epmpartners-blog

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EPM Partners hand-in-hand with AGL have deployed and implemented a PPM solution for the nationwide energy organisation to overcome the existing project management obstacles with innovative solutions. Need a solution for your project management issue? Contact us at 1300 123 376 or go to epmpartners.com.au

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Program Management Made Easy Using Project Server 2013

In this webinar we demonstrate how Project Server 2013 is used to manage programs - a frequently misunderstood aspect of the toolset. Specifically this includes: Making the Project Centre "Program Friendly" Managing inter-project dependencies and the program-level critical path with Master Projects

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What Is Key To Project Management Success?

Project manager is the key to the success of any project. They are often faced with serious challenges, which can overturn the success of a project. The main challengers are managing resources, monitoring pace of the project and ensuring it is on track within the target budget. There is no sole mantra for success of a project, but there are some tips, which can produce amazing results based on a professional style of management. 

Here are some to tips to make a success of project management:   Be aware of  all details of project inside out   The first step to a successful project is to lay down a strong foundation. To do this, you are required to identify stakeholders and clients and identify what is important to them. The next step is to develop a firm project plan where responsibilities and roles of jobs are clearly defined. For effective planning, you can set up track-able and measurable criteria of success in order to monitor the project.   Identify needs of the project   After the plan is developed, the second step is to build up a team which can implement the plan, successfully. This begins with definition of roles and allocation of right set of tasks to team members based on their expertise, strengths and personalities.    In case your company needs an experienced professional in a particular domain, bring this up to the HR dept. such that they can hire the right candidates. This is because project resources are crucial to its success.   Find a qualified project manager   In order to ensure the progress of the project in the right direction, it is vital to employ a qualified project manager. The right project manager will do her best to make the project a success.   Do definition of critical milestones   Project success can be measured by identifying defining moments of the project. To ensure this, the project lifecycle can be identified that includes phases like planning, initiation, execution and finally, closure. After every phase, an evaluation test can be conducted.   Such milestones are crucial indicators of the team, working with devotion to finish the project successfully.   Communication is vital   For smooth running of a project, consistent effective communication is required to take place between the team, the manager, the clients and all other stakeholders. In the role of the project manager, you must ensure that communication lines between you and team members are all the time, open and anyone can approach you to share his/ her ideas.   Often lack of proper communication causes failure of projects. So ensure that all have the necessary information for making decisions and proceeding with the project. A good solution is project status reports which ensures all are updated with any changes in project.   Make use of project management tools:   Technology has provided many solutions for project managers with online software for project management, set to top the list. The software functions as a huge storehouse of all crucial project information. Software like Microsoft project serve functions as a centralized platform for the complete project team.   Dealing with risks Risk management is one among most crucial practices of project management. They are potential threats which can emerge anytime and jeopardize the complete project. So you must take preventive steps to deal with these. The above tips can help you reach the summit of project success. Just infuse the project with some fun, dedication and determination.

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In our first webinar of the year, get front row seats to hear about Microsoft's recent Project Conference 2014 -- a major event for Microsoft Project customers and partners to learn about the new developments and capabilities of Microsoft Project, Project Server, and Project Online. The 2014 event was held in Anaheim, California, and EPM Partners' Senior Consultant, Darren Deason was there. He will be sharing the key highlights from the conference. It will include emerging trends, best practices, and how others are using Microsoft Project solutions to save money, enhance efficiency, and prepare for futu re growth.

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PPM Tools: The Perfect Solution to Your Project Complexities

Project Portfolio Management is a crucial method which improves the maximum efficiency of every resource. It organizes the plans, schedules and resources of the various projects of the company into one. So that the project is easily executed and managed to deliver the best profit.

The PPM Tools benefit both small and large organizations and there are fewer errors compared to the traditional approach. It can manage multiple projects and bring more value to any company.

The right tools help to identify complexities of the project, gain visibility and run various projects smoothly.

The three main reasons that support PPM features are:

1-Schedule Teams Across Multiple Projects

When the members of a team project are actively involved in many projects at the same time it gets extremely complicated to schedule the team properly. Proper scheduling reduces conflicts, team frustration and useless efforts. Conflicts among teams and its members have a negative impact on the project schedule.

Project and portfolio management tools effectively manage the resources in such a way that the team is able to more productive and the project is completed without any delay. These tools are easy to use.

