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  • How IT Helps Nissan Beat Chevy in the Electric Car Game

    The all-electric Nissan Leaf had the potential to woo eco-conscious shoppers away from the Chevy Volt when it was launched last December. But from a customer service and sales perspective, the Japanese automaker was at a distinct disadvantage. Chevrolet consistently scored four stars on J.D. Power's five-star customer service and sales experience scales; Nissan earned just two.

    Written by Stephanie Overby • 01 Nov. 11 09:39
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    IT managers weigh in on the digital education revolution

    The digital education revolution of 2007 has posed management challenges, but has had an overall positive impact on schools, two IT managers have claimed.

    Written by Lisa Banks • 24 Jan. 11 16:01

  • Bankwest cites project management as key to capped rate home loan success

    Bankwest has praised the use of project managers after revealing one of its key projects relied heavily on project management skills.

    Written by Lisa Banks • 18 Jan. 11 12:05

  • How to avoid the trouble with continuous multi-tasking

    Picture the following scenario: You have gone into a “quiet room” such as your office or den to write a long-term program or project plan that you have been meaning to get to for several weeks. The plan requires your full concentration, and it has taken you say three plus weeks to get to because of short-term issues and urgent requests from others that have continually taken priority.

    Written by Gary Hamilton, Gareth Byatt and Jeff Hodgkinson • 18 Jan. 11 10:35

  • Communication risks within and around a virtual team

    In recent years, the way that projects take shape has evolved at or near the same pace as the information and communications technology we use in our business and personal lives. Not long ago, a project team was either co-located (all team members in the same close proximity) or connected together via express couriers and air travel (regular travel to meet face–to-face was reasonable, prudent, the best method, and acceptable in cost). Then came the email revolution.

    Written by Gary Hamilton, Gareth Byatt and Jeff Hodgkinson • 13 Dec. 10 13:00
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    Rescuing troubled projects

    You are not impervious to having troubled projects in your portfolio. Any project can fail. Even the most seasoned and skilled project manager may, at one time or another, find themselves at the helm of a troubled project. Having a project in trouble does not necessarily signal the project manager is doing a poor job. Projects can go off course for a variety of reasons; some reasons are outside the span of control of the project manager. What are some of the common causes for projects to fall into troubled waters and what are some prudent steps to get the project back on course?

    Written by Gary Hamilton, Jeff Hodgkinson and Gareth Byatt with Brian Munroe • 06 Dec. 10 16:36

  • Project management and disaster relief

    These days, it seems we can’t go more than a couple of months before facing yet another catastrophe somewhere in the world. In order for these countries to effectively manage the situation, it is critical that disaster relief coordinators understand and implement essential project management skills and employ project managers with a background in successful post-disaster reconstruction, and who have been involved in both managing project portfolios and overall project programs.

    Written by Anwar Benjamin • 02 Dec. 10 16:44
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    CRM: Four dirty little secrets of marketing automation

    In the heat of a sales cycle, marketing automation vendors tell you all the great news about how their systems will increase conversion rates, improve sales effectiveness, and save time. When used properly, marketing automation systems do all that. What the sales reps don't tell you is...

    Written by David Taber • 02 Dec. 10 06:37

  • The CRM reality distortion field

    Full disclosure: I was a card-carrying marketing guy for 20 years. So when I see the effects of reality distortion in my clients' purchase decisions, I know whereof I speak.

    Written by David Taber • 23 Nov. 10 06:44

  • Customer demand priority

    Program, portfolio and PMO managers understand the ‘benefits to value’ of a project and can use return on investment (ROI), internal rate of return (IRR), or other financial metrics, as well as non-financial criteria (‘intrinsic value’ criteria) to evaluate projects at the start of and during their full lifecycle into ‘operations mode’. Selecting which projects to charter within your organisation have long-term implications both for you individually and your organisation. Conducting in-depth pro-forma ROI, IRR of other financial analysis can be costly and time consuming. What about an alternative method that is relatively quick and easy to undertake and can provide you with an objective ‘weighting’ criteria for your stakeholders and program/project team to consider? If you manage a PMO, Portfolio or Program of work (in any discipline – finance, manufacturing, IT, etc), the customer demand priority (CDP) tool we put forward below may be helpful to you at the front-end decision-making process of project prioritisation. It is a simple method that is similar to a risk matrix table to evaluate and score projects on a scale from 2 to 11 where 2 are the lowest challenge and 11 is the most intensive.

