EPM 2007 Architecture

Microsoft’s EPM solution is built on a three-tier architecture, using a variety of Office and Windows Server products.

EPM Clients. A variety of clients are able to access project information from the Microsoft EPM servers, depending on the role of the user. Project managers and team members actively involved in both planning and the day-to-day measurement of progress will probably find Project Professional 2007, Microsoft’s high-end desktop project management application, to be the best client. (However, customers cannot interact with Project Server using the Project Standard client, which is intended to be used on a stand-alone basis by individual project managers.) Senior executives and managers with an interest in initiating and managing projects may find that using Internet Explorer with either Project Web Access or Project Portfolio Web Access provides sufficient access to Project Server or Project Portfolio Server for the information and reports they need. Team members who need only to update their tasks and timesheets might use Outlook, Internet Explorer, or an enterprise resource planning application such as Microsoft Dynamics or SAP, which can interface with Project Server via APIs and Web protocols.