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Allan Cid

Experienced project manager works with resources and shares schedules with third parties

“I use GanttPRO for everything – for my work, study, and personal projects.”

A story about Université Laval bringing more structure to project scheduling and resource planning with GanttPRO.

Company overview

Company: Université Laval

Role interviewed: Allan Cid, engineer, experienced project and program manager, studying marketing at Université Laval

Project types: work, study, and personal projects

External pressures: need to persuade stakeholders with clear schedules, resource availability across multiple projects, plan presentation to third parties without “desktop tool” friction

Tool history: Microsoft Project and other desktop/downloadable tools

Problems hinted at: installed tools were inconvenient and not presentation-friendly, needed simple sharing and visibility of resource workload across projects

Summary

  • Planning moved from desktop tools to a cloud setup usable from any computer with a simple log in.
  • Sharing became the default “presentation” method with sending a link (plus PDF export when needed).
  • Resource workload helped track team availability and reassign tasks when people are spread across multiple projects.
  • Visual scheduling made it easier to justify decisions to university stakeholders, showing how a choice impacts the schedule.

    • Personal background

    How would you sum up your experience?

    Internationally accomplished executive with a track record of demonstrated results as a program manager, project manager, and analyst, studies marketing at Université Laval.
    "I can use GanttPRO everywhere, it doesn’t matter the field. GanttPRO has all it needs to have."
    Allan Cid

    Allan Cid

    Marketing Student

    Struggle

    How did your approach look before GanttPRO?

    I used to manage projects in MS Project. Also, I used a couple of other desktop/downloadable tools. But I didn’t really like them. They all were not really intuitive and not good for presenting projects to stakeholders. And all those desktop issues were not convenient to work with. That’s why I started looking for a cloud tool. And that’s how I found GanttPRO.

    Favorite features

    • That’s what I like the most. If I have a meeting with someone, I don’t need to create a presentation. I create a link and send it. That’s how I show what we need to discuss.
      Also, it helps me present my charts to stakeholders directly. The schedule will look very professional. Actually, I can easily share it with anyone: stakeholders, team members, clients, etc. That’s amazing.
      I also like that I can export it to different formats like, for example, PDF.

    • I like that I can create a workload for my team. This way, I can measure whether I give too much workload to a worker on a project or not.
      Also, GanttPRO sorts out the hours used in different projects. So, if I have a worker working on Project A, Project B, and Project C, I can see how his workload looks like for a week or a day and reassign tasks if needed. That’s great.
      It’s great to see what you’re doing. Actually, you can use GanttPRO as a managing tool as well.

    • Sharing
    • Resource workload

    Impact

    What does your work look like now with GanttPRO?

    I can say that I have been using GanttPRO throughout my whole career.

    “I use GanttPRO for everything. For my work, study, and personal projects.”

    See for yourself: I used to be a deputy director of the Research Department at UC Timber Innovation Center and a productivity analyst at LAN Airlines. Now, I manage a building construction project and study marketing at University and plan to get a PhD. And GanttPRO has always accompanied me. I can use GanttPRO everywhere, it doesn’t matter the field. GanttPRO has all it needs to have.