RolloutExpert.com

Continued from my previous post…

MS Project 07 employs a complex matrix to license their product through a mixture of CALs, existing MS Office licenses and Project Server licenses. MS Project Server requires licenses to many other MS products including MS SQL Server, MS Windows Server, Sharepoint, etc.

BigWave Software provides state of the art, web-based project portals to manage multi-site project rollouts and installations. BigWave technologies integrate project communication, reporting, and management, service/work-order management and vendor management into one easy-to-use application.

A bold, new structured way to run your multi-site rollouts, BigWave is like a spreadsheet on steroids. It streamlines the project and reduces costs while saving time, and this plug-n-play system can be up and helping you run your projects in just one week.

The benefits of BigWave’s customer-centric solutions are so solid for a very simple reason – it was built by a consortium of Project Managers. It was designed by people who know how essential it is to collaborate and communicate quickly, efficiently, and effectively both on and off site – and know the toll it can take on a project and team when the chaos of spreadsheets and other internally developed tools combine with the fear and frustration caused by a lack of communication.

So are you ready to start communicating more efficiently in your multi-site projects? Contact BigWave today.

Keeping with the building renovation analogy, MS Project requires a patchwork of products the same way some General Contractors need a lot of subcontractors. (And a full-time person is needed to administer MS Project Server EPM, Windows Sharepoint Services and EPK Suite.)

But BigWave can do it all – right out of the box – giving an organization unlimited access to the product with an easy-to-understand framework and implementation process.

The mission of BigWave Software is to help Project Managers be successful, by allowing them to focus on managing the project rather than administrative and coordinating tasks. The advanced technology and exceptional support of BigWave helps PM’s to eliminate the chaos and streamline multi-site project management.

MS Project, which focuses mostly on scheduling, is cumbersome to use for multi-site projects. So MS Project Server was created – seemingly as an afterthought to fill the gap.

While BigWave can handle scheduling, its focus is on maximizing communication to foster collaboration (which is what most project managers really require) throughout the implementation process of multi-site projects.

More to come in my next post…

What is the price that organizations – and their projects – pay for poor communication? It can be significant. An analogy to something that all of us have heard stories about might help illustrate the situation - we have all heard about landlords and property managers. Their situations can be very similar to multi-site project managers, tasked with successful implementation of multi-site rollouts.

Imagine you’re a landlord (Project Manager) that owns an apartment building with old, inefficient appliances (software). You have plenty of tenants (project team members), but at times some of the apartments are empty (not optimized).

It seems like you (and your team) are always being called upon to fix something, and despite the vacancies and repair expenses, your tenants seem happy and you’re in the black every month.

But you know that updating the appliances (software) and renovating all of the apartments (multi-site rollout) will result in greater efficiency and increased economy.

As with the renovation of an apartment building, the key to successful multi-site project management depends upon a commitment to strong communication from the outset.

Ask your tenants to find another place to live while the building is being renovated, and perhaps they’ll never come back. Share your plans and goals with your project team and cooperation and true collaboration are more likely. Keep them in the dark and the uncertainty created just might stick around for the entire life of the project.

Just as in the example of an apartment’s renovation, when a landlord (Project Manager) upgrades the accommodations (software), once the construction (software rollout) is complete costs are likely to increase. But if life is improved and other expenses are offset by increased efficiencies, then the tenants (project team members) should be on board.

Open communication from the outset means that more people will be on board sooner – and that’s good news for the Project Manager AND the project.

BigWave can help you not only manage your multi-site projects, but also provide efficient, solid communications to all constituencies involved. Contact us today for more information, and start saving money today!

The internal dynamics, organizational chart, culture, succession planning, overall objective, and of course office politics are all considerations when determining the role of a PMO. These internal dynamics are more likely to have an impact on the structure and function of the PMO than external business factors.

