The Goal Getters

In my last blog, I discussed the new EPM demo I’d just seen and how EPM software still falls short of engaging the “senior executive team”. After all, they’re the ones driving the company forward and making sure that the corporate strategy is being communicated and executed.

My apologies if this is not what you want to hear but I’ve yet to stumble across a tool that brings it all together for the senior executive. I’m still looking for a tool that presents a corporate strategy all the way through execution; in a manner that can be consumed by the C Level. All I’ve seen so far are bits and pieces. Please feel free to comment!

So, how do we get to EPM 2.0?

• The old adage, you can’t manage what you can’t measure. Strategies are meant to be discussed, dissected, challenged and cemented. The trick is to then take those strategies and apply drivers, insights and metrics across and deep into the organization. These become your leading and lagging indicators that (if done properly) are directly aligned with corporate strategy.
• Implement the new business processes needed to deliver and support the change in strategy. Everything from supply chain to market campaigns.
• Implement the new management processes as an overlay to the new business processes to execute the change in strategy.
• Enable the above with technology that cascades the strategy execution throughout the organization.

But wait, the above sounds like it’s missing the information delivery piece for the executive. You’re right….and no one is addressing it. Solution: put a gadget on the executive desktop with 4 indicators on it. Not 20 or 100, just 4. You creative types can envision a stop light, a happy face, a speedometer….semantics! These 4 indicators should be the 4 key drivers of the corporate strategy. At first glance they should tell the story; the whole story! The executive has the option to drill through the four indicators into the web of information below it or, they can pick up the phone to have someone in their company address it. That’s their call!

Point being, the closer you get to delivering EPM 2.0 the quicker you can maneuver your company. This assumes you buy into the value of leading and lagging indicators. If you do buy in and you do implement EPM 2.0 from top to bottom….it’s useless without the top brass seeing the 4 driving indicators of their corporate strategy. They need real time insight from a simple presentation layer or, they’ll never use it. If the senior executive team doesn’t drive the organization based on the status of these key strategic indicators then it’s not EPM 2.0. It’s features, functions, cool technology and fancy right mouse clicks!

Next Generation EPM Platform

I sat in on a web demo the other day, because I couldn’t help wonder what “the next generation EPM Platform” really looked like. The title of the invite intrigued me enough to sign up to see what is new or, just around the corner. How different can it be? Well, it depends where you are within the organization!

When I worked for Hyperion in the late 90’s the platform consisted of budgeting/planning, consolidation, BI, scorecard, activity based management and of course reporting and dashboards….and none of the products talked to each other. Then post 2000 the new web architected products and platform came along with a few more products. And guess what, the products still didn’t talk to each other.

Fast forward to today. We’re almost four years after Oracle purchased Hyperion. The suite of EPM products has doubled in size and the integration between the products has improved with the latest FUSION release of the Hyperion product suite. Not 100% there but way ahead of where Hyperion was prior to the acquisition.

So, back to the demo. The user experience looks enhanced from every angle. Nice. Flip here, pivot there; speed of thought. Furthermore, this flexibility goes beyond the end user to the people administering the applications. And with the new platform being 64 bit instead of 32…performance testing will no longer be the deciding driver behind the average purchase decision.

So, is this really EPM 2.0? Not really. The bells and whistles that are added with the latest release make these products light years ahead of where they started. The fact you can highlight a cell, right mouse click and drill through or add comments is super cool. But what if you’re part of the executive team and your company just implemented the new platform? Well, you’d probably be doing things the same way you are today. Except the person you call to get the answer would have an easier time navigating the new functionality to come up with the answers in the 11th hour before that important
board meeting.

Until EPM software can easily align and distribute the strategy of a company, you’ll never get the entire organization on board. And until you make the reporting tool(s) purposeful for the executive team to use, they’ll never use the tools or all their great features and functionality. And until that happens it’s still EPM 1.0 to me.

It’s next to impossible to measure performance or, effectiveness on a project if you do not have a “measuring stick”. Quite simply, the measuring stick on any project is your client and their expectations! Therefore, capturing client expectations becomes the most critical task at the beginning of any project. After the project is underway, being able to measure against those expectations means you can guide the project and help make effective decisions. The more you know about your client’s expectations the easier it becomes.

The place where I like to capture client expectations is in the Project Scope and Charter. This document is closely linked to the workplan. The workplan is where expectations are turned into tasks, deliverables and milestones that will help meet those expectations. There isn’t a sequential order implied between defining the work and building the schedule and budget. Therefore, you can work on the Project Scope and Charter and the workplan simultaneously.

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Can it be done; absolutely!  However, to meet this timeline you won’t get ‘everything under the sun’ and you’ll have to strong change control to stick with the plan.  I know what you’re thinking, “sounds too good to be true”.  Right?  Maybe not.  Think about building a house in 90 days.  Can it be done?  Yep, I’ve done it (minus the foundation).

