saas ppm – how do you know when it’s right for you?

Webcast Series

SaaS PPMHow Do You Know When It’s Right For You?

Topics

Is SaaS PPM Right for You?Are You Ready for SaaS?The Benefits of SaaS PPMSaaS PPM – The Right PPM Solution for You

What Is SaaS?

Software as a ServiceSaaS is software that's owned, delivered and managed remotely by a third party provider. – Consumed in a one-to-many model by all

contracted customers anytime, on a pay-for-use basis or as a subscription based on use metrics.

Is SaaS PPM Right for You?

Determine the Value of SaaS

SaaS has emerged as an alternative to traditional IT models for three primary reasons:

SaaS enables companies to fund software deployment from an operating budget.SaaS helps companies with limited IT resources deploy software capabilities for which they otherwise could not budget.SaaS helps companies deploy functionality quicker.

Things To Consider

Is the required application functionality fully available via SaaS?Are there any company policies or industry regulations that prevent data from being held physically outside the company?Is a highly customized application required?Is the required integration of the application into other applications available from the SaaS solution?

Things To Consider

Will the application create competitive parity for us?Is developing and managing this application a core competency?Do we have the IT skills available to develop and manage this application?Do we have the IT infrastructures available to develop and manage this application

Things To Consider

Do we have financial resources available to develop and manage this application?Do we want to pay for this application and its maintenance from our operating expenditures budget?We have an urgent need for this application?We have a high level of risk tolerance?

Things To Consider

How well is our IT department integrated with our business units?Can this application be stand-alone?Do we have a history of using externally based applications?Are we skeptical about the role/value of technology in our company?Are we comfortable working in partnership with an IT vendor?

Things To Consider

Are we confident that externally based applications can have appropriate levels of security and availability?Will participants from outside of our organizations will be accessing the applications?Is there a possibility we may not require this application permanently?

Are You Ready for SaaS?

Readiness Factors

Have you developed the business process flows to be automated with the SaaS solution? – Can the process be executed with the solution?

Readiness Factors

Have you specified integration requirements with on-premise applications, other SaaS software services and data sources– Identify data sources necessary to support the

application (for instance, product data from core or legacy systems).

– Be careful to not over-engineer the data refresh requirements

Readiness Factors

Have you created security specifications to evaluate the SaaS provider's data center practices and staffing. – Establish a minimum acceptable level of

security – Make a trade-off between cost and additional

security for providers that exceed the minimum

Readiness Factors

Have you assessed your internal network and internet bandwidth to ensure readiness for the additional traffic the SaaS solution will require through the firewall? – How many users, and where are they

connecting from? – How often are they connecting? – How long are they connected? – How much data will be transferred?

Readiness Factors

Have you determined the uptime requirements with the business users so the appropriate SaaS uptime requirements can be passed on to the SaaS provider? – Do not focus on unplanned downtime alone – End-to-end service availability is a better

metric to accurately assess the impact on your business.

Readiness Factors

Have you determined staging and testing processes for the software service update cycle? – It's important to develop your requirements

prior to working with potential vendors. – Some vendors support multiple versions,

enabling you to upgrade on your schedule, – Others support only a single version of their

software at one time, forcing upgrades at a time of the vendor's choosing

– Be sure to incorporate testing integrations and new functionality as part of the upgrade process

Readiness Factors

Have you defined the user problem resolution process? – As an end-user problem occurs, it is critical

that there is notification to other users and a process to resolve issues with a potential provider.

– You will be in the best position if you develop a standard process independent of a provider.

Readiness Factors

Have you developed an enhancement and change-request process, including administration ownership? – One of the advantages of most SaaS solutions

is the administration tools for business users. They enable a quicker response to change requests by end users.

– However, if there is no process to communicate, validate and distribute these changes, then the SaaS solution can quickly become unmanageable

The Benefits of SaaS

SaaS Benefits

Lower initial costsPay for what you useFaster and less-expensive implementationsLower riskReduced operational management requirementsLower upgrade costsLower switching costsHigher user adoption due to anytime access, and only internet access is required.

