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If you lead a consultancy firm in project management, odds are that things have been good for you in the last couple of years: the industry has recovered from the global recession in many sectors, and PM has rapidly grown as a management philosophy to expand beyond the niche areas of software development, construction and infrastructures. In fact, many of our best customers come from industries as different as financial services, insurance, healthcare, or the food industry.

However, we still find it very surprising that many small-to-medium consultancy firms with great talent offering highly specialized consultancy services in project management are not stocking up in a solid and diversified portfolio of project management solutions.

Sure, many players choose to go hand in hand with a top vendor. This grants them access to big accounts and ensures that the complexity of the solution is a golden gate to offer on-boarding services. However, there are several reasons why you should not be content with doing just that:

Improve your vendor portfolio

No matter how much you love your expensive and sophisticated solutions, some customers won’t fall for them for a number of reasons: price, past experiences, or very specific needs. It’s always a good idea to add additional vendors that stick out for different reasons: whether they’re targeted at specific industries, have a focus on certain buyer personas, a methodological edge or simply a lower price point, they’ll be a catch for a number customers you’d likely not convert on your own.

Diversify

If built properly, a diverse vendor portfolio can better support your own service offerings. Different software solutions will need different forms of supplementary training and support, and the chances are that, unless you build your strategy around your main vendor, smaller players can better adapt to some of your already existing services.

Care about your level of Sales Relationships

People outside the industry may think otherwise, but we know that selling technological services is fundamentally a matter of trust. Trust not only takes time, but the bigger the other size it is, the more laborious it will be to establish it.

What I’m trying to say is that the ladder of sales relationships can be very long if you’re partnered with an industry giant, but just takes clear strategy, periodical meetings and some sales with a smaller company.

Grow your reputation as independent advisor

The more diverse your portfolio of solutions, the likelier it is that you can be perceived as a recommender with the ability to provide reliable, independent expertise, including non-biased advice on what solutions should be implemented in a given situation. A limited vendor portfolio immediately defies that purpose.

The example of ITM Platform’s Partner Model

Over the last three years, ITM Platform has built a network of partners to sell our PPM software solution globally.

A recently added partner in Mexico landed a $ 250,000 job after we referred them a company that had recognized their need to reorganize their processes on a project basis.

In a Southern European country, a former user of ITM Platform was put in charge of creating a new food processing plant and decided to stay with the solution he was already familiar with. Our local partners were able to secure the training and capacitation for the factory set-up in the first yearly period.

In all these cases, the price tag for licenses we sold was a mere percentage in single digits of the revenues that the services provided by our partners generated for them.

That’s not a problem. “We’re in the business of providing a solution and generating recurring monthly revenue from satisfied customers. Asking our partners to share their revenues for associated services with us would only distort the model and distract us”, says our CEO, Daniel Piret.

“We think we can have a particular appeal for firms that are interested in moving from the traditional model of service provision to the juicy recurring SaaS business model”, points Daniel.

Our mission for 2017 is to transform our partner network in our main channel for sales, and to do that we have designed new partner-friendly policies.

In other words, our growth strategy consists in helping our partners attract big business.

What do our partners get:

A PPM solution that, added to their portfolio, competes in functionality with the top players, while having the extra appeal of being incredibly cost-effective.
Our partners have priority as re-sellers: they can sell licenses for a lower price than our official price lists. It’s our way to make sure that customers won’t contact us directly after being approached by a partner.
Hot leads coming from our marketing campaigns
Recurring net margin
And much more!

To apply for the program, register at our partner website, or download our brochure here.

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One of the most frequent needs facing organizations that are looking to launch a PMO is the centralization of information and knowledge. When your e-mail begins to be used as a repository of documentation, or when there is no homogeneity between the sources of information of different projects, it is possible that the time has come to consider the existence of a structure that supports the operations of the organization.

This type of PMO has been compared to a weather station, since the unification of processes and flows of information allows the increase of data and objective criteria to evaluate in which direction the projects and the equipment are moving.

