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IT Project Management

Did You Know That 83.9% of IT Projects Completely or Partially Fail?

Would You Like Me to Personally

Save You Tens of Thousands or

Even Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars

On Your Current or Future IT Project,

And Do All of That

…For Next to Nothing? (Actually, a Net Gain to You)

Dear Fellow Business Executive,

I’ve built my business by providing high-level, personalized service to folks just like yourself. 

Periodically, I have a small opening in my schedule.  When that happens, I seek out one of the very rare executives who truly understands and appreciates the incredible risks you face related to IT Projects, and how expert project oversight can help keep your projects on budget and on schedule, resulting in substantial savings. 

If you’re that executive, we should talk.  

(Due to overwhelming demand for our services and the need to provide our current clients with our full attention and exceptional service, we are not accepting new clients at this time.  However, if you’re one of those rare, visionary executives who truly understands the value of the services we provide, please email us to be placed on our waitlist.  Periodically we have an opening and we will contact when a spot becomes available.)

There is no cost to you for this introductory call.  In fact, it will likely pay you dividends.

So, what exactly do I do?

 

Should we decide to work together, I will personally provide executive-level management of each of your projects to help ensure your projects are to specifications, stay on schedule, and come in on budget.  

 

Specifically, I will:

  • Manage organizational change as it relates to your projects;

  • Manage the vendor identification and selection processes;

  • Manage project vendors during all project phases;

  • Manage communications;

  • Manage project risks; and

  • Implement overall processes and controls for effective project management and delivery of your projects.

Here are some more details of what this might look like.  I say ‘might’ because each organization is different, and before we begin, I’ll need to sit down with you and gain a complete understanding of your needs.  Here are a few examples.

  • Change management: Anytime you engage in an IT project, change is inevitable.  Sometimes it’s minor or incremental, but often it’s significant.  You need to prepare your organization for that change and manage that change during and after the project.  Failure to manage change often results in failure of your project.  For example, you don’t want to invest millions in a new technology only to get minimal user adoption because of poor change management.
     

  • Vendor identification and selection:  You’ll want to ensure that you have effective processes in place for identifying and selecting qualified vendors.  In addition, you’ll want to ensure your contracts are effective at protecting your interests and fully address project budget, timelines, and specifications.  Finally, you’ll want to ensure your vendors are properly on-boarded.
     

  • Identifying and managing risk:  Projects are never linear.  You’re going to have challenges that need to be managed.  Each day, week, or month, the project may hit a snag or veer off course.  There will be land mines that need to be avoided.  We do that by taking a proactive approach to identifying potential and actual risks and managing those risks throughout the project.  Failure to manage those risks, will result in projects not delivered to specifications, schedule, or budget.
     

  • Managing communications:
     

    • Communications are arguably the most critical part of any project during the project execution phase.  Two elements of communications involve: (1) communications between vendors and the organization, and (2): communications about the project within your organization.
       

    • Effective communications between vendors and your organization are critical.  Communications need to occur at the right times, at the right cadence, with the right people, discussing the right things.  Processes need to be setup to facilitate those communications.  We often seen that miscommunications due to ineffective communications processes result in major project shortcomings.
       

    • Communications about your project within the organization is also critical.  Your need to control your message.  You need to control who says what to whom and when.  When you lose control of this communication, you lose control of your project.  For example, what happens when someone on your project team, with limited information about a part of the project, miscommunication some critical information to an executive or stakeholder?  Let’s say they make an off the cuff remark about the project being over budget or not being delivered on time.  Such communications can have catastrophic consequences.  At a minimum you will take on enormous stress and spend an inordinate amount of time addressing the issue – time that could have been much better spent on other critical tasks.
       

  • Independent vendor communications and status meetings: 
     

    • Perhaps one of the most important aspects of these services involves conducting independent communications and status meetings with your vendors.  The reality is that vendors will often not communicate to you or your team, such critical items as:
       

      • The real challenges they are facing;
         

      • Persons on your team that may be negatively impacting the project; and
         

      • Numerous other items which they feel may negatively impact your relationship with them. 
         

