One of the most overlooked, and underestimated, aspects of successfully transforming business is communication. Yet all know how to communicate and we do it everyday. If you go to Amazon.com and search the book section using the keyword “communication” you would find 32,590 entries for communication. So if communication is so simple and so straightforward then why did some 32,000 authors feel compelled to write a publication on the subject? The truth is that communication is not so simple. It is through communication that an opportunity can be explored, presented, understood and acted upon.

If you were to look at a typical list of causes of project failures you will find entries such as lack of clear linkage to corporate priorities, gaps in available/skilled resources, ineffective integration with other initiatives, poor integration with key stakeholders, ineffective executive ownership and leadership, etc… Interesting how communication is not explicitly documented in any of these entries yet each of these causes can be positively impacted through the application of more effective communication.

You can collapse all these symptoms into one simple cause, the failure to communicate! More effectively timed and presented communication could have made a significant difference in each of these areas. Understanding the importance of communication in your strategic initiatives enables the success of your program/project. If you are not balancing your investment in program design and its communication program then you are missing an opportunity. If your program stakeholders and constituents don’t agree on the strategic importance and overall business/process impact, then they will likely be reticent to accept, adopt and advance the change. This will add time, confusion and cost to the program.

Developing and implementing a robust communication planning mechanism is essential. Equally essential is staffing the communication plan with skilled communicators. They must be able to evaluate the stakeholder communities and to be adept at speaking into those communities in such a way that the resultant action is aligned and furthers the goals of the program.

Investments in the successful program communication plan tend to be front loaded. Success calls for a significant allocation of time in the planning phase of the communication plan. Time needs to be spent reviewing the stakeholder communities and assessing which forms of communications work best for the specific communities. Communication plans are focused on:

• Who: Who will receive the communication? (Key
  Stakeholders, Project team, etc.)
• What: What information must be conveyed to the audience?
  (Vision, Goals, Status, etc.)
• Why: Why communicate this information, what it will
  achieve? (Awareness, gain support, alignment, etc.)
• How: How will the communication be completed? (Concall,
  Webinar, F2F presentation, etc.)
• When: When will the communication occur? (Date, time,
  location, etc.)

If you are looking increase your capability in this critical area then ASIL’s Max Partnering™ software has a suite of change management tools. Give us a call at 1-888-878-2745 or see the “Contacts” tab on our website at http://www.asil-inc.com and feel the difference ASIL can provide.

contributed by Pete Pazmany

ASIL, Inc. attains ISV Partner Status in the Sun Microsystems's Partner Advantage Program

We are proud to announce that ASIL has been accepted as a Partner in the Independent Software Vendor (ISV) implementation of the Sun Microsystems’ Partner Advantage Program. We qualified by meeting Sun's stringent criteria for excellence as a supplier of Business Performance Management solutions, and by committing to tight strategic and technical alignment with Sun.

The benefits to Sun customers include access to growing number of BPM solutions, investment protection and reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) through collaborative engineering between ASIL and Sun.

“We are committed to the efficiency of using the various features of Sun’s JAVA in the development of our web-based software application, MAX Partnering™, especially its cross-platform compatibility and our now being able to work with Sun in joint marketing efforts. “ said Peter Pazmany, CEO/President of ASIL, Inc.

“We congratulate ASIL, Inc. for attaining Partner status and welcome them to this very exclusive Sun Partner Advantage Program,” said Yi Wan Ching, Sun’s Partner Advantage Program PR Manager. “Innovation is a team sport, and we look forward to collaborating with ASIL, Inc. across every phase of the application lifecycle to optimize MAX Partnering™ on the Sun platform.”

About Sun Partner Advantage

Introduced in September, 2005, the Sun Partner Advantage Program is designed to make it easier for ISVs to get the resources they need to go to market faster, extend their sales reach, harness the expertise and connections of Sun's partner ecosystem, and grow their business. The Program helps create an increased level of collaboration among Sun and its ecosystem of partners. By participating in the Sun Partner Advantage Program, ISVs receive simplified, programmatic, Web-based access to the resources they need to help them succeed in each stage of the application life cycle: design, development, deployment, and operation. For complete details about the individual offerings that are available, go to www.sun.com/partners/isv.

Spotlight: Project Manager's role: Traditional
versus Futuristic

Recently as I sat in airport on my way home from a client, I became part of an open discussion about project management. There were four people with various backgrounds including Consulting, IT, and Business Development representing three large companies.

It was interesting to listen to their perspective about project managers and their roles. If you think about the traditional role of the project manager you see an individual that is centered on collecting and disseminating information. They are the coordinators of meetings and resources, and try to stay on top of all of the action items, and deliverables. Much of their day is spent sending requests for updates or placing phone calls, neither of which are typically answered timely. They are accountable for presenting an accurate and useful picture of the project so that Executive Management can make informed and educated decisions.

What if the role was changed so that they could become real facilitators and eliminate roadblocks? I know some of you are thinking that is how we do it today, so what is the big deal? In fact if you look at most of the automation that is in place to help project managers you will see tools that cater to the Traditional Project Manager. Most project managers employ a series of tools to perform the activities above. These include Word, Lotus Notes, Excel, Powerpoint, and many others. Yes there are project management tools out there, but they require people to change how they operate.

A more futuristic version would incorporate a closed loop accountability that could capture the actions and deliverables that are due, and then automatically facilitate the owners through communications to close their respective actions on-line/real-time. Think of the increased productivity by having the owners of the actions administer responses directly into a system of record. No more chasing to get information. Accountability resides with the owners and visibility into completion is real-time. No more excuses of what was lost in the translation. Project meetings would change from validation of status to problem solving.

The objective is to have the project manager spend most of their available time eliminating obstacles. Utilizing business practices and technology to manage the collection and dissemination of the information is fundamental to the shift in the project manager's role. The outcome will improve productivity and results through increased communication and action orientation. Are your project managers aligned into a traditional model or more aligned to a futuristic model? If traditional is your answer, its time to move into the future!

contributed by Pete Pazmany

Product Highlight

The new upgrade release for MAX Partnering™ software includes integrated closed loop accountability within the tool suite. Each tool provides for the selection of a Program Manager (PM) and selection of deliverable owners linked to email addresses contained in the Authorized Parties Listing (APL). The PM is now able to notify owners of their deliverable assignments, track deliverable due dates, and escalate late/past due items automatically. The updated Project Management tool allows the PM to manage all deliverables in one area. The flexibility of the APL allows both internal and external owners to be assigned and managed for deliverables in Change Management, Scorecards, Corrective Action/Resolutions, and other miscellaneous assigned deliverables. This release was in response to requests from MAX Partnering™ users for expanded functionality and ease of use.