Banco Nacional de Costa Rica (BNCR) project directors have cut their project management time by 25 percent, allocated resources more efficiently, and gotten better results through the use of a new project management tool.

The bank, which with 1.3 million clients is the largest state-owned bank in Costa Rica, teamed up with Microsoft certified partner EPMWorks to implement Microsoft Office Project Server 2007. The project was implemented by BNCR’s Department of Strategy and Project Management (DSPM), which manages all projects within the bank that have institutional impact. EPMWorks assisted the bank in migrating from Office Project Server 2003 to Office Project Server 2007, in order to give DSPM more detailed documentation of projects, and improved visibility, accuracy and control.

With the new system, many reports are now generated automatically, and it’s much easier to gather information and publish it for other departments. There are currently 76 projects being run using Office Project Server 2007, 22 of which are run directly by DSPM, with the others being run by other departments.

“We simply didn’t have this level of documentation before. The expanded resources, better views, fuller reports, and task assignments available with Office Project Server 2007 have provided us with the means to continuously improve and be more efficient,” says Oscar Araya Fernández, DSPM project management director at BNCR.

Bank executives say some reports that used to take a month to assemble now only take a week. BNCR also uses Office Project Server 2007 to help streamline the required auditing processes to comply with banking industry regulations.

The next step is that beginning this month the bank will start implementing Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 to connect day-to-day projects with BNCR strategic objectives, and provide a large amount of visibility in regard to overall workflow.

“Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 will provide us with the tools to determine our future plans wisely using everything we have learned from past choices and projects,” says Araya.