Hybrid Skills for IT Project Success in Europe

European perspective on IT skills highlights need for hybrid skills that blend business and IT. ...

... "Price said the gap in skills could not be plugged by offshoring and outsourcing, due to the importance of proximity to suppliers for IT projects. " ...

Via Business Week: Brains

Finding the Central-Local-Equilibrium for IT Services

Insights on DHL's model for balancing central services with local business needs. The role of local IT in a shared services organization model is discussed. ...

... "A key element of this is that each country has a demand manager who sets out the required level of service and type of applications that are needed and then works closely with the local IT manager to ensure that they are delivered. " ...

Via SiliconRepublic: DHL Ireland

IT Professionalism: Business Impact

From the land of ITIL comes IT certification. Nice vision. Business impact is the end-game. ...

... "To create a profession where the test of professionalism is related to business impact and outcomes in addition to technical excellence. " ...

Via British Computer Society: The vision for Professionalism programme

eCustoms Project: Tracking Beer

Pilot project, called the Beer Living Lab, will track shipments of Heineken beer in cargo containers in the supply chain from Europe to the United States using satellite and cellular technology. The objective of the project is speed the delivery process and lower international trade costs through a paperless documentation system. ...

... "In this project, Safmarine will ship up to 30 containers of Heineken beer from the Netherlands, through Dutch Customs Authorities, to the Heineken distribution centers in England and the United States. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam will coordinate the project and provide best practices documentation to share across the European Union. " ...

Via IBM: Heineken, IBM, Safmarine and University of Amsterdam Launch Wireless Beer Living Lab ...

Focus on Results, not Time: Best Buy Breaks New Ground

The other day, I posted a blog about the traffic anarchy experiment going on in Europe, where seven cities eliminated all traffic signs and the result was a reduction in accidents. My point was that if we focus on accountability and results, people will surprise us.

Well, Best Buy has taken that a step further. In the latest Business Week magazine, the feature story highlights Best Buy's daring new Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) program. As part of the program, they have eliminated all work schedules in their participating areas and have practically eliminated meetings.

If someone wants to come in at 10:00am, fine. If they go to a movie in the afternoon, no problem. The key isn't how many hours they work, or even where they work (most workers are virtual most of the time). It's how well they achieve results.

Sound like chaos? Sound like people will just slack off? Well, once again the results say it all. For the divisions testing this method, voluntary turnover dropped dramatically (-90% for the Dot.Com division, -52% for the Logistics Division, and -75% for the Sourcing Division).

Sure, the turnover rate went down, but what about productivity? That too was greatly improved. The average rise in productivity for the participating divisions was +35% since the ROWE system was introduced in 2005.

Of course, what's important to making this work is to have the right metrics (i.e. customer retention, reduction in turnover, etc.). Many business mistakes happen because the wrong incentives are in place, leading workers to strive to meet a goal that sacrifices quality or is not in the best interest of the company as a whole.

The bottom line is that evidence is growing that we are better served by focusing on results over rules and policies wherever possible, something I've been saying for years. Now I'm glad to see some tangible evidence from those brave enough to try it.

Here's the Business Week article. Be sure to check the sidebar article about how to kill meetings!

Smashing The Clock

Control vs. Accountability: Are We Our Own Worst Enemy?

In our never-ending struggle to gain more control over the chaos in our organizations, and with more and more focus on change management, who would think of going in the opposite direction and allowing more freedom?

Let's take a look at a story with some surprising results (sent courtesy of my old friend, Larry Beane).

Thanks to a project initiated by the European Union, seven sities and regions in Europe have completely done away with traffic signs. The originators of this idea must have been on to something. Contrary to the normal expectation that this would result in pandemonium, the accident rate went down!

Now arguably, this may or may not work in a congested city, but it got me thinking about the need for accountability. Perhaps the more rules we inflict, what we're really doing is relieving people of accountability---the paradox being that we need to give people freedom to make them fully accountable. Otherwise, we claim ownership of the problem instead of delegating it.

This is not unlike Toyota's policy of trusting their work teams to solve problems independently, and trusting that if their solutions are wrong, they'll work to correct it and learn from the experience. This is what a learning organization is all about.

