Clarion calls for greater focus on project management

With business confidence continuing to fall, consultancy firm, Clarion Consulting has called on Irish organisations to increase their focus on project management for survival.

“We believe that by investing in project management, organisations can deliver real business transformation, designed to maximise revenue opportunities, increase bottom line and protect jobs,” says Pat Millar, managing director with Clarion Consulting.

The company believes that business recovery can be accelerated through increased investment in the discipline citing it as a critical tool in addressing the new economic realities of reduced spending, limited credit availability, job losses and weakened consumer sentiment.

“Activities such as introducing new products or services, deploying IT infrastructure or re-engineering internal business processes to boost productivity and reduce costs are critical in the current climate,” according to Millar.  “Organisations, public or private, simply can’t afford to run the risk of budget overruns, missed deadlines or failure to deliver on project objectives,” he adds.

Recent research conducted by Clarion Consulting reveals a marked decrease in the number of organisations using project management to drive business strategy, down from 29 per cent in 2009 to just eight per cent in 2011.  But Millar points to a significant increase in the number of smaller project teams.

In 2009, one fifth of organisations said their project teams consisted of between one and six members.  By the end of 2011, this figure had grown to 44 per cent.  Establishing smaller, agile project teams allows for quicker market agility, a welcome development according to Millar.

And while embedding a solid commitment to developing project management capability is important, so too is the need to support the discipline with well qualified, highly experienced practitioners.

“We’ve seen a strong surge in demand for project management personnel with high levels of qualifications and relevant industry experience,” comments Turlach McAlister, resourcing services manager with Clarion Resourcing, also part of the Clarion group of companies.  “Many employers are opting for contract resources, using these candidates to enhance in-house skills and expand team expertise.

“Agencies such as Clarion Resourcing, who have expertise in the project management sector are experiencing strong levels of business growth, reflecting a willingness by organisations to continue investment in the discipline,” he adds.

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Webinar on Demand: Driving Profitability through Process Excellence

Many thanks to those of you who tuned into our recent webinar, which examined process excellence and how it can drive profitability and boost customer retention.

The webinar marked the launch of our Process Excellence practice, led by James Doyle.

If you missed the event, you can access the webinar on demand by clicking below.

 

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Clarion are Hiring Project Managers in UK (London/M25)

Project Manager Profile

Clarion Consulting

At Clarion Consulting, we help clients to improve efficiency and build sustainable competitive advantage through the development of project management capability, the close alignment of IT and business strategy and provision of skilled IT and business resources.

Clarion is a successful and expanding Business and IT consulting practice. Practice areas include Project and Programme Management, IT Strategy, ERP Consulting and Business Intelligence. Clarion is currently operating from offices in Ireland and UK.

We are looking for people with drive and ambition to help us continue to grow our business. We need people who have a passion for excellence and who value the opportunity to work in a dynamic and challenging environment. Candidates must be willing and able to travel (UK wide) on assignment.

The Project Manager role within Clarion

Under general direction of either a Portfolio Manager or a Program Manager, leads and directs high-priority projects, which often require considerable resources and high levels of functional integration. The Project Manager will take projects from original concept through final implementation. Interfaces with all areas affected by the project including end users, distributors, and vendors. Ensures adherence to quality standards and reviews project deliverables and communicates at company executive level regarding the status of specific projects.

Project Manager Profile:

• ¨ Proven project management experience and success
• ¨ Good commercial acumen and business development mind-set
• ¨ Strong Project Management knowledge
• ¨ Proven Change Management and Relation Management knowledge
• ¨ Proven Stakeholder Engagement and Management skills
• ¨ Excellent interpersonal skills
• ¨ Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

Experience Required

• ¨ 3 – 5 years of relevant professional and commercial experience, for example, project delivery, change management, Project Tools (PlanView, Project Server), IT Service Management, and Technical Architecture etc.
• ¨ Experience of operating in a consulting role working directly with clients
• ¨ Experience of standards such as ITIL, Six Sigma, PMBOK, Prince2, CMM, etc. Ideally candidates should hold a recognised qualification\certification in one of more relevant qualifications
• ¨ Experience of producing high quality project documentation
• ¨ Experience of Structured Project Management methodologies / techniques with hands-on experience of all stages of the lifecycle
• ¨ Proficiency with project management and working knowledge of enterprise project management tools

