UMT360 Blog
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Investment has always been a driving force behind humanity’s biggest achievements, from conquering new lands to building thriving empires. Consider Christopher Columbus, who sought investment from all corners of Europe in his quest to find new trade routes to Asia. Despite being rejected by most investors, he eventually secured funding from the Spanish crown and …
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With the collapse of Taylorism, which focused on task and process improvement, the natural inclination is to look for another structure to replace it. Unfortunately, there is no universal answer. Organizations must realize that they require a new paradigm that allows them to optimize across many divisions in parallel. Project Portfolio management (PPM) theory is …
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Microsoft’s robust selection of modern work management offerings just got a whole lot more interesting with the release of Project for the web. This exciting new, modern web-based task and project management solution provides an experience that supports co-authoring, interactive grid/board/timeline views and a whole lot more! A range of work management solutions This new …
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Last month in Washington DC, PPM leaders from all over the world gathered for Gartner’s Program & Portfolio Management Summit. We thought we’d share a few observations from the event. With close to 2,000 attendees, this annual Gartner summit is certainly one of the highlights of the year for anyone involved with PPM. As one …
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There’s no question that Microsoft Project Online and Project Server are world-class PPM solutions. When implemented correctly, Microsoft’s PPM platform enables organizations to establish the solid foundation they need to manage project execution. But when it comes to extending capabilities beyond Microsoft’s core PPM features, organizations have historically relied on expensive and complicated customizations and …
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Gartner recently published its Market Guide for Strategy Execution Software. If you’re a Gartner client, you can access it here. The report speaks to the “execution gap” that many organizations are struggling with, and the main culprit seems to be a reliance on traditional tools and processes that keep project success rates stuck at around …
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Microsoft recently announced new pricing for its Project Cloud PPM platform. As with any pricing change, how this new plan may impact your organization depends on your particular situation. Let’s first take a look at the facts, which will help provide a clearer idea of what it could mean to you. All current available plans will eventually …
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We’re excited to be participating in the Gartner PPM & IT Governance Summit once again this year. The Summit will will be in Orlando from June 6-8. If you plan on attending, please do stop by the UMT360 booth and say hello. The theme of this year’s event is Results-Driven PPM: Leading Change and Delivering Value …
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“Decades-old fables about Microsoft Project’s lack of capabilities bear little resemblance to today’s reality.” We’ve all heard the age-old myths about the moon being made of cheese or fantastic creatures patrolling murky depths or hairy giants haunting the Pacific Northwest. With experience comes the wisdom to recognize which is truth and which isn’t. Yet, some of us do still …
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The end of the year is a time to connect with loved ones, celebrate the holidays, and make resolutions for the New Year. For PMO leaders, it’s also the perfect time to take a step back and assess the effectiveness of the processes you use to manage project and program investments, while also assessing their …
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UMT360’s own Ben Chamberlain presents the keynote at this year’s Project Management Days event in Helsinki. I was invited to be the keynote speaker at this year’s Project Management Days in Helsinki. It was an honor to kick off this event in front of hundreds of project management professionals from around the world. But I have …
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We met a lot of folks at the Microsoft Ignite Conference in Chicago last week. And while everyone we spoke with had unique and specific challenges, one common thread ran through our conversations. Most organizations we spoke with used Microsoft Project Online or Project Server as their PPM tool, yet still wanted a more efficient and effective way to manage their projects. …
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Close to 20,000 people will gather in Chicago for Microsoft Ignite during the first week of May. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone there, but we’re particularly interested in connecting with anyone who manages or depends on Microsoft Project Online and Project Server. If that sounds like you, and you’re planning on attending Ignite, please …
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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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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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The UMT360 team just returned from the PMO Symposium in South Florida, where we met lots of folks interested in learning about transforming their PMO. Symposium attendees stopping by the UMT360 booth learned about the benefits of establishing a strategic PMO and participated in the UMT360 PMO Maturity Assessment. The assessment survey helps organizations picture …
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Back in July, we ran a successful webinar discussing what it takes to create a strategic PMO. The webcast, led by Carl Souchereau, formerly of TransAlta and now Project Director at SNC Lavalin, provided practical advice around mastering the important yet tactical aspects of project management as well as taking strategic responsibility for managing the …
