This article is designed to provide guidance for managers who are involved in leading the strategic direction of their organisations. Here we look at the actions that successful leaders must take in order to create and establish a management teams network to successfully support the organisation’s strategies.
Establishing An Appropriate Organisational Structure, by: considering the strategic direction and objectives of the organisation; considering the desired organisational culture; identifying the critical activity areas of the organisation; deciding on an appropriate organisational structure. This is an essential first step. Before any changes or new directions can be taken the leaders must decide on an organisational structure that will support the strategic direction being taken, and an organisational culture that they will be aiming to create. The management teams network that is then put in place will be compatible with the structure and contribute to developing the desired culture.
Deciding On A Management Teams Structure, by; planning a network of management teams to match the requirements identified in the previous activity; agreeing individual team structure; agreeing individual team objectives, roles, responsibilities, size, location, resource needs; identifying team member and team leader profiles for each management team. The planning undertaken here will provide the template for the new structure, when implemented. This planning is best carried out as a factual, needs based, exercise. The role of the team, and its objectives, should be allowed to dictate size, location, team leader and team member profiles. Resource implications should be dealt with after the structure has been agreed. Existing and potential personnel should be assessed against these only at the next stage, when the teams are populated. Option 1: Assessing Existing Teams, by: identifying existing management teams; analysing the objectives of existing teams; evaluating the performance of existing teams; evaluating the performance of individual team leaders; comparing each management team profile with the newly defined requirements. In many, if not most, organisations this will be necessary due to legislative constraints and-or ethical considerations. However, the existing teams are unlikely to be appropriate, other than in part, and the outcomes of this action will simply identify what are likely to be major gaps and changes that will need to be made, in order to match the new requirements. Option 2: Removing Existing Teams, by: removing the old structure completely. This option is the most effective – a total reengineering - but the most radical. If possible, this is the better option, as the organisation can make the changes required to most appropriately match the new strategic direction, and move forward unhindered by partially or wholly unsuitable management teams.
Implementing The New Management Teams Network, by: providing information about the changes to all affected - in most organisations this will mean at all levels and both internally and externally; selecting team leaders and team members; establishing the teams in their locations; training each team in its new role, responsibilities, objectives, and operational activities; providing appropriate resources for each team; launching the new network into active service. A critical stage, this needs to be managed as a major change activity, and as a major project. An executive level manager should be appointed to oversee the changes. Communication with all stakeholders - who will be many, at many levels, and both internal and external to the organisation – will need to be managed carefully.
Implementing A Management Team Performance System, by: designing a rigorous teams performance appraisal system; monitoring the performance of individual teams; taking appropriate corrective action where when necessary. Many organisations operate an effective employee appraisal system, but this usually only applies to operational employees and junior managers. Middle and Senior managers must also be appraised on a regular basis, ideally more frequently than operational employees, as the managers’ actions usually have greater negative or positive impact. This line of thinking must also be applied to management teams, because of the degree of influence and impact of the team collective decisions and actions. The leaders of the organisation must be continuously aware of the performance levels of their management teams, and take action to maintain or raise that performance level as necessary. Implementing a performance appraisal and continuous improvement approach to the network of management teams is vital. In the early stages of the life of the teams the focus will be on awareness and understanding of the objectives of the team, and identifying training and development needs to support new or adjusted roles. As the team grows and matures, the monitoring will focus firstly on consistency of performance, and then on supporting a continuous improvement in that performance. At all stages in the life cycle of each team, performance appraisal must be a regular and visible process.
Network Review And Refresh, by: arranging regular reviews of the appropriateness of the management teams network; assessing the suitability of each part of the network against newer versions of the strategic objectives; assessing the structure of the network against the current organisational structure and culture; making appropriate changes to individual components and-or the overall structure of the network. A major review should be held every year, as a key part of the review and adjustment of strategies and objectives in the annual strategic planning process. At this review point minor or major changes should be agreed, to adjust the network so that it continues to match the requirements dictated by the refreshed strategic and operational objectives. In addition, the condition of the management teams network should be an agenda item on at least quarterly executive level meetings, where corrective action can be decided on where necessary.
In Summary: establishing a compatible management teams structure is an essential first step in ensuring that the organisation’s strategies are implemented successfully. Without a robust network of management teams, appropriate to the size and complexity of the organisation and its strategic objectives, the strategic and operational objectives will not be achieved. Effective management teams are the driving force behind the achievement of objectives. This network cannot be successful if it is weak or flawed. It is the role of the leaders of the organisation to ensure that the management teams network is strong, dynamic, and focused on achieving its objectives, in its individual parts and collectively.
About the author
CJ Williams is a tutor and management consultant currently working with Brighton School of Business and Management in the UK, specialising in Business and Management courses taught via distance learning. The writer, CJ Williams, can be contacted via http://www.brightonsbm.com
Showing posts with label Management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Management. Show all posts
Smart Management - The Next Best Thing To Cloning Yourself
Business management can be both exciting and frustrating: sometimes both at the same time. Hopefully, you’ve got more of the exciting and less of the frustrating, but in any case, there are things that you can do to make life in the office more pleasurable for you and your staff.
Let’s look at the roots of excitement and frustration. Excitement comes when you capitalize on opportunity, things go right, and you claim the reward for a job well done. Frustration comes from the opposite.
If you’ve read our articles in the past, you know that we’re firm believers in setting up the right environment first. (We’re including systems, procedures, tools, knowledge, etc. as part of the environment.) And plugging people into that environment comes second. So often, when a decision maker is frustrated, it’s the result of working with people first (morale-building activities, teamwork sessions, incentive programs, etc.), then working on the environment as almost an afterthought. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Wrong, because when basic needs go unmet, people can’t perform the most basic of tasks…even with help, even with teamwork, even with incentives. Take a talented graphic artist and sit him in front of a TV instead of a computer for 8 hours. Will he produce print-ready artwork? Will he if you cheerlead, ask him to express his feelings, or give him a better health insurance program? He may want to do the job, but he needs the right tools to do his job. Would you expect an emaciated, starving dog to eagerly fetch a paper? Maybe with a steak rolled in it, but his mind is on eating, not on playing games.
Sure, there are times when you want your staff to work interdependently, meaning together to get the job done. Then there are times when you want them to be able to use their heads, make the right decisions, fix minor problems (ideally prevent most problems before they occur), and leave you to do the planning and strategizing so you can move your firm forward. Again, that all boils down to the environment that you build, foster, and refine.
Furthermore, the steps you learn here, if applied, will build productivity and self-sufficiency from upper-level management straight through to your front line. Be patient with yourself and others. Every person has his own body of knowledge and experiences to draw from, and every person will have a different learning curve. The important thing to acknowledge is that the shift to thinking and functioning independently is an ongoing process.
For example, an executive from Carrier Air Conditioning (United Technologies Corp.) once said that when he first started with the firm, he only saw what was happening around him, yet he thought he understood the bigger picture. When he was promoted to a more senior position, he noticed that he learned so much more as his skills were expanded by the corporation. When he moved higher yet, his picture expanded once again, and he was surprised at what he used to think of as being informed. It's like mountain climbing; the higher you climb the more you see. Good education of management places individuals at higher ground, and it shows them what to do with the larger picture that they're seeing.
Here are some ways that you can elevate your perspective and bring subordinates to higher ground:
1. Build a structure that facilitates success. There's a point in any growing business where our ideas must be passed on to managers to follow out the requests and needs of the corporation. Building a structure in terms of operational and organizational design will allow for the most powerful management control. Think of it in terms of an office building. Some facilitate people working well together, and others add to confusion. The key is to enable the manager to navigate his or her course and complete the mission without disruption. The right structure is the environment that fosters employee success.
2. Supply your managers with management tools. It's just like a computer. In order for it to function, one needs hardware, software and “humanware.” For management, hardware might mean computers, intranet and extranets, scanners, cars, voicemail, budgets, etc. On the software side, it may mean spreadsheets and operational software. For humanware, the tools may be strategic and tactical, new product and service development, alliance development, leadership, competitive intelligence, globalism, economics, understanding trends, or reading financials.
3. Learn to coach and educate people properly. Do you ever sit down with management or employees after you've made a decision and explain to them in detail HOW you came to that decision? How can we expect employees to think and act like management, if we don't teach them the background data? It's not enough to say you made the decision. The listener most likely does not have your scope of knowledge. Tell your managers that you purchased a piece of equipment, because of 14 elements—from good sales and cash flow to a large order you think may be secured. Explain to them why you fired Linda. She was often late, her numbers were well under what you expect, there were issues of harassment, and poor use of company time. The more your employees know HOW you're thinking, the more you can assist them when they make decisions. And when you aren’t there to hold their hands, they can draw upon the experiences you’ve ../shared with them in order to make the sound choices.
4. Educate your managers about the tools you use to be successful. Then, ask them to share the tools they use. The exchange can be a real eye opener. Ooops, you do it off the top of your head! Then expect your employees to do the same. Empowerment is more than letting people go. To avoid let downs and costly mistakes, empower your people by giving them the knowledge and though processes to be successful. Imagine if you got a call from Steven Spielberg today and he said, “(Insert your name here) you've been given you the authority to produce my next Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Most of us would be clueless without guidance and some structure. Make sure you’re giving both to your people.
The final and most important element to getting management to think on their own is to do all of the above and then GET OUT OF THE WAY! Give people some space to learn alone, to experiment and experience, and to learn their own lessons. When you step back and let others do their jobs, you tell them that you trust them. Your trust, combined with a success-breeding environment and tempered guidance, builds their confidence, their minds, and their abilities as leaders and managers. That's how people learn to think on their own.
About the author
David and Lorrie Goldsmith are managing partners of a firm that offers consulting and speaking services internationally. David was named by Successful Meetings Magazine as one of the “26 Hottest Speakers in the Industry.” A best selling author characterized David in this manner; "David Goldsmith is unique in that he can see a 30,000 feet view of business and then delivers the hand-to-hand tools for combat. Few people can do what he does." More information at http://www.keynoteresource.com/
Let’s look at the roots of excitement and frustration. Excitement comes when you capitalize on opportunity, things go right, and you claim the reward for a job well done. Frustration comes from the opposite.
If you’ve read our articles in the past, you know that we’re firm believers in setting up the right environment first. (We’re including systems, procedures, tools, knowledge, etc. as part of the environment.) And plugging people into that environment comes second. So often, when a decision maker is frustrated, it’s the result of working with people first (morale-building activities, teamwork sessions, incentive programs, etc.), then working on the environment as almost an afterthought. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Wrong, because when basic needs go unmet, people can’t perform the most basic of tasks…even with help, even with teamwork, even with incentives. Take a talented graphic artist and sit him in front of a TV instead of a computer for 8 hours. Will he produce print-ready artwork? Will he if you cheerlead, ask him to express his feelings, or give him a better health insurance program? He may want to do the job, but he needs the right tools to do his job. Would you expect an emaciated, starving dog to eagerly fetch a paper? Maybe with a steak rolled in it, but his mind is on eating, not on playing games.
Sure, there are times when you want your staff to work interdependently, meaning together to get the job done. Then there are times when you want them to be able to use their heads, make the right decisions, fix minor problems (ideally prevent most problems before they occur), and leave you to do the planning and strategizing so you can move your firm forward. Again, that all boils down to the environment that you build, foster, and refine.
Furthermore, the steps you learn here, if applied, will build productivity and self-sufficiency from upper-level management straight through to your front line. Be patient with yourself and others. Every person has his own body of knowledge and experiences to draw from, and every person will have a different learning curve. The important thing to acknowledge is that the shift to thinking and functioning independently is an ongoing process.