    Written by Gary Hamilton, Gareth Byatt and Jeff Hodgkinson • 22 Nov. 10 09:52

  • How to manage a virtual project team

    Let’s face it; virtual teams (where we work with colleagues in remote locations, be they close by or in different countries) are now a reality in the workplace. If this trend in the workplace environment continues, virtual working will increasingly influence the way we operate, and the ‘effective virtual team worker’ will be a valued asset.

    Written by Gary Hamilton, Gareth Byatt and Jeff Hodgkinson • 18 Nov. 10 11:06

  • Minimising bias of subject matter experts through effective project management

    The use of SME’s (Subject Matter Experts) is commonplace throughout the lifecycle of a project. The “experts”, as we will generally refer to them, are typically functional experts in their respective roles that the project manager relies on for making delivery estimations and identifying potential risks to a project. Depending on the dynamics of your particular organisation, such experts may come from the same functional team that will be responsible for the execution of the tasks for which the experts are providing input, or they may be in a specialist division that deals with project set-up. In either case, there are a several risks which the project manager needs to look out for to avoid being given an impossible or very difficult delivery task.

    Written by Gary Hamilton, Gareth Byatt and Jeff Hodgkinson • 15 Nov. 10 14:55

  • What makes an effective executive?

    The debate on whether program managers would make effective senior executives is one that has gained attention in recent years. However, for this article we thought we would pose this question and contrast it with the muses of a well respected Management Guru, Peter Drucker. Drucker, who is often referred to the as the “father of modern management”, signaled out eight characteristics of effective executives “What Makes an Effective Executive?, Peter F Drucker, Harvard Business Review, June 2004.

    Written by Gary Hamilton, Gareth Byatt and Jeff Hodgkinson • 09 Nov. 10 12:35

  • Use CRM to crowd-source your product strategy

    Product strategy needs to be a mix of engineering/operations plan and market survey, but most market survey techniques are quite vulnerable to big procedural and statistical problems.

    Written by David Taber • 09 Nov. 10 04:38

  • Stupid data corruption tricks: Take our CRM quiz

    In the spirit of David Letterman's occasional feature "Stupid People Tricks," I thought it was time to summarise common errors that can lead to corrupted CRM records, or worse. How much worse? Read on.

    Written by David Taber • 03 Nov. 10 01:38

  • How to pick the best licensing model

    My clients often find themselves frustrated with the default model offered in IT suppliers’ standard terms and conditions for software licensing. Taking some time to select the model that is best suited to your organisation when you negotiate the contract can pay dividends when your circumstances change and you want to adjust your usage of the software.

    Written by David Downie • 02 Nov. 10 11:33
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    The unspoken additional constraint of project management

    Whether you are a novice just embarking upon your career in project management or a seasoned veteran, you are most likely familiar with the project management concept of the “triple constraint”. The triple constraint of quality, time and cost is perhaps as well recognised within project management as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is recognised by practitioners of psychology. Nowadays, three extra constraining factors of managing risk, resources, and quality are often added to the “original triple”, making a total of six factors (or constraints) of project management.

    Written by Gary Hamilton, Gareth Byatt and Jeff Hodgkinson • 01 Nov. 10 09:29
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    Why CRM data trumps CRM systems

    At last month's CIO Forum in San Francisco, I lead a round-table discussion about the strategic way to think about CRM applications and their evolution in the enterprise. While everyone agreed that the most comprehensive CRM systems were built (actually, assembled), not bought, one CIO took it a step further. What really matters in a CRM system isn't the system at all. It's the data.

    Written by David Taber • 27 Oct. 10 06:06

  • CRM: Playing the percentages correctly

    The Opportunities object (OK, table) is where CRM and SFA systems hold the data about prospective deals. And nearly every system uses some sort of stage pick-list that's an indicator of the deal's current status in the sales cycle. Each stage typically has a percentage assigned to it, and a forecast category (such as "pipeline" or "upside") that is used to drive the opportunity pipeline report and bookings forecast. Simple. Rational. Wrong.

    Written by David Taber • 21 Sept. 10 02:32

  • Globalisation: Choosing technology that fits your market

    Aegon Religare wants to grow its insurance sales in tandem with the salaries of a burgeoning middle class in India. The fastest way to do it, company executives determined last year, would be to sell policies on the Internet-a novel way to market insurance in that country.

    Written by Kim S. Nash • 30 Sept. 10 07:30
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