This isn't to say we should just abandon all change management processes. On the contrary, providing people with effective processes can lead to successful outcomes. But for each rule we devise, we should consider an alternate approach of holding people accountable for outcomes, and insuring they have the capacity to succeed. Yes, provide processes, training, principles, guidelines, etc. But then focus on outcomes and accountability. And allow for learning-based corrections.

It's a radical thought, but a little anarchy may just bring the control that we need.

Here's the article about the successes of traffic anarchy...

Controlled Chaos: European Cities Do Away with Traffic Signs - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

Benefits Realization Challenging: Europe Insurance Industry ...

Recent research (DataMonitor) shows that European insurance companies are challenged to realize the documented financial benefits forecast for their IT projects. Common experience or industry specific? ...

... "While insurers continue to embrace the use of return on investment (ROI) to measure IT project success and failure, many do not meet their own targets. " ...

Via Insurance Networking: Link

ITIL Shared Services: Achievement Recognized ...

Infra is recognized by the Helpdesk Institute for its implementation of ITIL-enabled service desk process for shared service functions at LexisNexis Butterworths. ...

... "The Helpdesk and IT Support Excellence Awards recognise outstanding achievement within the IT Service Management industry at the largest event of its kind in Europe. Winning finalist Infra demonstrated how implementing the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) ready infraEnterprise allowed LexisNexis Butterworths to create a single point of contact for staff with the IT department that reaches across the business and includes support teams from other departments, including Finance and HR. " ...

ITIL Shared Services: Achievement Recognized: Via Infra: Infra wins prestigious Helpdesk Institute Excellence Award 2006 ...

Project Portfolio Management: CA Clarity Best in Europe ...

CA recognized as "Best" solution and vendor by European IT execs at Gartner project portfolio management PPM conference. ...

Project Portfolio Management: CA Clarity Best in Europe: Via CA: CA's Clarity Voted Best Solution and Best Vendor at Gartner Project and Portfolio Management Summit ...

... "CA (NYSE: CA) announced that it was voted Best Vendor and Best Solution for its Clarity system at the 2005 Gartner Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) Summit Europe. This is the fourth consecutive PPM Summit Best Vendor award for CA's Clarity (formerly Niku). The Gartner PPM Innovation Awards recognize technology and service providers for their solutions, programs, service and support. IT executives representing key business decision makers driving PPM adoption and implementation voted on the awards at the PPM Summit, Nov. 30 - Dec. 2 in Lisbon, Portugal. " ...

ITIL ITSM Software Market Competition Grows: Maximo ...

Software vendor MRO Software repurposes their Maximo solution to support IT service management based on the ITIL principles. Competition in the ITSM software market continues to grow as firms shift their products to address this hot space. ...

ITIL ITSM Software Market Competition Grows: Maximo: Via MRO Software: MRO SOFTWARE'S MAXIMO ENTERPRISE SUITE ON DISPLAY AT GARTNER'S 2005 SYMPOSIUM ITXPO: IT Service Management Suite Shows Early Momentum ...

... "MRO Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: MROI), the leading provider of asset and service management solutions, today announced that the company's Maximo Enterprise Suite (MXES) will be on display at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo. MXES combines asset and service management functionality with an IT infrastructure library (ITIL)-based solution for IT Service Management. Companies are shifting from simply managing assets to managing the service they perform and the strategic contribution they make to the business. MRO Software's Maximo Enterprise Suite builds on the Company's core expertise in asset management to deliver an expanded, comprehensive IT Service Management solution encompassing IT Asset Management and Service Desk functionality. " ...

MRO Software is the leading provider of asset and service management solutions. Maximo Enterprise Suite, the Company's flagship solution, is delivered on a web-architected platform and increases productivity, optimizes asset performance, and service levels, reduces costs and enables asset-related sourcing and procurement across the entire spectrum of strategic assets. The Company's asset management solutions allow customers to manage the complete lifecycle of strategic assets including: planning, procurement, deployment, tracking, maintenance and retirement. Using MRO Software's solutions, customers improve production reliability, labor efficiency, material optimization, software license compliance, lease management, warranty and service management across the asset base. MRO Software (Nasdaq: MROI) is a global company based in Bedford, Mass., with approximately 900 employees, and more than 300,000 end-users. The Company markets its products through a direct sales organization in combination with a network of international distributors. MRO Software has sales offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia/Pacific and Latin America.