SaaS Benefits

SaaS offers just the "right" functionality — because 80% of people don't need 80% of the functionality in software.SaaS is treated as an operating expense, enabling departments to keep within their budget authority.SaaS can benefit resource-constrained companies that do not have the resources, such as database administrators, to implement an on-premise application.

SaaS Benefits

Delivery via the provider's infrastructure reduces the need to invest in and maintain databases, application servers and hardware.Application configuration by business administrator — Configuration of application data occurs via the manipulation of metadata, often via a browser; this eliminates the need for long change cycles that are required with most on-premise deployments.

SaaS PPMThe Right PPM Solution for You

Project Management Maturity

6% - Level 151% - Level 242% - Level 3 1% - Level 4

Gartner

AD HOC (INITIAL)

Milestones and issues defined differently for each projectWeak scope definitionStatus reports with no baseline

OPTIMIZINGPROCESS

Strategic alignment of all key projects with company objectives Formal PM lifecycle, career path, certification & best practicesMeasurable value from enterprise portfolio management (customers, suppliers and partnerships)

ORGANIZATIONAL STANDARD PROCESS

Plans created down to activity level with baselines and trackingRoll-up reportingResource management at the project levelCross project dependencies managedChange management implementedGet gateway processes defined and used

STRUCTURED PROCESS

Gateway processMilestone managementBasic document visibility and controlStructured reportingIssue management

MANAGEDPROCESS

Managing multiple projects across one or more business unitsProjects driven by business objectives; begin integrating PM tools and business/IT requirements Improve risk response and managing a “portfolio” of projects

Project Management Maturity

1

5

32

4

PM

Mat

urity

Process/System Complexity

GOAL: PM Capability

PPM Expectation

Risk

Enterprise Project & Work Management

Web-based Project Collaboration

Strategic Portfolio, Project & Work Management

Solutions For Everyone

Project, Portfolio & Work ManagementSolutions For Everyone

Schedule Management Team Collaboration

Enterprise Governance Program Management

Time Management Work Management

Financial Management Capacity Planning

Project Visibility Resource Management

Demand Management Portfolio Management

ProjectEngine

A simple, online project management tool that makes working together on projects, easy.

Target Users• No spending or decision making authorization, no executive buy in• Need to share their schedules (work or task assignments) with their

teams• Need to automate collaboration for team statusing to increase

productivity and reduce manual work• Need to produce projects and work on time, on budget and with quality

but does not have cross project reporting needs• Wants to get up and running online today with no one-on-one training

needs• Looking for an out of box tool with little to no customization needs• Share and Collaborate on Project Artifacts with team members

(Documents, Discussions, Issues, Contacts, Announcements, Meetings, etc.)

WorkEngine

WorkEngine ensures that your business executes all projects and all work more effectively, efficiently and timely.

Target Users• Has executive buy in for an Enterprise Project Management system• Need to share their schedules and other work with their teams• Need to account for all other work that affects their projects resources

(services, products, requests, etc.)• Need to automate collaboration for team statusing to increase productivity

and reduce manual work• Will require team members to update status for multiple projects as well

as work• Need to produce projects on time, on budget and with quality and needs

to report against work health across departments/enterprise• Requires resource workload and availability for proper resource allocation

PortfolioEngine

PortfolioEngine aligns projects and work to your business objectives, to make sure the right investment decisions are executed.

Target Users

• Needs top-down planning tool that will allow them to select the right projects/work that align with strategic objectives

• Need project/work resource capacity planning to ensure the right resources are on the right projects at the right time and can meet resource management needs

• Need to project/work forecast costs to ensure alignment with budgets/targets

• Need scenario modeling to create the most profitable portfolio• Does not have the need for detailed execution functionality• Will require configuration support and training

Try us out

www.epmlive.com

Contact us at info@epmlive.com

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Portfolio Management

ScheduleManagement

CostManagement

Time Management

Work Management

ResourceManagement