Organizacija, Volume 47 Research papers Number 1, February 2014

DOI: 10.2478/orga-2014-0002

Impacts of the Implementation of a

Project Management Information System
– a Case Study of a Small R&D Company
Mirjana Kljajić Borštnar, Andreja Pucihar

University of Maribor, Faculty of Organizational Science, Kidričeva cesta 55a, Slovenija,

[Link]@[Link]. [Link]@[Link]

Background: The problems of resources management (human, financial, time) in multi-project companies are inherently
complex and need to be addressed systematically, in both small and large organizations. Furthermore, there is a need
for transparent communication and collaboration within the organization as well as with partnering organizations. There
are many methodologies and tools supporting project management, which are themselves complex and are therefore
not widely adopted, especially among small companies.
Objectives: The aim of this paper is to analyse impact of the implementation of a flexible cloud-based project manage-
ment information system (PMIS) from the human resources, financial management, and collaboration points of view.
Method: We have conducted a case study in a small Slovenian research and development company, that has imple-
mented the 4PM PMIS.
Results: The findings imply the importance of keeping the balance of the creative processes that are unstructured, rule
free and even chaotic, with structured processes monitor and control.
Conclusions: The results of the study suggest that the use of “4PM” in support of multi-project management improves
human resources and financial management in a collaborative and transparent way when implemented in an open and
highly motivated environment.

Keywords: multi-project management, project management information system, systems approach, small organization

1 Introduction the specific project. If not properly governed, such organi-

zations end up with weak organizational climates, high
Contemporary organizations are increasingly project orient- fluctuation rates, as well as low productivity and efficiency.
ed. Gareis and Huemann (2003) refer to such organizations In previous decades, research on project management
was primarily focused on single-project management (Ali
as Project-oriented Companies (POC), which acknowledge
and Money, 2005; Ali, Anbari and Money, 2008; Raymond
project management as an organizational strategy, manage
and Bergeron, 2008; Lindkvist, Söderlund and Tell, 1998;
a project portfolio of different project types and are organ- Lundin and Söderholm, 1995; Shenhar and Dvir, 1996).
ized to provide integrative functions. Furthermore, the pro- There is a substantial body of knowledge on the methodolo-
jects represent their core business. Projects are interrelated gies and tools used to support project management, from its
within the organization through human resources, finances, traditional form to more agile ones (Kerzner, 2003; PMI,
and time planning. In contrast, people are assigned to other 2001). Recently, the focus has shifted towards multi-project
activities and tasks, which also consume their time (and management (Van der Merwe, 1997; Packendorff, 1995;
other resources) and which are not accounted for within Nandhakumar and Jones, 2001; Engwall and Jerbrant,

Received: 30th August 2013; revised: 16th October 2013; accepted 19th November 2013

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Organizacija, Volume 47 Research papers Number 1, February 2014

