About nine months ago I was reminded by my client that the tasks, methodology, and client benefits of project management should definitely be stated explicitly within all proposals – and have a price tag attached to them.
I was part of sales dialogs with a tier-1 mobile carrier in the MENA area (Middle East + North Africa) about another innovation project in the mobile P2P area. Mobile networks are a bit sensitive to traffic, as air minutes are quite expensive, and network management and equipment is a bit more complex due to roaming and peering agreements. There are also quite a few divisions involved in such a product innovation project. As a result there are is a steering committee setup and some additional processes plus some political hurdles and hoops you have to jump through.
Such a setup and reporting to various groups with various detail level is of course a bit more time intensive, so the proposal already accounted for that and the timeline for the different work packages was adjusted accordingly. When presenting to the client, he didn’t understand why the whole process would take so long, and why two VPs have to be involved in the whole process from our side in addition to some senior analysts and engineers. Of course the client knew of the setup and political issues, but everything was stated so implicitly, that the real value behind our services was just not readily palpable.
Fortunately I had some slide on my laptop that I was able to show:
Detecon's Program Management Model and Approach: Managing a program in its constraints 'time - budget - quality' is crucial for every network operator. To meet this objective Detecon has developed a powerful PM model.
Program Management Process Overview with Main Activities: Based on our long standing experience and in line with globally accepted program management standards Detecon has developed a model with 9 key processes.
Overview on Program Management Process Deliverables: Detecon assures through the efficient implementation of the 9 key management processes that the program produces its scheduled and specified deliverables and results.
The result was very simple:
All in all a very nice outcome – we got more than we bargained for. So remember: put the project management and program management in your proposal – beyond the obvious “quality control”, “steering committee”, “dedicated assignment partner”, “ongoing reporting”, etc.
Here’s the PDF file for the three slides above … btw – we have a 120 deck with deep dive information, if anyone is interested…
