Entry Software Corporation

Entry

Resource Management

Eliminate Your Fears and Doubts About Resource Management

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Resource management is all around us. Even at the dawn of human-kind, man has thrived off managing food supplies, mental and physical energy, as well as implementing everybody effectively. Resource management has become integrated into our everyday lives in ways we may not even recognize such as the use of broad media advertisement and the automation of technology. Despite its constant implementation, the implementation of resource management is constantly evolving.

In business, resource management is important to the efficiency of the business and the satisfaction of the customers and employees. However, to implement good resource management into a business, one must first understand the process and factors that affect its effectiveness and discuss the benefits of good resource management.

First, let us understand what resource management is. Resource Management is the process of effectively distributing necessary amounts of one’s resources. Its primary goal is to minimize ones unnecessary loss in the process. When applying this to business, its application fits the process perfectly. Resources can be anything tangible or intangible that a business may own such as equipment, supplies, labor and time. The goal of applying resource management is to effectively run a project to provide a great experience for the customer.

Now that we understand the process of resource management, it is important to understand factors that influence the effectiveness of it.

Understanding What Resources are Required to Complete the Project

The first step to the resource management process is to understand what resources the project requires. When given an objective, the project manager will have to decide the amount of time each task will take and the resources it will take. This entails providing a detailed list of resources for access to employees in order to inform organizers about the upcoming project. Once they have received the project requirements, such as time limit, persons available, and material, the next step of the process occurs.

Acknowledging Scope of Resources the Business can Provide

The business must understand the scope of resource that the business can provide. This means understanding the number of resources that the business can provide to fit the requirements outlined in an effective manner. Often times, we will jump to the conclusion that if we need a resource it is better to have more of the resource available. While this is true as there can be some unforeseen errors; people will often purchase large amounts of resource they will later have no use for. While this method is time effective as one will spend less time worrying about the resources, it is financially wasteful. On the flip side, however, only assigning the necessary resources would be financially effective, it could leave the business stressed as any mistake would lead to a dysfunctional project.

Calculating a Work Load Balance

In this step, the project needs to be organized to find that balance between the resource usage and financial efficiency. For example, if thirty tasks need to be completed (resource requirement) and it takes employees two hours to complete a task (scope of resource), the organizers have to find the time frame to complete them. On one end of the spectrum, the time frame could be “complete in sixty hours”. This would mean that the thirty tasks would need to be completed in succession with no breaks. While this is financially efficient and time resourced efficient, it does not satisfy the labor resource of the business as it is unreasonable to have workers work for sixty hours straight. On the polar opposite, the time frame could be “complete in one month”. This would mean that employees could perform one task a day to complete the project. While this is labor resource efficient, it is time ineffective and financially wasteful. This is why a good workload balance incorporates both resource effectiveness and financial efficiency. Taking these aspects into account create a great resource management plan.

There are a number of benefits of that come with developing a resource management plan, this includes satisfying both employees and customers, and being financially beneficial. Employees are satisfied because they are not over stressed by their workload. Customers are satisfied because they are receiving their goods or services in a timely manner. Finally maximizing financial efficiency will benefit the business as a whole. So don’t be afraid of tackling resource management, it is fairly simple and very beneficial to master in one’s business practices!

Tracking time, Service Requests and Project Tasks for Resource Management Insight

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To successfully manage an IT department, it is imperative to understand the anticipated roles of your team, as well as how they actually spend their time between tasks, projects and operational duties.

Many companies have developed piecemeal systems to provide this insight, using multiple tools and systems to keep track of daily tasks, responsibilities and major projects. For example, you may use shared calendars for assignments and due dates, email to manage incident requests, company time sheets for time recording, and spreadsheets to manage major project milestones and tasks.

