As organizations fight tenaciously for every inch of market share, IT departments have had to deploy technology that assists these dynamic organizations to remain competitive. One of these technologies is project portfolio management (PPM): a set of processes to analyze, recommend, authorize, activate, expedite, and monitor projects to meet organization improvement goals. Figure 1 provides a visual of these processes and how they flow during a project.
According to The AMA Handbook of Activity Administration (2nd edition), PPM, if acclimated to its abounding potential, can abetment organizations to apprehend the afterward goals:
*
an estimated 2030 percent abridgement in the time it takes to advance new products
*
cogent advance in commutual projects on time and on budget
*
improvements in analysis and development (R&D) productivity
How Organizations Should Abutment PPM
To abutment a PPM system, organizations accept to accept an centralized action for anniversary of the following:
1. Governancethe controlling role in the controlling process, usually conducted by a C-level controlling who determines
*
what projects to accept or reject, as priorities are determined
*
if to actuate projects, and establishes their achievement dates
*
what assets are appropriate (both basic and human), and sets the activity budget
2. Managementthe action that monitors a activity to ensure it is accomplishing its declared goals and that it is active on time and on budget. Such ecology is usually the albatross of the activity administrator (PM) and the activity administration office.
3. Administrationthe administration and afterlight of activity portfolios according to their deliverables and assets (planned and used) in adjustment to certificate the activity status, agenda key milestones, and ensure adherence to the agenda for activity deliverables. Usually the authorization of the PM.
The Democratization of PPM
Long afore the agenda age, British biographer G.K. Chesterton wrote: "You can never accept a anarchy in adjustment to authorize a democracy. You accept to accept a capitalism to alpha a revolution."
This absurdity holds accurate if you accede the avant-garde business landscape, which has apparent the controlling action transform from getting the albatross of a simple scattering of top-level executives, to cover a greater amount of humans beyond abounding departments and levels aural the organization. To a ample degree, this transformation has occurred because of the ever-increasing amount of methods accumulated abstracts is calm and candy to acquiesce greater afterimage for administration and to abutment the business process.
The boilerplate baby to average business (SMB) has abounding of the aforementioned cardinal needs as Fortune 500 organizations accept for processing abstracts into information. Accede an SMB's charge to accommodate technologies to abutment its accomplishment and accumulation alternation issues, which affect the organization's adeptness to accomplish revenues. These SMBs may advertise to beyond organizations, which demands greater affiliation with these organizations' business processes and systems. The requirements accept an appulse on aggregate from artefact architectonics to engineering, to sourcing and procurement, to sales and distribution, accompanying with greater acquiescence issues and authoritative concerns.
The mid-market has limped forth with adamant systems and processes that were developed on platforms and architectonics now about 20 years old. As a result, organizations accept had to actualize a array of ad hoc letters by application spreadsheets, abounding with the constraints of inaccurate and changeless data. If managing projects, spreadsheets are a poor way to clue changes, as they leave no analysis trails, and they are an bare average for interpreting data.
Until recently, PPM was viewed as a solution only larger organizations could benefit from, the logic being that PPM was time-consuming and costly to deploy. For SMBs, the cost of software licensing, hardware, and consulting services, as well as disruption to a business's day-to-day operations during implementation of PPM, were simply too high.
So what alternatives to using spreadsheets, with all their inherent flaws that risk the loss of valuable revenues to increasing global competition, do SMBs have?
The Hosted PPM Alternative
Many PPM vendors that originally sold on-premise solutions have made a transition into the on-demand marketplace. The primary reason for this change is that they have realized the potential value of this untapped market space, as software as a service (SaaS) offers a number of advantages to the client in the SMB market:
*
No software needs to be installed.
*
No infrastructure is required to support the application.
*
The SaaS vendor manages all network issues and all software version updates.
*
SaaS applications result in a lower total cost of ownership (TCO). On-premise software can cost a substantial amount in implementation fees and user support.
*
SaaS applications allow scalability. Many of the features designed for an on-premise PPM system may be too robust for the small business user. But users can derive the benefits of a PPM system with an on-demand application, even if at first they are using only the parts of the software they require. Features and functionality can be added later, as users become more familiar with the application.
A Snapshot of Some PPM Solution Providers in the SaaS Space
1. Genius Inside
Established in 1997 and headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, Genius Inside creates and sells enterprise project management solutions, known as Genius Project.
With over 70,000 North American users and close to 400 installs worldwide, Genius Inside also has a vast network of resellers, and the company is a certified IBM Business Partner. The software is designed for the Lotus Domino Collaboration server, and has won numerous awards, such as the 2008 Lotus award for Best Mid-Market Solution. The product is a comprehensive set of integrated applications across ten modules.
Genius Project: Features and Benefits
* User-friendly software with a customizable user interface.
* Numerous standard templates, such as Project Management Institute (PMI), PRINCE2, and Six Sigma, which easily integrate to an organization's existing processes within its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, such as procurement, accounting, etc.
* A complete project management solution, including portfolio management, project tracking, cost and budget tracking, planning tools, etc.
* A resource management system, with user-friendly and customizable time- and tracking-sheets, advanced reporting, process and workflow support, a document management system, and the ability to use rich collaboration.
* A cross-industry solution that can be used in both process and discrete manufacturing environments, and that is scalable to both large global locations and small offices having two or three users.
* Reports that can be exported to MS Project, and vice versa.
* Project information work breakdown schedule (WBS) that can be displayed in Gantt chart format.
