Overview of PPM Mobility Access

Project and Portfolio Management Center Mobility Access (Mobility Access) is a smart add-on that enables PPM users to process approval workflow steps from desktop email or any PDA device. Resources who are working outside of an office or without VPN access can act on approval workflow steps without first logging on to PPM.

Note: Mobility Access Service notifications are available only for workflow decision steps with lookup validations of both the Demand Management and Deployment Management modules. Mobility Access can also be used with project request workflows.

Users receive email alerts to inform them that a workflow approval step is pending and requires their action. The user can act on the workflow step using the buttons available in the email. The user can also create a note to append to the PPM entity (request or package) being processed.

Figure 4-1. Mobility Access alert about an approval workflow step pending for a PPM request shows a Mobility Access email alert displayed in a PPM user's PDA device.

Figure 4-1. Mobility Access alert about an approval workflow step pending for a PPM request

The Mobility Access background service running on the PPM Server periodically connects to the email account (at the frequency you configure for the service) and reads user response emails. The service verifies that the email response is from the email address to which the notification was sent, and that the email address is for a valid PPM Center user.

Finally, the Mobility Access service parses the response email and applies the selected action to the workflow step (if the user is authorized to act on the step). You can also configure the system to send feedback email to notify the user of the success or failure of the selected action.