CIO Value Measurement: European Market Alliance ...

CIO Value Measurement: European Market Alliance: Alinean and Birchman Group Form Joint IT Value Measurement Venture for CIOs: Expands Alinean’s European Presence ...

Alliance in European market will drive CIO value measurement services ...

... "The Birchman Group’s proven service offering, supported by Alinean, allows the company to deliver large and tangible benefits to its clients by quickly and accurately aligning IT with business objectives, often a time-consuming and painstaking task. The Alinean ROI Analyst Enterprise has significantly improved the quality of The Birchman Group’s analysis and the time-to-delivery. The Birchman Group assists customers in gaining maximum benefit from technology investments through strategy development, business case development, program management, benefits tracking, process improvement, change management and other IT Value Management services. " ...

From business strategy to successful IT solutions, The Birchman Group provides completely independent expertise in planning, executing and deriving business value from IT programs. Pioneering the IT Value Management approach in Europe and South America, The Birchman Group can assure that corporate IT spending is balanced between support and innovation, is aligned with business goals, is formulated with reference to corporate peers, is comprehensively program-managed and delivers according to fully risk assessed plans. The outcome ensures that the IT department becomes a stable and consistent business value generator. With global reach The Birchman Group has enabled blue chip organizations to realize strategic intent by building complimentary and cost effect IT strategies; comprehensively assess, plan and manage a suitable and significant portfolio of Return On Investment (ROI) and Total Cost Ownership (TCO) justified programs measured by business outcomes; and deliver these programs utilizing the highest caliber Birchman program and project expertise. Established in 2003, The Birchman Group has grown rapidly to more than a 100 employees in five countries, which reflects the success of IT Value Management as a service offering and the demand from organizations for The Birchman Group’s unique set of services and resources.

Alinean develops software tools to prove and improve the value of IT investments. The company’s founding team pioneered the concept of interactive ROI and TCO software in 1994, developing award-winning solutions for leading IT vendors and consultants. Its research methodologies and software tools are used by analyst firms, vendors and enterprises, and have helped justify billions of dollars in IT spending and derived value.

Failed IT projects cost businesses millions, says survey

The KPMG research, which was carried out among 134 major listed companies in the UK, US, Africa, Australia and Europe, found that 56% of the organisations surveyed had to write off at least one failed IT project in the past 12 months. The average loss incurred by the businesses surveyed was £8 million per failed project, whilst the largest single project failure reported cost £133 million. Owch!
For more info see: Failed IT projects cost businesses millions, says survey | OUT-LAW.COM

Project Management: Accelerate New Product Design in Semicon Industry ...

Project Management: Accelerate New Product Design in Semicon Industry: Via MatrixOne: MatrixOne and Leading Analyst Firm to Discuss How to Accelerate Chip Design Through Better Project Management ...

MatrixOne and AMR Research join forces in webcast to explore acceleration of project management for designing and delivering new products to the marketplace in the semicon industry. Eric Karofsky has published recent research on accelerating innovation ("Reach Innovation Utopia With Project Management Tools") ...

... "MatrixOne, Inc. (NASDAQ: MONEE), a leading provider of collaborative product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions for the value chain , announced that it will present a webcast aimed at helping project managers in semiconductor companies learn how they can use better project planning, execution and tracking solutions to better meet today's chip design challenges and deliver new products faster. The webcast will feature a presentation by Eric Karofsky, senior research analyst for AMR Research, who will discuss the latest industry trends and best practices for speeding product development. The live webcast will take place on Thursday, September 29, 2005 at 1:00 pm ET. " ...

AMR Research provides world class research and actionable advice for executives tasked with delivering enhanced business process performance and cost savings with the aid of technology. Five thousand leaders in the Global 1000 put their trust in AMR Research's integrity, depth of industry expertise, and passion for customer service to support their most critical business initiatives, including supply chain transformation; new product introduction, customer profitability, compliance and governance, and IT benefit realization.

