A recent survey found that four out of five project managers see resource management as one of their most important tasks. Yet more than half rely on spreadsheets to perform this important process.
Let’s be clear what we mean by resource management:
- A database of skills and capabilities in the organisation.
- What capacity (or supply) of resources an organisation has.
- Visibility of what demands are currently being made on resources.
- Visibility of what demands are likely to be made on resources in the future.
- Shortfalls or over supply of resources over time.
- Understanding what allocations of resources are currently in place.
So as you can see, it is a pretty tricky picture to put together. And one that is difficult and error prone in a spreadsheet based solution. So why not use a tool designed specifically for the job.
You can read the full article here at Project Manager Today.
admin Resource Management
With a few exceptions most software vendors have either chosen to provide their software exclusively as software as a service or as an installed solution. I have always found this rather odd.
In fact this was backed up recently when in discussion with an analyst from a research company. He wanted to understand our strategy of offering TeamWorks as a service and as an installed solution. I told him something along the lines of “Its quite simple really, we are in business to make money”. As a vendor why close off routes to sales by limiting your prospective customers options? Not all prospective customers can go with SaaS software - often this is a corporate policy. This may change over time, but I would estimate that right now at least 20-30% of prospects we engage with have to purchase installed software.
The argument often positioned for vendors going either the SaaS route OR the installed software route is to keep their software and product simple. But I think this is a case of getting your software design and architecture right.
With TeamWorks our installed customers use exactly the same software as our SaaS customers. It causes us no extra work or development effort to offer both as our software was designed with that intention. So we broaden our market at no additional cost to ourselves. As they say - it’s a no brainer.
Ian Harrison Hosted, SaaS
Doom and gloom is everywhere at the moment. But one software sector is still booming according to CIO.com - hosted project management solutions.
This is certainly borne out by our rate of customer acquisition and the number organisations making enquiries about our software. We think there are three main drivers behind this:
- Organisations need to manage their people and projects as efficiently as possible and the solution they are turning to increasingly is project management and PPM software.
- As budgets shrink for software purchases, the low cost of entry and flexible subscription arrangements for hosted software make real sense.
- Hosted software provides a lower risk option as many vendors will allow organisations to quickly set up a free trial and evaluation. So they can demonstrate the benefits before committing.
You can read the full article here.
Ian Harrison Hosted, SaaS
The November 2008 issue of Project Manager Today magazine features a review of TeamWorks by Steve Cotterell. Thanks to Steve for a well written piece. If you don’t subscribe to the magazine you can register for a free trial of their online version.
Visit http://www.pmtoday.co.uk for more information.
Ian Harrison TeamWorks, review
