Drive Efficiencies by Empowering Service Desk Users with Collaboration

Portfolio planning activities have struggled to gain respect in most businesses. Lack of enterprise-wide orchestration arises from a lack of effective involvement and intimate business knowledge – not simply of operations and processes, but of business imperatives, obstacles and desired outcomes. And the information systems aspects continue to be planned in splendid isolation from the business, causing IT people to mistakenly celebrate victory when a new IT system goes live. However a project only really starts when the IT goes live, and so the planning needs to be fully integrated. This can only be accomplished first by building strong relationships with business peers that will result in measurable value creation. The next step is to implement a sophisticated PPM system that can handle the extreme complexity of orchestrating all the business and related technology portfolio of initiatives, capable of optimizing the plans (and the outcomes) as the business environment changes.

To achieve this, a new PPM model needs to be created to look at portfolio management in a holistic way, enterprise-wide. Planners need a capability that will generate multiple scenarios and real-time decision support. This dimensionality and complexity is well beyond the capacity of the human brain. By implementing such a tool, IT would be positioned as a critical partner with the business – not just in implementing mainstream information systems, but also in helping the business with a much better way to plan and manage all of its key initiatives effectively

This session focuses on how enterprise leaders and divisional leaders and IT leaders should be working in harmony to orchestrate great business outcomes, rather than looking after their parochial interests.

The development of a solid product innovation strategy is undoubtledly a collaborative effort, and company cultures that support an open and robust dialog will be more able to evolve their strategies to address their changing business environments.

Attend this webcast featuring Michelle Jones from Stage-Gate International as she discusses how these companies are better equipped to address risk and derive more value from their product innovation efforts. Also hear why aligning your product innovation strategy is an important precursor to making continuous strategic assessments and project prioritization decisions.

All attendees will gain insight into the 5 key elements that comprise a consensus based innovation strategy, the importance of clearly communicating that strategy to drive strategic portfolio management, and the metrics to measure performance.

This event is approved for 1 Professional Development Unit (PDU) credit.

Wall Street expects it and customer demand it – accountability from Sr. Executives for the future direction of their organizations. How can executives ensure their strategic plans are in action and on track? How can they shift and pivot to changing market conditions along with the risks and impacts to the long-term vision and goals? How do you thread accountability from planning to execution to results?

Join this session, where David Werner, Senior Principal Product Marketing Manager, CA Technologies, speaks with Rick Morris, published Author and Owner/President of R2 Consulting about ways to bring more accountability through your strategic plan.

A recent analyst study found that 88% of organizations are “doing Project and Portfolio Management (PPM).” This finding could lead many to believe all is well with this critical business process so essential to strategic success. This is hardly the case as studies also show PPM is still generally immature in enterprises today. The lack of maturity is largely due to the fact that most organizations are addressing only a subset of PPM capabilities. So though almost every organization can lay claim to doing PPM, few are actually doing PPM for all its worth. Many of these organizations will continue to miss out on the incredible possibility and promise of this essential business capability until they grasp and appreciate the full scope and potential of PPM.

One of the greatest barriers to realizing the full potential of PPM is an enterprise-wide awareness of the span of PPM and the likely gap that must be overcome to achieve it. There is a plethora of great PPM insight contained in the numerous books, methodologies, and frameworks available today, but using this volume of information to get everyone on the same page is a daunting challenge. The key is to use a simple approach and model to quickly establish a common understanding of this critical business discipline and to easily foster the conversations and discussions to drive the endeavor to raise PPM proficiency.

This brief webcast will present a PPM model that is easy to remember, easy to communicate, and proven to quickly illuminate the gap between existing immature PPM processes and the full scope and potential of comprehensive Project and Portfolio Management.

At its most basic level, communication is the transfer of information and ideas between two or more entities. In the context of organizational project and program management, communication is a core competency that, when properly executed, connects every member of a project team to a common set of strategies, goals and actions. Unless these components are effectively shared by project leads and understood by stakeholders, project outcomes are jeopardized and budgets incur unnecessary risk. Effective communications leads to more successful projects, allowing organizations to become high performers and risk 14 times fewer dollars than their low-performing counterparts.

This webinar reveals the communications challenges that prevent organizations from accomplishing more successful projects, and identifies key initiatives enable organizations to improve their communication as they face their own unique challenges in an ever-changing complex and risky environment.

This session is approved for 1 Professional Development Unit (PDU) credit.

A recent comprehensive survey commissioned by CA revealed some very clear trends in portfolio management and provided evidence of what distinguishes a strong portfolio performer from a weak one.

In this engaging presentation report author, Andy Jordan will explore these indicators and provide recommendations for how your organization can become more adaptable, agile and responsive to portfolio changes.

Learn how you can build improved effectiveness into your portfolio execution approach, and how communication can contribute to your success.

This event is approved for 1 Professional Development Unit (PDU) credit.

