Sage Coretime Blog

Among the current projects that the development team is looking at are improvements to the Microsoft Project (MS Project) link.

We have a number of users who use MS Project for the detailed planning of the work to be done at a much lower level then Coretime itself as they look at tasks, sub tasks and even lower to allocate resources and timelines to a project.

Currently there is the ability to load the resources from the Coretime employee list and import the high level tasks against activities in the Coretime budget, the Staff Planner or the Task Manager.

In partnership with a number of our clients we are looking to improve this link in the coming month.

What this will look like initially is improvements to that link with the Coretime budgeting facility.

So what do our partners think we need to look at:-

• Having employee grades and departments available in MS Project
• Use Sub Projects or Phases as the top level tasks in MS Project
• Update the ‘Actual Work’ and allow for the user definition of the ‘Percentage Complete’
• Allow for an MS Project to create the entire budget within Coretime.

While this is not a complete list it does give a flavour of how users would like to see the product grow in this particular area and how our development team endeavours to partner with specialists to ensure that what we deliver can make a real difference to all users.

Sage Coretime Support pages have been updated to include a Knowledge Base containing useful articles on how to use Sage Coretime.

 To find out more go to support.coretime.com

Henry Ford’s classic quote …

“If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me a faster horse.”

Ford’s own innovation we know all about but it is a lesson on how the view of the customer can be different from that of the innovator even though the end result can benefit both.

Does this mean we should ignore the customer when going down the innovation journey? Of course it does not, but it should be looked at that the customer is a fellow passenger on the journey and can be involved at all points.

The beginning of this is in understanding how your clients work. This in itself is not enough; you also must understand their needs not only at present but also moving into the future.

There are times when the client will be immersed in the needs of today without the opportunity to convey to you their thoughts on what could be coming down the line. By understanding their business, and the environment in which they work, an innovator can allow the clients to successfully meet some of the challenges ahead without needing to fire-fight when those challenges arise.

So, for your customers, you need to deliver what they need now, but to be an innovator you need to deliver what they will need in the future even if they do not yet know it.