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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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Ask ten people to define portfolio management and you’ll likely receive ten different answers. Of the various definitions, most will focus on some sort of aggregate reporting across portfolios or highlight alignment of spend with strategic priorities and selecting the optimal project portfolio under varying budget constraints. I believe firmly that neither definition aptly describes …
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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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UMT360 is pleased to be named a finalist in Microsoft’s 2014 Partner of the Year Awards which celebrate top Microsoft partners that solve customer challenges with creative technology solutions. Microsoft received more than 3200 nominations for the 46 awards. UMT360 has been named either a winner or finalist in the Partner of the Year Awards …
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Consolidated Edison’s Frank La Rocca did such a great job setting up an enterprise PMO to handle a $200 million portfolio that the energy company has asked him to do the same for $2 billion of spend. What made him so successful? La Rocca understood early on that he had to have the portfolio transparency …
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UMT360 is pleased to be a Silver Sponsor of Gartner’s PPM and IT Governance Summit being held June 2-4 in National Harbor, Maryland. The two day summit with the theme “Resource Priorities. Generate Change. Realize Returns.” is described by Gartner as a premier gathering of senior executives, program/portfolio managers and IT leaders focused on realizing …
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A move is on to shift from project to product-based thinking which allows a business to focus on aligning investments with business drivers and adjust to quick shifts in the marketplace. A buzz really started when Gartner addressed the topic in a Matthew Hotle and Bill Swanton report which came out in November 2013. UMT360, …
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Today, many businesses are questioning the effectiveness of their traditional Project Portfolio Management (PPM). What does the PMO need to do to position themselves as leaders with the ability to optimize the spend and maximize ROI across the portfolio? Join Con Edison’s Director of Financial Governance Frank La Rocca for a look at how he …
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Despite significant investments in PPM, it is failing to deliver the anticipated results. Both Gartner and the Standish Group have reported low project success rates and UMT360 research finds that today companies are failing to realize up to 46% of the planned business value from project portfolios. UMT360’s Chief Product and Marketing Officer Ben Chamberlain …
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In a recent presentation, Gartner Research VP Donna Fitzgerald told a standing room only crowd that PMOs must start change the way they see the landscape and understand that their improvement depends on an ability to deliver value. She explained that 80% of her company’s clients are below level 3 on Gartner’s 5 point maturity …
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Built on SharePoint, UMT360 is the only Enterprise Portfolio Management solution offering seamless integration with Project Server. Our customers who also use Project Server have found that UMT360 is helping them get more from their PPM. “We wanted one source of information; we wanted a common language; we wanted to be global; and we wanted …
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When it comes to aligning investments with company strategy, organizations need to take a hard look at their existing system for managing investments. The current business operating system includes products and services, and capabilities such as processes and assets. What’s needed is an additional investment system capable of addressing both rapid change and challenges created …
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Fortune 500 manufacturer of agricultural and farming equipment, AGCO, was having trouble base-lining their portfolio every year. The issues associated with identifying just what they had in their portfolio sent the company in search of an enterprise PPM solution. For portfolio management, they had been relying on what amounted to an Excel dump of the …
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Today’s businesses are moving away from a focus on measuring project results and towards a focus on business benefits. Senior managers want to know how investments align with business metrics and will impact the business. There’s a lot of discussion about organizations instituting benefits realization tools to ensure investments deliver real business value. As organizations …
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In March, UMT360’s Chief Product and Marketing Officer Ben Chamberlain presented a webinar showing Project Server customers how UMT360 can help them gain complete financial intelligence across their project portfolios and increase ROI. Ben discussed how UMT360 helps eliminate the need for Excel and standardizes investment governance controls across the PPM lifecycle, streamlines capital planning, …
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When looking at PPM in 2014, there is one dominant trend – a focus on value. Speaking at the recent Microsoft Project Conference in Anaheim, Gartner Analyst Donna Fitzgerald told a standing room only crowd that what clients are doing today, simply isn’t good enough. Improvement depends on an ability to deliver value. Fitzgerald used …
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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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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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The Director of Development for Microsoft’s Project Server Ludovic Hauduc was in the UMT360 offices recently and took a moment to talk about UMT360 as a Microsoft Partner and how our product is helping Project Server customers get more value from their PPM investment. UMT360 is the only Enterprise Portfolio Management solution built on SharePoint …
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At this week’s Microsoft Project Conference in Anaheim, attendees packed into the session about Benefits Realization wanting to know what they can do to better achieve project and portfolio benefits. UMT360’s Ben Chamberlain presented the Benefits Realization session and told the crowd that it is essential to start looking at projects as business investments. That …
