Extending Enterprise Applications To Mobile Devices
Today’s enterprise mobile application space continues to mirror developments in the personal computing industry 20 years ago. PC adoption was driven by the basics – word processing and spreadsheets. However, businesses started to realise increases in efficiencies as the PC was gradually introduced into line-of-business operations. Now in the modern workplace almost every task is performed with the aid of a personal computer.
The same is true of mobility. Much of the early adoption of enterprise mobile solutions has been driven by the basics – which in this case is email and messaging. But, like the PC, the most dramatic benefits will be realised when the power of mobile computing is harnesses for business-specific applications.
We’re now entering the second attempt at introducing mobile computing into the workforce. Around the time of the first dot-com crash vendors were trying to push mobile solutions for businesses with little success. Looking back now, it’s clear they were far too early. The phones back then were bulky, the networks were cripplingly slow and the software – based on WAP – was rudimentary by today’s standards. If you look back at 2001, Wi-Fi barely even existed and WAP-enabled phones chugged along at 14.4 kilobits per second.
Mobile can now take its rightful place in the workforce. Equipped with duel-core processors, plenty of memory and incredibly sharp displays, smart phones and tablets now outperform many PCs. Bandwidth is now ubiquitous with Wi-Fi hot spots delivering nearly 10MB per second and 3G and 4G phone networks available everywhere else.
Mobile devices can now house a wide variety of enterprise applications that offer a greater scope for innovation and process specific functionality.
There are, we believe, two main categories of workers who can take advantage of mobile solutions – task based workers and knowledge based workers.
Task Based Workers
The main efficiencies of introducing mobile software into task-based work is the extension of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to mobile devices.
Process orientated tasks will be the first to realise significant savings from the introduction of always on, always connected mobile devices.
Production and operations managers can receive alerts whenever there are potential problems – such as raw material stuck in transit, or equipment breakdowns. Without mobile ERP, these alerts are only visible when the managers are at their computer; with mobile alerts, they can be informed of problems immediately.
Also by inputting data directly into a mobile device, a company can greatly reduce paperwork and avoid recording the same information more than once.
Knowledge Based Workers
Improving the productivity of Knowledge Workers is one of the major challenges for the present day business world. Knowledge workers contribute to the organisaiton through thinking – and the thoughts they think will improve when they have the necessary information and facts at their fingertips.
In sales and marketing, mobile Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is relatively well established, but sales staff can be further helped by having full integration with their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system available on a mobile device. For example, it might be important for sales staff to have ERP access on their mobile to be able to understand the profitability of a deal.
Having the right information when you need it and having the benefits of an ERP software database and CRM database at a sales rep’s disposal can dramatically optimise their time. For example, a sales person can prep for a meeting while he is in transit to a client or a new prospects site, check the status of an order, view data on other prospects in the vicinity and get product information and data immediately without having to touch base in the office.
According to research done by VDC, the average organisation that deploys mobile field sales solutions boosts its sales revenue from 20% to 25% as a result.
Using mobile enterprise applications staff can make critical decisions in the field, on the way to the airport, at the customer site – at all levels of the organisation, anywhere, anytime.
Anthony Gherghetta is the lead project manager at The App Studio in Melbourne, Australia. http://www.theappstudio.com.au
Why It’s Vital To Learn The Lessons Of Past Projects
“The broad river will be dry some day, and great towns wane; we see them vanishing. Thus may we see the end to everything.” So said Geoffrey Chaucer – well, what he exactly said was “The brode ryver somtyme wexeth dreye, the grete toures se we wane and wende. Thanne may ye se that al this thyng hath ende” but I’m sure you can forgive me for modernising a little – and it’s never stopped being true. Everything, however grand or vast, will one day reach its conclusion. There truly is eternity in nothing that we do.
It’s not unusual for a business to embark upon a project that appears endless, especially when viewed early on, with tasks rolling out far beyond the horizon. Yet even the lengthiest project will end eventually, hopefully successfully, always conclusively. There comes a point for every organisation in every project to draw a line under the process and move along to something new.
Nonetheless, the past should not be forgotten. Even when a company is moving on from a finally-finished process, it’s still very much worth looking back. Perhaps the project has been an overwhelming success – in which case, it’s worth examining what made it so. On the other hand, it may have been an abject failure which you’d sooner forget, but by going back and investigating its ruins, you’ll likely find errors to be avoided in future. However it all turned out in the end, there will inevitably be lessons to learn and mistakes to avoid.