For example, an executive from Carrier Air Conditioning (United Technologies Corp.) once said that when he first started with the firm, he only saw what was happening around him, yet he thought he understood the bigger picture. When he was promoted to a more senior position, he noticed that he learned so much more as his skills were expanded by the corporation. When he moved higher yet, his picture expanded once again, and he was surprised at what he used to think of as being informed. It's like mountain climbing; the higher you climb the more you see. Good education of management places individuals at higher ground, and it shows them what to do with the larger picture that they're seeing.
Here are some ways that you can elevate your perspective and bring subordinates to higher ground:
1. Build a structure that facilitates success. There's a point in any growing business where our ideas must be passed on to managers to follow out the requests and needs of the corporation. Building a structure in terms of operational and organizational design will allow for the most powerful management control. Think of it in terms of an office building. Some facilitate people working well together, and others add to confusion. The key is to enable the manager to navigate his or her course and complete the mission without disruption. The right structure is the environment that fosters employee success.
2. Supply your managers with management tools. It's just like a computer. In order for it to function, one needs hardware, software and “humanware.” For management, hardware might mean computers, intranet and extranets, scanners, cars, voicemail, budgets, etc. On the software side, it may mean spreadsheets and operational software. For humanware, the tools may be strategic and tactical, new product and service development, alliance development, leadership, competitive intelligence, globalism, economics, understanding trends, or reading financials.
3. Learn to coach and educate people properly. Do you ever sit down with management or employees after you've made a decision and explain to them in detail HOW you came to that decision? How can we expect employees to think and act like management, if we don't teach them the background data? It's not enough to say you made the decision. The listener most likely does not have your scope of knowledge. Tell your managers that you purchased a piece of equipment, because of 14 elements—from good sales and cash flow to a large order you think may be secured. Explain to them why you fired Linda. She was often late, her numbers were well under what you expect, there were issues of harassment, and poor use of company time. The more your employees know HOW you're thinking, the more you can assist them when they make decisions. And when you aren’t there to hold their hands, they can draw upon the experiences you’ve ../shared with them in order to make the sound choices.
4. Educate your managers about the tools you use to be successful. Then, ask them to share the tools they use. The exchange can be a real eye opener. Ooops, you do it off the top of your head! Then expect your employees to do the same. Empowerment is more than letting people go. To avoid let downs and costly mistakes, empower your people by giving them the knowledge and though processes to be successful. Imagine if you got a call from Steven Spielberg today and he said, “(Insert your name here) you've been given you the authority to produce my next Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Most of us would be clueless without guidance and some structure. Make sure you’re giving both to your people.
The final and most important element to getting management to think on their own is to do all of the above and then GET OUT OF THE WAY! Give people some space to learn alone, to experiment and experience, and to learn their own lessons. When you step back and let others do their jobs, you tell them that you trust them. Your trust, combined with a success-breeding environment and tempered guidance, builds their confidence, their minds, and their abilities as leaders and managers. That's how people learn to think on their own.
About the author
David and Lorrie Goldsmith are managing partners of a firm that offers consulting and speaking services internationally. David was named by Successful Meetings Magazine as one of the “26 Hottest Speakers in the Industry.” A best selling author characterized David in this manner; "David Goldsmith is unique in that he can see a 30,000 feet view of business and then delivers the hand-to-hand tools for combat. Few people can do what he does." More information at http://www.keynoteresource.com/
How Do I Manage Projects Better
Efficient project management is an ace in the executive card deck. That’s because everything you do is a project. Maybe you’ve never thought about it that way before. Let’s say you operate a shipping terminal for Con-Way Central Express and you need the place cleaned up. It's a project. Your reasons: a dirty dock is a potential OSHA nightmare and proper order brings better profits. If you turn to your staff and say clean it, they will do it their way. Good or bad, the results are unpredictable. If you attack the cleanup as a project, you may find operational efficiencies that will get everyone home for dinner or keep the place clean enough that you don’t have to do the overhaul again in the future. The same could be said for putting on a conference, implementing new hardware, running a new product development group (NPDG), or developing a new marketing video.
Many of today’s successful leaders recognize how project-management methods and software keep them ahead of the competition by shortening work time, eliminating errors, coordinating staff, and achieving predictable reliable results. That’s why the project-management industry has exploded in recent years. What automation was to the manufacturing floor is what project management is to the managerial office. Yet most companies are still behind the times in this area, handling projects as linear events. Whether you want to keep pace, work in a group environment, or rocket past your competition, project management tools help it happen.
Massachusetts research firm, The Standish Group, found that in 1994 the overall project success rate was 16.7% and by 1998 that rose to 26%. (Fortune 500 companies only came in at 24%.) Not so good, but illustrates how project-management has improved success rates. How does your company measure up?
Project management is now addressed and taught as a specialized business tool. Project-management software is also gaining popularity, just as PowerPoint did to presentation development. When projects are successfully completed, the company can move forward into other profitable areas. On the other hand, when projects must be scrapped, the time, money, and human resources that were invested to date are also scrapped. The costs of unsuccessful projects can’t be measured properly, because no one can accurately calculate the costs of lost opportunities.
One advantage is that computer technology and software prevent elements from falling through the cracks. They enhance the tracking of plans and improve the communication among people working on projects. In the past, one change in a project meant that all other areas had to be manually changed and everyone notified. Not anymore. Quite often manual systems also missed elements due to human error, causing snags in the project. Current technology will automatically send a change in one area to other areas for automatic adjustments. For example, when engineers make a change to a product feature that affects how the packaging must be designed, the industrial designers know immediately and can begin making adjustments to packaging design. If one arm of the project needs an additional week to complete a task, other arms of the project are automatically adjusted and due dates are changed accordingly.
Want to bring your company up to speed? For starters:
§ Spread it around. Recognize that project management is used in every area of your business, from how the exterior grounds are maintained to how the phones are answered. Don’t limit project management to specific departments or programs.
§ Morph. Instead of being a task “doer,” become a project manager. Change how you look at activities like purchasing new equipment, building new offices, expanding product lines, creating media campaigns, putting on trade shows, or developing new manuals.
§ Take charge. Ask yourself whether you manage projects or if projects manage you? Do projects end on time, on budget, and with the results you expect? If not, it’s time to execute the right way, and that comes with educating yourself.
§ Map out a plan. Successful projects require good planning. Planning allows you to think the process through and to cover all bases before you move money and people.
The Project Management Institute ( www.pmi.org) is one of the fastest growing associations in the country. PMI is ideal for project managers, but executives can find useful learning material here, as well. Decision makers, get your education from taking the time to read two types of books. Awareness books, such as The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt (very good read), teach project-management concepts and ideas minus the how-to lesson. To learn the gritty facts, try how-to books such as The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management or Operations Management for Competitive Advantage Richard B. Chase, Nicholas J. Aquilano and F. Robert Jacobs. (It's an 800-page textbook, so be ready.)
The key here is to avoid getting bogged down with too much of the "process." You want to use the tools and the concepts that the tools exploit. Project-management courses are also available at local colleges. Do your homework before buying to make sure you’re getting more information than you would have gleaned from reading a couple of books on your own. Some institutions offer certification as well, like Villanova University ’s four PM-certified courses. Work at your own pace and never leave your desk.
Also, here are three tools you might consider for managing projects better:
1. Limited budget solution. CPM (Critical Path Method) Charts that can be built on any spreadsheet program such as Excel. By using your drawing tools, you can create a plan that allows others to know the direction in which you're building the project.
2. Packaged inexpensive software solutions. Microsoft Project: The number-one, most-used project-management tool in the world with several million copies sold. It is primarily a Gantt Chart builder, but one that can be used in teams. (A Gantt Chart is a mechanism that organizes and tracks a project’s progress, including dates, resources, and accountabilities.) One change in a project will alter everything and unfortunately the "best laid plans" change. The program, like so many software programs, automatically makes adjustments of single changes by carrying them throughout the plan so that you don't have to go back and make all the adjustments manually. This is a great low-end-collaboration software program. To supplement its use, pick up Ron Black’s book, Complete Idiot’s Guide to Project Management with Microsoft Project 2000.
3. More extensive alternatives. Primavera: Another widely used software program that enables you to easily manage multiple projects in much the same way you would manage individual projects. HP and Compaq use this software to manage many of the IT projects they coordinate and develop. Big teams, big projects, big results.
When you recognize that every function in your business is a project to be managed, you see how important it is to be a strong project manager. Give yourself a new homework assignment, and learn a new project-management tool. It should save you time and money, because good planning helps avoid crises early. Your employees will like knowing what’s expected of them now and in the future. Any you’ll all be happy to have a good road map to find your destination. Although it sounds too good to be true, it can become a reality. Just stack the deck in your favor by improving your project management skills.
About the author
David and Lorrie Goldsmith are managing partners of a firm that offers consulting and speaking services internationally. David was named by Successful Meetings Magazine as one of the “26 Hottest Speakers in the Industry.” A best selling author characterized David in this manner; "David Goldsmith is unique in that he can see a 30,000 feet view of business and then delivers the hand-to-hand tools for combat. Few people can do what he does." More information at http://www.keynoteresource.com/
Many of today’s successful leaders recognize how project-management methods and software keep them ahead of the competition by shortening work time, eliminating errors, coordinating staff, and achieving predictable reliable results. That’s why the project-management industry has exploded in recent years. What automation was to the manufacturing floor is what project management is to the managerial office. Yet most companies are still behind the times in this area, handling projects as linear events. Whether you want to keep pace, work in a group environment, or rocket past your competition, project management tools help it happen.
Massachusetts research firm, The Standish Group, found that in 1994 the overall project success rate was 16.7% and by 1998 that rose to 26%. (Fortune 500 companies only came in at 24%.) Not so good, but illustrates how project-management has improved success rates. How does your company measure up?
Project management is now addressed and taught as a specialized business tool. Project-management software is also gaining popularity, just as PowerPoint did to presentation development. When projects are successfully completed, the company can move forward into other profitable areas. On the other hand, when projects must be scrapped, the time, money, and human resources that were invested to date are also scrapped. The costs of unsuccessful projects can’t be measured properly, because no one can accurately calculate the costs of lost opportunities.
One advantage is that computer technology and software prevent elements from falling through the cracks. They enhance the tracking of plans and improve the communication among people working on projects. In the past, one change in a project meant that all other areas had to be manually changed and everyone notified. Not anymore. Quite often manual systems also missed elements due to human error, causing snags in the project. Current technology will automatically send a change in one area to other areas for automatic adjustments. For example, when engineers make a change to a product feature that affects how the packaging must be designed, the industrial designers know immediately and can begin making adjustments to packaging design. If one arm of the project needs an additional week to complete a task, other arms of the project are automatically adjusted and due dates are changed accordingly.
Want to bring your company up to speed? For starters:
§ Spread it around. Recognize that project management is used in every area of your business, from how the exterior grounds are maintained to how the phones are answered. Don’t limit project management to specific departments or programs.
§ Morph. Instead of being a task “doer,” become a project manager. Change how you look at activities like purchasing new equipment, building new offices, expanding product lines, creating media campaigns, putting on trade shows, or developing new manuals.
§ Take charge. Ask yourself whether you manage projects or if projects manage you? Do projects end on time, on budget, and with the results you expect? If not, it’s time to execute the right way, and that comes with educating yourself.
§ Map out a plan. Successful projects require good planning. Planning allows you to think the process through and to cover all bases before you move money and people.
The Project Management Institute ( www.pmi.org) is one of the fastest growing associations in the country. PMI is ideal for project managers, but executives can find useful learning material here, as well. Decision makers, get your education from taking the time to read two types of books. Awareness books, such as The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt (very good read), teach project-management concepts and ideas minus the how-to lesson. To learn the gritty facts, try how-to books such as The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management or Operations Management for Competitive Advantage Richard B. Chase, Nicholas J. Aquilano and F. Robert Jacobs. (It's an 800-page textbook, so be ready.)