 

Candidate profile

• ¨ 3 – 5 years of relevant professional and commercial experience
• ¨ Will have held similar roles within comparable sector/organisations
• ¨ May, in the past, have held a consultant role with one of the larger consulting practices Accenture, BearingPoint, PwC

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Clarion Consulting to host “Travel Back to the Future with Process Excellence”

To mark the launch of Clarion Consulting’s new Process Excellence practice, we are pleased to announce our webinar:

Travel Back to the Future with Process Excellence
Thursday, 25th October
12.00pm – 12.30pm

REGISTER NOW

This webinar will be of particular interest to those in the service industry.

Sometimes you have to slip into reverse before you can actually move forwards.

In the current economic climate, the natural reaction of many  organisations is to stop at that red light and retrench.  In essence, this translates into the austerity agenda with the emphasis on cutting costs.

While this is understandable and prudence should be the order of the day,  we believe that a ‘back to the future’ approach is by far the better option – assessing existing processes and improving competitiveness by pre-emptively focusing on the key business imperatives that are critical to success.

By joining us for the next in our series of webinars, you could start a journey towards process excellence.  En route, you can objectively assess existing business processes, eliminate waste, improve customer retention rates, boost profitability and build a culture of continuous improvement based on leadership and teamwork.

Join us and;

• Understand how process excellence can eliminate waste, improve customer retention and boost profitability.
• Uncover opportunities for business process improvement, which will deliver tangible results.
• Discover how using disciplines such as Lean can improve the speed and efficiency of business operations.
• Start your step-by-step journey towards process-driven operational improvement to achieve sustainable competitive advantage

Who should attend?

• Operations executives, operations managers/directors.
• Any business stakeholder with an interest in improving process efficiency

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

If this webinar is relevant for other colleagues within your organisation, please feel free to forward as appropriate.

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PMO Challenges

Brief posting today – highlighting research from 2010 (which is still valid today) on the challenges facing organisations looking to implement a Project Management Office – and for those looking to maintain and keep a PMO. 

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Webinar on Demand: Protecting the Reputation of the PMO

Pat Millar, managing director with Clarion Consulting discusses practical ways in which project management practitioners can build and protect the reputation of the project management office.

 

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James Doyle to lead Clarion Consulting’s Operational Excellence practice

Dublin, Tuesday, 15 May 2012: Leading business and IT consultancy, Clarion Consulting today announced the appointment of James Doyle to lead the company’s newly-established Operational Excellence practice. His key responsibilities include the development and delivery of services to drive operational excellence by empowering organisations to continually improve the quality of customer service, reduce costs, increase agility and enhance flexibility to achieve competitive superiority.

Commenting on the appointment, Pat Millar, managing director with Clarion Consulting said: “We are very pleased to have someone of James’s calibre, heading up our operational excellence practice. His vast industry experience in delivering operational excellence programs complements our existing service portfolio, ensuring that clients can benefit from more strategic guidance and advice on building competitive agility.

Doyle joins from Claritas Consulting, a company which he established in 2004. During his tenure, he built up a broad customer base and worked with several high profile clients such as AIB, Irish Heart Foundation and the Health & Safety Authority on key process-driven business transformation projects in support of operational excellence.

Prior to this, Doyle held a senior consulting position with Orygen where he worked across industry sectors to drive operational excellence projects for organisations such as Bank of Ireland , IBRC (formerly Anglo Irish Bank), Ulster Bank, UCD, Eircom, Dublin City Council, Skillnets and FÁS.

Doyle has over 25 years of consulting experience and has held other senior consulting roles with major organisations such as Price Waterhouse, James Martin & Associates and Texas Instruments. His particular area of expertise is in ensuring that business strategy is aligned to and supported by business improvement programmes. He places particular emphasis on engaging with client staff in change programmes, recognising that the pursuit of operational excellence is very much dependent on their commitment.

