Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Enterprise Project Management - The Shot Heard Around the World

We live in the instant gratification age, the age of information. In a time where news, data, video and online collaboration reign supreme. This also means that businesses and their clients react to things happening in the world real-time. No more one week, or even, 24-48 hour grace periods between cause and effect. The world has changed and in this new world, information stands supreme and Enterprise Project Management (EPM) takes its rightful place in the business world… on top.

Why does EPM garner a top place in businesses today? I’m so glad you asked…

There are several reasons that EPM is taking a leading role in today’s businesses, here are a few:
Starts with a process:

All true EPM solutions available today begin, (really begin and end), with a process. A map, if you will, of how to perform all the work necessary to accomplish a specific job. Although there may be many different types of work being performed in a business, like branches of a tree, each has a process that is mapped out to identify how the work can get accomplished. Like a framework for handling all the work within projects.


Centralizes Information:

The ability to collect useful information is great but the more recent problem we face today is the amount of time we spend looking for that information. An EPM solution centralizes all the pertinent information in one place which eliminates wasted time. This is generally accomplished thru Project or Program related portals or web spaces. These web spaces contain project or program information such as related documents, links, issues, risks, team members, reports, financial information and more.

Business Intelligence:

The cornerstone of today’s winning applications is not only ease of use and the ability to get information logged into an application but it must be easy to extract data in meaningful ways from the application. Things like project and program reports and dashboards. These items have graphical visual aids and use metrics like “Key Performance Indicators” which put things into quick, easy to read, terms we can all understand.

Understanding the downstream effects:

Although many businesses have been able to react when things change, they also had no clue as to the downstream effect on all the other work going on within the organization. An EPM solution allows businesses the opportunity to look into the future and realize what the effects are when changes happen.

Today the cost of not having an Enterprise Project Management solution may be your future!

Scott M. Wagner (CPM), (MCP, EPM)

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