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Archives for February 2022

Combining Change Management and Project Management

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depicting an unexpected change to a project and how it is managed
Recognize change and make modifications before it is harmful to your project.

There is great value in the strategic combination of change management and project management within the operations of a company. Change management is a method used to help a company adapt to changes from internal and external factors. Project management on the other hand is the process of organizing large projects and coaching a team throughout each milestone. The integration of both allows a company to make changes on both a technical and employee level.

Although change management and project management are both structured methods there are different characteristics to each. Change management for instance is a structured process in implementing change; however, there is no defined goal requiring multiple shifts to approach strategies. In contrast, project management is defined by a specific end goal as well as project milestones throughout. Project managers can plan their entire project before beginning whereas change managers are presented with unexpected changes throughout the process. 

The integration of both management approaches within technological systems and employee management can lead your company to greater opportunity for success. This allows for problems to be identified, changes to be made, employees to be informed, and issues to be resolved.

Why Project Managers should Integrate Change Management into their Strategy

Individual and shared goals

Project Managers and Change managers can work together to reach a shared objective while also working independently towards specific goals. The integration of both can work to improve employee performance and overall company success. 

Project Team Communication

The integration of these two strategies makes for greater communication between all roles within the project. For example, when an unexpected development arises the project team is presented with the issue in a timely manner and change managers begin to adjust project plans. This fast recognition of an issue and communication of important strategic adjustments is attributed to the integration of the two management approaches. 

Employee Commitment

Project managers know how unexpected changes can occur and how that can hinder the progress of the project. It is important to be able to identify these issues immediately and have solutions or modifications. This proactive organization of changes to the project will motivate employees to embrace the change rather than be afraid of it.

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Software Integration

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Benefits of software integration
With one point of data entry and no need to switch between different software applications, processing is simpler and quicker.

A growing business can quickly turn into a complex web of software apps, inventory management, accounting, and finance systems. Utilizing a wide range of software can obstruct your chances for success. This has seen a lot of companies turn to single purpose applications to cut down the time spent on project management, billing, help desk support, and other business operation tasks. Software integration is guaranteed to increase efficiency and productivity.

Most business organizations use various software platforms, it can be difficult to make all of the systems work together. Multiple software solutions can slow down your process and eventually break your system. The goal of software integration is to get IT systems to work together, so costs are reduced, and the speed of data and information transfer is increased. Integration is not only used to connect an organization’s internal systems, but to also integrate third parties that organizations operate with. More importantly, software integrations can be designed so that you don’t lose any valuable information when they interface.

Cost Efficiency

Maintaining multiple systems is expensive and requires substantial IT resources. Depending on the number of systems, the cost can quickly add up. Consequently, valuable IT time that could be used to make the business more productive is wasted, while maintenance costs significantly increase. An integrated software solution eliminates the need for repetitive tasks. As a result, essential tasks can now be completed more efficiently while using the same resources, reducing unnecessary costs. This not only saves you money but also valuable time and effort that would otherwise be spent training employees to use a new system.

Integrated software helps achieve higher efficiency by eliminating the need for repetitive manual data entry. It is also easier to train employees on a more simplified system rather than various platforms. All information is saved in one location, so you do not have to spend extra money for additional storage of multiple systems. Not only will this lead to better organization but also to less stress when locating where information are stored for informational and reporting purposes. This also helps you save time, so you can prioritize more important tasks efficiently.

Ultimately your data will be easier to access and report on across the enterprise. Your IT team will be far more productive in a short period of time.

 

How to Motivate your IT Team

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Employees may lose motivation over time leading to a decrease in work efficiency. This declined motivation can cause the company’s productivity rates to go downhill. The implementation of incentives may improve employees’ health and drive. Happy and healthy employees make for satisfied managers. Incentivizing properly provides a motivating and energized work environment which leads to a successful company. Here are a couple pointers below on how to motivate your employees to improve productivity and company success. 

Set Individual Standards

Setting quotas may be just what you need to improve the motivation of your team. Working and being held up to a standard is a key motivator for everyone to complete tasks. When setting a quota it must be challenging but not unreachable in order to maintain motivation. Employees must maintain confidence in their abilities to reach their quotas. Quotas can work to measure employees productivity levels and help employees take accountability for unfinished work. When setting quotas, it is important to review each employee separately to find the rate at which they work. realistic Individual goals and requirements can then be set for the following month that are greater than what they are currently producing. With company standards in place, employees are motivated by the fact they may be rewarded or penalized based on their work productivity.

Facilitate Friendly Competition 

Naturally we all want to be the best at what we do or at least on the same level as those around us. This translates into the workplace where creating friendly competition for employees can positively affect their productivity levels. Providing a visual representation of each employee’s sales or project milestone completions can enhance motivation. This may be used in combination with rewards for the top performers to push them to their full potential. Rewards can be as simple as a gift card or you can get creative with them. Competition allows for employees to visualize the work and progression it takes to get a promotion or raise within the company.  

Implement Incentives

Offering rewards for accomplishments in the workplace can improve the motivation of your team. Recognizing quality work gives your employees the feeling that they are of value to the company. Depending on the nature of the project, these rewards can be large or small, material or cash. However, incentives must be implemented properly in order to be effective. Different types of incentives can be used for all the stages of a project. For example, when the first milestone is met you may have an incentive for the top performer on that team. This could be small, something as simple as a gift card to their favorite restaurant. Then the rewards may increase in value as the project progresses towards greater milestones for optimal motivation of the team.

