Clarity When you Need it Most

Now more than ever… how many times have you heard these words recently?! Let’s start again. It’s always been important to have up to date data (objective) and information (subjective) to make decisions.

The purpose of this post is to speak about Microsoft Project Online & edison365datatstore. You can read more about it below, however, if it’s a case of TL;DR, here’s the short version:

1. Reporting and decision making is enhanced. Data in your Azure SQL is updated in near time – a few seconds after the event triggers. You can use Power BI DirectQuery for superior report performance.
2. Project Online provides reporting via OData. This works, however, it can be slow with larger datasets, and there’s no snapshot data to enable trend reporting. Reporting on data not available in the standard OData feeds requires additional time and effort.

edison365datatstore resolves these issues. Data from Project Online and associated SharePoint Online lists (not only risks, issues and deliverables, also your own lists and columns) is saved to your Azure SQL database on an event-driven basis example: saving a schedule, updating a risk. This is fully configurable, no development is required.

Starting at £249* +VAT per month per Project Online instance.

*excludes your Azure SQL subscription, initial deployment, and is based on the number of POL licences deployed to your Microsoft 365 tenant. Setup takes c.1 day. T&Cs apply. Please contact hello@cps.co.uk quoting “OMG I want datastore now” to discuss further.

N.B. This is where the longer more detailed section begins…

Relevant, up to to date data (objective) and information (subjective) to make decisions is why organisations use various systems to track and manage the work that is ongoing. One of CPS’ specializations is helping customers understand what’s happening across their project portfolio. This is achieved by aligning tool-sets to project processes; for CPS’ customers, this is through Microsoft Project Online.

Power BI - Get Data
Many customers use Power BI Professional for dashboards and reports – Microsoft provide an example in the Power BI app store. Use the Get Data link in the lower left of Power BI in your browser and select Services.

It’s possible to create something with aspects of edison365datatstore (I use the term “similar” very lightly). CPS’ Paul Mather is a Microsoft MVP – Most Valuable Professional. He has achieved this accolade based on the work he has completed over the past decade while working for CPS. He recently blogged about a route using Microsoft Power Automate / Flow. It’s a little “Heath Robinson“; I’m sure he won’t mind me saying!

edison365datastore is the production version of a solution that CPS first created in the early 10’s, and Paul Mather is one of the product owners. Customers include global enterprises.

edison365datastore is an enterprise-ready SaaS application built-in Microsoft Azure that synchronises all of the Project Online data into your Azure SQL database in near real-time through an event-driven model. This product has the following advantages over Paul’s blog example:

1. Use SQL DirectAccess for Power BI reporting – faster with larger datasets.
2. A simple user interface to configure what data from Project Online / SharePoint Online sites is synchronized to your Azure SQL Database
3. No requirement to understand Project Online or SharePoint REST APIs or OData syntax.
4. Report on all your data – projects, tasks, resources, timesheets, baseline data etc. plus project multi-line custom fields with HTML, any SharePoint lists from the project sites.
5. Event-driven and scheduled data syncs – sync data from Project Online / SharePoint Online (POL/SPO) into your Azure SQL database as it changes in POL/SPO.
6. edison365datastore manages the Azure SQL database schema. When new custom fields/columns are added in Project Online or a new SharePoint list is synced, the Azure SQL schema is updated automatically to support the new configuration – no SQL admin knowledge is required.
7. Robust sync process
8. Full history retained in Azure SQL database via temporal tables enabling trend reports to be created.
9. Azure SQL database maintenance plan built-in.
10. Keep track of who updated the data in Project Online.
11. Use it to interface with other line of business systems

Starting at £249* +VAT per month per Project Online instance.

*excludes your Azure SQL subscription, initial deployment, and is based on the number of POL licences deployed to your Microsoft 365 tenant. Setup takes c.1 day. T&Cs apply. Please contact hello@cps.co.uk quoting “OMG I want datastore now” to discuss further.