PeopleSoft Projects 2.0: Less Risk, Lower Cost, Why Not?
There are “Heavy” projects and there are “Lite” projects. We all recognize the “Heavy” projects when we see them. These projects are high in cost , elevated in stress, and often include stifling bureaucracies that choke progress. “Lite” projects usually lack big name integrators, include team members chosen for their experience and competency, cost less by several orders of magnitude, and get done without leaving internal stakeholders in a high state of distress.
UW System computer project sees delays, more costs.
”MADISON, Wis. – A second attempt by the University of Wisconsin System to install a new computer payroll program is millions of dollars over budget and a year behind schedule. “
I am working with a local business person – she is in the project management business – pushing a new concept of projects, Projects 2.0. The basic message is that structuring your project in an innovative way can be less risky and less costly than the standard alternative of outsourcing everything to a single large vendor. A key part of that innovation is finding highly competent and experienced people to keep your project on the right track and keep vendor costs from escalating. Why pay an outside integrator six, ten, twelve million dollars or more when the project can get done “Lite” and right for a fraction of that amount?
”The system’s top budget official, Tom Anderes, told the Board of Regents this month that planning for the project alone is now expected to cost $12 million. A year ago, officials had said planning would cost $1.6 million and implementation would begin that fall. In February, they raised the planning budget to $8 million and said it would last through this summer.“
How do you create your own PeopleSoft project 2.0? Here are a few suggestions on where to start:
- Seek the best people- Even in this poor economy almost all organizations hire and promote people on a regular basis. The vast majority of businesses have onboarding processes geared toward getting the best people for the best price. These well established processes could be used to assemble the best available project teams from deep pools of inside and outside talent?
- Use Web 2.0- The new yet well established networking sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Ryne, Dice, CareerJet, Indeed and others have consummate search and communications tools. If ordinary people in Iran can use these sites to organize large and forceful protests then your organization should be able to use the same tools to assemble a competent and efficient project team.
- Don’t shun easy savings- Demand to know where your contracting dollars are going. Let’s say the rate is $100 per hour. How much per hour is each project team member being paid? How much of your money is going to travel, contract paperwork, higher-up compensation, off-site meetings and other administrative overhead. Want to save money? There is a large pot of money at the end this rainbow.
- Let yourself take control- Too often organizations sign away control when they sign the contract. Decreasing your control of the project may sound good and easy but may actually be a disastrous course of action. Who knows your organization best? An outsider? I doubt that. The more control you can exert on the finished product the more likely you are to be successful. One way to take control is to build your own project team whose loyalty is to one and only one organization, Yours.
Looking for adventure at the Mid-Atlantic RUG
Get your motor runnin’. Head out on the highway. Looking for adventure…
Richmond, Virginia, was just up the road a bit. The Mid-Atlantic RUG was held in Capital One’s beautiful town center conference facility. Before I list my professional thoughts I just want to say that lunch was amazing.
My ORACLE Support 3.1 is coming this Fall. Metalink 3. We hardly got to know you and soon you will be gone. I looked through the crowd but I did not see a single tear shed. Here are some highlights from the presentation by Joshua Byford:
- Daily checkups- ORACLE would like to check your system’s health every 24 hours.
- My Dashboard – Your own iGoogle like home page wth SR’s, Health Check results, Breaking news, and more
- Online Communities – Many miss the limited user forums in old PeopleSoft support site. These new communities will be based on the Web 2,0 technologies that have made Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, and other social networking sites so popular.
- We are Number 1 – The PeopleSoft community will be the first group to use the My Oracle support site. The phrase “seemless transition” was used more than once. No new userids. No new passwords. All you need is the Flash download and you should be good to go.
HCM 9.1 may be coming this Fall, also. J.F. Gullo gave his insights on the new release:
- Could there be a convergence happening? Oracle Fusion applications & PeopleTools 8.5.
- Watch for the coming of the Talent Wheel. This slide (subtitled: Improving the Talent Management Lifecycle) looks a little like the wheel of life from The Lion King but the HCM 9.1 wheel has Global core profiles and objectives at the center.
- More integrations. The big one is the MS Outlook interface. Interview scheduling and other like activities will be shifting to Outlook.
- More ORACLE add-ons. Talent Prospector. Talent Pooling Oracle Workforce Scheduling. Related analytics. Configurable BI Dashboards.
PeopleSoft Web 2.0 – A Sneak Preview
I recently stumbled across a sneak preview of the new PeopleTools 8.5 release. This demo is definitely worth a look.
Some of the new features are:
- Independent portal pagelet refreshes
- Partial page refreshes (AJAX)
- Popup window searches (..keeping original page always in sight)
- Hover invoked information popups (..no need to click the question mark)
- Related information frames including brand new web 2.0 features:
- Blogs & Forum discussions
- Tagging and tag searches
- External web page display
- Wiki creation and update
- RSS feeds
Please let me know if you like what you see.