Doyle has an extensive educational background with a BSc (Computers) from Trinity College, a BSc and an MA in Counselling & Psychotherapy from Middlesex University and the Dublin Business School and he is a qualified barrister, graduating from the Kings Inn, Dublin. He is also a certified Life and Business Coach and an accredited member of the Life and Business Coaching Association of Ireland.

Doyle is a native of Dublin.

Ends

About Clarion Consulting

Clarion Consulting is a Business and Information Technology consultancy specialising in Program and Project Management, IT and Business Consulting, Process Excellence and Resourcing.

With offices in Ireland, the U.K. and the Netherlands, Clarion Consulting helps blue chip organisations and public sector bodies to improve organisational agility and build sustainable competitive advantage. Its portfolio of consulting services focuses on creating organisational agility through information technology, human resource development and best practice approaches to program and project management and process excellence.

For more information, visit us at www.clarionconsulting.com

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Business recovery at risk as one third of organisations neglect fundamental project management processes

Dublin, Thursday, 19 April 2012: One third of Irish organisations are jeopardising business recovery efforts by failing to put in place documented project management methodologies, according to the results of a survey released today by leading business and IT consultancy, Clarion Consulting.   The report also reveals a marked decrease in the number of organisations using project management to drive business strategy, down from 29 per cent in 2009 to just 8 per cent in 2011.

The number of dedicated project management offices (PMOs) is also in decline, down by 12 per cent to 51 per cent and the perceived value of project management has suffered with one in ten now citing it as ‘unimportant’.

Poor project management practices lead to a whole host of organisational problems including budget overruns, missed project deadlines, organisational waste and can jeopardise business transformation efforts.

The results come as Irish project management professionals gather for the Project Management Institute’s National Conference, which takes place at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin today.

Commenting on the results, Pat Millar, managing director with Clarion Consulting said:

“There appears to be no real increase in the number of organisations that view project management as strategic, which is disappointing.   We believe that project management serves as a real driver of organisational change and business transformation in lean times.  Companies that choose to invest in the discipline can yield tangible business benefits in terms of cost, resource and time-savings.”

While the survey highlights a lack of discipline in certain project management practices, with less frequent use of project sponsors and a deficit in continuous process review, the employment market is showing some signs of recovery with one third of organisations reporting project management hires in the previous 12 months.  This compares with just 9 per cent in 2009.

The decline in the number of PMOs, down from 63 per cent in 2009 to 51 per cent in 2011, points to what Millar believes is a struggle by practitioners to add real value to the business.  “PMOs that succeed have made the transition from a cost-centre to a service centre that adds real business value,” he says.  “Those that are thriving are helping the business to deliver strategic projects in a controlled and consistent way, while those unable to make that critical transition are being disbanded.”

There has been an overall decline in the standard of project management practices.  For example, results reveal a slippage in the number of organisations that ‘always’ align their projects with business strategy.  In 2009, this figure was recorded as 31 per cent but by 2011, it has fallen to just 16 per cent.  This could be seen as a by-product of shorter planning windows with a strong focus on tactical delivery as businesses struggle to meet current economic challenges.

Similarly, there has been a puzzling collapse in the use of project sponsors – down from a high of 62 per cent in 2007 to just 40 per cent in 2011.  This collapse could be viewed in light of an overall reduction in staffing levels with resource directed at what senior management perceive as tasks of a more critical nature.

In tandem with this, a dramatic decline in the perceived effectiveness of project sponsors has become apparent with less than half or 46 per cent citing their performance as ‘always’ or ‘usually’ effective, compared to 65 per cent in 2009 and a high of 71 per cent in 2011.

On the positive side, however, there appears to be a significant increase in the number of smaller project teams.  In 2009, one fifth or organisations said their project teams consisted of between one and six members.  By the end of 2011, this figure had grown to 44 per cent, an increase of 24 per cent during that time.

The Project Management Professional (PMP) qualification has grown in popularity with 43 per cent confirming this certification, up from just 23 per cent in 2009.  Millar welcomes the increase in certification as an important development.

“It shows that project managers are willing to invest in their skills and expertise and points to a maturing of the profession.  It also demonstrates a growing demand by employers that project management staff are professionally trained and certified and bring with them best practice in project management practices,” he says.