It would help, of course, if you had a clear record of the successes and failings of the project, of delays, budget overruns, resource allocation issues, early finishes, and so forth. If you manage your project with Microsoft Project, then that’s exactly what you’ll have. Much is made – and rightly – of the software’s usefulness both in maintaining control over an ongoing operation and in predicting how it will pan out, but it can also help you to understand what’s previously happened.
As the project moves along, inputting the progress can help you understand where you are at that point – for instance, adjusting times taken for tasks in a Gantt chart will show you how the delay will impact upon other aspects of the plan, or costs of individual resources can be adjusted and the effect on the overall budget examined. When the project is completed, it’s easy to study this information as a whole, to review how it all came together. Those additions to the Gantt chart can be understood much more comprehensively and clearly when you can see the entire end result: if completion came in behind schedule, then you’ll not only be able to identify the root cause (or causes) of the delay, but also assess what might have been done to avoid such an eventuality.
Similarly, if the project went beyond its budgetary limits, there must ultimately be a reason why. And by examining the Project records, not only will you be able to highlight the flaw, but you’ll also see the knock-on effect, the impact that that one problem had on the wider plan – for want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost, etc. Sometimes projects can indeed fail because of the smallest error, sometimes because of a series of misfortunes or one large catastrophe; whatever the source of the problem, identifying it will give you the power to avoid such issues in future if it’s within your control, or prepare to negate it the ultimate cause be out of your hands.
After all, for a project to struggle once may be unfortunate, but twice, for the same reason, would be downright careless. On the other hand, it would be every bit as negligent to ignore those events and decisions that have turned previous work into a great success. Microsoft Project puts that information at your fingertips, even long after the conclusion if necessary, and allows you to learn the key lessons from your company’s past. An end may indeed come to all things, but you have the power to turn that end into a bright new beginning.
Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on microsoft project courses london, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net
Take Inspiration From The Greatest Project Managers Of All Time
Project management can often be a thankless task; juggling the requirements of team members and stakeholders, obsessively combing over resources and budget, constantly motivating and monitoring others when you may be struggling yourself. And if the project is considered a success it will be viewed as a team effort whereas if it fails the buck stops with the Project Manager (PM).
At times like this it is heartening to take inspiration from the great projects and project managers throughout history. For whilst project management as we know it today is still a discipline in its relative infancy there are numerous examples through the ages of great leadership, meticulous organisation and revolutionary business genius to remind any PM what they are doing it all for.
To identify the first great project manager we must travel all the way back to the 27th century BC and ancient Egypt. Imhotep was charged by his king Zoser with the creation of the first stone structure anywhere in the world, the pyramid at Saqqara. Obviously Imhotep was not confronted with the same leadership challenges as modern day project managers since his ‘team members’ risked summary execution should they decide to down tools and withdraw their labour, a measure that even the most zealous PM would find legally tricky these days.
Yet this particular project is instructive because it demonstrates the adaptability that Imhotep had to possess considering that Zoser continually changed his mind about what exactly he wanted. This ability to adapt and reshape tasks within a project is something that is imperative in modern project management.
Execution may not have been quite such a pressing concern to the masons and other workers under Sir Christopher Wren’s direction but they still would not have had complete freedom of choice as to whether they played ball or not. What Wren’s incredible architectural projects of the 17th century do demonstrate however is the combination of technical, practical skill and imaginative flair. Following the Great Fire of London in 1666 St. Paul’s Cathedral was in urgent need of rebuilding and whilst Wren had to submit numerous plans to both his stakeholders (the King and the Clergy) the eventual iconic design that he alighted on bore very little resemblance to either.
Whilst it is probably not recommended for any present day PM to disregard the requirements of their stakeholders Wren’s creative bravery does highlight the fact that project managers really can make a difference in creative as well as organisational terms.
The most dramatic example of leadership within a project was displayed by Ernest Shackleton on his abortive 1914 expedition to cross Antarctica. When his aptly named ship ‘Endurance’ was wrecked and crushed by Antarctic ice all the expedition’s explorers were stranded for two years without hope of rescue. Shackleton’s bravery and selflessness in rowing 800 miles across the South Atlantic to raise the alarm has been cited as a supreme example of project management despite the objectives of the original project failing so spectacularly. Shackleton’s credentials are only enhanced by the fact that the morale of his men was still so high upon their discovery.