The C-level suite agrees that aligning business and technology objectives are an essential element in achieving what’s necessary to win, retain and serve their customers, however, are they putting their money where their mouths are? The data tells a different story. According to Forrester Research, while two thirds of CIOs and CMOs agree that the CMO is an active participant in strategic planning, the perception of CIO involvement varies significantly between the two roles. Moreover, half of surveyed PMO leaders feel they have all the tools in place to competently manage the portfolio pipeline. Companies are routinely adopting practices to deliver faster and better; it’s time for executives to do the same. Effectively managing a portfolio that enables business leaders to achieve their strategic objectives requires tooling that supports pragmatic practices in order to gather data at the right level and at the right time.

This presentation examines portfolio management trends and best practices that high achieving organizations have applied to turbo charge their planning process.

Forrester Research, Inc., The State Of Strategic Execution In 2015, January 27, 2015

This event is approved for 1 Professional Development Unit (PDU) credit.

At a time when digital transformation is driving significant change across all industry sectors, it is critical that organizations are able to align functional and cross-functional project activities to their strategic objectives. In the digital economy, the lines between technology, new product development, applications, service delivery and change management are increasingly blurred, and it's vital for the business to have an integrated view, not only to support strategic planning and investment prioritization, but also to effectively manage these initiatives through execution. The project portfolio management process must also evolve to handle both fast-moving digital initiatives and longer-term projects, with a shortened feedback loop that engages project teams and business stakeholders, and provides visibility at all levels. This session will address topics including:

·How to align projects to business goals in planning AND execution
·Why PPM is vital for a digital project portfolio
·How PPM can unify cross-functional initiatives
·When to consider changes to PPM processes
·Why project visibility is critical to successful business change

This event is approved for 1 Professional Development Unit (PDU) credit.

The importance of an effective PPM solution is undisputed. Companies around the world have been using CA PPM (formerly Clarity) for more than ten years, and new companies are deploying it every day. With such a huge install base and so much historical use, why then do some companies still struggle with successful deployments?

It all comes down to The Lost Art of User Adoption.

Too often we see organizations pat themselves on the back for designing and implementing the perfect PPM solution, assuming that their users understand the how and the why as well as the project sponsors do. And when the new system gets turned over to the users, the organization is surprised when the users question it, or outright reject it. In hindsight, a small investment in User Adoption would have gone a long, long way.

In this 60 minute webinar, we'll cover:

•Why User Adoption Matters
•It Seems Expensive! Is It Worth It?
•Understanding the Challenges
•One Size Does Not Fit All – Designing the Perfect User Adoption Program

Who should attend: Executive Sponsors, Department Heads, PMO Managers

Register today!

Corporations spend billions of dollars a year on management consulting, much of it aimed at developing a great strategy. The most senior executives and key personnel apply countless approaches and methodologies to strategic planning but studies show only a fraction of these formulated strategies are ever executed. Even if a company is successful in identifying the correct set of actions that will lead to enterprise success, many fail because they don’t understand the critical link between strategy and stellar project and portfolio management.

Sound portfolio management enables organizations to identify, define, and prioritize the investments required to realize enterprise strategy – and it doesn’t stop there. Portfolio management involves more than initiating projects and programs. Portfolio management enables the continual oversight required to ensure those investments stay in lock-step with enterprise strategy and the mechanisms to make the adjustments necessary to ensure strategic success.

This webcast provides a thought-provoking overview of the connection between the two most critical governance mechanisms of every enterprise, strategic planning and portfolio management. Participants will walk away with a concrete understanding of the relationship between strategy and portfolio management and how together they enable an enterprise to achieve its business objectives.

This event is approved for 1 PDU (Professional Development Unit).

Corporations spend billions of dollars a year on management consulting, much of it aimed at developing a great strategy. The most senior executives and key personnel apply countless approaches and methodologies to strategic planning but studies show only a fraction of these formulated strategies are ever executed. Even if a company is successful in identifying the correct set of actions that will lead to enterprise success, many fail because they don’t understand the critical link between strategy and stellar project and portfolio management.

Sound portfolio management enables organizations to identify, define, and prioritize the investments required to realize enterprise strategy – and it doesn’t stop there. Portfolio management involves more than initiating projects and programs. Portfolio management enables the continual oversight required to ensure those investments stay in lock-step with enterprise strategy and the mechanisms to make the adjustments necessary to ensure strategic success.

This webcast provides a thought-provoking overview of the connection between the two most critical governance mechanisms of every enterprise, strategic planning and portfolio management. Participants will walk away with a concrete understanding of the relationship between strategy and portfolio management and how together they enable an enterprise to achieve its business objectives.

This event is approved for 1 PDU (Professional Development Unit).

How well aligned is your application portfolio to your business stakeholders? The growth of cloud-based solutions requires IT to keep pace and stay relevant with the business to ensure alignment with their strategies, goals & objectives. Instead of IT’s self-serving drive to simplify application landscapes, there is now a much greater acceptance of complexity, and that requires a new approach to making the right portfolio decisions. Being able to react to changes in business climates and make the right decisions is paramount to building business alignment. Arbitrary across-the-board dogma will no longer work with this new generation of tech-savvy business users. This whitepaper and webcast focuses on how IT leaders should be inseparable from the business when aligning and setting priorities within the Application Portfolio, and should be enablers, rather than controllers.

