NHS green-lights Cloud

Home Page, Strategy
NHS green-lights cloud technology for storing patient data NHS Digital has issued new national guidance for health and care organisations considering cloud services for storing patient information. The document outlines a framework for assessing and managing risk around the use of public cloud technologies in the health and social care sectors in England, including legalities around how data should be stored and used and considerations to be made by organisations when choosing a supplier. The guidance also contains best practice principles for handling customer data and highlights considerations to be made by trusts prior to the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on 25 May. The cloud has been widely embraced in other UK industries under the government’s 2013 ‘cloud first’ policy for public sector IT. While some parts…
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From zero to PMO in thirty days

Home Page, Projects
Abstract Are your projects out of control? Is it difficult to determine the status of your most important projects? Is the status of all your projects “in progress?” Are the scopes of your projects in line with your strategic objectives? Are your estimating processes non-existent or totally dependent on a few key “experts?” Are you managing your resources effectively? Not even sure of what questions to ask? The maybe the answer for your organization is a Project Management Office (PMO) or if you already have one, then maybe you need a fresh look at your current one. This paper will provide a 30 day plan for implementing a Project Management Office for your organization. Invest 30 days to provide a structure that can serve your organization for years. (more…)
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Key Steps to Implement a Project Management Office

Home Page, Projects
What Is a PMO? A PMO is a centralised, co-ordinating body within an organisation (or project) that provides a focal point for the field of project management. It can identify and address project management issues to support and facilitate the achievement of organisational project outcomes. What Are the Benefits of Having a PMO? According to Gartner (2008), investments in a Project Management Office (PMO) as a work management discipline can provide common planning and reporting processes and bring structure and support to evaluating, justifying, defining, planning, tracking and executing projects. It also encourages the resolution of conflicts caused by limited resources and other constraints. We've all seen renegade projects that seem to run according to their own agenda. A PMO can help organisations create effective control and oversight of projects…
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Process! That’s how we get things done around here!

Home Page, Projects
While virtually every leader professes to understand and believe in the importance of process, we know from client data that over 70% of all business problems relate to process deficiencies of some type. Most processes are undefined, complicated, not consistently followed, not measured, and loaded with non value-added activities. Leadership often reacts to these broken processes by adding reviews, approvals, and more complexity, while missing the underlying causes of performance shortfalls. When we press for details of leadership’s understanding, we quickly discover that many don’t know the basic process structure under their command and the essential customer – supplier relationships that exist in all organizations. Given this background, I offer following the essential reasons that all leaders should embrace process in running their organizations. Why All Leaders Should Embrace Process…
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A digital transformation checklist

Home Page, Projects, Strategy
The market is filled with great insights on successful digital transformations. A recent report from McKinsey weighs the risks and benefits. Another, from MIT Sloan Management Review, compares digitally mature organisations with those still digitally adolescent. As with most adolescents, those less mature are noisier and messier, with the promise of better things to come! Where should you start when assessing the opportunities and risks for your organisation? In particular, what are the balance points, for and against, digital transformation? What is the expected speed of any such change? How do you plan? (Can you plan?) Here’s a high-level checklist — factors that influence success when driving a digital transformation: Complexity v. Benefits: be clear about what you seek from a digital transformation for your organisation. Consider what such a…
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MS Release Outlook Customer Manager

CRM, Home Page
Microsoft unveils a new, lightweight CRM for those not ready for Dynamics 365: Outlook Customer Manager New service targeted at small businesses building better customer relations Nov 14, 2016 Michael Morisy It's launched a new service and mobile app called Outlook Customer Manager that's available as a free add-on for those with an Office 365 Business Premium Plan, starting today for those in the First Release program and rolling out worldwide over the next few months. The app builds on Bookings, its customer scheduling app, and is designed to hit at the same small business segment. "Outlook Customer Manager gives you a complete view of your interactions with each customer, helps you track tasks and deals in progress, and surfaces timely reminders. You can stay on top of customer relationships right…
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5 ways to think big, any day of the week

Home Page, Projects
"How do I make sure I’m thinking about the big picture, when I’m always working on a lot of small things that seem to take up all my time?” This was a question a product manager once asked me when she felt lost in the weeds, and one you may have asked yourself. How can you empower yourself to step back and look at the big picture so you can lead your team more effectively? Here are some highlights of strategies that have worked for me, and you might consider: Allocate time to thinking If you allow yourself to just do what’s next on your to-do list, you’ll never find the time to think about the big picture–there will always be something that feels more urgent. Block off time on…
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WHAT DOES A PMO DO?