The key here is to avoid getting bogged down with too much of the "process." You want to use the tools and the concepts that the tools exploit. Project-management courses are also available at local colleges. Do your homework before buying to make sure you’re getting more information than you would have gleaned from reading a couple of books on your own. Some institutions offer certification as well, like Villanova University ’s four PM-certified courses. Work at your own pace and never leave your desk.
Also, here are three tools you might consider for managing projects better:
1. Limited budget solution. CPM (Critical Path Method) Charts that can be built on any spreadsheet program such as Excel. By using your drawing tools, you can create a plan that allows others to know the direction in which you're building the project.
2. Packaged inexpensive software solutions. Microsoft Project: The number-one, most-used project-management tool in the world with several million copies sold. It is primarily a Gantt Chart builder, but one that can be used in teams. (A Gantt Chart is a mechanism that organizes and tracks a project’s progress, including dates, resources, and accountabilities.) One change in a project will alter everything and unfortunately the "best laid plans" change. The program, like so many software programs, automatically makes adjustments of single changes by carrying them throughout the plan so that you don't have to go back and make all the adjustments manually. This is a great low-end-collaboration software program. To supplement its use, pick up Ron Black’s book, Complete Idiot’s Guide to Project Management with Microsoft Project 2000.
3. More extensive alternatives. Primavera: Another widely used software program that enables you to easily manage multiple projects in much the same way you would manage individual projects. HP and Compaq use this software to manage many of the IT projects they coordinate and develop. Big teams, big projects, big results.
When you recognize that every function in your business is a project to be managed, you see how important it is to be a strong project manager. Give yourself a new homework assignment, and learn a new project-management tool. It should save you time and money, because good planning helps avoid crises early. Your employees will like knowing what’s expected of them now and in the future. Any you’ll all be happy to have a good road map to find your destination. Although it sounds too good to be true, it can become a reality. Just stack the deck in your favor by improving your project management skills.
About the author
David and Lorrie Goldsmith are managing partners of a firm that offers consulting and speaking services internationally. David was named by Successful Meetings Magazine as one of the “26 Hottest Speakers in the Industry.” A best selling author characterized David in this manner; "David Goldsmith is unique in that he can see a 30,000 feet view of business and then delivers the hand-to-hand tools for combat. Few people can do what he does." More information at http://www.keynoteresource.com/
Where To Get Time Management Tools For Teacher
In the teaching industry, all teachers from childcare teachers all the way professors of university have very busy schedules. They have many kids to attend to, also have different subjects to share in the classroom. There are many different plans of matters that are made throughout the day and a busy agenda to manage as well.
What is needed to help hectic teachers out
Implementing a specific plan that caters to time management for teachers to enable to help a teacher's busy schedule. Time management is crucial if you want to get through every subject you have in your teaching day. Use time management in your curriculum so as to help in your teaching skills.
With the aid of a “time management for teachers” plan, the teacher can see where they can seize out certain things into the agenda. A lot of the work that a teacher does goes into preparations for classes and in checking papers and quizzes. If you are a teacher and you feel that you have too much work on your hands, it is usually a exact case of needing some help with time management.
In-class, a teacher must also control their time and that of their students. For example, having a good sense of how much time each homework will take the students to do is important – you cannot expect them to work at your pace. In fact, what you might fret over as time wasted could be a bonus for you as you could use that time to get through those ‘administrative’ tasks that you tend to take home.
I hope you will know by now that time management for teachers is no difference than having time management in itself - you have to search out time wasters, prioritize your work and fill in those time slots with short projects to make the maximum usage of your time.
What is the key to any successful profession
Organization is this key.
A time management for teachers program will also help the children how everything happens in order. Even so, that our children are spending most of the time with their teachers.
Teaching time management lessons to the children is simply great as it allows them to do their homework more effectively. Frequently, teachers would give tips and plans to their students just like he or she would do for himself or herself. This is a great part of having teachers take advantage of this training – they can then impart those skills to their students as well.
The teacher's goals is to get the entire work completed before the end of the year. With this management course, she can easily achieve this goal.
Children may getting smarter when their teachers make up their mind to use this tool on them. Being organized is the only way this task can really be accomplished. Especially if the teacher has a lot of information to keep track of.
On the internet, you can simply download a this program for teachers and get started with your new goals and strategies today for your students.
This program will give you more flexibility throughout your day. This will explanation of having more time for yourself or those assignments that needs to be done. Make sure that as you are particular about taking out special time for work, that you make the same sort of efforts for taking out time for yourself and your career.
Eddy K Elgin is the webmaster of the Good Reference To Effective Time Management Tactics. Drop by at Where Teachers Can Find Free Time Management Program for more details.
What is needed to help hectic teachers out
Implementing a specific plan that caters to time management for teachers to enable to help a teacher's busy schedule. Time management is crucial if you want to get through every subject you have in your teaching day. Use time management in your curriculum so as to help in your teaching skills.
With the aid of a “time management for teachers” plan, the teacher can see where they can seize out certain things into the agenda. A lot of the work that a teacher does goes into preparations for classes and in checking papers and quizzes. If you are a teacher and you feel that you have too much work on your hands, it is usually a exact case of needing some help with time management.
In-class, a teacher must also control their time and that of their students. For example, having a good sense of how much time each homework will take the students to do is important – you cannot expect them to work at your pace. In fact, what you might fret over as time wasted could be a bonus for you as you could use that time to get through those ‘administrative’ tasks that you tend to take home.
I hope you will know by now that time management for teachers is no difference than having time management in itself - you have to search out time wasters, prioritize your work and fill in those time slots with short projects to make the maximum usage of your time.
What is the key to any successful profession
Organization is this key.
A time management for teachers program will also help the children how everything happens in order. Even so, that our children are spending most of the time with their teachers.
Teaching time management lessons to the children is simply great as it allows them to do their homework more effectively. Frequently, teachers would give tips and plans to their students just like he or she would do for himself or herself. This is a great part of having teachers take advantage of this training – they can then impart those skills to their students as well.
The teacher's goals is to get the entire work completed before the end of the year. With this management course, she can easily achieve this goal.
Children may getting smarter when their teachers make up their mind to use this tool on them. Being organized is the only way this task can really be accomplished. Especially if the teacher has a lot of information to keep track of.
On the internet, you can simply download a this program for teachers and get started with your new goals and strategies today for your students.
This program will give you more flexibility throughout your day. This will explanation of having more time for yourself or those assignments that needs to be done. Make sure that as you are particular about taking out special time for work, that you make the same sort of efforts for taking out time for yourself and your career.
Eddy K Elgin is the webmaster of the Good Reference To Effective Time Management Tactics. Drop by at Where Teachers Can Find Free Time Management Program for more details.
Document Management: Workflow Issues
What Is Workflow?
In the context of documents, workflow means moving the documents. Goods Delivery Notes accompany merchandise and come back to the seller duly acknowledged by the buyer; Invoices have to be sent to the buyers; Checks have to be sent to suppliers; Letters have to be sent to many persons and organizations; and so on.
In addition to the external communications illustrated above, there are internal movements of documents. Attendance cards have to be sent to the payroll clerk; Pay sheets have to move to accounting and treasury departments; Memos have to move from person to person.
Need for Workflow Control
Unless the flow of documents is controlled through carefully developed policies and procedures, the result would be chaos. Goods Received Notes acknowledged by customers could be misplaced leading to disputes about invoices. Intended recipients of official memos might dispute ever having received the document. Employees might not get paid correctly or on time.
The issues of confidentiality and business interests might also be compromised unless the flow of documents is controlled properly. Legal regulations require you to keep several kinds of data confidential. Business interests might require that you keep certain sensitive data accessible only to a restricted few. If you have inadequate control over the document flow, confidential and sensitive data could easily fall into the wrong hands.
Kinds of Documents
Before we look at how document workflow is controlled, let us take a quick look at the kinds of documents that arise in a business organization.
• Text documents: Letters, Reports, Statements, Contracts
• Drawings: Blueprints, Organization Charts, Workflow Charts
• Images: Photographs
• Printed materials: News articles, Reference materials
• Forms: Invoices, Orders, Attendance cards, Bin cards
Almost every one of these documents involves some kind of workflow. Information has to be gathered from other documents for preparing a letter or report. Contracts have to be reviewed before signing. Information from other documents, collected from other persons or departments, have to be summarized for preparing statements like a sales analysis.
Controlling Workflow
Policies and procedures, carefully developed and properly implemented, are the key to document workflow management. Implementation would also involve adequate training to personnel who handle the documents.
The policies would seek to identify opportunities for saving costs while meeting different requirements. In the absence of such policies, it is quite easy to incur unnecessary costs. For example, documents could be kept for unduly long periods, or in perpetuity, because no one knows when a document can be destroyed, or how to destroy it.
Procedures would implement the policies on the ground. Documents would be routed efficiently to all concerned persons. Access to sensitive documents would be controlled through such means as passwords and permissions. Needed actions would be flagged as they become due.
Workflow Patterns
The basic functions are summarized by three words: Capture, Manage and Distribute.
Data has to be captured at the best point considering convenience and cost. The captured data has to be managed effectively to serve intended purposes while keeping the data safe. Data and documents would have to be distributed to concerned persons in a manner that ensures their safety and minimizes the cost involved.
And the basic workflow pattern is summarized by: Creation, Updating, Review and Approval.
When data is captured, a record or document is typically created. The creation process must be designed for ease and error-free operation.
Created records and documents would typically need to be updated – changed, worked on further or deleted. This must also be an easy and error-minimizing process.
A single person rarely has complete control over a document or record. Proper authentication and prevention of errors and frauds would typically require that one or more persons, not involved in the creation or updating, review the created/updated documents.
Another typical practice is that while the creation or updating is done by operating level personnel, it has to be approved by a supervisor or manager before it is put to intended use. Thus, approval is usually the last process before the workflow moves to the next stage.
Processes Involved in Workflow
If you observe the operations in an office, you would typically find the following processes taking place:
• Writing or typing
• Making copies
• Getting written or printed originals or copies
• Moving these documents to another person, either inside or outside the organization. (This might involve some preparations like putting a document in an envelope or other protective packing)
• Communications
• Monetary transactions based on documentary authorizations
• Storing documents away, safely and in an organized manner
During earlier times, all documents involved paper (including carbon paper) and paperboards (for folders and tags).
The Modern Workflow
Document management systems have undergone a radical change since the appearance of computers and Internet. So has workflow.
In a modern computerized and connected office, workflow typically involve
• Creation of digital records on computer disks
• Sending records to other persons using digital means
• Getting printouts at the points needed (instead of sending printed documents by hand to various places)
• Scanning to convert printed materials into digital format
• Using OCR technologies to make the scanned documents editable
• Making copies as needed instead of preparing the maximum number of copies at the stage of document creation itself
• Using fax and email for mailing documents
Modern Workflow Tools
With the change in the practices came new tools.
• Fax machines
• Computers
• Desktop printers
• Copiers
• Scanners
• Internet connectivity
The modern workflow consists of typing at computer terminals or scanning printed materials, printing needed documents at your desktop or a central printer and emailing or faxing the documents to concerned persons
The appearance of digital signature protocols is eliminating the need for paper documents even further.
And content management systems, where many people access a central database and work collaboratively on documents, have made the document workflow and its management far more productive.
--
Author
Dustin Baker of Ademero, Inc. invites you to learn more by visiting his Document Management Software site. Browse the Ademero resource section which includes the largest collection of posts from real users reviewing ALL of the most popular DMS systems available, free and commercial.