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In a packed session in this week’s 2014 Microsoft Project Conference in Anaheim, UMT360’s Chief Product and Marketing Officer Ben Chamberlain talked about the importance of benefits realization software and how UMT360 is helping organizations better achieve that. Industry analysts agree that there’s an issue with organizations not realizing benefits from their investments – PPM …
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Marquette University has expanded its use of Project Server – adding UMT360 capabilities to help it maximize the value of its PPM platform. The university went from using Project Server as a simple repository of project schedules to doing so much more including using it for the capital selection process. At Microsoft’s Project Conference next week in …
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Con Edison’s Director of Financial Governance Frank La Rocca is using Microsoft Project Server and UMT360 to provide financial intelligence across the company’s $2 billion portfolio. He discussed how UMT360 is helping him optimize the capital spend and drive results during the Microsoft Project Conference in Anaheim earlier this year. He also shared his governance …
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UMT360 is gearing up for the Microsoft Project Conference early next month in Anaheim. Among the most anticipated UMT360 presentations is a discussion about organizations making the move from PPM to Enterprise Portfolio Management. UMT360 Chief Product and Marketing Officer Ben Chamberlain and UMT360 President Catalin Olteanu will show how UMT360 is helping our customers …
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UMT360 invites attendees of the Microsoft Project Conference in Anaheim next month to attend a session when we’ll be joined by Gartner Research VP Donna Fitzgerald to discuss the Most Important PPM Trends for 2014. Gartner has identified significant PPM changes underway and will share insight into how you can leverage them for success. Donna …
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UMT360 is proud to be a Platinum Sponsor of the 2014 Microsoft Project Conference being held in Anaheim next month. We’ll be speaking with Microsoft customers about how UMT360 is increasing the value businesses get from their existing PPM investment. UMT360 is currently the only Enterprise Portfolio Management solution on the market built on …
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Built on the Microsoft SharePoint Server, UMT360 helps companies get more value from their Project Server investments. It helps companies digitalize investment planning and controls to gain complete financial transparency across their project and program portfolios. Check out the new UMT360 Data Sheet – Project and Portfolio Financial Intelligence for Microsoft Project Server. If you …
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As we wrap up 2013 and start to think about our plans for 2014, it’s time for businesses to take a look at their PPM and consider how it can be improved for the new year. In a recent UMT360 video, our Chief Product and Marketing Officer Ben Chamberlain was joined by featured Gartner Analyst …
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When Frank La Rocca was named VP at a major northeastern utility company, the CFO and COO told him they wanted to ensure that IT spending was aligned with corporate strategy. It’s a goal that has stayed in the back of his mind ever since – the need to understand or measure the alignment factor. …
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In his recent UMT360 webinar, Benefits Realization: Unleashing the Power of the PMO, Frank La Rocca, the Director of Business Improvement Services in Con Edison’s Finance Organization, shared a benefits realization solution to effectively track the actual value delivered across the investment portfolio. To ensure you’re realizing planned benefits, La Rocca said organizations should have …
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In a UMT360 webcast, an industry analyst said that business leaders are now “reaching out to the market again looking for independent portfolio management functionality that will allow them to justify new investments and justify the redistribution especially of funds in order to exploit new business opportunities.” Today, it can be a daunting process for …
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In a recent HBR article The Hidden Indicators of a Failing Project, author Gretchen Gavett explores why people are reluctant to bring up red flags during the course of a project. On the list of How to Manage Big Projects Differently are “check and revise your business case regularly” and “monitor what’s not being spent.” Those …
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Almost two years ago, Con Edison’s Director of Business Improvement Services, Frank La Rocca, instituted a ‘sweep process’ to allow for dynamic budget reallocation. “It allows project managers to release funds dynamically during the year and we can secure those funds for other projects. Once we know a project is not going to use that money, …
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UMT360 is focused on delivering PPM2.0 for our customers – the new PPM which provides organizations with the complete perspective they need to make better decisions about projects – decisions which ultimately will translate to more ROI. But what does PPM 2.0 really mean? PPM has evolved significantly over the last 15 years. Organizations have …
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Today, many companies are failing to realize up to 46% of the planned business value from their project portfolios. The key to recapturing that lost business value is Portfolio Financial Intelligence (PFI). UMT360 is please to launch a series of three webinars presented by Frank La Rocca, Consolidated Edison’s Director of Business Improvement Services within …
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UMT360 is pleased to bring you a series of webinars on PPM 2.0 – Why Portfolio Financial Intelligence (PFI) is Key. You can click here to view the recording of the first in the series presented in late September by UMT360 CEO Mike Gruia. Join us for the next three webinars being presented by Frank …
