specific constraints and goals of each project, which helps us create a higher-quality deliverable, usually in less time,” says Benítez.

Increased Workload Management Capacity Because IT staff are able to capture and manage all project information in a centralized repository, including diagrams submitted by staff, they minimize time spent on administrative tasks. “We now have a single platform for managing process information that used to be scattered throughout the organization and inaccessible because it was stored on local computers,” says Benítez. The IT team can now handle four times the number of concurrent projects without the need to hire additional staff.

Microsoft Visio 2010Microsoft Visio 2010 takes diagramming to a new level with dynamic, data-driven visualization tools and templates, enhanced process management capabilities, and advanced web sharing. Combine real-time data from multiple sources, including Microsoft SharePoint lists, Microsoft Excel 2010, and Microsoft SQL Server 2008, into one powerful diagram using vibrant graphics like icons and data bars. Use subprocesses to manage processes and to validate rules and logic to ensure accuracy and consistency across the organization. Design workflows in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and, without using code, export them to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for real-time execution and monitoring. Share refreshable, data-linked diagrams over the web with anyone, even those who don't have Visio 2010.

For more information about Microsoft Visio 2010, go to:visio.microsoft.com

For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about bSide products and services, visit the website at:www.bside.com.mx

For more information about The Secretary of Economy of Mexico products and services, call (01) 800 410 2000, or visit the website at:www.economia.gob.mx

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This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY

Document published: April 2012

Software and Services Microsoft Visio 2010 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010− Microsoft Project Server 2010

Partner bSide