In the context of documents, workflow means moving the documents. Goods Delivery Notes accompany merchandise and come back to the seller duly acknowledged by the buyer; Invoices have to be sent to the buyers; Checks have to be sent to suppliers; Letters have to be sent to many persons and organizations; and so on.
In addition to the external communications illustrated above, there are internal movements of documents. Attendance cards have to be sent to the payroll clerk; Pay sheets have to move to accounting and treasury departments; Memos have to move from person to person.
Need for Workflow Control
Unless the flow of documents is controlled through carefully developed policies and procedures, the result would be chaos. Goods Received Notes acknowledged by customers could be misplaced leading to disputes about invoices. Intended recipients of official memos might dispute ever having received the document. Employees might not get paid correctly or on time.
The issues of confidentiality and business interests might also be compromised unless the flow of documents is controlled properly. Legal regulations require you to keep several kinds of data confidential. Business interests might require that you keep certain sensitive data accessible only to a restricted few. If you have inadequate control over the document flow, confidential and sensitive data could easily fall into the wrong hands.
Kinds of Documents
Before we look at how document workflow is controlled, let us take a quick look at the kinds of documents that arise in a business organization.
• Text documents: Letters, Reports, Statements, Contracts
• Drawings: Blueprints, Organization Charts, Workflow Charts
• Images: Photographs
• Printed materials: News articles, Reference materials
• Forms: Invoices, Orders, Attendance cards, Bin cards
Almost every one of these documents involves some kind of workflow. Information has to be gathered from other documents for preparing a letter or report. Contracts have to be reviewed before signing. Information from other documents, collected from other persons or departments, have to be summarized for preparing statements like a sales analysis.
Controlling Workflow
Policies and procedures, carefully developed and properly implemented, are the key to document workflow management. Implementation would also involve adequate training to personnel who handle the documents.
The policies would seek to identify opportunities for saving costs while meeting different requirements. In the absence of such policies, it is quite easy to incur unnecessary costs. For example, documents could be kept for unduly long periods, or in perpetuity, because no one knows when a document can be destroyed, or how to destroy it.
Procedures would implement the policies on the ground. Documents would be routed efficiently to all concerned persons. Access to sensitive documents would be controlled through such means as passwords and permissions. Needed actions would be flagged as they become due.
Workflow Patterns
The basic functions are summarized by three words: Capture, Manage and Distribute.
Data has to be captured at the best point considering convenience and cost. The captured data has to be managed effectively to serve intended purposes while keeping the data safe. Data and documents would have to be distributed to concerned persons in a manner that ensures their safety and minimizes the cost involved.
And the basic workflow pattern is summarized by: Creation, Updating, Review and Approval.
When data is captured, a record or document is typically created. The creation process must be designed for ease and error-free operation.
Created records and documents would typically need to be updated – changed, worked on further or deleted. This must also be an easy and error-minimizing process.
A single person rarely has complete control over a document or record. Proper authentication and prevention of errors and frauds would typically require that one or more persons, not involved in the creation or updating, review the created/updated documents.
Another typical practice is that while the creation or updating is done by operating level personnel, it has to be approved by a supervisor or manager before it is put to intended use. Thus, approval is usually the last process before the workflow moves to the next stage.
Processes Involved in Workflow
If you observe the operations in an office, you would typically find the following processes taking place:
• Writing or typing
• Making copies
• Getting written or printed originals or copies
• Moving these documents to another person, either inside or outside the organization. (This might involve some preparations like putting a document in an envelope or other protective packing)
• Communications
• Monetary transactions based on documentary authorizations
• Storing documents away, safely and in an organized manner
During earlier times, all documents involved paper (including carbon paper) and paperboards (for folders and tags).
The Modern Workflow
Document management systems have undergone a radical change since the appearance of computers and Internet. So has workflow.
In a modern computerized and connected office, workflow typically involve
• Creation of digital records on computer disks
• Sending records to other persons using digital means
• Getting printouts at the points needed (instead of sending printed documents by hand to various places)
• Scanning to convert printed materials into digital format
• Using OCR technologies to make the scanned documents editable
• Making copies as needed instead of preparing the maximum number of copies at the stage of document creation itself
• Using fax and email for mailing documents
Modern Workflow Tools
With the change in the practices came new tools.
• Fax machines
• Computers
• Desktop printers
• Copiers
• Scanners
• Internet connectivity
The modern workflow consists of typing at computer terminals or scanning printed materials, printing needed documents at your desktop or a central printer and emailing or faxing the documents to concerned persons
The appearance of digital signature protocols is eliminating the need for paper documents even further.
And content management systems, where many people access a central database and work collaboratively on documents, have made the document workflow and its management far more productive.
--
Author
Dustin Baker of Ademero, Inc. invites you to learn more by visiting his Document Management Software site. Browse the Ademero resource section which includes the largest collection of posts from real users reviewing ALL of the most popular DMS systems available, free and commercial.
Electronic Document Management
Electronic Document Management has been widely accepted as the practice of creating and storing documents. What lacks common acceptance is the need to retrieve, archive and sort documents as per requirements.
With real estate costs climbing feverishly, and businesses process becoming more and more complex and demanding, the need to implement an integrated electronic document management system is growing by the day. Realizing this opportunity, several global software vendors have come up with their document management products to facilitate this process and more and more organizations are implementing this system in today's world.
It is important to understand what exactly electronic document management refers to and why is it so important to organizations, small or big.
Electronic Document Management System refers to a system whereby documents are created, modified, stored, distributed, secured and retrieved with the help of software tools.
An organization must ponder several times and answer several questions before it goes about implementing a document management system. Some of the questions that must be asked can be:-
(1) Are your documents uniformly marked and stored for "finger-pointed" retrieval.
(2) Can you easily gather related documents that are physically distributed at different places.
(3) Can your personnel easily locate documents created or modified by others within the organization, regardless of the format and method of creation of the documents.
(4) How long does it take to locate the desired bunch of documents.
(5) Can you find a specific type of similar documents over a date range quickly and effectively.
(6) Can you track back the person responsible for handling any particular document.
Answering the above questions can easily help you take a decision. Also, to arrive at a conclusion, one must keep in mind the following characteristics of a suitable document management system.
(a) Should convert your office into a paper-less office by electronically keeping track of all documents.
(b) Should seamlessly integrate with your existing manual document management methods.
(c) Should help your business grow faster by ensuring fast and accurate availability of information.
(d) Should help you analyze the efficiency of co-workers by keeping track of documentation work allotted to them.
With real estate costs climbing feverishly, and businesses process becoming more and more complex and demanding, the need to implement an integrated electronic document management system is growing by the day. Realizing this opportunity, several global software vendors have come up with their document management products to facilitate this process and more and more organizations are implementing this system in today's world.
It is important to understand what exactly electronic document management refers to and why is it so important to organizations, small or big.
Electronic Document Management System refers to a system whereby documents are created, modified, stored, distributed, secured and retrieved with the help of software tools.
An organization must ponder several times and answer several questions before it goes about implementing a document management system. Some of the questions that must be asked can be:-
(1) Are your documents uniformly marked and stored for "finger-pointed" retrieval.
(2) Can you easily gather related documents that are physically distributed at different places.
(3) Can your personnel easily locate documents created or modified by others within the organization, regardless of the format and method of creation of the documents.
(4) How long does it take to locate the desired bunch of documents.
(5) Can you find a specific type of similar documents over a date range quickly and effectively.
(6) Can you track back the person responsible for handling any particular document.
Answering the above questions can easily help you take a decision. Also, to arrive at a conclusion, one must keep in mind the following characteristics of a suitable document management system.
(a) Should convert your office into a paper-less office by electronically keeping track of all documents.
(b) Should seamlessly integrate with your existing manual document management methods.
(c) Should help your business grow faster by ensuring fast and accurate availability of information.
(d) Should help you analyze the efficiency of co-workers by keeping track of documentation work allotted to them.
Make Lost Office Documents a Thing of the Past
Don't Fall into the Trap of Losing Corporate Records
For the past three years, your company as been working feverously to finish a new technology that will benefit all walks of life. It has been a difficult three years as the financials of the company are all heading into the red, and the investors are anxiously demanding a return on their initial investment. The stress levels and demands on each employee have been extreme. As CEO, you've been walking a tightrope between investor's demands and your own expectations of your employees. Realizing the highly competitive market your find yourself in, internal control and security have been a high priority. The company would fall if the design plans of your new technology were to reach the competitors hands. Confident that you have done everything possible to ensure control over internal documents, you sit back and relax for a minute knowing that your company is about to make a huge contribution to society, as the engineers are reporting positive results from the final testing phase.
It is at this moment that your CTO walks in to the room with a pale face, looking as if he had witnessed death himself. He tells you that one of the engineers has e-mailed pieces of the technology to a foreign competitor. This has been going on for the past 8 months, he says. The CTO continues to say that the extent of the damage is not fully known, but that he expects the worse. As CEO, you ask yourself, what else could have been done, what else could we have implemented to catch these actions?
To answer this question, a record management software package created by NextPage would have protected the documents describing the company's new technology. This software tracks risky documents from start to finish. Throughout the document lifecycle, any changes made to the document are tracked and noted in a central location. The documents are monitored on desktops, through e-mail, key drives or on a server. A date/time stamp is created for each user when they access the document. It is very easy to see which employee was the last to access the document and to view what changes were made by that employee.
This risk management tool also monitors internal financials and assists greatly in Sarbanes Oxley compliance requirements. Each change made from a member of the financial team is securely noted. This aids in the turn around time for account/auditing firms to validate a corporation's earnings statements.
NextPage's software also aids in the development of products. Through the ability to access a document centrally, and make and save changes to one location, all users will have an interactive approach to documenting revisions. As improvements or setbacks take place, developers and project managers can easily view a central document and see a real-time image of how a product is progressing. Many errors though work duplication or lack of communication are avoided through Next Page's software.
So when it comes to your own business, eliminate the risk of losing corporate secrets and improve the document management within your company. These days one can never be too careful!
Ryan Knapp is an Internet Marketing Consultant for 10x Marketing. For more information about record management, contact NextPage.
For the past three years, your company as been working feverously to finish a new technology that will benefit all walks of life. It has been a difficult three years as the financials of the company are all heading into the red, and the investors are anxiously demanding a return on their initial investment. The stress levels and demands on each employee have been extreme. As CEO, you've been walking a tightrope between investor's demands and your own expectations of your employees. Realizing the highly competitive market your find yourself in, internal control and security have been a high priority. The company would fall if the design plans of your new technology were to reach the competitors hands. Confident that you have done everything possible to ensure control over internal documents, you sit back and relax for a minute knowing that your company is about to make a huge contribution to society, as the engineers are reporting positive results from the final testing phase.
It is at this moment that your CTO walks in to the room with a pale face, looking as if he had witnessed death himself. He tells you that one of the engineers has e-mailed pieces of the technology to a foreign competitor. This has been going on for the past 8 months, he says. The CTO continues to say that the extent of the damage is not fully known, but that he expects the worse. As CEO, you ask yourself, what else could have been done, what else could we have implemented to catch these actions?
To answer this question, a record management software package created by NextPage would have protected the documents describing the company's new technology. This software tracks risky documents from start to finish. Throughout the document lifecycle, any changes made to the document are tracked and noted in a central location. The documents are monitored on desktops, through e-mail, key drives or on a server. A date/time stamp is created for each user when they access the document. It is very easy to see which employee was the last to access the document and to view what changes were made by that employee.
This risk management tool also monitors internal financials and assists greatly in Sarbanes Oxley compliance requirements. Each change made from a member of the financial team is securely noted. This aids in the turn around time for account/auditing firms to validate a corporation's earnings statements.
