Revlon implemented the Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server Integration Feature Pack to improve collaboration between developers and project managers. This allowed tasks created by developers in Visual Studio to be visible to project managers in Project Server, reducing meetings by up to 30%. Developers can now record time in Visual Studio rather than a separate system. This has led to productivity gains of 2-5% and improved risk management through increased transparency of project data.

1. Microsoft Project Server 2010
Customer Solution Case Study
IT Department of Global Cosmetics Company
Cuts Time in Meetings by up to 30 Percent
Overview ―First and foremost, with the Visual Studio Team
Country or Region:United States
Industry:Manufacturing—Consumer Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server Integration
goods manufacturing
Feature Pack we have reduced the number of project
Customer Profile planning and status meetings.‖
Founded in 1932, Revlon is a global
Piotr Prussak, Vice President of Global Applications, Revlon
cosmetics, skin care, fragrance, and
personal care company based in New
York City. It has 4,900 employees, and its
net sales in 2010 were U.S.$1.3 billion.
Revlon, a global cosmetics and personal care company, wanted
to improve the way that IT developers and project managers
Business Situation
The Revlon IT department wanted a way
plan and execute work. The company deployed the Microsoft
to reduce the number of meetings, make Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server
it easier to share project plans, and
enhance collaboration between
Integration Feature Pack to simplify data exchange between
developers and project managers. software solutions and provide developers and project managers
Solution
with the ability to share data to make project decisions. Now
Revlon IT simplified data exchange by developers can create detailed tasks and record time against
implementing the Microsoft Visual Studio
Team Foundation Server 2010 andProject
them in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN.
Server Integration Feature Pack. Project managers can see all of this data in Microsoft Project
Benefits
Server 2010. These employees have cut time spent in meetings
Up to 30 percent less time spent in by up to 30 percent and improved productivity by up to 5
meetings
Productivity gains of 2–5 percent
percent. Revlon also improved risk management, expects to gain
Improved risk management financial benefits from capitalizing project work, and can
Improved time-recording procedures
Increased responsibility
increase the responsibility of technical team leads.

2. Situation jobs, communication between the groups
Revlon is a global cosmetics, skin care, often required a large number of meetings.
fragrance, and personal care company. Its ―We had too many meetings just to
products—with brands including Revlon, coordinate detailed activities that required
Almay, Charlie, Mitchum, and Gatineau— participation from the whole team,‖ says
are sold in more than 100 countries. Prussak. ―We would have large teams,
Headquartered in New York City, Revlon distributed over multiple locations, all
has 4,900 employees. Its net 2010 sales sitting down with project managers to
were U.S.$1.3 billion. develop detailed work plans. Effectively, a
majority of the team were idle during a
In support of the global enterprise, the meeting, while only a few people were fully
Revlon IT department runs projects able to participate.‖
including implementation and integration
of enterprise resource planning software; The meetings were the best available
custom application development, primarily method of communication for spelling out
on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010; and detailed tasks and identifying issues such as
development of customer-facing websites. potential project risks. But they were often
Some projects are two weeks long and an ineffective way to develop and share
others run several years. With the big insights. ―As creative types, our technology
projects broken into smaller deliverables, leads often had a passive-aggressive
the IT department runs 200–300 relationship with project managers,‖
development projects per year. Prussak says. ―For example, in a project
meeting, they weren‘t able to supply
Revlon IT has 22 people on its development enough details for tasks in a project plan,
and architecture staff. They do most of their because this wasn‘t a conducive setting for
work in the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 them to be thinking through those issues.
Ultimate with MSDN development system. But then during execution they would
The developers are quite happy with this come back to the project manager with
software and with Microsoft Visual Studio complaints that the plan was not detailed
Team Foundation Server 2010, the enough.‖
collaboration platform at its core.
Part of the problem was that the two types
Revlon IT has a project management office of employees were working in different
with nine full-time project managers. ―Our software solutions. Developers could use
project management staff handles different Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010
types and styles of projects, involving to create and manage tasks at a detailed
infrastructure team, support staff, and level, but project managers, using Office
external vendors,‖ says Piotr Prussak, Vice Project Server 2007, could not see those
President of Global Applications at Revlon. tasks to incorporate them into the larger
These staffers have long used project project plan. And without that broader
management software from Microsoft. Until planning perspective, coordination was
recently, many were using Microsoft Office difficult. For example, it was hard to
Project Professional 2007 with Microsoft understand which tasks were dependent on
Office Project Server 2007. other tasks. The lack of transparency could
make it difficult to schedule developers‘
Although the Revlon IT developers and activities, which both frustrated them and
project managers were talented at their hampered their productivity.

