From Spreadsheets to Strategic Insight: A Project Accountant’s Perspective

Part 2 of 4 | Interview Series: Business Transformation with Projects Expert

Interview with: A Life Star Senior Project Accountant, Global Biopharma Life Sciences Organisation.

Yugwan: Let’s talk about life before Projects Expert. What were the biggest pain points in your day-to-day work?

Project Accountant: Honestly? It was chaos. Excel was running the show.

We manage research projects that are complex, regulated, and constantly evolving. Oracle PPM gave us the backbone, sure, but it just wasn’t flexible enough. Every time a timeline shifted, or we needed to rework dependencies, it meant exporting to spreadsheets. We’d build workarounds, validate offline, and re-upload. And even then, we weren’t sure if we were working with the right numbers.

It felt like we were spending all our time just keeping the data upright-never actually using it to make decisions.

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Yugwan: What changed when you brought in Projects Expert?

Project Accountant: The difference was immediate. Projects Expert didn’t replace Oracle-it unlocked it.

Thanks to Project Expert’s Hammock Task capabilities and single screen input, I can now make all updates, dependencies, resources and planned costs right inside a single screen. No toggling between tabs, no exporting. And it’s all live data. The second I make a change; it’s reflected across the system.

But more than that, it shifted our mindset. Instead of reacting when things go wrong, we’re planning ahead, spotting risks early. I’ve gone from number chaser to decision-support.

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Yugwan: Was the transition smooth? Any bumps along the way?

Project Accountant: I was expecting friction, but it was actually very smooth. 

The tool feels like part of Oracle, not something separate. So right away, it didn’t feel foreign. And the training wasn’t theoretical- they showed us how to use it on our own projects. That made a big difference. 

Also, their support team? Fast, clear, human. When you’re learning something new, that kind of backup matters. 

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Yugwan: And what about productivity or governance - any noticable impact?

Project Accountant: Oh, absolutely.

• We’re saving at least 10–15 hours a week just on plan updates.

• Our governance has tightened-no more scattered spreadsheets or undocumented changes.

• Reports are current, not cobbled together from three systems and a panic the night before.

It’s also changed how we run project meetings. We’ve got a single source of truth now. The data’s reliable, visual, and ready when we are.

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Yugwan: What features have made the biggest difference?

Project Accountant: Oh, absolutely.

• Single-page editing – I can update an entire project plan from one place.

• Milestone-driven scheduling – If a key date shifts, everything downstream adjusts automatically.

• Co-authoring controls – No more people stepping on each other’s updates. We can assign specific sections to specific users.

And the dashboards? I used to dread pulling status reports. Now it’s a couple of clicks, and they’re insightful.

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Yugwan: Any advice for teams still relying on spreadsheets?

Project Accountant: If you're managing projects in Oracle but still living in Excel, you're probably stuck in firefighting mode. I was too.

Projects Expert let us drop the drama. It gave us control, confidence, and the time to support the business, not just reconcile the data. Whether you're in biotech, aerospace, engineering, or infrastructure-anywhere you're running complex, multi-phase projects-this is a game-changer.

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Up Next?

In the next part of our series, we hear from one of the implementation leads who helped deliver Projects Expert into a highly complex Oracle PPM environment. From navigating integration fears to scaling without disruption, they reveal what really happens behind the scenes-and why the tool feels less like an add-on and more like a native evolution of Oracle itself.

We also explore what’s coming next: AI-driven risk scoring, predictive planning, and connected insights that stretch beyond project management into procurement, HR, and more.

If you’ve ever asked, “How do we get more out of Oracle without breaking what already works?”-you won’t want to miss this one.

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Who are Life Star?

Life Star are a Projects Expert Customer, and for the purpose of this article, we have changed the company’s real name to Life Star to retain commercial anonymity.

As this transformation story illustrates, organisations like Life Star - a global immunology company with over 1,500 employees and operations spanning Europe, the US, and Asia are setting the pace for innovation in the life sciences. With a strong commitment to advancing antibody-based therapies for autoimmune diseases, Life Star is not only commercialising approved treatments in over 30 countries, but also actively managing a pipeline of more than 20 late-stage clinical trials.

As an organisation, they have ambitious growth plans, and this is where enabling technologies like Projects Expert play a critical role. In high-stakes, data-intensive environments, success hinges on visibility, control, and agility. For project-driven companies like Life Star, the future will belong to those who can blend rigour with speed, using tools not just to manage projects, but to power decisions.

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About Projects Expert

Projects Expert is the first-of-its-kind Oracle partner that specialises in project-centric enterprise Solutions. We aim to deliver sustainable, robust, and business-friendly Oracle solutions for project-driven organisations.

To know more about what we can do for you, visit our website at www.projectsexpert.com.

Reach out to us at +44 330 330 5154 or drop a note at info@projectsexpert.com