NextPage's software also aids in the development of products. Through the ability to access a document centrally, and make and save changes to one location, all users will have an interactive approach to documenting revisions. As improvements or setbacks take place, developers and project managers can easily view a central document and see a real-time image of how a product is progressing. Many errors though work duplication or lack of communication are avoided through Next Page's software.
So when it comes to your own business, eliminate the risk of losing corporate secrets and improve the document management within your company. These days one can never be too careful!
Ryan Knapp is an Internet Marketing Consultant for 10x Marketing. For more information about record management, contact NextPage.
Why CRM Projects Fail
1 Overview
This articles looks at some of the “human”, i.e. people-related factors that can cause a CRM project to fail. We then look at why, for those businesses already utilising Microsoft® Outlook® for their day-to-day e-mail, diary and contact management, implementing an Outlook-based CRM system gives you the best chance of overcoming these issues and ensuring a successful CRM implementation.
2 The Problem
CRM has received a lot of negative publicity over the years because of the failure rate of CRM implementation projects.
A recent Butler Group report found that 70 percent of CRM implementations fail. A Gartner study found that approximately 55 percent of all CRM projects failed to meet software customers' expectations. In a Bain & Company survey of 451 senior executives, CRM ranked in the bottom three categories among 25 popular tools evaluated for customer satisfaction.
While there are a multitude of reasons cited for failure of these projects, our experience in implementing over 200 CRM projects directly is that user acceptance is the one of the most critical factors.
In his article on “Why CRM Projects Fail”, Rajiv Chaudhry quotes:
You can design the best process in the world, and back it with the latest and greatest technology, but if your people don't buy into the project, it won't work. There are three people-related issues that have surfaced in many of the CRM programs, that are worth noting:
• The Fear-of-Change Syndrome. You already have a sales process in place. It may be based on printed reports, paper clips, and post-it notes, but it does work to some extent and people are familiar with it. Reengineering requires change, which most people instinctively resist. This fear of change needs to be dealt with early on, or the very people the system is designed to help will be the ones to see that it fails.
• The It's Easy Enough Syndrome. For your CRM system to be successful, every single person must use it. For the sake of speed, a temptation may be to let IS or a few computer-literate users design the system interface. What you will end up with is a system that they think is easy enough for them to use, but isn't easy enough for everyone. One CIO's observation sums up the whole issue about usability: Too easy never is.
• The Big Brother Syndrome. Be aware that horror stories of the hidden reasons that companies implement CRM programs may already be circulating through your sales force. They may have heard how these systems are designed to track their every move, just waiting for them to make a mistake so that management can pounce on them. This initial distrust is a very serious issue that must be dealt with swiftly.
Leaving any of these concerns unresolved will only result in bigger problems when you get ready for implementation. They need to be dealt with head-on so that everyone is on board and supportive of what the company is trying to accomplish.
Another one that I would add to the list above is:
• The “WIIFM” Concept: More completely known as “What’s In It For Me”. It’s no good introducing a system that only benefits the company. This is closely allied to the Big Brother Syndrome above. That is, you cannot expect a system to sustain itself if it does not produce any direct benefits to the users themselves.
3 Answering these Challenges with a CRM System based on Microsoft Outlook
The Fear of/Resistance to Change Syndrome dictates that the less the users have to change the way they work, the more likely they will adopt any new system that is based around what they are already used to. So if your users are already sending mail, managing their own contacts in their own Personal Contacts folder, and scheduling appointments with the Outlook Calendar, they don’t want to change this. We saw this frequently in the past where the first thing users asked us after introducing a new non-Outlook-based CRM system usually was “Why should I learn a different calendar? – I already know Outlook and I’m comfortable with it”. And trying to introduce a system that “sychronised” or “integrated” with Outlook also caused endless problems with calendars that got “out of sync”, etc. So this did little to reduce user frustration.
The Resistance to Change factor has another side that’s reflected in a popular saying namely “Up to the age of 18 you make your habits; thereafter they make you”. The reality of these words of wisdom is summarized as follows: If a new system is introduced such that not only is training required to learn the system but one also has to form a new set of habits associated with the procedures necessary to run the system, then it will take the average worker 3 to 6 months to develop these new habits to the point where they are ingrained into their daily work routines. And invariably if the user does not see sufficient benefit in the system soon enough (i.e. before these new habits are fully developed), then they continue to do what they were doing before the new system was introduced and as such the new system falls into disuse. One common excuse we used to get during post-implementation audits from users who were found not to have been entering activities into the new CRM system was “Oh, I keep forgetting to open the system”, or “it takes too long to open the system when I need it”.
The It's Easy Enough Syndrome: If everyone is already using Outlook, and has been trained on Outlook, or at least has become familiar with its functionality then it will be easy enough for them to learn a few new things associated with “relating” items together to transform Outlook into a Customer “Relationship” Management system. Microsoft has made enormous investments in studying the usability of Outlook and soliciting user feedback. So why reinvent the wheel when the users already know (and usually love) this interface.
The Big Brother Syndrome: Installing a new Sales Automation system with Activity Analyses and Productivity Comparison Reports already conjures up the wrong impression amongst the sales people. However just adding to Outlook’s functionality to provide a customer-centric “related” view of the existing disjointed elements in Outlook (appointments, tasks, journals, contacts and documents) makes all the sense in the world to users, and does not introduce any negative connotations.
The “WIIFM” Concept: Here Outlook definitely comes to the rescue. Users already appreciate the benefits of Outlook as a “Personal Information Manager”, especially as Microsoft touts Outlook as being one. The emphasis on Personal implies the primary benefit is to the user and not necessarily the company. So Microsoft in that sense has solved the issue of “What’s in it for me?”
Having looked at the fact that Outlook certainly addresses some of the “human” factors associated with a CRM implementation, we still need to look at how well Outlook meets the challenge in terms of functionality. We can do this by looking first at the basics of a Contact Management system, which still today is the core of any CRM system.
4 The Basics of any Contact Management System
Any contact management application needs at least the following basic functionality:
a) A mechanism to store and profile Contact information.
b) A means to plan and organize appointments with those contacts, not only for yourself but other team members managing those same contacts.
c) A means to schedule tasks and to-do’s for those contacts.
d) A mechanism to record any kind of interaction with a contact, namely meetings, phone calls, e-mail, documents, etc.
e) Some way of storing documents sent to and received from a contact.
f) A way to send and track e-mail communication.
5 Outlook’s inherent Contact Management Functionality
With reference to the requirements list above, Outlook at least satisfies the following requirements:
a) A mechanism to store and profile Contact information: The “Contacts” folder in Outlook already allows a comprehensive profile of any personal or business contact to be maintained.
b) A means to plan and organise appointments for those contacts: Outlook’s calendaring facilities provide these very effectively and when coupled with Exchange Server incorporate a huge number of collaborative features that are extremely difficult for any other stand-alone CRM system to emulate or reproduce.
c) A means to schedule tasks and to-do’s for those contacts: Outlook’s task management facility is excellent for this.
d) A mechanism to record any kind of interaction with a contact: The “Journal” facility of Outlook contains the standard fields necessary to record phone calls, meeting, etc. with clients, and can even time such activities.
e) A way to send and track e-mail communication: The Inbox and Sent Items stores inward and outward e-mails.
However, while Outlook does have the basic foundation for solid contact management functionality, there are certain limitations of Outlook that one needs to be aware of.
6 Limitations of Outlook
As a contact management application however, Outlook has the following limitations:
a) Private Mailbox (Contacts, Appointments, etc.): Without setting up and customising Public Folders, most users will just utilise their Private Mailbox Contacts folder for managing their contacts, thus limiting the sharing of that information and potentially creating massive duplication of the same data within the organisation.
b) Contact-centric: By virtue of their being only a Contacts folder (and no Companies folder), Outlook tends to be Contact-centric rather than Account-centric, which can be limiting for those users managing corporate accounts.
c) Discrete, independent folders: Most users tend to use their Outlook folders as discrete elements, i.e. because it is fairly cumbersome for users to link one item to another, (e.g. a contact to an appointment) they seldom do this. Thus it is difficult for users in the organisation to get an overall picture of all the activity occurring within the organisation against any particular company or contact. The universal objective of any CRM system however, is to provide a “single-view of all customer-related information to everyone in the organisation”.
7 Overcoming Outlook’s Limitations
Several Outlook-based CRM systems such as MX-Contact (www.mxcontact.com) are Outlook Add-Ins that overcome these limitations by extending the functionality of Outlook to transform it into a powerful CRM system without changing the way users send mail, schedule appointments, etc. Such systems utilise all of Outlook’s existing functionality but add the functionality found in CRM systems to co-ordinate the activities and items in Outlook into “one central view of all customer related information”. This is the so-called holy grail of CRM.
8 Other Advantages of an Outlook-based CRM System
There are several other distinct advantages to deploying Outlook as the basis for contact/customer management. We summarise them here:
Ease of Use:
a) Outlook is always the first application to be opened: Whenever knowledge workers arrive at their place of work each day, Outlook tends to be the first application that is opened, given that one needs to check what e-mail has been received since last clocking out of the office. He or she therefore opens by default the application needed for Contact Management. One of the greatest obstacles to overcome in the implementation of any CRM system is to get the users into the habit of opening the new system. With Outlook this is not an issue.
b) Outlook is always kept open: The nature of customer interaction is that it is very often re-active, sporadic and impromptu. Therefore it is imperative that the application used to log these interactions is always “at one’s fingertips” so to speak. Given that users keep Outlook open all day so as to respond timeously to e-mail ensures that this is the case.
c) Familiar Interface: If users are already utilising Outlook for at least e-mail and calendaring then they are already familiar with the interface and how to add new items, edit existing items, etc. Thus there is usually very little requirement for extensive training when an Outlook system is deployed. This dramatically shortens the average implementation time.
d) Increasing Percentage of E-Mail Interaction: An ever-increasing number of users are discovering the advantages of e-mail communication over other forms of contact (phone, fax, letter, etc.). So as e-mail becomes more widely used for customer interaction, it makes sense to deploy your e-mail client as the primary vehicle for managing customer communications, rather then utilising a totally different application.
e) One calendaring system universal across company & supply chain: Given that the vast majority of corporate users are utilising Outlook, it is easy for instance to send meeting requests to suppliers or customers, who can then use many of the same collaboration features that are available to internal users/co-workers. Many CRM systems have their own calendaring system and given that not all users will (or can) necessarily adopt this system means that one has to immediately contend with the problem of keeping these dissimilar calendars synchronized so that all users can effectively co-ordinate their diaries.
f) One e-mail store: Many of the conventional database-based CRM systems on the market have difficulty linking to e-mails given that an e-mail is not the same type of object as say a document. For this reason most systems not running inside Outlook tend to copy the contents of an e-mail into their database tables, thereby effectively duplicating the data and also disconnecting it from its original item, thus losing its formatting and also making handling of “Replies” and “Forwards” to the item difficult.
g) One document management system: Some CRM systems also copy documents into their database so as to enable replication of these documents to remote users. The disadvantage of this approach is that a document can only be edited from within the CRM system and not also from its original source on the Windows File System or Exchange Public Folder in the way that most users would already be familiar with.
h) Easy synchronization with most PDA’s: Given that all PDA’s synchronize with Outlook as a standard, this means that you have automatic access to your Contact Management data if it is kept in Outlook rather than being in another application.