There are many other pioneering project managers who act as an inspiration to us all. Names like Brunel, Telford, Edison and Frank Crowe who brought the mighty Hoover Dam in two years ahead of schedule. So the next time you feel uninspired, unnecessary or unloved as a PM remember the greats and imagine being mentioned in the same breath.
Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on microsoft project management courses, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net
Fast, Effective Relief: Microsoft Project Cures Most Planning Headaches
PharmaComms could be described as a victim of its own success. The editorial and design company produce niche market publications for the pharmaceutical industry. Using award-winning designers and first-class editors, they have been doing really well recently and even recruited four new trainees to help with the demand. Their headquarters are fast becoming a centre of excellence in the magazine world as they take on new work for a portfolio of prestigious clients across the globe. As they are set to expand their editorial and production facilities, they also need a complete management system that they can rely on.
PharmaComms’ entire project management set up needs more space to breath. Managing their company-wide project workflow is becoming a daily battle. And because departments are divided according to expertise such as IT, technical authoring, editorial, graphics, finance and marketing, the company needs to examine how they track and audit their day to day activities. The finance department, for example, use different software to input information from each department’s individual time sheets. Every employee’s time has to be accounted for, but when some editors are working on 15 projects a week with different client job numbers, which are divided into different project numbers, inputting this information accurately gives their CFO a headache. And no amount of freebie analgesics will solve the kind of problems that generates on a Friday afternoon. The cure? Microsoft Project Professional 2010.
Offering a total work management with cost-effective project management software, it’s the ideal solution for PharmaComm. Microsoft Project Professional 2010 will increase employee efficiency, cut reporting compliance time and will help to give the organisation the competitive edge they need to carry on with their success. The success of a project was previously been dictated by who was running it – it could be political, or might just be because of the expertise of that particular person, but results were usually hit or miss. And with without the facility to audit, track and trace deadlines, workflows and budgets, accountability was more miss that hit.
PharmaComms usually runs about 30 to 40 projects concurrently, with budgets ranging from one-off fees of 1,500 GBP for newsletters to 15,000 GBP for larger monthly magazine projects. The company used Microsoft Office Excel to track projects on spreadsheets and relied on multiple colour coding and painstaking, regular updates. However, each project editor created their own spreadsheet and projects were never collated into a whole picture scenario. And as every department had an internal meeting, each employee would bring along their own spreadsheet tracking individual projects. A solution that would help the company run projects consistently across departments with a high level of visibility and accountability is really what they needed.
User-controlled scheduling has put the organisation back in control with the flexibility and ease of use of a tool like Microsoft Excel 2010 and the power of the Project 2010 scheduling engine. PharamComms can now create project schedules at the level of detail that’s right for each project and each client. Working with summary data initially, they can shift to a more detailed approach when it’s convenient. And by using notes as reminders of where additional schedule information is needed, or simply adding information as it becomes available saves recreating another cell and in spreadsheets. Tooltips and contextual guidance provide information and shortcuts so they can accomplish more in less time. And the new Microsoft Office Backstage view, means that staff can save, share, print, or publish projects from one location.
Because of the very tight integration with other Microsoft products, it has been both time- and cost-effective. Employees have experience with Microsoft technology, so the learning curve is shorter and this, in turn has created increased acceptance of the new software.
Microsoft Project Professional 2010 will also allow PharmaComms to track projects and staff timesheets. Where projects were decentralised and accurate information hard to find, they now have a structured management system to create, track, manage and derive valuable data company-wide. Staff now know immediately what clients have requested, which resources are required, and view the forecasted timeline to undertake these tasks. Tracking a project from start to finish has never been easier. With a completely new and visually enhanced timeline view, there are clear views of tasks, milestones, and phases. Newly expanded colour palettes and text effects help make every timeline and plan look their best – and easier for viewing and sharing important dates and deliverables. PharmaComm can now compare budget versus actual versus forecasted.
By selecting Microsoft Project Professional 2010 as their solution, PharmaComms will also be able to analyse how employees are spending their time. This will allow the trainees to be moved on to projects that require extra hands while giving them the hands-on experience they need. It’s easy to see the right mix of people and resources: simply drag tasks to effectively plan work for an entire team and project. The new Team Planner view in shows resources and work over time, to help spot problems and resolve issues. New in Project 2010, the Task Inspector offers additional analysis and intuitive guidance to resolve scheduling conflicts derived from a task’s attributes and assigned resources, which they can choose to act upon or not.