2003; Cusumano and Nobeoka, 1998; Elonen and Artto, in (Evaristo and Fenema, 1999; Payne and Turner, 1999;
2003, Zika-Viktorsson, Sundström and Engwall, 2006; Hendriks, Voeten and Kroep, 1999), in which the authors
Mortensesn, Woolley and O’Leary, 2007). However, many suggested different approaches to gaining control and
of those studies are addressing an a priori portfolio compo- reducing risk of insufficient human resources manage-
sition, which only addresses the priorities set to the single ment. In contrast, the results of a study by Zika-Viktorsson,
projects and resources on a strategic level (also referred to Sundström and Engwall (2006, pp. 391) suggested that the
as ‘project portfolio management’ and ‘program manage- problem of human resources allocation is far more complex
ment’). However, the term ‘multi-project management’ and cannot be solved in a prescriptive way. Furthermore,
refers to the simultaneous managing of several projects on Zika-Viktorsson, Sundström and Engwall, (2006, pp. 391)
the operational level with the aim of the successful function- identified that project overload arising from insufficient
ing of a single project and overall organizational success, human resources allocation ‘[…] is associated with impaired
which represents an overwhelming burden on the project performance (measured in terms of poor adherence to time
and especially general managers. schedules), high levels of psychological stress reactions, and
Evaristo and Fenema (1999) proposed a new categori- decreased competence development’.
zation from the number of projects and locations, i.e. a new Owing to the above-explained complexities of human
model identifying complex multi-projects on multiple loca- resources management (competencies and time allocation),
tions that can be either distributed or shared. financial management (financial resources allocation), and
The problems of resource allocation (human, financial, quality management, several authors have suggested a
time) in organizations with multiple concurrent projects are need for efficient information and communication support
inherently complex. Engwall and Jerbrant (2003) studied (Ahleman and Riempp, 2008; Kaiser and Ahlemann, 2010;
resource allocation and suggested that there is a need to Caniëls, Ralph and Bakens, 2012; Mortensen et al., 2007).
address this issue as a deeper organizational feature embed- The basic presumption in the management of com-
ded in a multi-project organizational setting. Geraldi (2007) plex dynamic systems is that the system can be observed
addressed complexity in multi-project organizations as an and controlled by feedback information (Kljajić Borštnar,
ability of these companies to deal with the coexistence of Kljajić, Škraba, Kofjač and Rajkovič, 2011). Furthermore,
order and chaos. She proposed four organizational arche- not only feedback, but also anticipative information is nec-
types: the creative-reflective, the mechanic-structured, the essary for the efficient management of a complex system.
chaotification of order, and the bureaucratization of chaos. The information system (IS) plays the most important role in
This means that multi-project organization has specific all living and technical systems. It provides communication
needs in terms of supporting creative work process while among elements and environments in the course of achiev-
keeping the structured processes. Resource allocation is not ing goals. Without feedback and anticipative information,
the only challenge in the multi-project environment. Turner, the functioning and developing of the systems would be
Ledwith and Kelly (2012) addressed the problem of the impossible. However, depending of the nature of the sys-
multi-tasking and multi-disciplinarity of the project teams’ tems, there are enormous differences among the types and
members. Ratcheva (2009, pp. 207) argues that multi- complexities of IS. Therefore, the basic role of information
disciplinarity can ‘[…] facilitate team members in articulat- systems must be to provide the right information when
ing diverse knowledge perspectives’. A different view was needed. Nevertheless, information alone is insufficient for
researched by Mortensen et al. (2007), who discussed mul- successful decision making. Decision processes in organi-
tiple team memberships. Where the classic project manage- zational systems are primarily based on the participating
ment approach assumes one person assigned to one project, subjects.
modern practices assume one person assigned to a number Nowadays, information systems are mainly computer-
of projects. Their study implies that the crucial role for team based systems. They are a combination of hardware, soft-
success is the selection of appropriate team members, infor- ware, infrastructure and employees, organized to facilitate
mation sharing and communication within and across teams various tasks and activities in an organization. In a broad
and in the organization of work. When team members are sense, a definition of ‘information system’ is used to refer
working across time, space and organizational boundaries not only to the information and communication technol-
and their work is supported by information and communica- ogy (ICT) that an organization uses, but also to the way in
tion technology, the phrase ‘virtual teams’ is used (Lipnack, which people interact with this technology in support of
2000, pp. 352). business processes. Any specific information system aims
Different geographical locations of the team members to support planning, operations, management and deci-
account for differences in physical location, time zones, sion making (Kroenke, 2008). Information systems cover
cultures and values (Lee-Kelley and Sankey, 2008; Groznik, various areas of organizations; some support only particular
Weber and Kern, 2011). The human resources allocation functional areas of organizations (e.g. financial, marketing,
problems regarding perspectives on multi-disciplinarity, production, and human resource management information
multi-team membership, and virtual teams were discussed systems), some support entire functional areas of organiza-