PMOs are often stand-alone, and are frequently closed and/or restructured. They can also take up to 24 months to implement. The questions I would pose:

• Is there duplication of staff and duties when you create an office so highly specialized, such as administrative support?
• How do you determine value added to the organization versus more traditional org charts?
• Since change is always difficult to manage and communicate, what impact does implementing or restructuring a PMO have on the organizational climate and overall attitude?
• With so many roles and functions to consider adding to the mandate of a PMO how much decision-making power, authority and autonomy will the PMO have?
• To whom will the office ultimately report?

There is currently no clear consensus among the industry what constitutes a PMO, and what their role is within an organization. The bottom line though is that they are ultimately managing projects, and could benefit from a project portal like BigWave with their multi-site rollouts.

A project management office (PMO) generally defines and maintains the standards related to project management within the organization, looking to add the efficiencies and cost savings associated with repetitive processes.

Basing principles on industry standards and methodologies, the PMO is typically the source of documentation, guidance and measurement on the practice and execution of project management. Regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley have mandated standardizing practices in organizations. PMOs are also often called upon to continually improve the organization, both in terms of processes and structures.

PMOs have become an important feature of project management, and can be quite complex with varying values, organizational context, structure, roles and functions. The value of PMOs varies and is difficult to measure. While one PMO may be a great resource and of significant value to a company, the next may be structured differently such that the expenditure outweighs the value added.

Organizations establish their PMO to meet different needs. Some companies may put all of their project managers within the PMO, or they may sprinkle a few throughout the rest of the organization. PMOs may cover all projects within an organization, or only those dealing with a particular business area.

Certainly for those organizations dealing with multi-site projects, a PMO can help centralize information. BigWave can also help in the information storing and disseminating process; you can learn more at www.Deep6Spreadsheets.com.

A few more hidden costs to those spreadsheets…

Location
Invariably the master spreadsheet spawns many other versions of spreadsheets. Those may become the master spreadsheet for a certain subset of project data. Now information required for decision making is spread across two spreadsheets on two different computers, possibly in separate offices or even separate companies.

Additionally documentation such as images, signoff sheets, checklists, etc., must be stored somewhere separate from the spreadsheet(s). Where does the documentation get stored? Is it all in the same office? On the same computer? Is it available for anyone to view? Information not included in a spreadsheet is still critical to the communication process and is necessary for other team members to find/get to quickly and securely.

Lack of information
History for each site is too difficult to capture in a spreadsheet format. It is therefore in the project manager’s head, in project coordinator’s heads, in emails or even lost forever. Weekly or daily meetings are a must to keep everyone on the same page. And that equates to lots of wasted time and money.

These are just some of the hidden costs that can quickly decrease the efficiency of a project. Fortunately, there is a solution: abandon the spreadsheets and call BigWave.

BigWave’s multi-site project management portal solves the inefficiencies of traditional project management with spreadsheets by giving you one easy portal to manage all aspects of your multi-site project. Streamlining your day-to-day operations and communication both on- and off-site, BigWave allows you to collaborate and communicate quickly and effectively so that you can focus on what you do best—managing projects.

Are you ready to ensure that your next project is going to be a success? Contact BigWave today online or by phone at (888) 252-WAVE and control the chaos in your multi-site projects.

As any project manager knows, the success of a project depends on whether it comes in at or under budget and whether it was completed on time. What most project managers do not know is that by using spreadsheets to manage multi-site projects, they significantly decrease their opportunities for success.

In today’s fast-paced, technologically advanced society, spreadsheets are quickly becoming obsolete because of their inefficiencies. Listed below are a few of the hidden costs associated with spreadsheets that make them a poor choice for today’s project manager.

Personnel
Considering it typically takes a large number of people to complete a project—especially multi-site projects—your overhead is already going to be high. Now, factor in each person updating, merging, sending, saving, finding, emailing, fixing and even losing the information. A significant amount of personnel time is wasted here.

Out-of-date information
Spreadsheets contain critical information needed to make decisions throughout the project. If the spreadsheet has not been updated, or an older version of the spreadsheet is making the rounds, inaccurate information is being used to make decisions, which in turn can cost a company hundreds, thousands, even millions of dollars if decisions are being made using incorrect information.

