Capital industries feel pressure on all sides

All industries need to keep pace with changing economies, disruptive technologies and public policy. But for companies building and operating large capital assets – whether in engineering and construction, infrastructure, energy or transportation – the challenge is different. While there is pressure for continuous improvement, projects take time.

In the UK, Crossrail, an east-west London tunnel, was first proposed in 1974. After several different plans and proposals, work finally began in 2009. Passengers will not use the service until 2018. Building extensions and related projects could take until 2026.

In such a world, talk of transformational change and market disruption doesn’t fit the reality on the ground, or in this case, in it. Still, there is a constant pressure on companies in these markets to evolve. And pressure to build capital projects with fewer resources has just notched up a gear or three.

Article written by Mike Sicilia (senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Primavera Global Business Unit) and appeared on the Oracle EPPM Blog.

Take any company on the S&P 500 list from 1960, and you could expect that company to exist for about 60 years. Fast forward—do the same test for a company today, and the average lifespan is less than a third of what it was—just 18 years.

This is more than a stat. It’s a sign of the transformative times that we’ve entered—a Renaissance-age driven by the connective power of the Internet and the exponential increase of all the possible nodes that can connect to it, from a smartphone to an oil rig. So the message to business leaders is clear—transform or die.

Original Article on www.softwareadvice.com.

The construction industry has seen its share of ups and downs in the past decade, leading many firms to re-evaluate their competitive strategies in order to stay ahead in this volatile market. One increasingly critical aspect of a construction firm’s operations is its information technology (IT) ecosystem. This ecosystem includes the software used to conduct basic processes: bidding, estimating, takeoffs, accounting and overall project management.

With that in mind, Software Advice sought to better understand the challenges prospective construction software buyers face, and what they look for in a new system. This report highlights our findings.

Original Article on Forbes.com. Article written by Bob Evans, senior vice president and chief communications officer for Oracle.

Throughout 2014, the CIO profession was subjected to a baffling series of apocalyptic forecasts and dire predictions that have proven to be laughably wrong.

Where did all these distortions and misperceptions about the stewards of IT strategy and execution come from?

Well, times of extreme change and disruption in the business world—and 2014 surely qualified in spades for that designation—always breed lots of theories about what caused all that upheaval and where it will lead.

And since the CIO profession and its attendant IT organization have always been among the most misunderstood siblings in the corporate family, it’s not surprising that their decline, downfall, decimation, and demise were so grandly forecast and greatly exaggerated. Here are a few of my favorite crackpot theories:

Global competition and volatile markets are creating a challenging business climate for project-based firms which leave them with little room for error when managing projects. Asset intensive industries have their own individual challenges when it comes to managing their asset's lifecycles, but one area that is often overlooked or pushed off until the last minute is the decommissioning phase of their assets. The key to decommissioning is delivering projects and milestones on time and within budget. However, as the number of moving parts in a project increases, so does the difficulty in maintaining visibility and control. Companies need to take a holistic approach to enterprise project management to reduce risk in the business and be successful.

Based on the experiences of over 600 respondents, this report will explore proper asset lifecycle management. Specifically the decommissioning phase of an asset's lifecycle - how it needs to be treated like its own major capital project and planned for now while the necessary resources are present.

Communication and collaboration between owners and contractors has been a frustrating, expensive, and ongoing issue in the engineering and construction industry. All the players agree that clear communication is critical to the successful completion of construction projects. Yet, poor communication happens all the time as projects progress to completion. Misunderstandings are commonplace—not only when owner and contractor organizations communicate with each other, but even within those organizations between project team members.

The purpose of this white paper is to explore how communication and collaboration between owners and contractors can be dramatically improved when all players continually invest in three key areas:

• People
• Processes
• Organization

In addition, this white paper will discuss how mobile devices, such as iPhones and tablet computers, further enhance communication between owners and contractors. Mobile applications represent a fundamental change in the way all project participants can communicate and collaborate by enabling project teams to share information from where the work is being done: the field.

Success Factors in Public Infrastructure Project Management

Public infrastructure projects drive a country’s economic success – providing the ability to grow and become more viable and competitive in world markets. Constructions such as roads, airports, bridges, buildings, complexes, and the delivery of essential services, also improve the quality of life for citizens.

As much as public infrastructure projects create positive impact on societies, influence cultures, and affect lives, when they fail the negative impact is far-reaching. It is estimated that for every US$1 billion spent on a failed project, US$135 million is lost forever… unrecoverable. The cost of failure, however, can be more than purely financial. When projects involving billions of dollars’ worth of investment overrun on budget or time the result can hurt the tax-payer, delay essential improvements, and even trigger civil unrest. The results can topple governments.

For companies that don’t want merely to succeed in their industries but to lead them, continual business transformation is a must. With 93% of U.S. companies in some phase of changing their business model, according to recent research by consulting firm KPMG, businesses that aren’t thinking about transformation are all but irrelevant. Business transformation can mean everything from a major shift in IT systems to a large-scale innovative construction project or changes to business models and product designs. Similarly, the drivers of transformation vary widely, ranging from the increased globalization of markets in all industries to shifting energy prices to consumer expectations of constant innovation.

This paper looks at what tends to drive business transformation initiatives both internally and externally for a company, and what determines the success or failure of such initiatives. It also reveals how companies execute business transformation and the value a well-executed initiative can deliver.

Article written by Guy Barlow (Director, Industry Strategy & Business Development, Primavera Global Business Unit, Oracle) and appeared on the Oracle EPPM Blog.

We’ve seen the rapid rise of the project management office (PMO) over the last two decades. An annual survey of more than 400 companies worldwide pegs adoption at 80% and 90% among larger organizations^[1]. The 2014 results, however, yielded an interesting blip – a slight decline over 2012 findings. Is this an anomaly or might it be the start of a next generation transformation?

Earlier this year, The Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) Board looked at a related issue that will impact the future of the PMO. Specifically, can a PMO guarantee strategic and financial success when managing multiple global projects? The board – a steering group of senior executives, academics, and industry experts that looks at how C-level executives can successfully prioritize and mange the project portfolio – shared some interesting insights and concurred that a one-size fits all strategy – in the form of a centralized PMO – is not always the best approach.

Article written by Melissa Centurio Lopes, and appeared on the Oracle EPPM Blog.

It all starts with good intentions; your good intentions to make a positive impact on the business, your good intentions to help the business become organized, and your good intentions to improve efficiencies and effectiveness. You’re thinking creatively, you’re excited about making positive changes and you’re full of optimistic energy. Yet with all these good intentions, your attempt to deploy a Project Management Office (PMO) is met with resistance from colleagues and fraught with difficulties in implementation. 

Why?

Corey Spagnoli, Senior director of Continuous Improvement PMO from NCR Corporation, a PMO veteran with 13 years’ experience, talks through three of his most problematic examples of PMO rollout in IT and Continuous Improvement environments, and the critical success factors involved. Corey talks us through his PMO deployment mistakes, demonstrates the pitfalls to avoid, and shows us how to overcome the difficulties, becoming one of our PMO rollout success stories. 

Corey’s advice is to consider three key elements for a successful PMO rollout: