Customers are acting with considerably more caution these days as we see how difficult economic times are putting pressure on them to be more particular about who they choose to do business with. What you don’t want to do is push your customers away...so keep these thoughts in mind.
2010 saw Cloud Computing advance in popularity and in controversy. While the allure of reduced investments in infrastructure grows, so do the issues related to security and control over information. So what does the future of Cloud Computing look like?
It's easy to get lost in the Cloud if you are unsure who the major players are out there. This overview will examine several Cloud frameworks and identify the who's who of the big-league Cloud riders.
Discussion on quality management has not evolved much since the mid-1990s. Within executive circles, the discussions are not about the importance of quality, but rather on what quality is, how it is achieved and how it can be measured. The issues surrounding quality seem focused on definition and approach rather than on need. What is quality? What does senior management expect from the quality process, and how do these expectations apply to IT? Read on...
This writers experience with the Disney Institute--the learning arm of the Walt Disney organization--provided fresh approaches in achieving excellence through--and with--people.
Each employee or team member is unique, with specific skills, talents, weaknesses and work style. Shouldn't your employee incentive and reward program reflect that individuality? This set of checklists and worksheets wil help you develop a program to keep employees happy and motivated, with appropriate incentivies and rewards--developed with input from each of your charges.
Companies that pursue business intelligence through a technology-driven approach get lots of cool graphs, but not information that allows them to make actionable decisions. Here's the right way to approach this all-important process.
Most technical professionals don’t give job security and loyalty much thought in this erratic economy. Yet some experts and consultants insist that job and company loyalty are essential for success.
Ever stop to think what the differences are between ITIL Service Level Management and mainstream Customer Relationship Management functions? Are they complementary to each other? Is CRM contained within SLM, or visa versa? The answers are a click away...
Agile projects are optimized for different constraints than traditional ones. To truly understand how to design a performance measurement system for agile PM, we need to dig a little deeper into the value system underlying agile methods.
Examples of branding’s value can be found in a corporation’s Customer Relationship Management operation through its various channels.
Regardless of your communication style and the means through which you decide to communicate to customers, the important component of any message you send requires that you build a component of trust into every exchange.
Are your leadership skills up to par? Peruse this checklist to see if you are on track with current thought on motivating employees, setting goals, managing conflict--and more!
Whatever happened to the myth of the one-to-one enterprise? It's time to revive one-to-one marketing and personalization. For the organization that actually does it properly, the benefits in customer loyalty and increased share of wallet could be tremendous.
What's your business focus? If it's something other than your customers, you may want to rethink it. Your business is nothing without your customers. That's the whole idea behind CRM--knowing your customers, making them happy and keeping them happy.
How do you make a fixed-price contract work? This article investigates the reasons why IT projects tend to overrun the budget--and the mitigating actions that can be applied.
Once upon a time, the buzzword was TQM. Now, you have to look at more than quality. Today's successful businesses are about value. Welcome to the age of TVM.
Used correctly, e-mail has the capacity to help you deliver quality online service, establish lasting customer relationships, improve customer loyalty and satisfaction and even reduce service costs.
In a pure-project structure, a project team is put together to accomplish the project’s goals. This has distinct advantages and disadvantages, as this presentation shows.
The use of supplier relationship management (SRM) can be considered symbiotic in nature, since the mutually beneficial aspects of having such a two-way dependent/supportive partnership can make each party’s success tied to the other’s. Can we relate?
What price would you pay for your own personal customer satisfaction? It's time for you to start improving customer loyalty through a total customer experience approach.
Although the benefits of correctly marketing a project can be many, applying these concepts to projects is not always easy. The following concepts are intended to help you in your project marketing efforts.
While attending a recent course, this writer learned some simple techniques for better defining the customer and their desires. This article introduces some of the techniques that will help ensure teams know who their customers and users are, who they are not and how to create winning solutions for delivering value.
Sometimes it’s not about who is right or who is wrong--sometimes it may just be asking what’s wrong.
Everyone in your organization has his own area of expertise. Bringing all that knowledge together is one of your most powerful tools toward process improvement. Here are six steps to get you up to speed.
This article will explore how to design an effective and agile planning process that would allow internal groups to adapt and plan for new business priorities, minimize employee burnout and increase the opportunity to maximize the percentage of planned versus implemented features.