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Organizacija, Volume 47 Research papers Number 1, February 2014

tions (e.g. enterprise resource planning systems) and others have an overview of the company as a whole (Martinsuo and
support the networks of organizations (e.g. supply chain Lehtonen, 2006). The use of an integral information system
management information systems) (Rainer, Turban, Potter that efficiently supports all aspects of multi-project oriented
and Cegielski, 2010). Enterprise (wide) resource planning organization is thus essential.
systems (ERP systems), supporting all functional areas and We have conducted a case study in a small Slovenian
business processes of organization (developed in the late research and development company using the 4PM web-
1980s) (Rashid et al., 2002) have been widely adopted by based project management information system. The aim
large and medium-sized organizations (Bernroider, Sudzina of this qualitative study is to analyse the process of imple-
and Pucihar, 2011). mentation and assess the impact of the implementation of a
Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) are flexible cloud-based project management information sys-
still used partially, mainly single-project-management ori- tem from the human resources, financial management, and
ented, lacking holistic support of all business processes collaboration points of view in a small R&D organization.
of multi-project oriented organizations, and according to
Dahlgren and Söderlund (2010) and Raymond and Bergeron
(2007, pp. 3) ‘the wider and fundamental issues of organi- 2 Methodology
zation-wide coordination and control between projects need
to be addressed’. 2.1 Description of the company
Issues of complexity, chaos vs. order and multi-project
interdependencies are especially difficult to address in We have conducted a single case study in a small Slovenian
small and medium-sized companies (Turner, Ledwith and research and development (R&D) ICT company. It is a typi-
Kelly, 2012, Ernø-kjølhede, 2000). Our study will focus cal, small R&D multi-project company, established in 2003.
on a small and medium-sized research and development It has 58 employees, of which 85% are male. The average
(R&D) company in particular. These kinds of organizations age of the employees is 32. The employees’ educational
rely on acquiring projects and successful execution of pro- structure is 10% PhD, 10% MSc, and the remaining having
jects from various sources of private and public financiers). bachelor’s degrees. The management structure includes a
Furthermore, there is a need for transparent communica- CEO and managing director at the top and three department
tion and collaboration within the organization as well as directors on the second level of decision-making. The yearly
with partnering organizations. To be able to successfully turnover is about €3.15 million. Their main income comes
manage different projects (in type, funding, scope, scale) from R&D projects financed by national and EU funding,
while simultaneously keeping people motivated and crea- and commercial software development projects. At the
tive, these challenges need to be addressed systematically. time of the study, they were running five EU projects as a
There are many methodologies and tools, (e.g. Traditional partnering organization, and over 30 commercial software
Approach, PRINCE2, Critical Chain Project Management, development projects.
Event-Chain Methodology, Process-Based Management, Mission statement from the company’s CEO:
Agile Project Management, Lean Project Management, etc.) We try to create a stimulating environment in which
supporting project management, which are themselves com- high-quality and innovative technology products
plex and are therefore not widely adopted, especially among are being developed. From the outset, we have
smaller organizations. Furthermore, the new ways of work- strived to maintain a democratic organizational
ing require flexibility from organizations and people in the structure and a culture built on trust, where every-
way of planning the work, monitoring and controlling the one adds his part of the puzzle.
work, and overcoming various communication and collabo-
ration challenges and cultural differences. So-called virtual The company soon realized that they would need a
teams, acting in various cultural, language, time, and inter- holistic and systematic approach for managing the large
disciplinary environments collaborate on various projects number of projects to support financial planning, human
(e.g. new product, service, and knowledge development) in resource planning (task delegation according to competenc-
a virtual environment, without having even one face-to-face es and time), documentation archiving, monitoring and con-
meeting. Another challenge in such projects is in efficient trolling, and reporting. The company was a typical example
knowledge transfer within the financial and time limits of a multi-project organization with clearly identified needs
of the given project. The problem of time limitations and that must be addressed in a systematic way; it was therefore
overload, affecting the knowledge transfer and hence the an appropriate case to be studied.
individual and organizational development was addressed The single-case study was used as a research strategy
by Zika-Viktorsson, Sundström and Engwall (2006). to examine three main aspects of use of the 4PM project
While project managers must provide transparent and management information system in a multi-project-oriented
efficient planning, monitoring and controlling of resources organization, i.e. human resources, finance planning and
in order to achieve the project goals, top management must collaboration aspects. The research was conducted in four