By serving as a center for unification of knowledge, the PMO begins by assisting the management of the company by providing data and information that assist the company in decision making.

This is achieved in the confidence of the management of the company, the acquisition of new skills and the possibility of direct decision-making. The end result is to convert one support project management into another with a control or manager profile. This other type of PMO will be developed in another article.

Functions developed by the PMO as a support tool

Teaching and training, promotion of attitudes based on adequate project management, under direct supervision.
Transmission of information to the management of the company, so that it is the one that makes the executive decisions.
Search for techniques to reduce costs.
Centralization of management services in the department of project management or PMO, emphasizing the management savings that this entails.
Empowerment of those who have been designated as Project Managers, who must be trained in project management but also allow sufficient freedom to properly develop their skills.

Application and evolution of the support PMO

Supporting PMOs are sometimes geared towards an internal permanent improvement service. This is based on empowerment and the acquisition of responsibilities on the part of heads departments within the company under the instruction and monitoring of the PMO. The objective is that, after a period of training, the managers of the different departments of the company acquire new skills in project management or update the ones they already have, doing their work practically without the help of the PMO. This will allow the PMO to focus on other functional areas and to reorient itself from the mere work support, towards a more strategic integration.

Juan Delgado

Blogger

ITM Platform

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What is a risk assessment matrix?

The matrix presents a set of risks on a graph where the x-axis represents the impact of risk and the y-axis represents the probability. For example, the impact of a fire occurring at the warehouse of a distribution company will be in the maximum values ––it’s a real catastrophe for business! However, since a good prevention plan makes this event highly unlikely, the resulting display places the risk in the upper left quadrant. Conversely, the same organization may also consider more probable risks of minor impact, such delays in delivery or even the loss of materials.

When viewing risks from these two parameters, the matrix allows to better compare and prioritize them. Results are often counter-intuitive. For example, one might think that a fire is the biggest risk, with loss of delivery items ranking second and delays at a solid third position. However, the fire prevention plan in the warehouse means the risk is very unlikely, while the volume of deliveries can fluctuate from “almost never” to one-digit percent points.

Obviously, if you never missed a delivery, your first mistake doesn’t count much. But when it happens every day, your reputation is at stake.

For managers of this imaginary company, it is essential to understand what is delaying drivers or preventing successful deliveries. Because deliveries can happen every day in the hundreds or thousands, a five percent delay rate can bring the company to the brink:

How does our matrix work?

We have set the matrix to display three default risks that you can probably apply to any project: loss of personnel, scope changes and company acquisition. You can then adjust values of probability and impact in these fields, or erase them all and start from scratch.

For each new risk follow these three steps:

Click on the button "Add risk"
Give it a name that describes it
Assign impact and probability values

Each time you create a risk, it appears in the chart (the risk label will show if you hover over it), and once you have defined several different risks you will see that the circle size varies depending on the level of risk exposure.

Customize, save and share your risk sets

The colors depend on the assigned risk thresholds by default, but you have the option to edit risk thresholds and impact and probability values by clicking the button "customize values and thresholds".

Since we want the tool to be useful, you can also register via the "login" button to store all your risk sets, saving them for future reference.

Don’t forget to share the tool if you liked it! And if you want the risk matrix to be systematically linked to your current projects, we recommend you try ITM Platform for free. You will have access to the most comprehensive project, programs and portfolio management tool on the market.

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Let’s face it, even if you have the utmost confidence that your project will be a success, there is always the possibility something can go wrong. Wise project managers will identify the project risks in the early stages of the project to give themselves more time to develop a plan on how they can avoid them if they arise. However, risk management is an ongoing activity and can’t be done just once.

Here are a few key components of risk management:

A Contingency Plan

Essentially, this is a plan developed to help the company respond to a possible future situation that could occur but isn’t outlined in the original or “expected” plan. The project team will find solutions ahead of time in the case that the problem appears. A contingency plan is also often referred to as being “plan B”, one which can be put in place in only a moments notice.