There is a subtle but important difference between measuring outcomes and measuring people. So what should we measure? Here are five measures that can bring about extraordinary results.
Do you want to supercharge your team, but have been told that slapping is not allowed? You could try free energy drinks and subliminal messages in your PowerPoint slides, but finding out what people value is probably a better way to go. This article explores how better to align project objectives with personal objectives to increase team motivation.
If there's one thing that makes the difference in CRM, it's customer loyalty. If you could buy it, everyone would have it. The tough part is, you're going to have to earn it.
New Business Intelligence offering from Oracle features role-based intelligence to track project performance.
While Web and e-commerce methodologies have supported tremendous changes to business, they have also strengthened branding for companies. More than just smiling faces, snappy catchphrases and enticing logos, these tactics are an investment in market growth and not just a casual business expense.
Small businesses don't have it easy. How can you boost your success and avoid the chronic compromising that could eventually cripple your business? An expert provides some tips.
If the usual “on time” and “on budget” success criteria seems to be missing that secret sauce of stakeholder alignment, see how Actor Network Theory can get a handle on the intangible. Here, we take a look at agile methods viewed through ANT.
Like it or not, getting funding for a project goes beyond presenting the numbers and hoping that they speak for themselves. Getting approval for projects requires a superior business case complete with persuasive arguments as to why the project in question deserves funding and support amongst all the other competing requests for resources.
When the economy demands that you trim your IT organization, the bulky, overstaffed groups are to be envied. They have plenty of room to cut and look like heroes of sacrifice. For those of us who are already running lean, there seems to be nowhere to go. Here are some ideas on how you can still tighten up, even when you're already running lean and mean.
A study of the Evolution of Management Theory can help you and your business survive to the next era.
When faced with a disaster, project managers must become recovery managers. Here, a turnaround specialist shares seven tips for turning around troubled projects, starting with realizing there is a problem and concluding with ways to prevent future disasters.
The outcome of an IT project involves too many intangibles spreading over a number of business functions and departments. This makes determining the ROI of an IT project much more complex than other projects. But there has never been a greater need to justify the ROI of an IT project--nor has there been an easier time to do it.
The decisions you're making every day as a project manager may not lead you to an ethical crossroads. However, if they do, keeping good PM ethics in check can stop you from going down the wrong path.
There's a new generation in town...are you Xers prepared to lead Generation Y? There's a whole new set of rules to learn, and adapting to a new leadership style is critical. Here's some help in leading Gen Y...and beyond.
When managing a web project, content means everything. While design and functionality are important, how you define, create and manage web content can be the deciding factors in the success or failure of the site. Since you want to keep your clients--and your boss--happy, we offer the following tips for content management.
While there are popular tenets of conventional wisdom that apply to job hunting and career building, a contrary approach to job hunting can pay off. Here we look at three myths you should be aware of.
Adaptive leadership is a critical skill for succeeding in a post-recession economy. It includes being willing to rewrite the rules of the game, realign project portfolios and redefine the work people do. Here are some solid suggestions for applying it to your organization’s PPM efforts.
Days of fickle consumers, high employee turnover and fleeting investors have put the whole idea of loyalty into question. But there's really no question about it--loyalty makes all the difference to your CRM effort.
While it is their own personal goal to maximize team productivity and minimize any stumbling blocks along the way, it is also sometimes necessary for a ScrumMaster to act as a guardian and help protect their team members. Just don't get too aggressive on the field...
Over the years loyalty programs have grown increasingly popular as a means to attract and retain customers. Well, guess what? Real loyalty comes from retention, referrals, reputation and revenue. Does anyone realize that out there in CRM land?
Searching for a good manager is as important as searching for your next assignment.
If there's one thing that can send a project downhill fast, it's cost overflow. No one wants it, but it happens nonetheless. Here are some thoughts on what causes it and how you can avoid it.
Comprehensively drawing in associates into a customer-oriented vision and methodologies on how to interact with clients is necessary if an organization is to profit--not just psychologically from a better CRM experience, but monetarily as well.
At root, the Moscow Rules were all about creating the right behaviors to be successful at counter espionage. So, what are they, and how might they apply to project management?
