Excerpt from PROFIT - ORACLE - by Monica Mehta
Yasser Mahmud has seen a revolution in project management over the
past decade. During that time, the former Primavera product strategist
(who joined Oracle when his company was acquired in 2008) has not only
observed a transformation in the way IT systems support corporate
projects but the role project portfolio management (PPM) plays in the
enterprise. “15 years ago project management was the domain of project
management office (PMO),” Mahmud recalls of earlier days. “But over the
course of the past decade, we've seen it transform into a mission
critical enterprise discipline, that has made Primavera indispensable in
the board room. Now, as a senior manager, a board member, or a C-level
executive you have direct and complete visibility into what’s kind of
going on in the organization—at a level of detail that you're going to
consume that information.” Now serving as Oracle’s vice president of
product strategy and industry marketing, Mahmud shares his thoughts on
how Oracle’s Primavera solutions have evolved and how best-in-class
project portfolio management systems can help businesses stay
competitive.
Profit: What do you feel are the market dynamics that are changing project management today?
Mahmud:
First, the data explosion. We're generating data at twice the rate at
which we can actually store it. The same concept applies for
project-intensive organizations. A lot of data is gathered, but what are
we really doing with it? Are we turning data into insight? Are we using
that insight and turning it into foresight with analytics tools? This
is a key driver that will separate the very good companies—the very
competitive companies—from those that are not as competitive.
Another
trend is centered on the explosion of mobile computing. By the year
2013, an estimated 35 percent of the world’s workforce is going to be
mobile. That’s one billion people. So the question is not if you're
going to go mobile, it’s how fast you are going to go mobile. What kind
of impact does that have on how the workforce participates in projects?
What worked ten to fifteen years ago is not going to work today. It
requires a real rethink around the interfaces and how data is actually
presented.
Profit: What is the role of project management in this new landscape?
Mahmud:
We recently conducted a PPM study with the Economist Intelligence Unit
centered to determine how important project management is considered
within organizations. Our target was primarily CFOs, CIOs, and senior
managers and we discovered that while 95 percent of participants
believed it critical to their business, only six percent were confident
that projects were delivered on time and on budget. That’s a huge gap.
Most
organizations are looking for efficiency, especially in these volatile
financial times. But senior management can’t keep track of every project
in a large organization. As a result, executives are attempting to
inventory the work being conducted under their watch.
What
is often needed is a very high-level assessment conducted at the board
level to say, “Here are the 50 initiatives that we have underway. How do
they line up with our strategic drivers?” This line of questioning can
provide early warning that work and strategy are out of alignment;
finding the gap between what the business needs to do and the actual
performance scorecard.
That’s low-hanging
fruit for any executive looking to increase efficiency and save money.
But it can only be obtained through proper assessment of existing
projects—and you need a project system of record to get that done.
Over
the next decade or so, project management is going to transform into
holistic work management. Business leaders will want make sure key
projects align with corporate strategy, but also the ability to drill
down into daily activity and smaller projects to make sure they line up
as well. Keeping employees from working on tasks—even for a few
hours—that don’t line up with corporate goals will, in many ways, become
a competitive differentiator.
Profit: How do all of these market challenges and shifting trends impact Oracle’s Primavera solutions and meeting customers’ needs?
Mahmud:
For Primavera, it’s a transformation from being a project management
application to a PPM system in the enterprise. Also making that system a
mission-critical application by connecting to other key applications
within the ecosystem, such as the enterprise resource planning (ERP),
supply chain, and CRM systems.
Analytics
have also become a huge component. Business analytics have made Oracle’s
Primavera applications pertinent in the boardroom. Now, as a senior
manager, a board member, a CXO, CIO, or CEO, you have direct visibility
into what’s going on in the organization at a level that you're able to
consume that information. In addition, all of this information pairs up
really well with your financials and other data. Certainly, when you're
an Oracle shop, you have that visibility that you didn’t have before
from a project execution perspective.
Profit: What new strategies and tools are being implemented to create a more efficient workplace for users?
Mahmud:
We believe very strongly that just because you call something an
enterprise project portfolio management system doesn’t make it so—you
have to get people to want to participate in the system. This can’t be
mandated down from the top. It simply doesn’t work that way. A truly
adoptable solution is one that makes it super easy for all types users
to participate, by providing them interfaces where they live. Keeping
that in mind, a major area of development has been alternative user
interfaces. This is increasingly resulting in the creation of lighter
weight, targeted interfaces such as iOS applications, and smartphones
interfaces such as for iPhone and Android platform.
Profit: How does this translate into the development of Oracle’s Primavera solutions?
Mahmud:
Let me give you a few examples. We recently announced the launch of our
Primavera P6 Team Member application, which is a native iOS application
for the iPhone. This interface makes it easier for team members to do
their jobs quickly and effectively. Similarly, we introduced the
Primavera analytics application, which can be consumed via mobile
devices, and when married with Oracle Spatial capabilities, users can
get a geographical view of what’s going on and which projects are
occurring in various locations around the world. Lastly, we introduced
advanced email integration that allows project team members to status
work via E-mail. This functionality leverages the fact that users are
in E-mail system throughout the day and allows them to status their work
without the need to launch the Primavera application.
It
comes back to a mantra: provide as many alternative user interfaces as
possible, so you can give people the ability to work, to participate, to
raise issues, to create projects, in the places where they live. Do it
in such a way that it’s non-intrusive, do it in such a way that it’s
easy and intuitive and they can get it done in a short amount of time.
If you do that, workers can get back to doing what they're actually
getting paid for.