For instance, suppose the completion of a product significantly depends on purchasing a component from a supplier. Although for whatever reason, the deal is unable to be made which can set the end date of the project way behind schedule. To prevent crisis from occurring, project managers will use contingency plans that will be implemented immediately to resolve the issue.

The Risk Assessment Matrix

This is a well known project management tool increasingly used in risk management. In a single page, it will organize all of your possible risks based on their likelihood of occurring and the severity of their consequences. You will need this in order to develop an effective risk mitigation plan and project strategies.

The risk management matrix can only be completed after you have filled out a risk assessment form. In this form you will have to uncover and list out all potential risks that may be a threat to your project or company. You will need to gather data about these possible risks, understand their consequences, determine the probability of them occurring and brainstorm possible prevention strategies.

The risk assessment matrix will then be able to provide the project management team with a quick and useful overview of the risks to help them prioritize which should be dealt with first.

The team will need to work together to decide which level of risk can be tolerated and which ones should just be “accepted” and left to be watched. Our new free tool for risk analysis allows you to register, quantify and share risks. You can also save different sets of risks, such as those for a project, business, process or any other context in which you are working. You can share them collaboratively as well.

Each circle represents the estimation of a risk. Colors and sizes of circles depend on the exposure level of the risk. They are fully configurable, simply click on the “customize values and thresholds” tab.

If you click on the “see matrix” button in each of the risks, you’ll be able to see all of the possible combinations for impact, probability and place of the product; i.e the numerical value of the level of risk exposure.

Risk Mitigation Planning

This process involves creating possible options to help strengthen future opportunities and reduce threats to your project objectives. It will require project management team members to continuously track the current identified risks while searching for new ones. They will also need to evaluate how successful the risk management process is throughout the development of the project.

It is best if you refer back to the chart below when applying risk mitigation. The Risk Mitigation Handling Option you choose to use will once again depend on the probability of a risk occurring and the severity of its costs. There are several handling options that can be used:

Avoid: You can change your current project requirements to reduce the risk from occurring. However, don’t be surprised if this also impacts your schedule, funding, etc.

Control: Implement new actions to diminish the impact the risk will have.

Transfer: Reassign the projects responsibility or authority to another stakeholder willing to take on the risk

Watch: Constantly monitor the project and its environment for any changes that may impact or increase the risk.

Assume: You may choose to acknowledge that a particular risk exists and then willingly make the decision to accept it without trying to control it in any way.

In a nutshell, risk mitigation planning requires you to think about the probability of the risk occurring and materializing as well as the impact it will have on your objectives if it does.

Steps to Risk Management

Simply put, risk management is a 2 step process that starts with determining what risks exist and then handling those risks. Although, you should develop an action plan which includes all of the 5 steps mentioned in the PMBok:

Step 1: Initiating

This step is all about brainstorming. You will need to determine the project manager, the company culture and understand the business case. You must review and uncover possible risk sources by determining initial constraints, requirements, assumptions and agreements. If you have an strong project management tool, like ITM Platform, you will be able to categorize and prioritize risks depending on if they have a high impact or high probability of occurrence.

Step 2: Planning

This stage involves developing a plan for each knowledge area. To do so, you must perform risk identification, qualitative and quantitative risk analysis and risk response planning. Once this is done you will need to finalize your management plans by developing a performance measurement baseline. By doing so, you will now have successfully developed responses to the risks you previously uncovered.

Step 3: Executing

From here on you will want to execute all of the work being done according to the PM plan you have created in the previous stage. Look to continuously improve by following the processes but also implementing approved changes. You must determine whether the processes are effective by evaluating individual or team performances and performing quality audits. Make sure you give strong feedback as well as recognition to employees when a job is well done. Following your management plans will reduce risk likelihood but will also prepare you in case something does arise.

Step 4: Monitoring & Controlling

With change can come brand new risks, but you will need change to occur if you want your business to grow. In this case, you must bring on change in a controlled way. Start off by measuring the performance of your team members as well as the project as a whole by comparing it to other metrics you have in your PM plan. Determine whether or not variances require corrective actions or change requests. You should request changes regardless and then update the PM plan accordingly.

