AXA Technology Services, the infrastructure subsidiary of global insurance and financial services firm AXA Group, is building a global Microsoft Office-based project management system that it expects will enhance the analysis of project management data and help the firm better budget domestic and multinational projects.

The Paris-based firm has been using local project management systems based on Microsoft Office 2003 products, including Microsoft Office Project 2003. As AXA is a global firm with more than 112,000 employees and global earnings of $3.3 billion, AXA Tech decided that a global project management system would improve budgeting and allow for more informed decisions.

The new, centralized, portal-based system it is deploying includes the Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management Solution, based on the 2007 Office System. AXA Tech has been working on the technology early as a participant in the Microsoft Office Rapid Deployment Technology Adoption Program.

The solution will seek to better manage projects across the global enterprise. It will enhance activity tracking, timesheet management and overall project management. The system will be deployed at the AXA Tech Data Center in Brussels, and will provide users with a global view of project activity and will enable centralized deployment of new projects. With a wider repository of project data, the new system should deliver improved data reporting and analysis and allow the company to better budget on a global scale.

The solution is being deployed with help from Getronics, and will run on Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, an enterprise project management platform that helps centralize and standardize project information. It will also involve Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007, a tool for aligning business objectives with investments; Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to support Internet access; and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 to store data. SQL Server 2005’s Analysis Services and Reporting Services will analyze and report the data.