And for the future, when they are ready, PharmaComms can even decide if they need to unify project and portfolio management by combining Project Professional 2010 with Microsoft Project Server 2010. Together, Project Professional 2010 and Project Server 2010 create the Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution which will allow them to prioritise investments and optimise resources using powerful dashboards.
Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on microsoft+project+course+london, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net
How To Change Working Times For Microsoft Project 2007 Calendars
Whether you’ve just starting to use Microsoft Project 2007 or you’re an experienced user, you may have needed to change the working times for the project’s calendar. This article describes how to do this in clear easy to follow steps, creating a new Standard Calendar, setting tasks to default to new times and using the Organiser to make your new calendar available to other Project plans.
The default Project calendar has the working times 8:00 to 12:00 and 13:00 to 17:00 with an unpaid lunch hour, so the duration is eight hours. If your Projects are based on days rather than down to the actual hour, then the defaults may be fine, but if you need to work at the hour level then you’ll need to change the working times. We’ll describe how to do this next.
Let’s suppose you’re starting a brand new project, and you want to make the working hours 9:00 to 17:00 in a single range. In the UK we do tend to have the lunch hour paid for, so the hours are still eight hours per day. To check what calendar the new project is based on, choose Project, Project Information. In this panel on the right you’ll see the calendar shown is STANDARD. Rather than change this one, a safe way forward is to create a copy and then amend the copy. That way if you get the details wrong, you can always return to the Standard one. So you can close the Project Information panel. Next we’ll copy the STANDARD calendar.
Creating the STANDARD2 Calendar
To copy the Standard calendar choose Tools, Change Working Times. Here you’ll see the STANDARD calendar selected at the top of the panel. To copy it click the “Create New Calendar” button. For this exercise you can rename the copy STANDARD2 and click ok to return to the Change Working Time panel. The STANDARD2 calendar is now selected. Lower in the panel select the Working Week tab and then click the Details button. In the “Details for Default” panel select all the days Monday to Friday on the left, and choose the option “Set day(s) to these specific working times”. Then in the row under FROM type in 09:00 and under TO type in 17:00.
You can delete the original second row of data as we don’t want a gap for the lunch hour. Then click one row below these cells to ensure the changes are made, and click OK to return to the Change Working Time Panel. Here you should now see the amended working hours for STANDARD2 listed in the panel on the right. Click OK to finish.
However we still need to apply our new calendar to the current project. To do this, again choose Project, Project Information. Then change the calendar to STANDARD2 and click OK to finish. Now any new tasks added with day details will start and finish at the correct times. However if you look closely at the Gantt Chart you’ll see that the white working hours formatting still includes the original times. To fix this we need to also set tasks to default to the new times.
Changing the Task default times
To do this, again choose Tools, Change Working Time and ensure your STANDARD2 calendar is selected. Then in the lower part of the panel choose Options. In the Options panel change the task start time to 9:00 and click OK to continue, then another OK to finish. Now any task entered without a time element specified, will start at the new correct time. Look closely at the Gantt chart and you’ll see the white working hours formatting now covers the correct hours.
Once created, your STANDARD2 Calendar is only available in the current project file. To make this calendar available to all your project files we need to use the Project Organiser. This allows you to add Project elements including calendars to Project’s global template, which all project files can use.
Copying STANDARD2 to the Global Template
With the project file containing STANDARD2 still open, choose Tools, Organiser. In the Organiser panel you’ll see the current file details on the right and the global template on the left. In the upper part of the panel choose the Calendar tab. You’ll now see STANDARD2 on the right. Select it, then click the left pointing Copy icon, and the your STANDARD2 calendar is copied to the global template. The Organiser can now be closed.
To check that your calendar STANDARD2 is now available for other project files, create a brand new project file. Then choose Project, Project Information. The current calendar will show as STANDARD but you’ll find STANDARD2 available in the pop down. So for any new or existing Project file your new calendar will be available. Just don’t forget you need to manually select it using the Project Information panel.
So that completes our description of how to amend project working times by creating your own calendar. Interested in learning more about Microsoft Project? A really effective way is to attend a training course. This way you can really boost your skills in using Project.
Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on microsoft+project+course+london, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net