Reduced Cost of Ownership:
i) No additional Infrastructure Needed: If a company already has the infrastructure in place necessary to run Outlook on client machines and Exchange Server, then no additional client or server hardware is needed to run an Outlook-based system.
j) Cost of upgrade to new versions of Outlook shared: Very often a client has to justify the costs of upgrading Office as well as the costs of purchasing the CRM application. With an Outlook-based solution this upgrade cost is shared given that the company receives a whole host of additional benefits and functionality from upgrading Office/Outlook as well as receiving a new CRM system.
k) Reduced Training Time (Cost): Given that users will already be familiar with the basics of Outlook, the time needed to train users, and hence the cost of that training, is significantly reduced.
l) Wider Support Base: Given that there are a large number of internal users and external consultants that know Outlook and VBA/VBScript (used to extend its functionality) it is easier and therefore less costly to enhance the functionality and support your user base.
m) Wider application of same training: If a company invests in training its staff in the functionality of Outlook, so as to more effectively use a CRM system based on Outlook, then this knowledge of Outlook will be utilised in everything a user does in Outlook, even those activities not linked to customer management but more internal collaboration etc. However, when one invests in training around a separate proprietary system then this training can only be applied to the use of that system and nothing else.
n) Reduced Installation Time: Given that an Outlook-based system installs itself inside Outlook, it is a simple matter for IT personnel to install the system. In many instances this can be done by the user him or herself.
9 Summary
Microsoft’s earlier promotion of Outlook as a “Personal Information Manager” created the impression amongst users that Outlook was only intended to manage one’s personal contacts and was not suited as the basis for a corporate-wide Customer Management System. Hopefully this article has rectified some of these misconceptions and shown that, given that so much of one’s day-to-day customer interaction is initiated from within Outlook, Outlook coupled with Exchange or SQL Server is the perfect environment for one’s all important Customer database. For an example of an Outlook-based CRM system, please have a look at MX-Contact (http://www.mxcontact.com). A free version is available for download from http://www.free-contact-manager.com.
10 PDF Version
A PDF version of this article may be downloaded from:
http://www.outlookwise.com/OutlookWise/Why_CRM_Projects_Fail/01_Why_CRM_Projects_Fail.htm
11 About the author
This article was written by Brian Drury, founder of ExchangeWise (http://www.exchangewise.com), and the architect of MX-Contact (http://www.mxcontact.com), a CRM, Contact Management and Sales Automation System for Microsoft Outlook. Brian has over 20 years experience in the IT industry and has focused on Contact Management, CRM and Collaboration systems for the last 14 years. During this time Brian and his staff have been involved in over 200 direct CRM project implementations covering 7 different products. He is also the editor of OutlookWise(http://www.outlookwise.com), a free newsletter aimed at keeping Outlook users up to date with news, views and articles of interest on Microsoft Outlook and Exchange Server.
This articles looks at some of the “human”, i.e. people-related factors that can cause a CRM project to fail. We then look at why, for those businesses already utilising Microsoft® Outlook® for their day-to-day e-mail, diary and contact management, implementing an Outlook-based CRM system gives you the best chance of overcoming these issues and ensuring a successful CRM implementation.
2 The Problem
CRM has received a lot of negative publicity over the years because of the failure rate of CRM implementation projects.
A recent Butler Group report found that 70 percent of CRM implementations fail. A Gartner study found that approximately 55 percent of all CRM projects failed to meet software customers' expectations. In a Bain & Company survey of 451 senior executives, CRM ranked in the bottom three categories among 25 popular tools evaluated for customer satisfaction.
While there are a multitude of reasons cited for failure of these projects, our experience in implementing over 200 CRM projects directly is that user acceptance is the one of the most critical factors.
In his article on “Why CRM Projects Fail”, Rajiv Chaudhry quotes:
You can design the best process in the world, and back it with the latest and greatest technology, but if your people don't buy into the project, it won't work. There are three people-related issues that have surfaced in many of the CRM programs, that are worth noting:
• The Fear-of-Change Syndrome. You already have a sales process in place. It may be based on printed reports, paper clips, and post-it notes, but it does work to some extent and people are familiar with it. Reengineering requires change, which most people instinctively resist. This fear of change needs to be dealt with early on, or the very people the system is designed to help will be the ones to see that it fails.
• The It's Easy Enough Syndrome. For your CRM system to be successful, every single person must use it. For the sake of speed, a temptation may be to let IS or a few computer-literate users design the system interface. What you will end up with is a system that they think is easy enough for them to use, but isn't easy enough for everyone. One CIO's observation sums up the whole issue about usability: Too easy never is.
• The Big Brother Syndrome. Be aware that horror stories of the hidden reasons that companies implement CRM programs may already be circulating through your sales force. They may have heard how these systems are designed to track their every move, just waiting for them to make a mistake so that management can pounce on them. This initial distrust is a very serious issue that must be dealt with swiftly.
Leaving any of these concerns unresolved will only result in bigger problems when you get ready for implementation. They need to be dealt with head-on so that everyone is on board and supportive of what the company is trying to accomplish.
Another one that I would add to the list above is:
• The “WIIFM” Concept: More completely known as “What’s In It For Me”. It’s no good introducing a system that only benefits the company. This is closely allied to the Big Brother Syndrome above. That is, you cannot expect a system to sustain itself if it does not produce any direct benefits to the users themselves.
3 Answering these Challenges with a CRM System based on Microsoft Outlook
The Fear of/Resistance to Change Syndrome dictates that the less the users have to change the way they work, the more likely they will adopt any new system that is based around what they are already used to. So if your users are already sending mail, managing their own contacts in their own Personal Contacts folder, and scheduling appointments with the Outlook Calendar, they don’t want to change this. We saw this frequently in the past where the first thing users asked us after introducing a new non-Outlook-based CRM system usually was “Why should I learn a different calendar? – I already know Outlook and I’m comfortable with it”. And trying to introduce a system that “sychronised” or “integrated” with Outlook also caused endless problems with calendars that got “out of sync”, etc. So this did little to reduce user frustration.
The Resistance to Change factor has another side that’s reflected in a popular saying namely “Up to the age of 18 you make your habits; thereafter they make you”. The reality of these words of wisdom is summarized as follows: If a new system is introduced such that not only is training required to learn the system but one also has to form a new set of habits associated with the procedures necessary to run the system, then it will take the average worker 3 to 6 months to develop these new habits to the point where they are ingrained into their daily work routines. And invariably if the user does not see sufficient benefit in the system soon enough (i.e. before these new habits are fully developed), then they continue to do what they were doing before the new system was introduced and as such the new system falls into disuse. One common excuse we used to get during post-implementation audits from users who were found not to have been entering activities into the new CRM system was “Oh, I keep forgetting to open the system”, or “it takes too long to open the system when I need it”.
The It's Easy Enough Syndrome: If everyone is already using Outlook, and has been trained on Outlook, or at least has become familiar with its functionality then it will be easy enough for them to learn a few new things associated with “relating” items together to transform Outlook into a Customer “Relationship” Management system. Microsoft has made enormous investments in studying the usability of Outlook and soliciting user feedback. So why reinvent the wheel when the users already know (and usually love) this interface.
The Big Brother Syndrome: Installing a new Sales Automation system with Activity Analyses and Productivity Comparison Reports already conjures up the wrong impression amongst the sales people. However just adding to Outlook’s functionality to provide a customer-centric “related” view of the existing disjointed elements in Outlook (appointments, tasks, journals, contacts and documents) makes all the sense in the world to users, and does not introduce any negative connotations.
The “WIIFM” Concept: Here Outlook definitely comes to the rescue. Users already appreciate the benefits of Outlook as a “Personal Information Manager”, especially as Microsoft touts Outlook as being one. The emphasis on Personal implies the primary benefit is to the user and not necessarily the company. So Microsoft in that sense has solved the issue of “What’s in it for me?”
Having looked at the fact that Outlook certainly addresses some of the “human” factors associated with a CRM implementation, we still need to look at how well Outlook meets the challenge in terms of functionality. We can do this by looking first at the basics of a Contact Management system, which still today is the core of any CRM system.
4 The Basics of any Contact Management System
Any contact management application needs at least the following basic functionality:
a) A mechanism to store and profile Contact information.
b) A means to plan and organize appointments with those contacts, not only for yourself but other team members managing those same contacts.
c) A means to schedule tasks and to-do’s for those contacts.
d) A mechanism to record any kind of interaction with a contact, namely meetings, phone calls, e-mail, documents, etc.
e) Some way of storing documents sent to and received from a contact.
f) A way to send and track e-mail communication.
5 Outlook’s inherent Contact Management Functionality
With reference to the requirements list above, Outlook at least satisfies the following requirements:
a) A mechanism to store and profile Contact information: The “Contacts” folder in Outlook already allows a comprehensive profile of any personal or business contact to be maintained.
b) A means to plan and organise appointments for those contacts: Outlook’s calendaring facilities provide these very effectively and when coupled with Exchange Server incorporate a huge number of collaborative features that are extremely difficult for any other stand-alone CRM system to emulate or reproduce.
c) A means to schedule tasks and to-do’s for those contacts: Outlook’s task management facility is excellent for this.
d) A mechanism to record any kind of interaction with a contact: The “Journal” facility of Outlook contains the standard fields necessary to record phone calls, meeting, etc. with clients, and can even time such activities.
e) A way to send and track e-mail communication: The Inbox and Sent Items stores inward and outward e-mails.
However, while Outlook does have the basic foundation for solid contact management functionality, there are certain limitations of Outlook that one needs to be aware of.
6 Limitations of Outlook
As a contact management application however, Outlook has the following limitations:
a) Private Mailbox (Contacts, Appointments, etc.): Without setting up and customising Public Folders, most users will just utilise their Private Mailbox Contacts folder for managing their contacts, thus limiting the sharing of that information and potentially creating massive duplication of the same data within the organisation.
b) Contact-centric: By virtue of their being only a Contacts folder (and no Companies folder), Outlook tends to be Contact-centric rather than Account-centric, which can be limiting for those users managing corporate accounts.
c) Discrete, independent folders: Most users tend to use their Outlook folders as discrete elements, i.e. because it is fairly cumbersome for users to link one item to another, (e.g. a contact to an appointment) they seldom do this. Thus it is difficult for users in the organisation to get an overall picture of all the activity occurring within the organisation against any particular company or contact. The universal objective of any CRM system however, is to provide a “single-view of all customer-related information to everyone in the organisation”.
7 Overcoming Outlook’s Limitations
Several Outlook-based CRM systems such as MX-Contact (www.mxcontact.com) are Outlook Add-Ins that overcome these limitations by extending the functionality of Outlook to transform it into a powerful CRM system without changing the way users send mail, schedule appointments, etc. Such systems utilise all of Outlook’s existing functionality but add the functionality found in CRM systems to co-ordinate the activities and items in Outlook into “one central view of all customer related information”. This is the so-called holy grail of CRM.