* Multi-project milestones and key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be displayed and that support rich analytics using online analytical processing (OLAP) tools through a business intelligence (BI) interface.
According to The AMA Handbook of Activity Administration (2nd edition), PPM, if acclimated to its abounding potential, can abetment organizations to apprehend the afterward goals:
*
an estimated 2030 percent abridgement in the time it takes to advance new products
*
cogent advance in commutual projects on time and on budget
*
improvements in analysis and development (R&D) productivity
How Organizations Should Abutment PPM
To abutment a PPM system, organizations accept to accept an centralized action for anniversary of the following:
1. Governancethe controlling role in the controlling process, usually conducted by a C-level controlling who determines
*
what projects to accept or reject, as priorities are determined
*
if to actuate projects, and establishes their achievement dates
*
what assets are appropriate (both basic and human), and sets the activity budget
2. Managementthe action that monitors a activity to ensure it is accomplishing its declared goals and that it is active on time and on budget. Such ecology is usually the albatross of the activity administrator (PM) and the activity administration office.
3. Administrationthe administration and afterlight of activity portfolios according to their deliverables and assets (planned and used) in adjustment to certificate the activity status, agenda key milestones, and ensure adherence to the agenda for activity deliverables. Usually the authorization of the PM.
The Democratization of PPM
Long afore the agenda age, British biographer G.K. Chesterton wrote: "You can never accept a anarchy in adjustment to authorize a democracy. You accept to accept a capitalism to alpha a revolution."
This absurdity holds accurate if you accede the avant-garde business landscape, which has apparent the controlling action transform from getting the albatross of a simple scattering of top-level executives, to cover a greater amount of humans beyond abounding departments and levels aural the organization. To a ample degree, this transformation has occurred because of the ever-increasing amount of methods accumulated abstracts is calm and candy to acquiesce greater afterimage for administration and to abutment the business process.
The boilerplate baby to average business (SMB) has abounding of the aforementioned cardinal needs as Fortune 500 organizations accept for processing abstracts into information. Accede an SMB's charge to accommodate technologies to abutment its accomplishment and accumulation alternation issues, which affect the organization's adeptness to accomplish revenues. These SMBs may advertise to beyond organizations, which demands greater affiliation with these organizations' business processes and systems. The requirements accept an appulse on aggregate from artefact architectonics to engineering, to sourcing and procurement, to sales and distribution, accompanying with greater acquiescence issues and authoritative concerns.
The mid-market has limped forth with adamant systems and processes that were developed on platforms and architectonics now about 20 years old. As a result, organizations accept had to actualize a array of ad hoc letters by application spreadsheets, abounding with the constraints of inaccurate and changeless data. If managing projects, spreadsheets are a poor way to clue changes, as they leave no analysis trails, and they are an bare average for interpreting data.
Until recently, PPM was viewed as a solution only larger organizations could benefit from, the logic being that PPM was time-consuming and costly to deploy. For SMBs, the cost of software licensing, hardware, and consulting services, as well as disruption to a business's day-to-day operations during implementation of PPM, were simply too high.
So what alternatives to using spreadsheets, with all their inherent flaws that risk the loss of valuable revenues to increasing global competition, do SMBs have?
The Hosted PPM Alternative
Many PPM vendors that originally sold on-premise solutions have made a transition into the on-demand marketplace. The primary reason for this change is that they have realized the potential value of this untapped market space, as software as a service (SaaS) offers a number of advantages to the client in the SMB market:
*
No software needs to be installed.
*
No infrastructure is required to support the application.
*
The SaaS vendor manages all network issues and all software version updates.
*
SaaS applications result in a lower total cost of ownership (TCO). On-premise software can cost a substantial amount in implementation fees and user support.
*
SaaS applications allow scalability. Many of the features designed for an on-premise PPM system may be too robust for the small business user. But users can derive the benefits of a PPM system with an on-demand application, even if at first they are using only the parts of the software they require. Features and functionality can be added later, as users become more familiar with the application.
A Snapshot of Some PPM Solution Providers in the SaaS Space
1. Genius Inside
Established in 1997 and headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, Genius Inside creates and sells enterprise project management solutions, known as Genius Project.
With over 70,000 North American users and close to 400 installs worldwide, Genius Inside also has a vast network of resellers, and the company is a certified IBM Business Partner. The software is designed for the Lotus Domino Collaboration server, and has won numerous awards, such as the 2008 Lotus award for Best Mid-Market Solution. The product is a comprehensive set of integrated applications across ten modules.
Genius Project: Features and Benefits
* User-friendly software with a customizable user interface.
* Numerous standard templates, such as Project Management Institute (PMI), PRINCE2, and Six Sigma, which easily integrate to an organization's existing processes within its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, such as procurement, accounting, etc.
* A complete project management solution, including portfolio management, project tracking, cost and budget tracking, planning tools, etc.
* A resource management system, with user-friendly and customizable time- and tracking-sheets, advanced reporting, process and workflow support, a document management system, and the ability to use rich collaboration.
* A cross-industry solution that can be used in both process and discrete manufacturing environments, and that is scalable to both large global locations and small offices having two or three users.
* Reports that can be exported to MS Project, and vice versa.
* Project information work breakdown schedule (WBS) that can be displayed in Gantt chart format.
* Multi-project milestones and key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be displayed and that support rich analytics using online analytical processing (OLAP) tools through a business intelligence (BI) interface.
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