A Unum Case Study: Successful IT Transformation to Business Relevance

For many businesses today, generally only two things are certain: uncertainty and an accelerating pace of change. In this environment, the ability to develop and implement new strategic initiatives and change rapidly is becoming a key differentiator. Organizations focus on defining major strategic initiatives but many companies struggle to implement those initiatives. The PMO plays a crucial role in enabling this by actively supporting the implementation of key strategic programs.

In this session, Jennifer McCaffrey of PMI examines the capabilities necessary in the PMO in order to shift emphasis away from process and towards the more important role of contributing to value delivery. Partnering with respected research firms including The Economist Intelligence Unit, Forrester Consulting and the Boston Consulting Group PMI will provide valuable insight and statistics that reveal the critical role of the PMO - to serve as enablers of strategic change in any organization.

The role of Stage-Gate® and Agile in New Product Development is a hot topic of interest. Are they complementary or mutually exclusive? Michelle Jones will reveal the real reason why so many businesses have come to rely upon the Stage-Gate Idea-to-Launch System for the successful execution of their product innovation strategies. She will also discuss the pros and cons of Agile project management techniques as they relate to product innovation and offer practical advice when integrating Stage-Gate and Agile for project success.

IT is not the marginalized organization it used to be, and is now intertwined with the business. Creating IT-enabled business value therefore requires line of business and functional leaders, including the CIO, to work together from a common agenda. Join this session to see how to create and make that agenda visible, so that the organization as a whole understands what it is getting. Business heads will then be able to understand application requirements and consumption, and make portfolio decisions based on business need. Smart organizations are making the CIO a business partner who can tell the business exactly how and what it’s consuming and how it could be more effective.

Will Simmons, New Product Portfolio Support Manager at Tata Steel Europe, will take you through the processes and techniques used by Tata Steel to bring new products to market. New offerings in Tata Steel’s extensive product portfolio follow a lengthy and finely-tracked process from concept stages to R&D, and through the first years of sales, all managed with a PPM system. Join us to learn proven techniques for managing new product development based on Tata Steel’s use of PPM for areas including portfolio management, value management, and marginal analysis. David Werner of CA Technologies will join Will Simmons to answer questions submitted by the audience.

Realizing benefits is no easy task, especially when everyone has a different definition of value. Join Dr. Jim Noble and Alan Guibord of The Advisory Council to gain insight and insider secrets to how some of the world’s top organizations create measurable benefits from their strategic plans and operational outcomes, and thereby position the IT leadership as outcome-driven rather than as merely enablers.

Many organizations today are focused on making the annual planning process more strategic. There is an increased understanding that the portfolio of projects has to be managed against organizational goals and objectives. That can mean perfectly good projects must stop or change because they no longer align with what the organization needs to achieve. Simultaneously, organizations are driving themselves to become more flexible and adaptable, further driving change into projects. Are these two concepts creating a harmony among executives and execution teams, or are they causing confusion and challenges?

The recent research report Top Down Planning and Bottom Up Execution – Harmony or Discord? reveals some surprising results. Join the author of the report, Andy Jordan, as he discusses the findings and offers recommendations to ensure your projects stay aligned with strategic objectives. Topics will include:

• Open communication around planning
• Importance of a formal portfolio
• Frequency of planning cycles
• The role of Agile in planning
• Importance of PPM maturity level

David Werner from CA Technologies will join Andy for the live presentation and Q&A from the audience. All attendees will receive a complimentary copy of the report.

Nearly all business transformations today are technology-dependent and focus on breaking traditional business silos. CIOs are in a unique position to exploit their knowledge of both business and technology to influence or even drive the direction of the transformation. Join this session featuring guest speaker Marc Cecere of Forrester Research to unveil the different types of roles CIOs play in business transformation. Determine which role you can play as Leader, Diplomat, Influencer, and Tactician to achieve success.

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 Mary Cauwels, Sr. Director of Solution Marketing, CA Technologies, speaks with Rick Morris, R2 Consulting to ways to bring more accountability through your strategic plan.

Most new executives look to make their mark on their organizations by crafting ground-breaking strategic plans. Join Dr. Jim Noble and Alan Guibord of The Advisory Council to gain insight and insider secrets to how some of the world’s top organizations envision the compelling point of arrival, and leverage technology and IT into practical tactics for success

Webinar 2 builds upon the information presented in the Webinar 1: SaaS Versus On-Premise…What Are My Options? In Webinar 2, we take a deeper dive into the decision making process that leads to the right model for your enterprise systems or utility services.