Learn how business stakeholders should be engaged in application value assessments and be given complete transparency to current/forecasted expenditures and usage patterns. Learn, also, how progressive organizations have implemented governance models that foster independence, innovation & agility without the downside of overlap, runaway costs and anarchy.

This event qualifies for 1 Professional Development Unit (PDU credit).

In the past, organizations have invested heavily in customizing and tailoring portfolio management (PPM) software to their specific organization and business needs. Expensive and intensive customization and workflow optimization efforts have been required to get organizations to where they are today. This represents a significant investment in in-house software and additional consulting & development. Today, many organizations are making the shift to cloud-based, software-as-a-service PPM solutions in order to take advantage of lower overhead and reduced costs while staying more up-to-date with current releases.

This webinar explores the drivers behind on-demand PPM capabilities and the rationale of why organizations are making the move. We identify the value that organizations are seeking to realize as they move to the cloud, and the considerations & risks that organizations face. If your organization is considering moving to a cloud-based solution, or is just evaluating making an investment in PPM, you will want to join us. We'll explore the value of PPM in the cloud, and the expectations that organizations are placing on collaborative PPM environments.

We'll also highlight the potential challenges & risks, and the considerations you should evaluate before making the move. Building on best practices gained from industry experiences, you'll be well positioned to evaluate how, why and if on-demand PPM makes sense for your organization. You'll have a clear picture of the value and the cautions that cloud-based PPM solutions offer, and a defined sense of the next steps in your PPM journey.

This event qualifies for 1 Professional Development (PDU) credit.

Does your organization believe that managing and maintaining your application portfolio is a once or twice a year event?

Technology changes and cloud and application hosting options are the new norm. During these rapidly changing times, the application portfolio needs to be constantly monitored for increasing costs, usage patterns, new risks, and business value to the end consumer.

This webcast focuses on how a continuous application portfolio discipline is essential for consistent measurements, strategies, risk assessments, and application life cycles for in-house and cloud-based systems.

Agile is growing in your company! It’s speeding the pace of innovation and enabling your business to be more adaptive and collaborative. Though something‘s missing. Agile teams are not focused on providing upward visibility, strategic alignment, cost tracking and resource management; all of which are essential for your company’s success. The challenge for your company is to have a single source of truth for all projects, programs and portfolios, without compromising your agile innovation process.

Transformative integration of Agile Tools data with CA PPM makes the promise of Agile Portfolio Governance possible, providing portfolio level visibility for all of your company’s enterprise agile, waterfall and hybrid projects, rolled up into CA PPM for – upward visibility and governance. Agile Portfolio Governance bridges the gap between what management needs to see and what agile teams are often challenged to provide.

This session discusses a fully integrated, best-in-class Project, Program and Portfolio Management solution that will empower your PMO with governance, while enabling your agile teams to deliver strategic results - at the speed of innovation.

We all know that the pace of technology advancement in recent years has been dramatic, but have you ever considered the implications of that? Organizations are finding it harder and harder to track and manage the applications that they have, and in some cases they don’t even know all of the applications that are being supported. That’s clearly a problem, and it’s a problem that has potentially significant implications – inefficient work practices, increased costs, greater risks, etc.

In this webinar, Andy Jordan, President of Roffensian Consulting Inc. and well known portfolio management thought leader joins John Sims, Senior Principal Product Manager with CA to discuss an emerging and fascinating trend to discuss how organizations can address these issues. Andy and John will explore the role that the PMO and portfolio management can play in understanding and resolving these situations in your organization. Among other topics they examine:

• The importance of an accurate and complete inventory
• Understanding and managing costs of ineffective and unfocused applications
• Prioritizing rationalization within all other organizational initiatives
• Enterprise wide resource management

Register now for this upbeat and engaging webinar that will provide you with tangible actions that you can apply in your organization to begin understanding the scale and significance of the problem for you – and to do something about it.

This webcast is approved for one Project Management Institute (PMI) PDU continuing education Credit.

Do your project portfolio leaders and business executives have a clear picture of all the Agile work in their organization? The increasing number of agile teams and projects requires organizations to capture the entire investment portfolio, no matter how the work is getting executed.

Learn how CA PPM and VersionOne have created an integrated solution that leverages project portfolio transparency, top-down strategic alignment and resource management with agile execution.

We have seen the divergence happening: between organizations that move faster and more efficiently to execute better, innovate more quickly and improve results –and those that work to keep up.

In this webcast, we will review insights gained from 300+ PPM survey responses across project, portfolio and resource management, agile projects, mobile integration and business analytics for PPM.

Join us to learn where PPM professionals see the greatest opportunities to achieve more value from PPM, which obstacles they face and types of investments needed to meet business objectives.

•Which disciplines of PPM hold the greatest promise?
•What are the chances and expected timeframes to achieve success?
•How well understood are the goals and anticipated benefits for each PPM discipline?

This session is approved for 1 PMI Professional Development Unit (PDU) credit.

Presented by Andy Jordan President, Roffensian Consulting Inc. and Rob Stroud, VP Strategy & Innovation at CA Technologies.