Home Page, Projects, Strategy
Program and Project Management Offices (PMOs) have been in the news. OK, you won’t have read about this in your daily paper, but in the UK the PMOSIG became incorporated as the Association for Project Management’s 13th specific interest group a couple of years back. While PMOs have been around for a long time, this was a big step forward for the recognition of the work they do. And they do a lot more than just produce reports. The role of a PMO A PMO is the backbone of a successful project management approach at an organization. It is a function that provides decision support information, although it doesn’t make any decisions itself. A PMO underpins the project delivery mechanisms by ensuring that all business change in an organization is managed…
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This genius iPhone 7 case would give you back the headphone jack Apple removed

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Apple may have killed the headphone jack in the iPhone 7, but a new, sleek case is trying to bring it back. "What people put into their own ear holes is a very personal choice, and it's a choice we should all get the chance to make — not one that should be made for us," Diego Prince, a hardware developer from Austin, Texas, said in a video announcing the cases, which would be made for iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Prince and his cofounder Troy Osinoff just launched an Indiegogo campaign, saying they plan to ship in December if the campaign reaches its goal. "Early Bird" backers can reserve one case for $49 plus shipping. According to the campaign site, the Fuze takes the adapter dongle that Apple included…
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CIO: How to build your personal brand

Home Page, Strategy
As a CIO you have to carefully manage and nurture the perceptions that others have of you. By ‘others’ I mean internal staff and stakeholders, and outside of your company I’m talking about your peers, industry professionals, and thought-leaders. One of your key assets is your brand. Your brand expands upon more aspects of your character and your skillset than your job title, your CV and your career history. This article explains how you can build a brand that helps you to earn respect throughout your sector, and how the development of your brand can turn you into a sought-after personality in your marketplace. (more…)
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Sync SharePoint sites with the new OneDrive sync client – Preview

Home Page, SharePoint
Applies To: OneDrive for Business With SharePoint document library sync, you can sync the contents of a document library to your personal device. You can now do this with the OneDrive for Business Next Generation Sync Client.With this preview build, you can do the following: Navigate into a folder or subfolder and click Sync. No need to sync the entire document library. Change the folders that you're syncing directly in the sync client. Realtime coauthoring is supported with Office 2016 (C2R build 16.0.7167.2xxx or MSI build 16.0.4432.100x). (more…)
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Kotters 8-Step Change Management Model

Home Page, Projects
Leadership coach Susanne Madsen channels change management guru John Kotter to offer a method for effective change in your organisation. Here’s a shot of the whiteboard for your reference! In Review Susanne began by introducing us to John Kotter, a recognized authority on leadership and change. He developed an eight-step method to manage change, a process that she shared in the video. It goes as follows: Create urgency Form a powerful coalition Create a vision for change Communicate the vision Remove obstacles Create short-term wins Build on the change Anchor the change It takes work, but anything of value does, and if you’re sure the change is needed then you’re invested and have the tools to see it through.  (more…)
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Your Legacy ERP Transition Is Rough:

AX, Home Page
5 Pain Management Solutions Enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions are costly to implement, with an average total cost of ownership around $4.5 million, according to Panorama Consulting. ERP's break-even point ranges from one year to over five, with 35 percent of companies reaching this point by three years. These solutions are designed for long life cycles for profitability, but changes in technology infrastructure over the past decade create an environment where legacy systems hinder your productivity. The Aberdeen Group found the average ERP system is seven years old. These legacy systems can put a heavy weight on a company, and even more modern customized solutions are moving into the legacy category as cloud-based solutions gain ground. You can't eliminate the pain caused by moving from a legacy ERP solution to…
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AX7 post from Patrick Mouwen