    • Therefore, these items may go unaddressed and create additional risk:  By having regular, independent communications with your vendors, I’m able to uncover those issues they may otherwise be hesitant to discuss.
       

    • Similarly, as an outside party, but your representative, I’m able to have those difficult conversations with your vendors that you or your team may not be able to have.  For example, your team may have a good working relationship with a vendor and seek to maintain that relationship.  However, sometimes difficult issues come up for which your team are not comfortable having those conversations for fear of damaging that day to day relationship.  That’s where I come in.  Through these independent communications, I can communicate in a more direct manner and resolve these issues. 
       

  • Review vendor statements of work and contract negotiations: In order to protect your interests, and to ensure that your projects are to specifications and on time and on budget, it’s critical that statements of work reflect an accurate representation of what you want and what the vendor is going to deliver.
     

  • Help define roles and responsibilities:  When roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined, chaos often ensues.  Who is the main vendor contact?  Who is the main contact on your team?  Can others within the organization make requests of the vendor?  Who signs off on work and when?
     

  • Audit vendor invoices:  Vendor invoices can get complex.  There are billable hours, from many different persons, for many different tasks.  There are out of pocket expenses which must meet policies.  Who is responsible for reviewing these invoices?  How effective are those reviews?  How certain are you that all of the invoices are completely accurate?  How certain are you that you haven’t paid a duplicate invoice or for more than the vendor was entitled?

These are just a few of many examples.

QuestionHow confident are you that your IT staff have the expertise and bandwidth to effectively manage all of your IT projects?

  • Here’s the reality:  Your IT staff likely have some project management skills.  But those skills are generally front-line, technical skills.  If they have a large, detailed spreadsheet that they use to track the minutia of the project, you know what I mean.  That sort of project management certainly serves a purpose, but it rarely helps the project stay on schedule and on budget.
     

  • Here’s another reality:  Your IT staff is likely over-worked.  They have a full-time job outside of managing any IT project that comes their way.  Something has to give - either their ‘day-job’ or your IT project.  Either way, it’s not good. Most just don’t have the bandwidth to properly oversee these projects.
     

  • Here’s yet another reality:  Scope creep has probably impacted your schedule and your budget.  Without effective oversight, this situation can quickly become the norm rather than the exception.
     

  • And still one more reality:  Perhaps two of the most critical tasks with any project are:  communications and risk identification and management.  Are your team leaders experts at communications?  What skills do they have with risk identification and risk management?  
     

  • And even one more reality:  Your project(s) may be managed outside of IT.  For example, if you are engaged in website design or development, your marketing department may be leading those efforts.  This creates all sorts of logistical issues that need to be addressed in order to mitigate project risks.  They likely need more help than just IT, and done correctly, they will be glad they got it.
     

  • Alright, one last reality (for now; but I’ll provide you many more when we talk).  IT Projects by their very nature result in change.  Change to your systems, change to your processes, change to your reporting, change to people’s jobs, and so on.  It’s critical that you manage that change before, during, and after your projects.  Who’s managing your change?

 

If you are that very rare executive who truly understands and appreciates the incredible risks you face related to IT Projects, and how expert project oversight can help keep your projects on budget and on schedule, resulting in substantial savings.  If you’re that executive, we should talk.

Here’s how it works.  Simply click on button and select one of the available slots on my calendar for an introductory call.  If there are no slots available, you’ll be added to the waiting list and I’ll get back to you on a first come first served basis.  If you’re having trouble accessing my calendar, please use our contact form on the contact page.

During the introductory call, I’ll get to know a little bit more about your situation and whether I think I can help.  I’ll learn about what you’ve got, what you’re doing, and what you want to achieve.

You’ll also get to know a bit more about me, and together we’ll decide if it makes sense to proceed with a meeting at your offices.

When we meet at your offices, whether or not we decide to work together, I’ll provide you with additional insights on how to protect yourself and your organization from critical control weaknesses.

At no cost to you.

(After doing this for over 33 years, I’ve gotten fairly good at not just helping organizations solve large, long-term challenges in this area, but at quickly assessing situations and providing some immediate feedback that you can use right away).

