University of Washington

OVERVIEW

The University of Washington (UW) is a public flagship research university based in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast. The university has three campuses: the primary and largest in the Seattle and two others in Tacoma and Bothell. Its operating expenses and research budget typically exceed $5 billion, continuing its historical record of being amongst the highest in the U.S. UW occupies over 500 buildings, with over 20 million gross square footage of space, including the University of Washington Plaza, the 325-foot UW Tower, over 26 university libraries, as well as numerous conference centers.

CHALLENGE

UW had previously been using another project management solution for over 12 years. The replacement solution needed to be 100% web-based, offer an on-premise option, provide robust reporting, and allow for the migration of data from the old system into the new one. A multi-year search yielded a couple of false starts where several solutions fell short.

SOLUTION

By the time UW evaluated PMWeb, they knew what they were looking for in a solution. PMWeb exceeded those needs and was chosen for the following key reasons:

• Web-based, all-in-one single sign-on solution
• Allowed on-premise option so UW could host internally (desire for more control)
• More robust reporting and document control functionality than the old system
• Ability to more effectively bring together cost and schedule information

RESULTS AND BENEFITS

The UW Capital Planning and Development Team and the PMWeb Implementation Team worked together to develop a plan on rolling out PMWeb. The UW team took the primary role of configuring the system and the initial rollout began with the cost-related modules. The data migration was led by UW with a single in-house programmer that managed the migration of 12 years of historical data into PMWeb. PMWeb APIs were used when required for the needed business processes. The UW team has developed over 70 custom dashboards and reports after receiving training. In addition, UW integrated its public-facing website with PMWeb, built a custom mobile app, and integrated financial systems. UW quickly replaced their asset/facility management system with PMWeb in order to further consolidate outdated solutions into a single database single sign-on solution.

“Reports for stakeholder meetings that used to take hours to prepare are now done with the click of a button from a consistent data source, PMWeb.”

Andrew McGhay
Business Systems Analyst
University of Washington Capital Planning and Development