Project Manager workload management tools provide graphical representation of the members who are overloaded and who is available across the project.

2-Manage Tasks Across Multiple Projects

Project management software provides good visibility on the task of team members. Through online task management, you gain insight on the level of the task accomplished by team members.

Team members can be adjusted from low priority task to task dependencies across the projects. Not all PPM tools work effectively to manage task across multiple projects. Some team members need to be allocated across all the projects. This requires proper planning of task dependencies across the projects. Any delay of a particular task affects the performance of the member in the other projects.

Choose online tools that provide task dependencies across various projects and offer clear visibility of the team. So that you can adjust the team members is such a way that they work on the task that is a priority. Proper scheduling avoids delay and future problems that could turn into a disaster.

3-Use Real-Time Dashboards

Customised dashboards can be created for groups like team or department. They provide real-time information about the projects. You can create as many groups as you like to manage the resources.

Real-time dashboards are live data widgets and are hugely helpful as you instantly gain insight on the project from a portfolio level. Project Manager Portfolio Health widget has colour coding icons across all the parameters to manage resources and schedule the task on the basis of priority. You can easily identify and compare the progress and the risk of failure of various projects.

Right project management software allows you to filter the data and generate a real-time status report. It shows the direction in which the resources, team and the projects are moving. It scrutinizes the work efficiently. The reports can be shared with the team workers or the business owners.

The right tools help to align the task coordinate and prioritize the task. It provides a realistic analysis of the project.

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Description: With the increase of Project, Program and Portfolio Management competencies in almost every industry and the rise of the cloud, Project Portfolio Management (PPM) tools are increasing in numbers, functions and offerings. This webinar looks at the big PPM tools out there (from EPM Partners point of view), reviewing their offerings and their strengths and weaknesses, specifically we will cover: - Microsoft PPM (Strength, Weaknesses and Offerings) - Oracle Primavera (Strength, Weaknesses and Offerings) -Microsoft Vs. Primavera - Clarity (Products, Strength and Weaknesses) - Daptive (Features, Strength and Weaknesses) - AtTask (Strength, Weaknesses and Offerings) - JIRA (Products, Strength and Weaknesses)

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A key driver to many organisations adopting a PPM solution is the desire to gain better insight and visibility of a project portfolio through reports. The Microsoft PPM Solution is based on Project Server which, in combination with the underlying technologies of SQL and SharePoint, provides a powerful and feature-rich ‘Business Intelligence and Reporting’ platform.

The purpose of this webinar was to provide a brief overview of the frequently used reporting technologies available within the PPM solution. These technologies provide PMO’s with the required background knowledge to enable more informed discussions when potential report designs are discussed.

This Webinar elaborated on the following reporting technologies:

Project Server Views

SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services)

Excel Services

Power Pivot

Power BI

Dashboards

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This webinar discusses challenges professional services and IT departments typically face - like balancing the demands of delivering work, providing reactive support, and managing the associated resourcing implications through cycles of service demand.

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Tips To Follow When Managing Your Ppm (Project Portfolio Management) Task

Project portfolio management is a process that focuses on making use of some of the best strategies. In this article, you will find few important tips that can be followed for effective project portfolio management.

Important tips to follow:-

1    Methodology

You need to keep in mind that over a period of time, methodologies can easily be out-dated. It is important to focus on the current trend. You have to avoid only focusing on what aspect of the methodology. It should just not cater to the answer and size of the project. It should be more focused on answering other aspects related to how, when and where for performing the task.

2    PPM tools

This is one aspect that offers collaboration features. There are a number of organizations that focus on making use of the existing platform collaboration. It will simply not focus only on placing folders and files. You have to keep in mind that collaboration, process and tools work in coordination with each other. This feature helps in improving the performance of any organization.

3    Workflow scalability

The efficient team can enable the project on the basis of workflow scalability when managing project depending on the type and size. These projects can be executed in numerous ways without burdening the entire system. You have to keep in mind that PMO processes can offer with flexibility, guidance and structure to the project process. This will also eliminate the workload of the project manager and other team members.

4    Projects that are people oriented

Projects that are people-centric offer with fulfilling a specific goal, and offer with consistency and efficiency. It also offers knowledge sharing and improvements during the project management.