AX, Home Page
I onboarded the AX7 technical conference this week with the impression that AX7 was ‘just’ a new UI exposing AX2012R3CU9 code on a new platform with some adjustments to ‘make it work’ on the new Azure platform. But already after the first keynote I felt embarrassed about my initial thoughts which quickly made place for respect and amaze for this enormous leap in technology. I can only compare the way Dynamics AX has developed in the last 10 years with a boxing game: initially, the boxers tease and challenge each other by some quick targeted moves. But the game really takes off when one of them finds his ‘punch’ (say with the release of AX2012) The opponent is driven towards the corner of the boxing arena and receives punch after…
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SharePoint Co-authoring: It’s a date

Home Page, SharePoint
Ever been cursed with this pop-up? On a Friday afternoon, right before close of business, when you need to get your TPS Report submitted to upper management, this can be the most horrifying message a computer can send you. (Well, maybe just after the newly designed blue screen of death.) And, oh joy, Word gives you three options: 1) save a local copy of what’s likely an outdated file, 2) get a notification when the person gets back (after the weekend, amirite!?),  or 3) give up all hope and press ‘Cancel’. I can’t think of a better example of a lose-lose-lose situation. So, why does this warning come up? Well, if you store a file—Word doc, Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint presentation, etc.—in a shared drive or on older (or non-updated) versions of SharePoint, the…
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Microsoft SharePoint vs Google Docssites

Google Apps for work, Home Page, SharePoint
I recently fielded a question from a potential client who wanted to know if Microsoft SharePoint or Google Docs with Google Sites was a better fit for their organization's document management and collaboration needs. Although this question is pretty straight-forward, the explanation can get a bit complicated. The short answer is Google Docs/Sites is great tool if you do not have an enterprise collaboration platform at your disposal, and you need to to get a document sharing site up quickly. However, Google Docs/Sites falls way short in providing the breadth and depth of features that Microsoft SharePoint offers. SharePoint is a true enterprise platform with capabilities that extend beyond document management and collaboration (e.g. Search, Workflow, and KPI Dashboards. If you have a dozen or more computer users in your…
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Three Steps to Issues Management

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Issues are large problems that are impeding the progress of the project. Issue Management is the process of identifying and resolving issues within a project. By quickly and efficiently managing issues, you can: Limit the effects of unforeseen events on the project Reduce the time spent administering project issues Greatly improve your chances of project success You can complete the issue management process by taking three simple steps: Step 1: Identify the Issue Any member of the project team may identify a new project issue. An is completed to describe the issue and its impact on the project. The actions required to resolve the issue are also identified. At this point the Project Manager also needs to determine who needs to be involved in resolving the issue. Step 2: Investigate…
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How to Plan in an Agile Environment

Home Page, Projects
Have you ever heard something like: “Agile development expects that we can operate quickly, efficiently and effectively without necessarily having an overall strategic plan”? If so, forget it! Why? Try to build a house from the roof and see what happens! Detailed planning is as essential to the effectiveness of Agile as it is to Waterfall. The difference between the two approaches lies in timing. Planning is ongoing in Agile, and its incremental approach allows projects to adapt rapidly to changes. Planning is predictive in Waterfall and the client knows exactly what to expect. Predictive vs Adaptive Projects Predictive projects are the ones in which the needs are not likely to change (at least we wish that they don’t change) and where the work being done can be “somewhat” identified…
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MoSCoW Prioritisation

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10. MoSCoW Prioritisation 10.1 Introduction In an Atern project where time has been fixed, understanding the relative importance of things is vital to making progress and keeping to deadlines. Prioritisation can be applied to requirements, tasks, products, use cases, user stories, acceptance criteria and tests. MoSCoW is a technique for helping to understand priorities. The letters stand for: Must Have Should Have Could Have Won’t Have this time The reason we use MoSCoW in Atern is that the problem with simply saying that requirements are of High, Medium or Low importance is that the definitions of these priorities are missing. Using MoSCoW means that priorities are specific. The specific use of Must, Should, Could or Won’t Have implies the result of failing to deliver that requirement. 10.2 The MoSCoW Rules…
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