At the end of our meeting in your offices, one of two things will happen:

  1. You will more fully appreciate and understand the risks you face and have some tools and techniques for addressing those risks but decide you can handle them on your own.
     

  2. You will more fully appreciate and understand the risks you face and ask to become my client so I can personally help you and your organization reduce your risks and increase your related ROI.

If that’s the case, I’m confident we’ll knock it out of the park.

It’s really that simple. No catch.

The worst that can happen is that you have some tools and more information to handle things on your own.  That information, if acted upon, can immediately save you money and reduce your risk.

The best that can happen is we work together to substantially reduce your risks, protect you and the organization from potential negative outcomes, and increase your ROI.

And here’s something even bigger to consider.

What does it cost?

My fee for this specific service is generally around a few thousand dollars per month, depending on the scope of the project and services involved.  And that’s usually a drop in the bucket, especially when you consider all of the value that will be delivered. 

 

But the reality is that this really doesn’t cost you anything.

Here’s why…

Generally, I save my clients far more money by implementing strategies, processes, and controls, than they pay me in fees. 

Just one, small example - 

When you’re paying me to provide executive level management of your IT projects, I will set up controls, processes, communications, and relationships that will result in a more efficient and effective project.  For example, by setting up a vendor invoice audit process, a process where each vendor invoice related to your project is auditing to ensure accuracy prior to payment, two things tend to happen:

  1. I identify overbilling resulting in actual dollars in your pocket for which you’d otherwise be unaware, and that savings compounds over time; and
     

  2. Over time, since vendors know someone is auditing their invoices, instances of improper billing magically disappear.

 

Other examples.  Go through all of the key risks and controls I’ve addressed above, keeping in mind this is a partial list.  How much money do you stand to lose if all of those risks are not properly managed and controls not effectively implemented?  How much savings do you stand to gain?

As I’m sure you can see, my fees are more like an investment, than a cost – an investment that pays dividends, in both the short and long-term.

If you are that very rare executive who truly understands and appreciates the incredible risks you face related to IT Projects, and how expert project oversight can help keep your projects on budget and on schedule, resulting in substantial savings.  If you’re that executive, we should talk.

Simply click on contact us button below and select one of the available slots on my calendar.  If there are no slots available, you’ll be added to the waiting list.  If you’re having trouble accessing my calendar, please use our contact form on the contact page. 

Please also note that I schedule some time each month to do pro-bono consulting to smaller companies in need as a means of giving back and gratitude for my good fortune.  Some of the time on my calendar may be for that purpose.

Obviously, this is an extremely limited opportunity, due to the fact that I rarely have openings in my schedule.  You see, I’m already delivering for other clients, and not only do they rarely let my services end, they are so thrilled with the results that they continue to ask me to help them in many other areas.

And if you needed one more reason to schedule a call with me, here you go.  We are a small, specialized firm by design.  It allows me to do something absolutely none of the large consulting firms can ever do – provide you with personalized service.

When you sign up with one of those other firms, you’ll likely start out by dealing with an ‘account manager’; someone with little experience in the actual services being provided.  Their job is to ‘sell’ you on the services.  Once you are ‘sold’, you may never hear from that person again.

Next, they’ll send out one or two junior staff to deliver the services.  By junior staff I mean someone with less than 10 - 15 years’ experience.  Since they lack experience, (and by experience, I mean the kind of experience you get by being in the field for over 30 years), they’ll often take a ‘template’ approach to your situation.  That is, they’ll try to make your situation fit into their template.  It may or may not.

If anyone promises you that they can deliver what you need, without actually sitting down with you and having a detailed discussion, and without the persons present who will actually be doing the work, well…let’s just say that isn’t your ideal situation.

Finally, due to their overhead, their fees tend to be exorbitant.

The bottom line?  I can only work with a few clients at a time, because my clients get me personally.  As much as I might like to work with many other companies, I simply can’t.

So, if you feel like this is right for you and your organization,  Click on contact button and let’s talk.

 

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