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Organizacija, Volume 47 Research papers Number 1, February 2014

stages (Yin, 2003): designing, conducting, analysing the 6. Defining changes that are desirable and feasible,
evidence, and developing the conclusions, recommenda- 7. Taking action to improve the real world situation.
tions and implications.
The intervention refers to the process of implementa-
tion of the 4PM PMIS, which is presented in Figure 1:
2.2 Design of the study User Requirements, Pilot Use, and Full Implementation.
Throughout the process of implementation, the evaluation,
This study was designed to address both of the possible
based on user feedback, was monitored. The feedback was
applications for a case study model (Yin, 2003): firstly,
used to adjust the functionalities of the PMIS and to gain
to describe the real-life context in which intervention has
occurred and, secondly, to describe the intervention itself. insight into the implementation process from the research
The real-life context refers to the problems related to point of view. Evidence was gathered by using triangula-
the scope and nature of the company’s multi-project opera- tion data collection methods, done in accordance with the
tions. For the observations and investigation of the current PMIS implementation phases. The following instruments
and desired situations, we used soft systems methodologies were used (Yin, 2003): direct and participant observations,
(SSM), in particular the seven-stage approach (Checkland, interviews, and documentation.
1999): In the User Requirements phase, the PMIS function-
1. Entering the problem situation, alities (user groups, classifications, reports and performance
2. Expressing the problem situation, measures) were aligned to the organizational goals with the
3. Formulating root definitions of relevant systems, observation of participants, documents analysis and inter-
4. Building conceptual models of human activity systems, views. In the second phase (Pilot Use), the implementation
5. Comparing the models with the real world, plan was developed. The corporate policy on the use of the

Figure 1: Research design

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Organizacija, Volume 47 Research papers Number 1, February 2014

PMIS was set, and user and access rights were prepared. A n Are you better informed about the projects’ undertak-
smaller scale test use was done with a limited number of ings?
participants and projects. The group consisted of one admin- n Do you feel better connected to your colleagues?
istrator and three researchers, of which one assumed the role n Can you better access company’s knowledge?
of project manager; top management also participated in the n Do you feel you have better overview of the whole
test use. Feedback information was collected by observation organization?
and interviews with the test users. Adjustments of the PMIS
functionalities (taxonomy, access rights and reports) were The interviews were recorded and coded by the inter-
done based on the feedback from the test users. viewees’ status (administration, project manager, researcher,
In the phase of full implementation, the final setup of top management) and the time of interview (occurring at the
4PM PMIS was installed based on the pilot use. Before the beginning of the implementation process, during, and post-
corporate implementation was rolled out, the users received implementation).
training on the use of PMIS. Feedback information was
again collected from the users and several adjustments to the Beginning of the implementation processes (partici-
PMIS were made. Finally, the processes and users opinions pants’ observation, interviews, document analysis)
were analysed via observation and interviews after the 4PM In an interview with the top management, we identi-
PMIS was in use for six months. fied key problems, goals and processes that needed to
be supported. In a small company, top management is
actively involved in the work processes, and they rely on a
2.3 Conducting the study democratic and open working relations based on transparent
communication. However, they expressed the need to sup-
The study was conducted within a total time span of one
port the creative work by structured processes that can be
year. During that period, all the phases in Figure 1 were
monitored and controlled. Priority was given to the public
executed. In the study, we examined both the real life con-
co-funded projects, with their strict reporting requirements.
text using Checklands’ soft system methodology (1999),
as well as the intervention, which can be best described Furthermore, the need for a gradual implementation of the
as a Project Life Cycle with specific stages defined by the PMIS was noted. Project managers are in fact research-
PMIS provider together with the company (see Figure 1). ers, many times lacking specific competencies on project
Semi-structured interviews with top management, project management. Therefore, it was vital to implement the PMIS
managers, researchers and administrative workers were gradually, so that employees can acquire knowledge and
conducted during problem identification, test use, and post skills for using it. Based on the initial interviews, document
implementation. Interviews were designed around three analysis and observation, the personalized database tax-
main aspects: employee satisfaction, financial management onomy (classification) was developed, taking into account
and collaboration. specific needs of the company, such as internal projects and
Employee satisfaction aspect was examined around the tasks classifications. In total, ten interviews were conducted
following topics: in this phase.
n Does the PMIS cover all data and information needs?
n Is the PMIS easily accessible? During the implementation process (interviews, feed-
n Is the user interface intuitive? back information, adjustment)
n How long did it take to get used to navigating the PMIS? A test user group consisting of the CEO, two research-
n Does it take you less time to complete reporting on ers, one researcher taking the role of a project manager, and
work completed? one administrative worker were trained for the use of the
n General opinion about the use of the 4PM PMIS. 4PM PMIS. An administrative worker took care of the initial
data input. First, they started using the financial module, and
The aspect of financial management was considered later the document management system and collaborative
through the following topics: environment. The latest stage of this phase was the intro-
n Does the PMIS cover all data and information needs? duction of the non-project related module related to human
n Is the communication with the accountant more effi- resources management (leave planning, absence, travels,
cient? appraisals etc.). In total, four interviews were conducted at
n Do you have better overview of individual project this phase.
finances?
n Do you have better overview of overall organizational Post Implementation (feedback information, process-
finances? es analysis, participants’ observation, and post implementa-
tion interviews)
Collaboration aspect in light of the PMIS was examined After the 4PM PMIS was introduced and used for six
through the following topics: months across the organization, interviews with the top

