UMT360 Blog
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Recently, companies have shifted their attention to business transformation or optimization in order to improve their current operations and extend their opportunities. This is a significant shift, moving towards a future focus instead of attempting to get the most out of the present through disciplines like process and task optimization or reengineering. This is a …
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A recent UMT360 webinar attracted about 200 project management professionals interested in learning more about how today’s PMO can bridge the planning and execution gap. Judging from the responses to our poll questions during the presentation, nobody doubts that there is a gap. But it’s clear that many organizations are not quite sure what may …
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We asked the audience attending a recent UMT360 webinar – comprised mostly of Enterprise Architects (EAs) – a few questions. I learn the most when I hear directly from the professionals in our industry, so I thought I’d share a few of the results that I found particularly illuminating. “There is one prerequisite for managing …
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I am an avid proponent of the transformative effects of technology. Indeed, digitalizing traditional PPM is core to our mission of helping organizations bridge the gap between strategy and execution. That’s why the recent Q&A with Gartner “Thriving on Digital Chaos” caught my attention. It’s an interesting read, one that touches on the disruptive impact …
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(Final post of a series on the forces helping to drive a tactical to strategic transformation of the PMO.) In this series of blog posts, we’ve established the importance of focusing on capabilities, prioritization, allocation and road maps as they relate to the Strategic PMO. But at the end of the day, all of those …
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(Part five of a series on the forces helping to drive a tactical to strategic transformation of the PMO.) Effective planning and execution of strategic initiatives requires that processes, technology and implementation all be synchronized with company strategy. Organizations that ignore these dependencies risk not being able to implement even moderately complex programs. Project Gantt …
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(Part four of a series on the forces helping to drive a tactical to strategic transformation of the PMO.) For many companies, the allocation of resources is driven from the bottom up. Allocation decisions are often disconnected from business capabilities, are commonly based only on one year of data, or are guided by a simple …
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(Part three of a series on the forces helping to drive a tactical to strategic transformation of the PMO.) A recent Gartner report provides some interesting perspective on the impact that prioritization has on today’s enterprise. Gartner reports that a majority of CIOs agree that non-prioritized, competing projects and programs are an obstacle to implementing …
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(Part two of a series on the forces helping to drive a tactical to strategic transformation of the PMO.) To be truly successful, every organization must have a well-articulated strategy. And it’s crucial that this strategy be tightly aligned with an execution plan. But for many, there’s still a significant gap between strategy and execution. …
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(Part one of a series on the forces helping to drive a tactical to strategic transformation of the PMO.) For decades now, the PMO has been typically focused on tactical execution. Which is what made the keynote address at this year’s PMO Symposium – by one of the world’s foremost authorities on competitive advantage – …
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Many of today’s processes and methods for managing technology investments were not designed for networked organizations operating at high speeds. Financial management best practices were not created for programs, portfolios and assets. In a recent webinar, we polled attendees and asked them about which factors are most important in overcoming IT investment management roadblocks. The top top …
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Today enterprises waste more money on IT than ever before and it’s not as if the money is going into growing and transforming the business. What, then, is pushing costs into these stratospheric levels? Most of the money, an average 66% according to Gartner, goes into keeping the lights on and more than 6% is wasted …
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Having just returned from Gartner’s PPM & IT Governance Summit in Maryland, I’ve been reflecting on the many great discussions our team had regarding Digitized IT and UMT360’s approach to Enterprise Portfolio Management (EPM). Because we have long promoted the tenets of integration, transparency and digitalization as key to successful business investment management, it’s rewarding …
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IT and the business knows: The year-to-year viability of a company depends on its ability to innovate. We have learned over the years that innovation comes from three sources. Top Down – Driven by management imperatives (i.e. we have to be in the cloud) Bottom Up – Can originate anywhere in the organization, everyone participates and …
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UMT360 today announced the release of the newest module in its leading Enterprise Portfolio Management solution – UMT360 Portfolios. UMT360 Portfolios connects siloed portfolios (e.g. project, application, IT Service and business capability) to build a dynamic blueprint of a company’s operating fabric. It provides three breakthrough EPM models to help CIOs, Portfolio Managers and PMOs visualize …
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Gartner’s recently released 2014 CEO and Senior Executives Survey found that growth and IT are executive’s top priorities and those surveyed are talking about digital. In Gartner’s announcement of the survey, VP and Gartner Fellow Mark Raskino said the CEO’s who say technology-related change is important to them, must now invest in that insight. “Make the tough …
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I was reading a blog from a while back on the HBR Blog Network called “The Four Personas of the Next-Generation CIO.” It was amazing to stop and think about how much has changed since the blog was written a few years ago. While the issues for the CIO remain basically the same as in the …
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In Gartner’s recently released 2014 CEO and Senior Executive Survey, a third of the executives surveyed named growth as their top priority. Businesses want growth but face a series of challenges when it comes to finding ways to paying for it. Among other things, the run-the-business investments are eroding capacity, consuming funds needed for growth, …
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Research shows us that businesses rarely get full benefits from their investments. It’s largely why Benefits Realization is such a hot topic today. Defined by Gartner as the discipline organizations adopt to maximize the business value of projects and investments, Benefits Realization software allows senior management to see how specific investments align with the business so they’re better able …
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IT investments face a leaner, slimmer future but the companies that master IT investment cost optimization will emerge with better ROI on their investments. IT investments are positioned as so essential to core operations and integral to business success that they often remain remarkably resistant to cutbacks, even in economic downturns. Although IT investment budgets …
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It’s been a topic of discussion by industry analysts in recent days – businesses making the move from a project to product-based investment approach. What’s the difference? In his latest white paper, UMT360 CEO Mike Gruia explains why the project-focused project and portfolio management (PPM) processes which organizations have used for the last decade are …
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IT spending is back up. Gartner reports the average IT spending increased by 4% in 2012 and is expected to increase by another 3.1% this year (Gartner Market Databook 4Q13 Update) reaching $3.8 trillion. The revival in IT spending suggests that progress is proceeding quickly so it may come as a surprise that many believe …
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UMT360 CEO Mike Gruia talked a bit about the history of UMT360 when he introduced Gartner’s Donna Fitzgerald recently at the Microsoft Project Conference in Anaheim. Below is his introduction during which he discussed UMT’s history in the evolution of portfolio analytics. I’ve been fortunate to be involved with portfolio topics for the last 20 …
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With pressure to do more with less, IT leaders are turning to Application Portfolio Management (APM) to help them rationalize the operational costs so they can allocate more funds toward innovation. APM is also helping them modernize their portfolios so they have the agility needed to successfully meet changing business demands. Recently, UMT360 CEO Mike …
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UMT’s product group, UMT360, is pleased to announce the release of its most ambitious product offering to date. UMT360 revolutionizes portfolio management by providing comprehensive, integrated solutions to help companies gain financial transparency and dramatically improve investment decisions across their projects, products and asset portfolios. UMT360 CEO Mike Gruia commented, “UMT360 is the culmination of …