Some of the issues that need analysis when making a cloud/no-cloud decision include analysis of the costs, understanding the use cases, looking at security and governance, and the value of time-to-market and agility. The idea is to weigh the positives and the negatives, understand the core metrics, and then make a decision based upon the best available information.

We’ll explore how to understand the deployment realities when considering an on-premises versus SaaS solution. We’ll suggest a decision model and step-by-step process to define the core metrics for the decision, and provide some helpful experiences from the trenches from those who have made these critical calls in the last several years.

Topics covered include:

•Step 1: Comparing Costs
•Step 2: Understanding Use Cases
•Step 3: Considering Security and Governance
•Step 4: Considering Time-to-Market and Agility
•Step 5: Pulling the Trigger
•Step 6: Considering Operations

Welcome to CA Clarity 13.3! In this webcast, CA Technologies product management will provide an overview of the marquee features that have been delivered in the latest releases of CA Clarity™ PPM. These enhancements include:

•Portfolio Cost and Resource Balancing with Waterlines Views
•Financial Plans on Idea Investment
•Easy Rebranding of the Clarity Login page
•Connector for Microsoft Project Resource Leveling
•Editable Task Duration and Printing on Gantt View
•Bubble Chart Transparency for Newer Browsers
•As well as improvements to CA Clarity™ Agile.

What is your planning horizon? Annually, 3-5 years out, or further? Obviously, the granular details aren’t there yet but you need to put a stake in the ground and create a strategic plan. But don’t visit your plan once a year and hope someone has made progress – find out what smart organizations are doing to use their strategic plans to gain real-time competitive advantage.

Join this session, where Mary Cauwels, Sr. Director of Solution Marketing, CA Technologies will discuss the value of an “always on” strategic plan.

A solid direction and a clear understanding of “real options” may make for a good strategic plan, but not every initiative will help your organization navigate through stormy weather or survive shifts in microeconomic conditions. Join Dr. Jim Noble and Alan Guibord of The Advisory Council to gain insight and insider secrets to how some of the world’s top organizations prioritize and adapt their strategic plans on a perpetual basis to survive and even thrive during tough and unpredictable market economies.

The growth of cloud computing is due largely to the growth of software-as-a-service (SaaS). The SaaS consumption model, in many cases, provides more agility and cost efficiencies than traditional methods of consuming software. While SaaS is indeed a consideration, there are instances where it’s just not a fit. Recognizing when to go SaaS and when to stay on-premise is a problem that enterprises will wrestle with now and into the future, as cloud computing continues to gather momentum.

The truth is that the SaaS model is not always a good fit, and neither are traditional approaches to software deployment and operations. You have to consider many options, requirements, and technologies to understand what’s right for your specific needs.

In this Webinar, we’ll take the mystery out of how to select SaaS-delivered solutions or traditional on-premise approaches. We’ll explore the requirements to consider, and the types of technologies available.

Topic covered, include:

•Defining the options, including SaaS and on-premise
•Understanding the technology options
•Understanding the cost advantages
•Understanding fit-for-purpose
•Charting a path to the right decision

Emerging technology and new market conditions present an ideal opportunity for you to lead your company’s innovation agenda. The challenge is in blending your organization’s strategic tenants with the pragmatic day-to-day execution of your operational plans. How can you be agile and dynamic, at the same time as staying true to your major multi-year initiatives? Join Dr. Jim Noble and Alan Guibord of The Advisory Council to gain insight and insider secrets to how some of the world’s top organizations marry strategic direction with operational agility.

Learn how to define and develop a sustainable innovation discipline – to better adapt and respond to competitive pressures, customer needs, and technology changes in the rapidly changing, information rich 21st-century. Learn from NPD experts from CA Technologies and Imaginatik, recognized leaders in the NPD and Ideation space.

Registration information collected will be used pursuant to the terms http://www.ca.com/us/privacy.aspx and will be shared with Imaginatik.

Many organisations struggle to make decisions that prioritise projects, align resources, requirements and schedules to drive the greatest business outcomes and accelerate return on investments. And with an IT portfolio that is ever evolving to meet changing business demands, there is ever more pressure to deliver visibility, transparency and accountability of plans, priorities, people and projects.

Join this webcast to understand the 5 key executive questions you need to ask to ensure your project and portfolio management practices are aligned to deliver strategic business objectives.

If an executive team creates a strategic plan and no one acts on it, did it even exist in the first place? If mid-level managers approve projects that are not aligned to a strategic initiatives, is that right? Join this session, where Mary Cauwels, Sr. Director of Solution Marketing, CA Technologies, speaks with Rick Morris, R2 Consulting to discuss the how to bridge strategic plans and project portfolio and stop the blame game.