3. Another frustration for developers was Enterprise data management system and
recording their time, which was done in analyzes that data using Microsoft SQL
Microsoft Project Web App. ―Entering Server PowerPivot for Microsoft SharePoint
timesheets in Project Web App was one of and PerformancePoint Services in Microsoft
developers‘ least-loved activities,‖ says SharePoint Server 2010.
Prussak. Because they did all their day-to-
day work in Visual Studio Team Foundation In the pilot—and, in the future, on all
Server 2010, they resented having to exit projects—as development teams come up
that software in order to record their time. with detailed plans and task assignments to
accomplish their goals, the team leads will
The Revlon IT department wanted a way to enter this information in Visual Studio
optimize its project planning, reducing the Team Foundation Server 2010 (as they have
number of meetings and bridging the gap always done). They will not be asked to
between developers and project managers spell it out in a meeting. With the feature
by improving the transparency of project pack, the details will be automatically
data. visible to project managers in Project
Server 2010. The project managers can
Solution then see dependencies, potential risks, and
In October 2010, Revlon learned about a other issues, and modify project plans
prerelease version of a new Microsoft accordingly. Any such modifications will
feature pack to simplify data exchange automatically display in Visual Studio Team
between Visual Studio Team Foundation Foundation Server 2010—and again
Server 2010 and Project Server. The information will have been conveyed
Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation without the need for large group meetings.
Server 2010 and Project Server Integration
Feature Pack synchronizes planning and Developers will record their time against
status information between the two those detailed tasks in Visual Studio Team
systems, providing transparency that aids Foundation Server 2010. With the feature
collaboration between project managers pack, project managers will be able to see
and developers. and analyze that information using Project
Server 2010. Project managers can adjust
In December, Revlon installed a test of the assignments or schedules in Project Server
feature pack and provided feedback to 2010, and developers will see those
Microsoft. At the same time, it decided to adjustments in Visual Studio Team
upgrade to Microsoft Project Server 2010 Foundation Server 2010.
and Microsoft Project Professional 2010. At full rollout, Revlon expects to have
Revlon successfully completed the upgrade successfully integrated data from 15 users
in June 2011. It then installed the feature of Project Professional 2010 and 50 users of
pack in its production environment. Visual Studio Team Foundation Server
2010. In the future, Revlon will further
Revlon runs all of the software on enhance its project management by adding
virtualized Dell PowerEdge R900 server Nintex Workflow for Project Server and by
computers with the Windows Server 2008 starting to use the project portfolio
R2 Enterprise operating system. In addition planning features of Project Server 2010.
to the two major solutions connected by
the feature pack, Revlon stores data using
the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