But it required a pretty specific plan and we had to stick to the plan even though we knew we wouldn’t be looking at the end product in 90 days.  In it’s basic form we had i. a plan with critical milestones and ii. what I’m calling “building blocks” (i.e., framing, plumbing, electrical etc).  We had to make sure that each of the building blocks was fully defined ahead of time (i.e., framed walls went here and not over there) and mapped out on the timeline to fit it in the 90 day window.  Since I was the one managing the workplan I actually ended up switching the tasks around and going against the traditional order followed in construction.

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Application Management Outsourcing (AMO) refers to the ongoing maintenance, management, and support of an application software portfolio by an external company. It’s a hot topic these days with shrinking IT budgets. But how do you know if outsourcing the administration is right for you and your company?

First you have to identify the applications that are suitable for developing and maintaining remotely. Not all situations will fit this criterion due to security and procedures around administering certain applications and/or environments. I’d say 95% of the time this is not an issue however; I’ve been at some financial services clients where AMO was not an option.

Second, you need to know the company you outsource too. More importantly they need to know you and know your business. Outsourcing for the sake of outsourcing or, saving money is in my opinion short sighted and misses the concept of outsourcing all together. Most Hyperion Financial Management applications are considered mission critical due to the impact they can have on the close cycle of a company and therefore, share price. Do you really want to hand that responsibility over to ‘cousin Vinny’ because he’s 10% less than a more reputable firm?

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I often get asked ask questions regarding the correction application of project management on client engagements. This topic comes up in RFPs, project kick-off meetings as well as after the fact during post implementation reviews. As you know there is no magical answer to the right amount or, the correct application of project management.The old adage “it’s an art not a science” holds true no matter when you address the topic with your client.

Bottom line, everyone does it a little differently. If you follow an industry standard PMBOK Methodology you’ll find that there are 4 four common components to managing projects and managing project processes:

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Scope is the term used to describe the boundaries of the project. Scope is used to define what the project will deliver and what it will not deliver. For larger projects, it can include the affected organizations, the transactions impacted, the data types included, etc. If you look at the reasons that projects fail, it is usually the result of two problems. Either the team did not spend enough time defining the work and / or there was a lack of scope management. Even if the project manager did a good job of defining scope, the hard part comes in having to manage the project within that agreed-upon scope.

The purpose of scope change management is to protect the viability of the approved Project Scope and Charter and the approved business requirements. In other words, the Project Scope and Charter defines the overall scope of the project, and the business requirements define the deliverables in detail. The project team committed to a deadline and budget based on this high-level and detailed scope definition. If the deliverables change during the project (and usually this means that the client wants additional items), the estimates for cost, effort and duration may no longer be valid. If the sponsor agrees to include the new work into the project scope, the project manager has the right to expect that the current budget and deadline will be modified (usually increased) to reflect this additional work. This new estimated cost, effort and duration now become the approved target.

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An issue is a formally-defined problem that will impede the progress of the project and cannot be resolved by the project manager and project team without outside help.These issues need to be collected, managed and tracked to closure.Simply using an Issues Log will avoid issues ‘falling off the table’ and offer a way to communicate issue status to your client.

Identify the problem

Solicit potential issues from any project stakeholders, including the project team, clients, sponsors, etc. The issue can be surfaced through verbal or written means.

Determine if the problem is really an issue

The project manager determines whether the problem can be resolved or whether it should be classified as an issue.

Enter the issue into the Issues Log

If it is an issue, the project manager enters the issue into the Issues Log.

Determine who needs to be involved in resolving the issue

The project manager determines who needs to be involved in resolving the issue. The sponsor may be involved, or the sponsor may not have the expertise to assist in the resolution process. For instance, the resolution may require technical or legal staff. The problem may be contractual and require resolution from the Purchasing Department. However, at some point the alternatives will be discussed and a resolution will be made. It is important to understand up-front who needs to be involved in making this final issue resolution.

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Risk refers to future conditions or circumstances that exist outside of the control of the project team that will have an adverse impact on the project if they occur. Whereas an issue is a current problem that must be dealt with, a risk is a potential future problem that has not yet occurred. A reactive project manager tries to resolve issues when they occur. A proactive project manager tries to resolve potential problems before they occur. This is the art of risk management.

The project manager should perform a risk assessment with the project team and the client to identify high, medium and low level risks. The project manager should perform a risk assessment with the project team and the client to identify high, medium and low level risks. There are two ways of tracking risks. You can manage the risks on your project using an Issues and Risk Log. Or, for a larger project you can develop a Risk Management Plan.

Create Risk Management Plan

Start the risk management process by understanding your overall approach for managing risks. This includes defining your risk management process, who is involved with the risk management process, what tools will be used, what roles will be involved, if any (project manager, risk officer, risk manager, etc.), the timeline and the effort associated with managing risks, the risk techniques to be used, etc.

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