Allied to this, project management confidence has grown with 12 per cent of individuals awarding themselves a rating of ‘excellent’ for their project management skills.  This is up from 6 per cent in 2009.  On the negative side, though one in ten admit their project management skills are ‘poor’.

The survey was carried out online during the months of December 2011 and January 2012.  86 per cent of respondents currently hold a project-management or IT-related role.  Copies of the project management report are available from www.clarionconsulting.com

Ends

Editors Notes

Download/view the full report into Project Management Practices in Irish organisations here.

 

About Clarion Consulting

Clarion Consulting is a Business and Information Technology consultancy specialising in Program and Project Management, IT and Business Consulting, Process Excellence and Resourcing.

With offices in Ireland, the U.K. and the Netherlands, Clarion Consulting helps blue chip organisations and public sector bodies to improve organisational agility and build sustainable competitive advantage.  Its portfolio of consulting services focuses on creating organisational agility through information technology, human resource development and best practice approaches to program and project management and process excellence.

For more information, visit us at www.clarionconsulting.com

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The Importance of Managing Change in Implementation Projects

Within any implementation project there are multiple life-cycles and frameworks operating in parallel – the ‘Implementation life-cycle’ (providing a framework from the needs assessment, through system selection, implementation and benefits realisation); the ‘Project Management life-cycle’ (providing a structured framework for planning, control, monitoring and executing) and finally the ‘Change Management’ life-cycle (taking the enterprise from current-state, transition into future-state).    Very often the importance of the ‘Change Management’ life-cycle is sacrificed for the other two, where the focus of the organisation is to ‘get the system in as quickly as possible’.

Implementation projects are often considered to be a success when the system is implemented on-time and on-budget and the functionality available in the solution matches the initial requirements.  However, while obviously critical, these traditional metrics ignore the importance of managing change and all too often projects which were considered a success when measured against the common metrics turn out to be anything but in the periods following project closure.    This is often reflected by the fact that the organisation has to go back to market and perform another selection/implementation(s) in order to get the ‘right’ solution – very often just selecting a different application with the same core functionality.

The reason is often related to the fact that while all the hard requirements and deliverables on the project where delivered – the soft (people/cultural) aspects where ignored or at best overlooked.  In any systems implementation project there is naturally a significant amount of change; change in roles, responsibilities, status, ownership, expertise/knowledge and process.  How well the ‘soft’ aspects are managed is a true indicator of how successful the implementation will be.  This success can be measured by the level off adoption the tool achieves and how well it has been embedded within the organisation.

Achieving these goals requires a much greater level of focus on the ‘Change Management’ life-cycle than is traditional exhibited; adopting a focused and planned approach, ideally engaging specific resources and expertise to focus on managing the change.  Change needs to be managed – widely available statistics show that 80% of change projects fail.

The topic of managing change is too broad and wide for this article but one area that we can discuss is the critical task of ‘Stakeholder Engagement’ – note the topic is ‘Stakeholder Engagement’ and not what is often described as ‘Stakeholder Management’.  For the solution to be adopted and embedded in the organisation we need to work with, partner, engage with the stakeholders and not ’just’ manage them for the duration of the implementation.  The change aspects of the implementation will run on long after the implementation project ends.

Identifying who the stakeholders are, is not a simply task.  You may need to look both within and outside the group, department or organisation.  Depending on the organisational culture you may have to include stakeholders who would not traditionally be considered yet who can exhibit influence over the project and other stakeholders.  A stakeholder matrix is a good starting point showing their relative levels of influence (power) and interest.  In addition to showing their power and interest today it is worth considering and mapping how their power and interest will change during and post the project.  This will identify individual stakeholders who will be positively (develop and utilise) and negatively (monitor and motivate) impacted.

After identifying all stakeholders it is critical to determine if they are pro-change, anti- change or disinterested.  It is important to not ignore the disinterested group – while they may not have a strong opinion/interest either way they can quickly become anti-change if they are ignored.   It is important to understand the needs, grievances (real and otherwise) and concerns of the negative group.  In any project the vast majority of the users will fit into the disinterested or negative groups and the project will not achieve the required level of adoption within this majority.  Understanding what motivates Stakeholders is a powerful tool for engaging with them.  The table below contains a generic list of the characteristics typically displayed by pro-change and anti-change groups.