MatrixOne, Inc. (NASDAQ: MONEE), a leading global provider of collaborative product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services, enables companies to accelerate product innovation to achieve top line revenue growth and improve bottom line profitability. With world-class PLM solutions and a commitment to customer success, MatrixOne is focused on helping companies across the automotive, aerospace & defense, consumer, machinery, medical device, semiconductor and high-tech industries solve their most challenging new product development and introduction problems. More than 800 companies use MatrixOne's solutions to drive business value and gain a competitive advantage, including industry leaders such as BAE Systems, Bosch, Comau, General Electric, Honda, Johnson Controls, Linde AG, NCR, Nokia, Philips, Porsche, Procter & Gamble, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics and Toshiba. MatrixOne is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts, with locations throughout North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Simple Project Management Tool: Easy Projects .NET

Via Logic Software, Inc: Web based system for software development project management and tracking - Easy Projects .NET

... "Easy Projects .NET - the latest generation web based system for managing and tracking software development projects. It is called Easy Projects for a good reason - it was specifically designed to make software project management hassle free and straightforward. " ...

Logic Software, Inc. is a rapidly growing custom development and software outsourcing company with headquarters in Toronto, Canada. Our offshore development department is located in Belarus (Eastern Europe). We specialize in the development of custom software applications and offshore software outsourcing services. Specifically, our company carries out custom programming, database design, client-server and internet/intranet software application development.

Enterprise Portfolio Management Across Diverse Investment Areas ...

Enterprise Portfolio Management Across Diverse Investment Areas: Via Instantis: Driving Corporate Performance: Unmatched Customer Momentum Drives Four Consecutive Quarters of 40% Growth for Instantis: New Wins with Industry Leaders and Advanced Enterprise Performance Improvement Capabilities within Instantis EnterpriseTrack 4 Extend Company’s Market Leadership ...

Hexion leverages Instantis performance improvement tool to manage full breadth of project portfolios across enterprise investment areas, such as Capex, NPD, IT, M+A, etc. ...

... "Hexion; formerly Borden Chemicals (7,000 employees and over $4 billion annual revenues), headquartered in Columbus, Ohio with 86 production and distribution facilities in 18 countries in the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Hexion Specialty Chemicals is the world's largest producer and has the broadest range of thermoset resin technologies to offer the market, with world-class research, applications development and technical service capabilities. To install, the Hexion team was able to migrate seamlessly from an earlier competitive tracking solution to the more advanced and flexible enterprise performance improvement features of EnterpriseTrack 4 in order to support seven different languages and better manage initiatives within Capital Projects, New Product Development, IT, Product Execution and Mergers and Acquisitions. " ...

Instantis is a leading provider of Enterprise Performance Improvement software for Global 2000 companies like Lockheed Martin, McKesson and Xerox that have deployed Six Sigma and other structured, project portfolio based business improvement methodologies. Instantis software automates the end-to-end execution, management and reporting of these methodologies. With a unique capability to provide a bridge between strategic priorities and execution, Instantis solutions allow industry leaders to deliver improved financial results and better alignment of goals and activities throughout the organization.

EPM: Enterprise Program Management: ROI ...

EPM: Enterprise Program Management: ROI: Via Headstrong - Consulting and Outsourcing Service Provider - EPM: Maximizing Project ROI across the Enterprise ...

... "Enterprise Project Management (EPM) is the strategic management of business and IT priorities, investments, and projects across the enterprise. The objective of EPM is to take full advantage of the synergies across your enterprise architecture, portfolio management, and project management office disciplines to get maximum strategic value and return on project investments. " ...

Headstrong, Inc. is a global consultancy and financial solutions company that delivers expertise across business processes, management consulting and technology within financial services, manufacturing, public sector and service industries. Headstrong’s Financial solutions include matching engines and electronic exchange systems as well as trading, order management, stock lending, clearing, settlement and financial messaging systems. Customers include stock exchanges, commodity exchanges, brokerage houses and investment banks in addition to new generation marketplaces such as ATS’, ECNs, financial portals and private e-marketplaces. With a global resource pool of qualified advisors and its Global Delivery Centers, Headstrong can furnish a full range of integration services including strategic assessment, design, implementation, application development and maintenance both onshore and offshore. Headstrong helps clients align technology initiatives with business goals while leveraging its steadfast heritage (as James Martin + Co) of strong methodologies and standards for delivery. Headstrong maintains a 23-year track record of proven results and a solid client base. The company is headquartered near Washington, DC, with a global presence across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.