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Organizacija, Volume 47 Research papers Number 1, February 2014

management, project managers, researchers, and adminis- and communicate with all members of the team, providing
tration workers were conducted, and the impact of imple- transparent insight into the state of the project, reporting
mentation was assessed. In total, nine interviews were about the work done, time spent, and other relevant data
conducted at this phase. about the project. Furthermore, the company was looking
for a flexible solution that would contribute to learning
and thus strengthening the project management (and other)
3 Findings competencies of the managers and team members. The
solution should provide efficient decision-making about
The problems described by the participants of the study are priorities, based on the systems overview throughout the
common to many SMEs, especially in times of accelerated whole company.
growth of projects and employees. Current management
practice drawn from traditional project management proves
to be inadequate. Experts in certain business domains usu- 3.1 Human Resources Management
ally lack knowledge of human resources management,
financial management, and other competences important The productivity of employees working on multiple projects
for successful project management. The complexity of concurrently is difficult to assess. The reported time spent
multi-project organization is reported to be overwhelming on a task and the effective time are frequently not the same.
and the need for systematic IT support had been identified Furthermore, the requirements for reporting to financiers,
on the project management and top management levels. especially on international projects, do not show the real
status of the hours spent on a task.
Participants clearly identified three key areas that need to be
There are four concepts related to work time: 1)
supported by the PMIS:
planned time, 2) reported time by an employee, 3) approved
n Human resources management (work load planning,
time by a project manager, and 4) reported time to the
task delegation, task acceptance, reporting of time spent
financiers. The PMIS is supporting dynamic work planning
on a task, evaluation of performance, communication
according to the overview of the actual time allocated to
and collaboration);
specific tasks (Kobal, 2009) and reporting about the time
Financial management on both single project as well as
spent on a task. Additionally, the agreed effective time and
n

overall organizational level (revenue planning, inflow

content of work done can help better workload distribution,
planning, costs planning, cash flow planning, cost con-
transparent rewarding of employees, and finally greater
trolling, reporting); and employee satisfaction and motivation for work. Therefore,
n Overall multi-projects management on a strategic level. the basic role of the 4PM PMIS was in supporting of the
process of dynamic work planning with monitoring and
Both observation and document analysis supported the controlling, and transparent rewarding of employees. This
findings of the interviews with project managers in which it process is best described as a democratic process of report-
was state that they were overloaded by the project adminis- ing the subjective judgment of time spent on a specific task,
tration. This was mostly related to reporting to the manage- and communication and negotiation about the effective time
ment and financiers. acknowledged, qualitative and quantitative work assess-
Three groups of users were identified according to their ment, absence planning, work load planning, etc. It was of
needs for IT support: great importance that the top management was actively par-
n Top management, who must communicate accurate and ticipating in promoting the culture of reporting, monitoring
up-to-date information to the project managers about and controlling of the time spent on tasks, and the quality
changes and risks, upon which the project managers assessment of the work done.
would rely for the decision-making about the project. Although a flexible solution, it should provide stand-
Top management must have an aggregated overview of ardized and, where possible, automated handling of the
critical business information (cash flow, performance following activities: task delegation, time allocation, auto-
indicators, etc.); mated notification of changes, documentation handling and
n Project managers, who must be supported in their eve- report preparation. Structured and standardized processes,
ryday project activities (task delegation and control, maintaining flexibility for the task scheduling, are crucial
controlling the financial plan execution, reporting), in the efficient support of all participants in the process and
n Members of the project team, who need an operating allow participants to be focused on goals rather than admin-
platform supporting the project structured and unstruc- istration. At the same time, all three groups of users have
tured communication, and documentation management. feedback and anticipative information when needed.
There are two instances of reporting needed: one for
The basic idea of the company management was that management and other for financiers. Well-defined and sup-
every member of the project team should participate in ported processes offer higher reliability in the preparation of
the quest for positive project results, should collaborate various reports (scheduled reports, ad hoc reports and analy-