8 Other Advantages of an Outlook-based CRM System
There are several other distinct advantages to deploying Outlook as the basis for contact/customer management. We summarise them here:
Ease of Use:
a) Outlook is always the first application to be opened: Whenever knowledge workers arrive at their place of work each day, Outlook tends to be the first application that is opened, given that one needs to check what e-mail has been received since last clocking out of the office. He or she therefore opens by default the application needed for Contact Management. One of the greatest obstacles to overcome in the implementation of any CRM system is to get the users into the habit of opening the new system. With Outlook this is not an issue.
b) Outlook is always kept open: The nature of customer interaction is that it is very often re-active, sporadic and impromptu. Therefore it is imperative that the application used to log these interactions is always “at one’s fingertips” so to speak. Given that users keep Outlook open all day so as to respond timeously to e-mail ensures that this is the case.
c) Familiar Interface: If users are already utilising Outlook for at least e-mail and calendaring then they are already familiar with the interface and how to add new items, edit existing items, etc. Thus there is usually very little requirement for extensive training when an Outlook system is deployed. This dramatically shortens the average implementation time.
d) Increasing Percentage of E-Mail Interaction: An ever-increasing number of users are discovering the advantages of e-mail communication over other forms of contact (phone, fax, letter, etc.). So as e-mail becomes more widely used for customer interaction, it makes sense to deploy your e-mail client as the primary vehicle for managing customer communications, rather then utilising a totally different application.
e) One calendaring system universal across company & supply chain: Given that the vast majority of corporate users are utilising Outlook, it is easy for instance to send meeting requests to suppliers or customers, who can then use many of the same collaboration features that are available to internal users/co-workers. Many CRM systems have their own calendaring system and given that not all users will (or can) necessarily adopt this system means that one has to immediately contend with the problem of keeping these dissimilar calendars synchronized so that all users can effectively co-ordinate their diaries.
f) One e-mail store: Many of the conventional database-based CRM systems on the market have difficulty linking to e-mails given that an e-mail is not the same type of object as say a document. For this reason most systems not running inside Outlook tend to copy the contents of an e-mail into their database tables, thereby effectively duplicating the data and also disconnecting it from its original item, thus losing its formatting and also making handling of “Replies” and “Forwards” to the item difficult.
g) One document management system: Some CRM systems also copy documents into their database so as to enable replication of these documents to remote users. The disadvantage of this approach is that a document can only be edited from within the CRM system and not also from its original source on the Windows File System or Exchange Public Folder in the way that most users would already be familiar with.
h) Easy synchronization with most PDA’s: Given that all PDA’s synchronize with Outlook as a standard, this means that you have automatic access to your Contact Management data if it is kept in Outlook rather than being in another application.
Reduced Cost of Ownership:
i) No additional Infrastructure Needed: If a company already has the infrastructure in place necessary to run Outlook on client machines and Exchange Server, then no additional client or server hardware is needed to run an Outlook-based system.
j) Cost of upgrade to new versions of Outlook shared: Very often a client has to justify the costs of upgrading Office as well as the costs of purchasing the CRM application. With an Outlook-based solution this upgrade cost is shared given that the company receives a whole host of additional benefits and functionality from upgrading Office/Outlook as well as receiving a new CRM system.
k) Reduced Training Time (Cost): Given that users will already be familiar with the basics of Outlook, the time needed to train users, and hence the cost of that training, is significantly reduced.
l) Wider Support Base: Given that there are a large number of internal users and external consultants that know Outlook and VBA/VBScript (used to extend its functionality) it is easier and therefore less costly to enhance the functionality and support your user base.
m) Wider application of same training: If a company invests in training its staff in the functionality of Outlook, so as to more effectively use a CRM system based on Outlook, then this knowledge of Outlook will be utilised in everything a user does in Outlook, even those activities not linked to customer management but more internal collaboration etc. However, when one invests in training around a separate proprietary system then this training can only be applied to the use of that system and nothing else.
n) Reduced Installation Time: Given that an Outlook-based system installs itself inside Outlook, it is a simple matter for IT personnel to install the system. In many instances this can be done by the user him or herself.
9 Summary
Microsoft’s earlier promotion of Outlook as a “Personal Information Manager” created the impression amongst users that Outlook was only intended to manage one’s personal contacts and was not suited as the basis for a corporate-wide Customer Management System. Hopefully this article has rectified some of these misconceptions and shown that, given that so much of one’s day-to-day customer interaction is initiated from within Outlook, Outlook coupled with Exchange or SQL Server is the perfect environment for one’s all important Customer database. For an example of an Outlook-based CRM system, please have a look at MX-Contact (http://www.mxcontact.com). A free version is available for download from http://www.free-contact-manager.com.
10 PDF Version
A PDF version of this article may be downloaded from:
http://www.outlookwise.com/OutlookWise/Why_CRM_Projects_Fail/01_Why_CRM_Projects_Fail.htm
11 About the author
This article was written by Brian Drury, founder of ExchangeWise (http://www.exchangewise.com), and the architect of MX-Contact (http://www.mxcontact.com), a CRM, Contact Management and Sales Automation System for Microsoft Outlook. Brian has over 20 years experience in the IT industry and has focused on Contact Management, CRM and Collaboration systems for the last 14 years. During this time Brian and his staff have been involved in over 200 direct CRM project implementations covering 7 different products. He is also the editor of OutlookWise(http://www.outlookwise.com), a free newsletter aimed at keeping Outlook users up to date with news, views and articles of interest on Microsoft Outlook and Exchange Server.
How to Manage a Project
Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. Project management is a specialized management technique to plan and control projects. A project is generally deemed successful if it meets pre-determined targets set by the client, performs the job it was intended to do, or solves an identified problem within the pre-determined time, costs and quality constraints.
To successfully manage a project there are various tasks that must be performed. A few of such tasks includes:
1.Appointing a Project Manager
The project manager must be someone who has a proven track record in managing; can command respect from a mix of seniorities and can get action from teams. They should be able to:
* plan and communicate all aspects of the project
* motivate with integrity, sensitivity and imagination
* gain productivity and trust from shared decision-making
* lead both by example and by taking a back seat when appropriate
* monitor costs, efficiency and quality without excessive bureaucracy
* get things done right first time without being a slave-driver
* get the right people for the right task at the right time
* use both technical and general management skills to control the project
* see clear-sightedly through tangled issues.
2.Define the objectives
Fundamental to the management of any successful project are both understanding and agreement of:
* what is required to be achieved
* what is to be the outcome and/or delivered as a result
* dates and budgets for project completion by both project sponsor and project manager.
Lack of clear objectives will doom the project from the beginning.
3. Establish the Terms of Reference
The Terms of Reference specify the objectives, scope, time-frames and initial scale of resource required. They should also clarify any risks, constraints or assumptions already identified. It is important to make any early allowances for cost escalation, plans veering off course, and build in a level of contingency, or safety margin.
4. Planning/ Construct the Work Breakdown Structure Document (WBSD)/
Having established what the project should achieve, next consider how to achieve it.
The WBSD forms the basis of much subsequent work in planning, setting budgets, exercising control and assigning responsibilities. The key is to break the project down into identifiable phases, then into controllable units for action. Dividing a piece of work into more approachable, discrete units facilitates the functions of estimating, planning and controlling. As soon as possible allocate time- scales to each unit of work, taking care to allow for both sequential units - those that need to be accomplished before the next can be tackled, and overlapping units - those that can run in tandem.
5. Plan costs
A key area in which the most frequent error is to under-estimate costs. Typical cost elements include:
* staff time and wages - usually the most substantial cost item of all
* overheads - employer on-costs
* materials and supplies - the raw materials
* equipment
* administration
6. Plan for quality
Planning for quality requires both attention to detail and ensuring that the project output or outcome does what it is supposed to, or is "fit for its purpose". Quality measures (systematic inspections against established standards) should be built into the process from the beginning, not later when things have started to go awry.
7. Plan time-scales
In order to calculate the shortest time necessary to complete the project you need to know:
* the earliest time a stage or unit can start
* the duration of each stage
* the latest time by which a stage must be completed.
* Gantt charts, PERT diagrams and Critical Path Analysis may be used for effective planning of time-scales.
8. Plan Scope, Integration, Human Resources, Communication, Procurement and Risk
9. Monitor & Report Progress
The monitoring of in-progress costs, time-scales and quality is a major factor for consideration throughout the duration of the project. In addition to progress reports, feedback sessions and Management By Walking About, there are various control tools which help check that implementation is going according to plan.
10. Execution, Execution
Deliver the output. Obtain the client's acceptance of the project result". The penultimate stage before project completion is ensuring that the outcome of the project is accepted by the customer or sponsor.
11. Evaluate the project and Lessons learnt
By building in a final stage of evaluation it is possible to gain a measure of the project's success and see what lessons can be learned. Once again, the three key areas for review are quality, time and costs. Others include:
* staff skills gained or identified
* mistakes not to be repeated and what would be tackled differently.
* tools and techniques that were valuable
* processes that were flawed
--
By Samuel Lartey, Project Manager.
To successfully manage a project there are various tasks that must be performed. A few of such tasks includes:
1.Appointing a Project Manager
The project manager must be someone who has a proven track record in managing; can command respect from a mix of seniorities and can get action from teams. They should be able to:
* plan and communicate all aspects of the project
* motivate with integrity, sensitivity and imagination
* gain productivity and trust from shared decision-making
* lead both by example and by taking a back seat when appropriate
* monitor costs, efficiency and quality without excessive bureaucracy
* get things done right first time without being a slave-driver
* get the right people for the right task at the right time
* use both technical and general management skills to control the project
* see clear-sightedly through tangled issues.
2.Define the objectives
Fundamental to the management of any successful project are both understanding and agreement of:
* what is required to be achieved
* what is to be the outcome and/or delivered as a result
* dates and budgets for project completion by both project sponsor and project manager.
Lack of clear objectives will doom the project from the beginning.
3. Establish the Terms of Reference
The Terms of Reference specify the objectives, scope, time-frames and initial scale of resource required. They should also clarify any risks, constraints or assumptions already identified. It is important to make any early allowances for cost escalation, plans veering off course, and build in a level of contingency, or safety margin.
4. Planning/ Construct the Work Breakdown Structure Document (WBSD)/
Having established what the project should achieve, next consider how to achieve it.
The WBSD forms the basis of much subsequent work in planning, setting budgets, exercising control and assigning responsibilities. The key is to break the project down into identifiable phases, then into controllable units for action. Dividing a piece of work into more approachable, discrete units facilitates the functions of estimating, planning and controlling. As soon as possible allocate time- scales to each unit of work, taking care to allow for both sequential units - those that need to be accomplished before the next can be tackled, and overlapping units - those that can run in tandem.
5. Plan costs
A key area in which the most frequent error is to under-estimate costs. Typical cost elements include:
* staff time and wages - usually the most substantial cost item of all
* overheads - employer on-costs
* materials and supplies - the raw materials
* equipment
* administration
6. Plan for quality
Planning for quality requires both attention to detail and ensuring that the project output or outcome does what it is supposed to, or is "fit for its purpose". Quality measures (systematic inspections against established standards) should be built into the process from the beginning, not later when things have started to go awry.
7. Plan time-scales
In order to calculate the shortest time necessary to complete the project you need to know:
* the earliest time a stage or unit can start
* the duration of each stage
* the latest time by which a stage must be completed.
* Gantt charts, PERT diagrams and Critical Path Analysis may be used for effective planning of time-scales.
8. Plan Scope, Integration, Human Resources, Communication, Procurement and Risk
9. Monitor & Report Progress
The monitoring of in-progress costs, time-scales and quality is a major factor for consideration throughout the duration of the project. In addition to progress reports, feedback sessions and Management By Walking About, there are various control tools which help check that implementation is going according to plan.
10. Execution, Execution
Deliver the output. Obtain the client's acceptance of the project result". The penultimate stage before project completion is ensuring that the outcome of the project is accepted by the customer or sponsor.
11. Evaluate the project and Lessons learnt
By building in a final stage of evaluation it is possible to gain a measure of the project's success and see what lessons can be learned. Once again, the three key areas for review are quality, time and costs. Others include:
* staff skills gained or identified
* mistakes not to be repeated and what would be tackled differently.
* tools and techniques that were valuable
* processes that were flawed
--
By Samuel Lartey, Project Manager.
Middleware Message and Identity Management
CIO Enterprise Identity Project Approaches
The Enterprise Identity Management project is all about automating business processes and synchronizing identity-related information across the enterprise.
Why do we need Identity Management?
Identity management is necessary to support a strong and flexibly security framework. Most system and data vulnerabilities come from improperly managed rights and entitlements. Many companies do not have the necessary identity-related security implementations to adequately control access to services, devices, applications, and data. Properly securing an enterprise today means implementing automated processes and procedures for granting and revoking access to company resources. Intelligent identity management implementation will provide staff with the means to control, enforce, and monitor access to company resources. Additional benefits include access to monitoring and providing a proof of compliance to Sarbanes-Oxley auditors.