This article only starts to explore the importance of Change Management in the implementation project.   Any organisation considering a large systems implementation project would do well to build in processes and time for managing change and ‘engaging’ with stakeholders, or engaging specialist expertise to design and implement a change management strategy.  For the 20% of change projects that are successful you can bet they had a change strategy in place.

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Is Localicious how Yellow/White pages should be using LBM?

There’s no reason for defending failing LBM concepts for their experimental value, or for a single bright feature anymore. This is 2011. We’ve had two years now to analyse this market and predict its development. So really, there is no reasonable defense to be making old mistakes again, as in the case of Localicious.

Uhhm, Loca-what?
Yeah sorry, it’s a mobile, location based, service around the business listings from WhitePages, USA. And it’s going to fail for a couple of reasons. But first let me explain what it is. As a free Android app, you can look around your neighbourhood, find (and check-in to) popular and relevant places (restaurants, shops, etc.), tips that people left on other platforms and soon probably deals. If that sounds a lot like your typical check-in app, it’s because it is. Here’s why I think it will fail.

Fail #1: the USPs are not unique
Working with neighborhoods in stead of an exact location is not unique (yelp, Google places). And although it’s helpful for planning a visit (usually further away than where you are at the moment), it’s not a killer feature people will leave their preferred check-in app for. Also, automatic check-in is done by several platforms (e.g. Latitude) as well as aggregators (e.g. Footfeed), plus it’s an easy feature to copy. 21 Million business listings? Big deal, this app is on my Android, which has a search button for that. Getting real-time tips & trends? If you’re getting it from foursquare, why not use that app itself?

Fail #2: it is monolithic and local, hence expensive to grow
Look, this market is spoken for. It’s going to be (a combination of) Google places database, Facebook sharing, Foursquare check-in game dynamics, Groupon (like) deals and a lot of brands. I would predict that, like Twitter, this stuff will be part of the core services on phone OS’s and you can already pick the winning combinations*.

The millions of consumers are already choosing between these great location based networking platforms and another one will not make a dent in their usage growth. Setting up a new app with its own network effect willnow require millions of marketing dollars, insane brand recognition OR leveraging the user base of other platforms. Or all of the above.

Fail #3: it’s not playing off the companies’ strengths
Ask yourself what WhitePages would consider it’s core business? Some might say helping you find people & businesses. I would argue it is the reverse; in many ways it is like Google: gathering as many signals as possible to helpyou find stuff, in order to help relevant businesses find you. Google does a great job at this already, so how come these business listing guys are still around? Well for one, they have something that Google doesn’t have: loads of people selling ads to local business over the phone all day long. In that sense, they are competing with Groupon and LivingSocial more than with Google and they have years and years of experience in that model. Either way, the company is not a social local mobile search giant. Face it.

So what should they do?
First, similar to local newspapers, localized out-of-home advertisers and other companies that are really good at selling volumes of small advertisements, they should focus on their strengths and offer mobile, location based advertising as an option to their advertisers. The local restaurant will not spend time or money on figuring out all these LBM platforms, even though it’s free and all of them try to make it so easy. And for reach to foot traffic, they would need to advertise on all of those platforms. Such a drag. So If you equip your callcenter with the right tools, or outsource the handling to a third party, this is a compelling offer to bring to the local businessman.

Second, you should have always already used all signals you can get to help your customers. So yes, do integrate with the foursquare API, but also with all the others. Make sure people link their online identities to your platform so you can help them find relevancy and value around the business and people you found for them. And off course, use all those signals to enrich the search results on all of your clients, web or mobile.

Finally, get some good advise from neutral third parties that are not selling one app, one platform or even one technology. If you have such a great brand, you should be ensuring that it remains to be valued for what it always meant to people: reaching my very local customers. And guess what that space is still very very hot!

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*OK if you can’t: let’s check this post in 2 years from now and see whether a. Facebook Places has been integrated into Nokia/Microsoft phones, b. Google+ is integrated at an OS level into Android and whether c. Apple has bought foursquare and placed it next to Twitter in iOS version 6.
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Written by PJ Verhoef

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