5    Regular improvement

Teamwork and implementations ensure that the process is improved on regular stages. Most team professionals implement regular monitoring of the project at different stages and provide with regular feedbacks. They also offer with best suggestions that should be considered at any stage of the project development. The moment you approach a genuine ppm consultants he will guide you through various stages of the project development along with necessary suggestions for improvements.

6    Act instantly for problem reviewing

It is ideal to act the moment you feel that the process is not going in the right direction. It is not advisable to wait for the problem to persist. It should be rectified the moment it is noticed. It is important to look around for effective ways to help streamline the entire project as it processes.

7    Reward Team members

It is advisable to motivate the team members for participating in the project and making necessary improvements by rewarding them consistently. Ask your members to get completely involved in the process of improvement and development. It is important that the members make improvements to the projects on practical basis.

There are a number of managers who make use of latest strategies for project management and development. It is important for team members to identify the process involved in the management of the PMO project.

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In this one hour webinar we investigate the drivers behind integrating Project Server with other line-of-business systems and review some of the cost and time saving benefits that can be obtained. We then look at the challenges both technical and non-technical you can be faced with when embarking on such an integration project. Specifically we will look at the following: • What different forms or levels of integration are possible and what kind of risk versus reward does each represent. • What tools or third party software is available. • What options are available for developing custom integration's. • The future and discuss how the trend to move systems and services into the cloud will changes what can and can't be done. Speaker: Martin Laukkanen is a Senior Consultant at EPM Partners. As well as working with Microsoft's Project Server team in Europe, he has delivered Project Server and SharePoint solutions to customers around the world. With his strong technical background, Martin has worked extensively on integration solutions for customers that enable Project Server sharing data with existing HR (e.g. Aurion), ERP (e.g. Oracle and SAP), Finance (e.g. FinanceOne) and Asset Management (e.g. Ellipse) systems.

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Have you ever wondered about the differences between reporting in Project Online and on-premises Project Server?

This webinar will cover the following points:

Review the conceptual difference between Project Online and Project Server 2013

Microsoft Project Online and Project Server reporting components

Technology options

Reports types

Whether you are in the process of selecting a tool, or would like to compare your current tool, this webinar will deliver an in-depth comparison of Project Online and Project Server

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Planner or Project Online 365: Which is a better option?

It was last year in the month of June that Microsoft came up with their planner service exclusively for subscriptions pertaining to Office 365 Enterprise subscription. This offers the ultimate opportunity to not only manage the tasks efficiently, but also to get the digitally experience cooperation.

Know more about Project Online Office 365:

The chances are that you must have already read about the comparison of the Microsoft Planner with some of the other interesting tools like Trello. This won’t be difficult and all that you need to do is google Microsoft Planner.

There are some of the famous bloggers who think that Planner is much simpler in comparison to the other Project Online. It is very simple and falls in between the Project Online and Office task list. This comparison is drawn in terms of features, ease associated with usage and overall worth.

>Most of the experts seem to agree with the middle road placing. But will this hold true in terms of an environment that uses Project Online? Read on to find a simplified solution to this question.

It is important to pay attention to the fact that there is practically no additional or hidden licensing cost related to Project Planner.

All in all, it is an exclusive application and requires licensing. This is generally based on kinds of users.

Are you serious about getting the central list of projects?

Also, do you wish to get exclusive document library as well as the capacity to track the totality of tasks?

If the answer of both the above stated questions is yes, then it is high time that you opt for a smart alternative like Planner.

Project and Planner are Different:

These are two entirely different products. But one thing is for sure that both have a lot to do with teamwork and address project collaboration.

These are not integrated. So if you can easily start with either one of them and then subsequently move on the next like we have in the case of SharePoint task lists for creating Projects.

You will be happy to know that you can use the Planner without many hassles and there is no need to opt for customization ability.

Have you already been using Project Online for sometime?

If you have already been using it for a while now, your organisation will probably already have a criterion for entering a project into Project Online.

But just in case there is a any sort of minor initiative, then Planner sounds like a smarter alternative. It proves to be of great help in small office initiatives, non-major event planning, and some of the other inner Agile’ish projects.

How to choose between Project and Planner?

If you are feeling lost and do not know how to choose between the two of the option, then you need to understand the fact that project online configuration offers a practical solution. You will be getting the most value. You might get to see the integration between the two in the coming times.