Identity Related Access
Control of employee, supplier, and partner access can be far from perfect. Terminated contractors and employees may have access to company resources long after they have officially left the company. Access credentials that employees and contractors need in order to perform their normal tasks are frequently so numerous that they write down their access codes and store them in or near their workspace. Securing the enterprise means providing a process or framework to synchronize employee, supplier, and partner identities across all systems. An intelligent identity management system provides the means to achieve a high degree of security and a secure trust level while allowing employees, suppliers, and business partners to access company resources.
Best Approach to Identity Management
The best approach for an intelligent identity management framework is an open system approach, which uses standardized, readily available commercial components. The open system approach creates an environment that is adaptable and enables the company to respond quickly to rapidly changing business environments. The approach also provides a framework in which individual components can be replaced, maintained, or upgraded on demand with minimal or no impact to the overall system. Additional benefits are achieved by reducing reliance on any one vendor or technology, and this provides a buffer against technological change and vendor consolidation. This approach allows the framework and methodology to reduce the risk associated with implementing or changing components.
Implementation Methodologies
Considering the required cost and complexity of integrating identity repositories in the enterprise, an open flexible system that reuses readily available components is an ideal solution to a very complex problem. Identity-related processes require communication between technologically diverse identity repositories, applications, and processes. Each application and identity repository is designed for a specific purpose and not necessarily designed to integrate with other solutions. However, achieving the desired goal of integrating these technologically diverse repositories with ongoing business processes is a difficult and complex issue. The ideal solution is to integrate the applications, identity repository, and business process by using a common, robust, and scalable transport to exchange information. Enabling applications, a legacy system, and a business process to exchange information in a common and reliable manner is a necessity to meet long-term business needs. This technology must provide for guaranteed data delivery, regardless of network changes or outages, and it must also provide a level of abstraction from diverse identity repositories and processes.
Service Oriented Architectures (SOA)
With the increasing acceptance and reliance on SOA (Service-Oriented Architectures), Web Services, Middleware Messaging, and Database solutions, these items are being adopted in many enterprises and are becoming a common component of numerous business enterprises.
Web Services?
The loosely coupled nature of Web Services provides a flexible, component-based, open, extensible, and reusable solution. Web services also enable platform and application-independent communication methods of exchanging information over HTTP. However, if there are unexpected network connectivity issues, does the client have a mechanism to guarantee that any and all data will be delivered to the Web service? No matter how good your network is, there will always be a chance that critical data can be lost owing to a variety of reasons. Web services by themselves cannot provide the necessary guaranteed data delivery service that is required for today's demanding business environments. On their own, Web Services have no standardized mechanism to provide a guaranteed data delivery service when network outages occur unless the application is specifically designed and developed with a guaranteed data delivery mechanism.
Why Not Database Replication?
Data exchange can also be achieved by using database replication. The client can insert data into a local operational database and it can eventually be replicated to the central subscriber. In this case, application communication requires a local database on every server a replication mechanism that has either been developed or bought will provide the delivery mechanism. This may not be the best solution, as it requires extra effort to configure, maintain, and monitor. These extras are already provided by middleware messaging products.
Middleware Messaging Transport Service
The middleware messaging transport service provides a layer of abstraction between the application, identity repositories, and business process. It also provides the necessary guaranteed data delivery service that is so crucial in today's enterprise environments. The middleware messaging provides the ideal environment to enable open, extensible, and flexible identity management solutions. It also provides the necessary abstracted environment for exchanging information between identity repositories, processes, and applications, as well as providing an effective integration for outside vendors and suppliers. The most open extensible and scalable method to exchange information is middleware oriented messaging.
Middleware vendors
Several of the more popular middleware vendors are listed below.
IBM's WebSphereMQ http://www-306.ibm.com/software/integration/wmq/
Tibco Rendezvous http://www.tibco.com/software/enterprise_backbone/rendezvous.jsp
SonicMQ http://www.sonicsoftware.com/index.ssp
Microsoft MSMQ http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/msmq/default.mspx
Conclusion
The middleware messaging transport service provides the necessary support infrastructure that enables integration teams to focus on business logic rather than on the development of custom solutions or components. The abstracted environment also provides the ideal environment to build effective, open, and extensible identity management solutions.For more information on how to use middleware messaging to support your identity management initiatives, please visit http://www.eaisimsolutions.com
The Enterprise Identity Management project is all about automating business processes and synchronizing identity-related information across the enterprise.
Why do we need Identity Management?
Identity management is necessary to support a strong and flexibly security framework. Most system and data vulnerabilities come from improperly managed rights and entitlements. Many companies do not have the necessary identity-related security implementations to adequately control access to services, devices, applications, and data. Properly securing an enterprise today means implementing automated processes and procedures for granting and revoking access to company resources. Intelligent identity management implementation will provide staff with the means to control, enforce, and monitor access to company resources. Additional benefits include access to monitoring and providing a proof of compliance to Sarbanes-Oxley auditors.
Identity Related Access
Control of employee, supplier, and partner access can be far from perfect. Terminated contractors and employees may have access to company resources long after they have officially left the company. Access credentials that employees and contractors need in order to perform their normal tasks are frequently so numerous that they write down their access codes and store them in or near their workspace. Securing the enterprise means providing a process or framework to synchronize employee, supplier, and partner identities across all systems. An intelligent identity management system provides the means to achieve a high degree of security and a secure trust level while allowing employees, suppliers, and business partners to access company resources.
Best Approach to Identity Management
The best approach for an intelligent identity management framework is an open system approach, which uses standardized, readily available commercial components. The open system approach creates an environment that is adaptable and enables the company to respond quickly to rapidly changing business environments. The approach also provides a framework in which individual components can be replaced, maintained, or upgraded on demand with minimal or no impact to the overall system. Additional benefits are achieved by reducing reliance on any one vendor or technology, and this provides a buffer against technological change and vendor consolidation. This approach allows the framework and methodology to reduce the risk associated with implementing or changing components.
Implementation Methodologies
Considering the required cost and complexity of integrating identity repositories in the enterprise, an open flexible system that reuses readily available components is an ideal solution to a very complex problem. Identity-related processes require communication between technologically diverse identity repositories, applications, and processes. Each application and identity repository is designed for a specific purpose and not necessarily designed to integrate with other solutions. However, achieving the desired goal of integrating these technologically diverse repositories with ongoing business processes is a difficult and complex issue. The ideal solution is to integrate the applications, identity repository, and business process by using a common, robust, and scalable transport to exchange information. Enabling applications, a legacy system, and a business process to exchange information in a common and reliable manner is a necessity to meet long-term business needs. This technology must provide for guaranteed data delivery, regardless of network changes or outages, and it must also provide a level of abstraction from diverse identity repositories and processes.
Service Oriented Architectures (SOA)
With the increasing acceptance and reliance on SOA (Service-Oriented Architectures), Web Services, Middleware Messaging, and Database solutions, these items are being adopted in many enterprises and are becoming a common component of numerous business enterprises.
Web Services?
The loosely coupled nature of Web Services provides a flexible, component-based, open, extensible, and reusable solution. Web services also enable platform and application-independent communication methods of exchanging information over HTTP. However, if there are unexpected network connectivity issues, does the client have a mechanism to guarantee that any and all data will be delivered to the Web service? No matter how good your network is, there will always be a chance that critical data can be lost owing to a variety of reasons. Web services by themselves cannot provide the necessary guaranteed data delivery service that is required for today's demanding business environments. On their own, Web Services have no standardized mechanism to provide a guaranteed data delivery service when network outages occur unless the application is specifically designed and developed with a guaranteed data delivery mechanism.
Why Not Database Replication?
Data exchange can also be achieved by using database replication. The client can insert data into a local operational database and it can eventually be replicated to the central subscriber. In this case, application communication requires a local database on every server a replication mechanism that has either been developed or bought will provide the delivery mechanism. This may not be the best solution, as it requires extra effort to configure, maintain, and monitor. These extras are already provided by middleware messaging products.
Middleware Messaging Transport Service
The middleware messaging transport service provides a layer of abstraction between the application, identity repositories, and business process. It also provides the necessary guaranteed data delivery service that is so crucial in today's enterprise environments. The middleware messaging provides the ideal environment to enable open, extensible, and flexible identity management solutions. It also provides the necessary abstracted environment for exchanging information between identity repositories, processes, and applications, as well as providing an effective integration for outside vendors and suppliers. The most open extensible and scalable method to exchange information is middleware oriented messaging.
Middleware vendors
Several of the more popular middleware vendors are listed below.
IBM's WebSphereMQ http://www-306.ibm.com/software/integration/wmq/
Tibco Rendezvous http://www.tibco.com/software/enterprise_backbone/rendezvous.jsp
SonicMQ http://www.sonicsoftware.com/index.ssp
Microsoft MSMQ http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/msmq/default.mspx
Conclusion
The middleware messaging transport service provides the necessary support infrastructure that enables integration teams to focus on business logic rather than on the development of custom solutions or components. The abstracted environment also provides the ideal environment to build effective, open, and extensible identity management solutions.For more information on how to use middleware messaging to support your identity management initiatives, please visit http://www.eaisimsolutions.com
Network Performance Management
Now that we are in the 21st century, most companies need to have some form of connectivity or another in order to have their business running well. In another word, networkmanagement can be the life line of these companies. Can you imagine Yahoo, Google, and Ebay going down for a few minutes? Millions of dollars could be lost during those few minutes. As such, the importance of networkmanagement in this type of companies cannot be underestimated.
In order to understand network management better, we have to look at the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) which looks at security management, fault management, configuration management, accounting management and performance management.
Security Management
Security Management looks at alerting the personnel when resources are accessed. An example would be emailing or calling the network personnel that a resource is down and needed his attention or sending messages when certain files is accessed.
Fault Management
Fault Management is to log, find, and alert the network personnel of problems that will effect the systems operations.
Configuration Management
Configuration Management is to identify effects on network's operation after tracking the software plus the hardware on the network.
Accounting Management
This is to watch and determine the usage of information or resources for billing purposes. A typical company such as a mobile company or internet service provider would need these features in their business operations to bill their customer.
Performance Management
Monitoring, assessing, and adjusting the available bandwidth and network resource usage are tasks that are performed by network personnel as part of performancemanagement system. This is to make the network run more efficiently.
In order to have a good network management system, the 6 pillars of network management need to be implemented by the network personnel in their companies.
Justin Koh is a freelance writer whose articles have appear in most major ezines. You can find his latest network management news and articles at http://www.networkmanagementcenter.info
In order to understand network management better, we have to look at the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) which looks at security management, fault management, configuration management, accounting management and performance management.
Security Management
Security Management looks at alerting the personnel when resources are accessed. An example would be emailing or calling the network personnel that a resource is down and needed his attention or sending messages when certain files is accessed.
Fault Management
Fault Management is to log, find, and alert the network personnel of problems that will effect the systems operations.
Configuration Management
Configuration Management is to identify effects on network's operation after tracking the software plus the hardware on the network.
Accounting Management
This is to watch and determine the usage of information or resources for billing purposes. A typical company such as a mobile company or internet service provider would need these features in their business operations to bill their customer.
Performance Management
Monitoring, assessing, and adjusting the available bandwidth and network resource usage are tasks that are performed by network personnel as part of performancemanagement system. This is to make the network run more efficiently.
In order to have a good network management system, the 6 pillars of network management need to be implemented by the network personnel in their companies.
Justin Koh is a freelance writer whose articles have appear in most major ezines. You can find his latest network management news and articles at http://www.networkmanagementcenter.info
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