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Organizacija, Volume 47 Research papers Number 1, February 2014

sis) based on coherent and reliable data. Furthermore, con- view; therefore, this communication was improved with the
nectivity to other information systems, such as accounting implementation of the PMIS.
IS, and human resources management IS, would contribute Another explicit requirement, indicated from the inter-
to better efficiency in planning, monitoring and controlling views with the top management, was the need for financial
of not merely the human resources processes, but all busi- overview across projects in terms of planning, and control-
ness processes. Furthermore, reports on the analysis of the ling the cash inflows and outflows. Only in this way can
work planned vs. work done in yearly appraisals revealed management anticipate risks and critical events and make
some interesting information that can help to better manage timely decisions accordingly.
the human resources. By comparing planned and completed The major challenge in integrating the two informa-
work, management can assess the performance, task and tion systems was not technological, but organizational.
time allocation adequacy, and the aspirations of the employ- This is also the case in many other similar organizations
ees. Based on the historical data, predictions can be made where employees not directly involved in the project work
for workload planning as well. have difficulties comprehending the nature of such work.
The need for handling unpredicted situations, that Furthermore, the data structure (aggregation level), format
require relocating resources and prioritizing tasks, is sup- and time had to be aligned in order to provide suitable infor-
ported by the overview of the whole organization provided mation to the designated person in time.
by PMIS. However, not only the information about the cur-
rent and predicted workload distribution is sufficient, the
task delegation is supported in a collaborative way. Each 3.3 Collaboration aspect
member has the right to accept or decline the task due to
other prioritized tasks. Open communication within and Collaboration was one of the three main aspects identified
outside the project team is vital, but focused and facilitated by the top management, project managers, and team mem-
discussion is also supported. Together, they contribute to bers. Along financial and human resources management,
better employee involvement and collaboration, and fewer collaboration is crucial in the success of the heterogeneous
conflicts. Transparency of processes, based on system- R&D project teams. Teamwork encompasses open, focused
atic feedback information at all levels of decision-making and documented communication, and knowledge transfer.
(operational–task realization, tactical–goal achievement, Knowledge can be stored in documents, communication
and strategic–overall performance success) leads to better (formal, informal, tacit and implicit), and there is always
motivation of employees, transparent performance assess- tacit knowledge hidden within the project groups.
ment of employees, and knowledge transfer between the For the organization in question, the R&D groups are
project members and between projects. heterogeneous in existing within and outside the organiza-
tion, being multidisciplinary (programmers, systems engi-
neers, web programmers, designers, administrative workers,
3.2 Financial management and others), multicultural, and multilingual. The work is
frequently located off of the company premises, sometimes
Financial management in a multi-project organization is team members never meet face to face. For this reason, the
complex due to limited financial resources, unpredict- collaboration platform should provide support for efficient
able costs, different currencies, specific financial reporting communication among the team members and structured
requirements of individual financiers, possible large invest- and transparent communication and document management
ments before receiving of funds, travelling expenses, etc. between project team members.
The basic challenge is cash flow planning. Usually, the The participants of the study indicated the need for
costs occur before the cash inflow; it can happen that large efficient document management. Integrated with a collabo-
costs occur in several projects during the same time period; ration platform, this forms a powerful knowledge manage-
therefore, the need for planning the cash flow is crucial for ment tool encompassing the following functionalities:
business. Personnel costs represent the largest part of the n Prepared templates and reports (with comments, docu-
budget; therefore, it was crucial to connect work planning ments and files and folders structure),
and reporting (based on different hourly rates related to a n Learning platform for within and between project
specific project) with the accounting IS. knowledge transfer (time plans, various reporting
One of the requirements of the organization was options, standardized contract drafts, technical specifi-
to maintain the existing accounting IS (especially with cations, minutes of meetings, etc.).
accounts payable and receivable); therefore, integration with n Standardized and centralized documents capturing,
the PMIS was needed. Information on cash inflows and out- archiving, organized by projects
flows should be available when the event occurs; this was n Versioning (locking, access rights, work on the latest
explicitly stated by project managers. The project manage- version),
ment view of financiers usually differs from the accounting n Control of access rights,