4. ―The the feature allows
―Withfeature pack pack, Benefits Improved Risk Management Through
Revlon is using the Visual Studio Team Better Data
people to raise flags
the team leads can take Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server Because the Visual Studio Team Foundation
Integration Feature Pack to cut down on Server 2010 and Project Server Integration
more responsibility for
quickly and in a meetings, increase productivity, aid in Feature Pack can capture more detailed
more comfortable
exactly what they are transparency to improve risk management, task-level data, the Revlon IT department
enhance time recording, and distribute gains more transparency, which improves
setting—which means
doing and be more responsibility. risk management. ―With the feature pack,
everybody can look into the project and
we make fewer
accountable to the other Up to 30 Percent Less Time Spent in find any planning issues,‖ Prussak says. ―We
mistakes.‖
members of their team.‖ Meetings used to spend a lot of time in meetings
With the Visual Studio Team Foundation working through potential issues and
Piotr Prussak, Vice President of Global Server 2010 and Project Server Integration asking people to raise flags. But now the
Applications, Revlon Feature Pack, developers and project feature pack allows people to raise flags
managers are better able to communicate more quickly and in a more comfortable
and collaborate outside of meetings. setting—which means we make fewer
mistakes.‖
―First and foremost, with the Visual Studio
Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project For example, the feature pack provides
Server Integration Feature Pack we have project managers with data from Visual
reduced the number of project planning Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 that
and status meetings,‖ Prussak says. He was not previously available. ―Project
estimates that staff will reduce time spent managers can see data such as project
in meetings by 10–30 percent. velocity, the number of bugs, and
requirements management artifacts,‖ says
Productivity Gains of 2–5 Percent Prussak. ―So we can see when projects are
Despite spending less time in meetings, going wrong and can manage the issuesas
Revlon IT employees have better, quicker needed. In fact, with the feature pack, we
access to more information. This increases can pick up this information from
their efficiency. ―With the feature pack we anywhere, rather than having to always be
have increased productivity by probably 2– in the office and talking to people in order
5 percent, because of the combination of to stay on top of every project.‖
spending less time in meetings and having
higher quality information in the system,‖ Improved Time-Recording Procedures
Prussak says. Developers can mark their hours against
the detailed tasks in Visual Studio Team
For example, project managers can see at a Foundation Server 2010. The feature pack
detailed level which tasks have been automatically transfers the data to Project
completed and adjust schedules and Server 2010. Revlon is the application to
assignments accordingly. Prussak says, free developers from having to track day-
―Because we have more detail on these to-day activities in the Project Web App.
coordination activities, we can literally tell This improves the developers‘ morale and
people, ‗Experiment with something new,‘ saves time and money.
or ‗Spend this weekend with your family,‘
rather than ask them to wait around until Increased Responsibility
some prerequisite tasks are completed.‖ Because the Visual Studio Team Foundation
Server 2010 and Project Server Integration

5. For More Information Feature Pack helps developers plan their Microsoft Project Server 2010
For more information about Microsoft projects outside of meetings, the team Microsoft Project Server 2010 brings
products and services, call the Microsoft leads are no longer locked in their passive- together the business collaboration
Sales Information Center at (800) 426- aggressive relationship with project platform services of Microsoft SharePoint
9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft managers. Revlon IT can give the team Server 2010 with structured execution
Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- leads more responsibility for delivery of the capabilities to provide flexible work
2495. Customers in the United States and project. Project managers are freed to look management solutions. Project Server 2010
Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing at bigger, more forward-looking decisions. unifies project and portfolio management
can reach Microsoft text telephone to help organizations align resources and
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. ―Team leads can no longer complain that investments with business priorities, gain
Outside the 50 United States and project plans aren‘t detailed enough— control across all types of work, and
Canada, please contact your local because with the feature pack, they can visualize performance through powerful
Microsoft subsidiary. To access control the level of detail,‖ Prussak says. ―So dashboards.
information using the World Wide Web, with the feature pack, the team leads can
go to: take more responsibility for exactly what For more information about Microsoft
www.microsoft.com they are doing and be more accountable to Project Server 2010, go to:
the other members of their team.‖ www.microsoft.com/project/2010
For more information about Revlon
products and services, call (800) 473-
8566 or visit the website
at:www.revlon.com
Software and Services Technologies
Microsoft Server Product Portfolio − Microsoft Project Web App
− Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise − Microsoft SQL Server PowerPivot for
− Microsoft Project Server 2010 Microsoft SharePoint
− Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 − PerformancePoint Services in
− Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
Enterprise
Microsoft Project Professional 2010 Hardware
Microsoft Visual Studio Virtualized Dell PowerEdge R900 server
− Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 computers
Ultimate with MSDN
− Microsoft Visual Studio Team
Foundation Server 2010
This case study is for informational purposes only.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published June 2011