 

IT Incident Management System Metrics

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What is an effective incident management system and what metrics are important to track? It is often referred to as taking action to restore regular service operations quickly while minimizing the negative impact on business operations. Managing incidents effectively is an essential piece for providing quality customer support and maintaining business continuity. The lessons learned can also help teams improve their current processes to prevent future incidents.

Benefits of an effective incident management system:

  1. Increased productivity and efficiency
  2. Higher level of service quality
  3. Visibility and transparency
  4. Valuable IT service management documentation
  5. Enhance end-user satisfaction
  6. Knowledge base documentation for reference

The self-service portal is the single point of contact for the users to report any incidents. When well-designed, the portal provides the user guidance ensuring the reported incident has all the pertinent information required to assist the L1 help desk. Well-documented service requests can be resolved in an efficient manner and routed to the appropriate team or individual quickly for resolution. This will also reduce the back-and-forth email with the customer for request clarity.

Incident Management Metrics 

There are 3 major factors through which an incident order is decided upon: Impact, urgency, and priority.

Impact – How a business is affected by an incident?

Urgent – How urgent the incident is and how much time it will take to be resolved? 

Priority – What is the priority of the incident ? (Low, Medium or High)

5 steps of incident management:

  1. Incident Reporting communication begins at the time an incident is identified to acknowledge to the user or business that disruption is taking place and investigation is in progress.
  2. Incident Escalation occurs when an incident triggers an alert and the proper procedures are performed by the individual who is assigned to manage the incident.
  3. Investigation and Diagnosis IT team performs analysis, then staff can investigate the type, cause, and possible solutions for an incident.
  4. Resolution and Recovery  involve eliminating the root causes of issues and restoring systems to full functioning operation. Resolving an incident also includes documenting the findings and steps taken to restore service.
  5. Incident Closure communicating and confirming from users that the service experience is normalized ensuring customer satisfaction is met.

Incorporating SMART Goals into Setting Project Milestones

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Incorporating SMART goals to reach project milestones is key to your teams productivity and motivation.

What does SMART goals stand for; Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.

Project managers know the stress and importance of maintaining a project’s timeline. When the team encounters an unexpected delay they must coordinate their efforts into getting the project back on track. However, with the delicate timeline of a project this can become challenging to achieve. Delays usually lead to the project deadline being pushed back or the cancellation of the project as a whole. Meaningful project milestones must be put in place and the team’s incorporation of SMART goals should be used ensure efficiency. 

Project milestones are key elements to the project’s completion. They allow the team to visualize the progression of the project on a timeline. Milestones are used to divide the project into sections to avoid the overwhelming feeling of the project as an entirety. SMART goals can be used in synchrony with project milestones on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. Setting these goals as a team holds everyone accountable and to the same standard. These defined and attainable goals with specific criteria can work to improve the motivation of your team. 

Timeline and Goal Reinforcement

Using project milestones will ensure team motivation. The identification of each task completion as a milestone can take away from the momentum of the project. This is when SMART goals can become extremely valuable to project managers. Setting and reaching a weekly SMART goal gets your team one step closer to the completion of a project milestone while also providing a sense of progress. This gives your team the motivation to work towards the larger goal and allows them to see the importance of the milestone.

Visual Representation 

There is great importance to visibly scheduling project milestones on your team’s project calendar. These milestones must be presented with importance as their completion is essential to the project’s deadline. The team can set their weekly SMART goals in accordance to the project milestone deadlines. Therefore, using a project tracking software has great advantages for your team’s motivation and productivity. 

Responsibility

Project milestones are set with the understanding that they will be met on time. In the event of the team falling short meeting a milestone, it is crucial the project manager addresses it. This may include re-structuring and examining resources to improve functionality of the team. Reinforcement of a project milestone emphasizes the importance of meeting these goals as individuals on a team.

Liability to Error

This is an important concept to consider when setting milestones as a project manager. The project milestones need to be challenging enough to pose a risk of failure. This creates learning experiences for the team when re-configuring focus points and gives opportunity for SMART goal setting to get back on track. The failure may provide room for improvement within the final project. 

Online Help Desk Support

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When customers need answers the online help desk is where they turn for support

Managing your business can be overwhelming at times. Especially when multiple customers are requiring attention simultaneously. You can organize messages, answer customer questions, and provide assistance in a timely manner using the help desk. This provides great customer support and keeps everyone happy!

Advantages of online help desk

Online help desk  software support customers that are expressing the need of technical assistance related to computer systems, hardware, and software. This online support is responsible for assistance in troubleshooting, answering questions and solving any problem users might be experiencing. The software works towards organizing questions and issues that may come up, in a nice organized list; making it much easier to manage and assess problems or questions. This allows the help desk operators to find quick solutions for problems that may be occurring and provide answers to the high frequency of questions directed towards them. Help desk operators can also assess these frequently asked questions and assign them to the correct department for answers. This can help distribute work amongst employees to ensure no individual is overwhelmed with questions or concerns. It is important to assign the right employee who can answer the customers questions effectively, to provide satisfaction.

Oftentimes customers have similar questions or concerns when browsing. Instead of answering each individual, help desk provides an option for immediate response to these users. This helps reduce the demand for answers to frequently asked questions while providing support in a quick and easy way. Customers that have unique questions require more than a quick and easy response. With help desk support these questions are organized and directed to an employee in the specific field the question falls under. This allows for proper analysis with the right person, giving the customer the best answer.

Assigning these tasks and problems to certain employees can help generate an effective workplace. The help desk provides a list of assigned problems that need to be completed. Using the list, managers are able to distribute tasks evenly to enhance efficiency. Employees have access to this organized list where they can browse commonly asked questions and unique questions that need answers. This creates a positive relationship between employees and customers. Help desk support is an important tool for businesses to keep your customers satisfied.