Step 5: Closing

You must start off by assessing whether the work completed is done based on the requirements listed previously. Gain acceptance over the final product and then hand it off to be able to receive customer feedback. After this is all done you should record the lessons you have learned, all of the risks you may have encountered and the knowledge gained. All of this will help you out in the future.

Risk management isn’t an easy task and it’s natural to feel unsure on how to go about it. The best thing you can do is implement a PM tool that will help you with the process. ITM Platform provides their users with a new and innovative tool to help with calculating and managing project risks. Furthermore, their friendly and supportive staff has your back every step of the way so you’ll have no need to worry.

Visit http://www.itmplatform.com/en/ to find more information.

Top 5 most read blogs on ITM Platform:

The Monte Carlo Method in Project Management

Extra Extra Extra!

Three disastrous project management failures

The project in the face of adversity: what should a project manager do?

What is Virtual Stock Management or Periodical Online Management?

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“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”

The famous words spoken by Benjamin Franklin should be those which all project managers live by. What’s the point of trying to exercise proper project management if you aren’t capable of finding the time needed to do so? This is where time management comes into play.

Start off by assessing yourself before you do anything else. This will give you a good sense of whether or not you will need to change your current time management methods and what you can do to improve. Ask yourself how often you complete tasks before deadlines? Are you normally punctual or late? Do you ever leave things to last minute or feel as though you are running out of time?

The truth of the matter is that time is an extremely valuable resource to all project managers and is a terrible thing to waste. You want to be able to develop a strong reputation for yourself and never let down clients. As a project manager you aren’t only required to manage your own time but also the time of the entire team. Start off by creating a schedule that everyone can follow on a day-to-day basis. A simple scribble on a paper won’t do. Implement a project management software, such as ITM Platform, into the business. Great tools such as those provided by ITM Platform will assist you creating calendars with important deadlines and setting time limits for tasks. Furthermore, you can set reminders and check on the progress of your co-workers. This will help everyone maintain their focus and complete work on time.

Time management is best done when each of the following things are completed:

Defined Activities

Depending on the level of detail of a task, known as granularity, high-level tasks will first be broken down into different activities which will all be found in a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

Sequencing all of your Activities

The activities you just identified in the previous step will now be used to create an activity sequence. This is extremely important because it will allow you to execute tasks on time and in a specific order to stay organized and on time.

Resources necessary

This is when you will need to estimate the amount of resources required for the completion of each task. This step probably sounds very familiar and that’s because it is frequently listed as being crucial for project managers to do. The reason why is because the duration of the task depends on how many resources will be allocated. You’ll need to know all of this to be able to accurately manage your time.

Effort Estimation

Many companies will follow the WBS mechanism previously mentioned in order to estimate how much time and effort will be needed to complete tasks. After you feel as though you have fairly educated predictions you should identify your projects critical path. This will allow you to calculate approximately how long the entire project should take to complete.

Create a Schedule

You can’t just skip to this step because you’ll need to input all of the information you previously received in order to create an accurate schedule. Trying to do this on your own or manually will be difficult and time consuming. Your best option would once again be to use a software like ITM Platform which can assist you in creating a reliable and effective project schedule.

Schedule Changes

Nothing can be perfectly planned. There is always the chance that something unexpected could occur and you will need to make changes to your original schedule. Don’t panic! To make sure you don’t fall behind, continuously update your schedule to reflect any project alterations. This will prevent you or your teammates from experiences shock if something unanticipated occurs.

Just like anything else, time management requires you to put in effort. The more you know, the better you’ll do. This is why you should familiarise yourself with other common project management tools and practices which can be found at http://www.itmplatform.com

Top 5 most read blogs on ITM Platform:

The Monte Carlo Method in Project Management

Extra Extra Extra!

Three disastrous project management failures

The project in the face of adversity: what should a project manager do?

What is the Virtual Sock Management or Periodical Online Management?