Any project manager will tell you that there are countless issues that can get in the way of a successful implementation. To nobody’s surprise, business technology can aid project management by streamlining operations and making the entire process much easier for everyone involved. We’ll dig into the details about how project management software and value-based managed IT services can help you complete projects on-time and on-budget.
Collaboration is key in the business world, but it’s not always as easy or as simple as it might seem at first glance. Naturally, when you try to get people to work together, you add even more moving parts to the puzzle, and if you aren’t careful, you can accidentally influence your bottom line, and not in a good way. Here are three helpful tips you can implement for better collaboration strategies.
Businesses are always leveraging the latest technology to overcome modern challenges, but the implementation of new tools often comes with new challenges of its own. Chief among these is determining whether or not the new tool actually solves a problem for your organization. The more deliberate your intentions for implementing a new tool, the more likely you are to see a return on investment for it. Here are ways you can make sure that all new technology is appropriate for your business’ needs.
You have goals for your business and most of them will require strategic investment to get off the ground. These projects can have a huge effect on your business. If they go right, your company stands to benefit, but if they go wrong, you are putting your business in jeopardy. It is important that you have a careful and capable project manager to help you implement your plans. Today, we’ll give you three variables that you have to look for when hiring a project manager.
When you are looking to build something great on a budget or a timeline, coordination is essential. That is the job of the project manager. Project management comes with its obstacles, of course, and today we are going to take a look at some strategies and tools project managers can use to effectively complete successful projects.
Businesses are taking advantage of new tools every day to make sure that their projects are handled in the most successful way possible. One of these tools is Microsoft SharePoint, which can eliminate many of the major pain points of project management. Regardless of what type of business you run, we’re confident that Microsoft SharePoint can be a valuable asset for your organization. Here are three ways you can take advantage of SharePoint.
Every business has IT projects they want to complete. Whether it is a small change like introducing a public cloud platform, or a large one like migrating all your data from four servers onto one, you have to expect situations will arise that will make you want to pull your hair out. To overcome the challenges that come with any major IT project, consider these four points.
Understand What You Need
By understanding exactly what your company stands to gain from any new IT project, and being able to properly strategize to meet those ends, you can really help mitigate the rate of failure of said project. Some questions you should ask before getting started include:
Planning for Delays
There are a litany of potential issues that can cause delays to a project. Typically, during the duration of a project something that wasn’t in the game plan will happen and will set the implementation timeline back. To guarantee that your project isn’t going to cause headaches for more people than it has to, anticipating that there will be a hiccup or two along the way is a solid practice. Providing your implementation team some time to iron out the kinks can go a long way toward having a solution that is implemented properly and ready to be utilized. And, if for some reason no problems arise, you will actually come in under budget, which is great for every business.
Measuring Progress and Hitting Benchmarks
If you are taking on a large IT project, gauging the success of it can sometimes be difficult. By breaking up the project and setting up very clear benchmarks, the overall implementation will benefit. Since there are a lot of facets to every IT project, including budget, timeline, and the unforeseen inefficiencies that we talked about above, setting up a system to best understand where you are with a project is a must. The use of key performance indicators (KPIs) can substantially improve your overall understanding of the project. PCSOFT uses some of the following metrics when performing our IT projects:
Communication
Of the four points in this blog, this is the one that is most neglected. Typically, it is the job of the project manager to, well, manage the project. To that end some managers don’t find it necessary for their resources to know the full scale of the project as they are traditionally only performing specific tasks. In our experience, to best drive a project home, and to get the best work out of your technicians, it is important that they are emotionally engaged with the success (or failure) of the entire project. Moreover, if the project has an effect on multiple facets of your business, communication is essential to ensure you aren’t hit with profit-killing downtime in moments when it is not completely expected.
There are many pieces of software currently on the market to help project managers run efficient projects. They have integrated options to ensure that communication is maintained and benchmarks are hit. These programs can make sure your team is keeping forward momentum, as it is essential to a project’s success.
Like most situations, an IT project will have unforeseen issues. To keep these issues from become problems that can cost your organization dearly, consider reaching out to the IT professionals at PCSOFT. Our technicians understand just how much technology means to the modern business and can help consult you on how to get what you need done right. To learn more, call us today at 02 98730080.
If you’ve ever managed a major IT project, you’re probably well acquainted with Murphy’s Law: “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” Every project is going to have some rough patches. The key to overcoming these challenges lays not with the execution of the plan, but with the preparation. Here are four things to consider when you’re planning out your next long-term IT project.