When Piecing Things Together Isn’t Enough

As organizations grow and new technologies become available, some IT departments have taken management a step further by implementing software tools to help them do their jobs better and more efficiently. Systems that can alleviate some of IT’s common pains include:

  • Time management solutions, like Timefox, let users track time, pull reports on time spent on projects and tasks, set estimates for projects and pull personnel reports.
  • Help desk solutions, such as HEAT, aid in the ticketing process from reception through resolution. Users can accept, assign and manage tickets all in one location.
  • Project management solutions, like Basecamp, allow users to manage multiple projects, to-do lists and milestones across the whole team. In addition, individuals can share files and messages, centralizing communication about assignments.

While each of these systems can be useful on their own, the unique needs of IT departments often require a combination of all three — a solution found in work management software.

With a single interface for time tracking, ticket management and project management, work management software includes all of the features mentioned in the solutions above, without the need for multiple platforms.

Benefits of Increased Insight

The unique toolset included in work management software gives you, the IT manager, one place to look for keen insight into your team’s performance. This enables you to keep projects and tasks on track, better assign workflow and keep your department working together as a cohesive, efficient unit. For example:

  • Know where your employees’ time is going. Are higher-level employees being burdened with menial tasks? Are employees using their time effectively?
  • Keep the right work with the right people based on strengths, experience and availability.
  • Assign tasks, run reports and have clear views of all projects and their statuses.
  • Identify weak links and top performers, and reward those employees whose productivity and efficiency stand out among the crowd.
  • Use knowledge-sharing tools and insight from timesheets to improve overall efficiency.

The key is to choose a system that works best for you and your team. If you’re currently struggling with managerial oversight of your IT department, a time-tracking, ticket-management, project-management or work-management solution may be a worthwhile investment.

IT managers, how do you keep track of your team?

Is Resource Management the New IT Strategy?

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IT Consultant CIO’s, IT Managers and Project Managers across America want to align IT service, project and operational strategies to achieve dramatic improvements in Resource Management and capacity planning. Many organizations are awakening to the failure of Capacity Planning and will renew efforts to make marked improvements in these areas over the next two years as solving the Capacity Planning problem is cited as a major factor for continued improvements to customer satisfaction and project timeliness. (Survey, Entry Software,)

IT organizations and systems are on the critical path when it comes to enabling sales, delivery and operational business strategies, so IT is no stranger to the achievement of strategy. However, there is seldom in place an IT “business strategy” that unifies the different faces of IT: project management, development, service, training, etc. Now, more than ever, IT organizations are adopting “continual improvement” paradigms based on Demming’s PDAC, (plan, do, act, check). Through the first couple of iterations of continual improvement, they find themselves in need of a global IT strategy and turn to ITSM, ITOM, Project Management and other concepts for guidance and best practices. While the strategy is part of each of these frameworks, we found there were still gaps in IT tactics when it comes to capacity and resource management.

Our recent survey (CHALLENGES FACING IT LEADERS WHEN MANAGING PLANNED AND UNPLANNED WORK IN DISPARATE SYSTEMS) revealed that issues related to Resource Management and scheduling had been recognized as a major failing within IT organizations. More specifically the report cites that

“…it is all but impossible for Project Managers to effectively and efficiently predict the future availability of a resource.”

Conversely, the resolution of the issues related to Resource Management and scheduling of project resources has been identified as a significant goal for many of organizations through the 2015 calendar year. To quote the report:

“Significant benefits cited for the improvement of resource capacity planning are reduced cost of labor and contracting, improved customer service and support of project management as a process.”

Gartner’s Hype Cycle for IT Operations Management, 2014, (Hype Cycle for IT Operations Management, 2014, Gartner, Ronni J. Colville, (2014)) demonstrates that organizational adoption of ITOM tools that include Capacity Planning and Management tools is almost always disappointing with applications and their results landing somewhere in the trough of disillusionment.

The bottom line: IT Resource Management has a long way to go. The inclusion of project management technologies and styles as well as capturing all IT work are two critical factors to the continued improvement of IT organizations.

TeamHeadquarters from Entry Software is an evolutionary solution for ITOM in the SMB market space. It addresses all work in an IT organization including planned, unplanned and operational work. With TeamHeadquarters, IT organizations can plan work, resources, support clients and consolidate IT strategies across projects, support and operations. Learn more about TeamHeadquarters at your leisure.