There are a number of reasons behind an organisation’s decision to implement Project Portfolio Management (PPM) software. Key motives include a clearer understanding of the number of active projects aligned to the organisation’s strategic objectives in terms of benefit realisation, assessing the prioritisation and sequencing of projects given the company’s capacity, and measuring health and governance compliance levels of the current project portfolio.
How will PPM software enable my project environment?
PPM software allows the project community, including the executives and management within an organisation, the ability to maintain a centralised view of the portfolio, which assists in making smarter financial and business decisions for the project portfolio. Most PPM software is designed to facilitate, support or enable existing project management processes and promote a culture of knowledge sharing.
Closing the sale
The stakes are higher when it comes to implementing PPM software solution compared to other ERP systems. Given the statistics for the number of failed PPM software implementations, figuring out how to sell the idea to the executive team is one of the first hurdles you will face. You’ll want to get the ongoing support of the executive team to motivate everyone to use the software during the rollout and beyond for a sustainable implementation. The thing is, a lot of Project Management Office (PMO) managers are good at getting things done, but who knew that selling is just as important as any other skill for the role? Selling the value of project management, selling the role of the PMO and now getting buy-in for PPM software is yet another sales job for the PMO manager.
Which sales approach is best?
If you consider the monetary value, and the man hours spent on designing the solution, data take-on, training end users and other PPM software implementation tasks, it can be a costly undertaking for any organisation investing in PPM software. Managers and CEOs alike will want to see good reasons for adopting a new software package and “It’s just going to make life easier” won’t qualify as good enough reason to justify a PPM software implementation. By now you’ve realised that you’re actually building a business case as you would for any other project and to help you out, here are a few considerations to give you the best possible chance of closing the sale and successfully gaining the necessary support and sponsorship for an effective PPM software implementation.
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