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Organizacija, Volume 47 Research papers Number 1, February 2014

n Teamwork support (sharing, editing/reading rights, implementation plan aligned with the organization strategies
advanced search options). and internal rules. Finally, the organizations’ top manage-
ment has to support this quest in setting an example and
In setting up an efficient collaboration information creating conditions for the organizational culture to evolve
system that encompasses the monitoring of the document in a way that each employee will adopt the system.
workflow, the project manager determines what information The drawback of this study is in the selection of one
is needed by the three groups of users (general management, company whose organizational culture was already project
project manager, team member), the document flow within oriented. Future research should thus focus on examining
the project group and with the other stakeholders. Again, the other types of organizations (bigger, bureaucratic, with more
balance between the formal (structured) communication and hierarchy levels, private and public).
informal (unstructured) communication was the basis for
creative and open collaborative work.
Acknowledgements
4 Conclusions This research was funded by the Slovenian Research
Agency; Program No. P5-0018. We are also grateful to the
Increasing numbers of organizations are facing the complex- studied company and the PMIS provider, who were willing
ity of multi-project management. Research on this subject is to participate in this study by providing research material
scarce, mainly focusing on specific aspects or single project and insights into their business processes.
management information support. We analysed the impact
of implementation of a flexible cloud-based project manage-
ment information system in a small Slovene R&D company, References
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Marjolein, C.J., Caniëls, R. & Bakens, J.J.M. (2012). The effects
of Project Management Information Systems on decision
making in a multi project environment, International Journal Mirjana Kljajić Borštnar holds a Ph.D. in the area of Information
Systems Management from the University of Maribor. Her
of Project Management, 30(2), 162-175, [Link]
research work covers expert systems, multi-criteria decision-
org/10.1016/[Link].2011.05.005
making, and Information Systems development methods. She
Martinsuo, M. & Lehtonen, P. (2007). Role of single-project holds a position of an Assistant Professor and is a member
management in achieving portfolio management efficiency, of Laboratory for Decision Processes and Knowledge-Based
International Journal of Project Management, 25, 56–65, Systems. Her recent research work is focused on experiments
[Link] with decision groups applying system dynamics simulators in

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Organizacija, Volume 47 Research papers Number 1, February 2014

experimental, interactive learning, and living laboratory environ- innovation. She has published over 130 papers in journals and
ments. She is involved in several EU and industry projects. conference proceedings, including in Electronic Markets, The
She is the author and co-author of several scientific articles International Journal on Networked Business and Information
published in recognized international journals including Group Systems Management. She holds a position of an Assistant
Decision and Negotiation and System Dynamics Review. She Professor and is a member of E-business laboratory. She is
is also a program committee chair of annual international Bled involved into several EU and industry projects. She is a member
eConference ([Link] of the boards of the following international journals: »Electronic
Markets - The International Journal on Networked Business«,
»Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce
Andreja Pucihar holds a Ph.D. in the area of Information Research« and »International Journal of Information Systems
Systems Management from the University of Maribor. Her & Social Change«. She is also a program committee chair of
research work is mainly focused to e-business, new e-busi- annual international Bled eConference ([Link]
ness models, social media and web 2.0, living labs and open org).

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