	"In the old days, we would spend two days scrambling to find everything." - Director, Freedom Communications

SUCCESS STORY - Freedom Communications

"In the old days, we would spend two days scrambling to find everything. Now the CIO goes into Project Insight at anytime, finds what he needs and shares it with the other executives."
--C. P., Director of the Project Management Office, Freedom Communications

Freedom The Company
Freedom Communications, headquartered in Irvine, California is a privately owned, diverse media company of newspapers, broadcast television stations and interactive media businesses. The company publishes more than 70 news publications, with a combined circulation of more than one million subscribers. The broadcast division comprises eight stations, including five CBS and three ABC network affiliates.

The Challenge
C. P. is the Director of the Project Management Office at Freedom Communications, where he oversees several project managers and numerous projects. Because Freedom Communications is a media company, the "products" they develop are daily and weekly newspapers, as well as television stations nationwide. His job and the job of other project managers is to implement technologies and web-development projects which support those newspapers and television stations.

When C. P. joined the company, he discovered that the Project Management Office had purchased a version of Project Central, but that it had fallen out of regular use. For project management and communication, the group was primarily using a web page with links to certain types of project management documents. He said, "Everyone was left up to his own devices when it came to managing projects. When I asked questions about the projects, it became clear to me that it was taking much too long to get basic information that should be at everyone's fingertips. It was also important to the company that our customers be able to be fully engaged in our projects and have certain types of information available to them, as well."

The Solution
Microsoft Project Server was not an option for C. P. "It was far too expensive and the effort to set it up and configure it is astronomical. And unless a user is a seasoned manager, the tool is not necessarily intuitive for him or her to use."

The Project Management Office began to look at a number of project management systems, including high-end systems like PlanView and Primavera. "All of the high end tools were overkill for Freedom. We're not constructing airplanes here, so we do not need the high-end, diligent, stringent systems. Also money was a big consideration for us, because Freedom is conservative with money. We've been in business 70 years and are very successful financially, so we continue to be cost-conscious."

A colleague of C. P.'s referred him to Metafuse. The cost of Project Insight and its simplicity was immediately appealing. "You could be a very seasoned project manager and get tremendous benefit from it, or be a business person and easily get and get to information quickly without diving too deeply into project management functions."

C. P. explained, "We have project managers who travel to newspapers and TV stations across the country, so we needed a system that was available via the web. Project managers can be at home or in an airport, catching up. Project Insight offered us this access point from anywhere." After a review of low-end and high-end systems, he explains, "We needed to find a nice mid-range tool, and for the cost, Project Insight almost sold itself once we saw how easy it is to use." After conducting a four-hour demo with all the senior IT staff and executives, Freedom Communications chose Project Insight right away.

The Results
The company implemented Project Insight immediately after purchase, and began using it right away. Many team members are from Freedom Communications' business community, and up to 50 staffers in-house--including project managers, senior staff, and business users--make use of Project Insight, as well. "We needed to house project information and come up with a consistent tool set that all the managers could use. We also needed a tool that would let us manipulate the data all we want. For what we needed it to do, Project Insight has more than served its purpose," C. P. reports.

Another important benefit for the company is Project Insight's ability to prepare audit information for each project. "One key audit point is the ability to demonstrate the consistent use of a centralized location and to show for Project A, we can produce two sets of documents, for Project Z, ten sets of documents. I can go in and look at each individual project manager's information without having to meet with them. If I see something that they're doing that looks good that others should use, I can promote it without bothering the project manager for documentation. In the old days, we would spend two days scrambling to find everything. Now the CIO goes into Project Insight at anytime, finds what he needs and shares it with the other executives."

C. P. states, "I feel that Metafuse is a great company to work with. They really make a concerted effort to listen and understand what you're trying to do, and then they show you exactly how the system can help you."