Errors
In multi-site projects, data can often arrive daily or weekly via spreadsheets from other sources (shipping information, billing information, etc). The project manager or project coordinator must merge that data with the master spreadsheet. Even assuming every party is using the exact same software on the exact same operating machine, this process is very error prone.

More hidden costs in my next post… In the meantime, click here to see how BigWave can help eliminate the hidden costs of spreadsheets with multi-site project management.

What is the best way to roll out this technology? Fact is most organizations are very immature in how these IT investments get deployed. People can be very naïve when considering how difficult the deployment can be – especially for multi-site organizations. And if the deployment fails, well, it’s just another IT investment wasted.

If you consider IT deployments are really multi-site projects then you will realize IT deployments have the special needs all multi-site projects require. These are effective and efficient communication, collaboration, and data collection/organization/dissemination.

I challenge any project manager to resort to only their formal PM training and traditional PM tools to deploy completed IT projects to the field.

My belief is that you won’t be very successful.

The requirements of the project will undoubtedly require you to open Excel to track various pieces of information for each site, cobble together a network file share to store documentation and pictures, and organize your emails as best you can. Undoubtedly a lot of information will be stored in handwritten notes or your head. You will have lots and lots of meetings and phone calls to constantly ensure everyone is on the same page.

There is actually a better way. A neat little company called BigWave is solving the problems associated with multi-site rollouts and deployments of IT. At its core, BigWave software inherently recognizes the needs of multi-site projects and provides any company with a proven methodology for getting these rollouts done.

Check them out at http://www.bigwavesoftware.com.

Today I write about deploying finished products to the field. This is critical to the success of any project, is very difficult to do correctly, but most IT managers naïvely think is straightforward to accomplish. Allow me to build up my case with a little background.

Business people realize that IT infrastructure, applicable to the business and properly implemented, has a tremendous impact to the bottom line profitability of a company. Technology enables additional revenue streams and realizes cost savings. The promise of IT is fantastic! However, IT can be costly in and of itself, so if it fails, then it is simply money wasted.

Software development has been around for quite some time now. We have learned a tremendous amount from all the mistakes that have been made. Through the years we have evolved methodologies, consultancies, and tools to the point where, today, most any organization, given executive sponsorship, can create relevant technology to deliver on the promise of increased profitability for their individual businesses. Given any IT project to create tools for the business, if we set out on a path to build the software using generally accepted best practices of project management, then we greatly increase our chances for success.

Many tools exist on the market today that internalize these best practices to help us “build” something new. Generally these fall into the project management category. Mostly they have a resemblance to Microsoft Project and for good reason. Microsoft Project, despite many shortcomings, enables traditional projects (where something is being “built”) to be organized in a logical way so they can be tracked to completion.

So consider we successfully completed and have in our hot little hands a project created by the IT staff or a consultancy. Now it’s time to roll out this wonderful technology to the field. Uh-oh.

Our next installment covers what to do!

Most regular readers of this blog know that I have a fundamental belief that there are nuances to multi-site project management that make it difficult to use standard PM tools for their execution. They also know that I am the President of a software company called BigWave whose aim is to embrace these nuances and deliver a tool to the world that is effective for multi-site rollouts.

So why did we choose BigWave?

Well, at the end of the day, being the owner of the company, I chose the name :).

Personally I love the ocean and the mountains, and when I vacation with my family, generally we choose one of those spots. But I REALLY love the ocean! In particular ocean waves are something I find very cool and I am fascinated by their periodicity, power, and grace.

So one day I would like to have property in Hawaii and run the BigWave empire from one of the most beautiful and inspiring places in the world with a direct view to large waves crashing on the shore.

So naming the company BigWave keeps my eye on the ultimate prize of being able to really enjoy the good life in paradise!

For now however, we are based in the flatlands of North Texas!