RolloutExpert.com

I am currently the president of BigWave Software, a company providing an innovative, web-based portal that has been eliminating the headaches of multi-site project management since 2002. I am passionate about solving the problems associated with multi-site rollouts and bringing to the marketplace a tool that, unlike traditional project management tools, fits these unique projects. Many industries have already benefited from this exceptional project portal, including the retail industry in point-of-sale rollouts and upgrades.

With a multitude of technology and business development experience, I have previously held roles as CTO, senior consultant, project manager, software engineer and business analyst in a variety of industries. My more than 12 years of experience as an independent technology consultant included a variety of industries, including mortgage, healthcare, airline and telecommunications. I have an extensive background in technology development, project management and business analysis.

I received my B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Oklahoma. I was raised in Oklahoma and am an avid Sooner fan I enjoy playing golf, the beach and the mountains. My family and I reside in the flatlands of Frisco, Texas, and we are thoroughly enjoying watching our three kids grow up.

Welcome to the world’s first blog dedicated to the trials and tribulations of Multi-site Project Management. My name is John Livermore, and my career has had me focused on these projects for over 5 years now. In fact I created a software company called BigWave that is entirely focused on this issue and creates project portals ideal for multi-site projects.

As I arrived at the realization that multi-site projects are a different breed and have special requirements, I thought it would be helpful to start a forum where all of those involved in this discipline may have a resource/sounding board for tackling the issues associated with multi-site rollouts.

Multi-site PM? You may say “so what’s the big deal?”.

If you are on a project team involved with rolling out equipment to hundreds or thousands of physical locations (“sites”) within a finite and/or compressed period of time, then you and your colleagues are working a multi-site project. And because you work these projects, you probably know they are a different animal than a traditional project (where something gets built).

To get a site live generally requires some form of the following steps:

• Stage equipment
• Ship equipment / verify it arrives
• Schedule a technician
• Install the equipment
• Dispose the old equipment
• Obtain signoff and collect documentation for the site
• Invoice for the work done

Typically dozens of sites will become live each day. With all the variables and people involved, how to manage these? Ouch! These projects aren’t for the faint of heart!

Multi-site projects are fraught with chaos, and managing the process is extremely difficult for even the most organized project teams. Undoubtedly the project team is smartly using standard PM best practices and methodologies, however, these fall short of addressing the major issues that cause rollouts to experience difficulty or fail.

• Efficient communication
• Efficient collaboration
• Effective data collection/organization/dissemination

So welcome to RolloutExpert.com — the resource for multi-site project management. In the coming months I will be writing about all that surrounds these projects, stories from the field, and how we can all achieve greater efficiencies and success with these very complex projects.

Thanks for listening!