PMSA is pleased to announce that Project Portfolio Office (PPO) will once again lend support to the Biennial National Conference as a headline sponsor. This is an extension of an ongoing relationship between PMSA and PPO focused on knowledge sharing, and due to the fact that the innovation theme resonates with PPO and where it is positioned in the market.
PPO CEO, Guy Jelley believes the innovation theme is highly relevant to the country and to project management at this time. “PPO plays in two keys spaces; the technology space being a software as a service product based organisation as well as in the project portfolio management space. PPO believes that the only way for organisations to be successful is to adapt to the required change and grow. Irrespective of industry, organisation size, culture or methodology being used, delivering programmes and projects successfully remains the most effective way to drive out this change and growth” says Guy.
He adds that South Africa is in a difficult place economically and the global trend is for organisations to move faster every day. “This means the need to be innovative is more important than ever and project management must adapt to the pace and need for change to stay relevant to organisations.”
His concern in this regard is that, “We as an industry run the risk of being left behind by the organisations we service. We need to break the perception of project management being a static / boring / governance / red-tape based discipline to one that drives value for their organisations.”
PPO itself is an innovation success story. They remain the only 100% locally developed 100% SaaS PPM application in the market today. Having pioneered the SaaS offering in 2007, they were also the first ever African winner of the Best of Software as Service (BOSS) offering with the implementation of PPO at the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA).
That said, they acknowledge that the needs and requirements of project offices and project managers are constantly changing. As such, PPO make it their business to stay abreast of the trends and interpret these for clients. “In the last couple of years, we’ve seen that PMOs are maturing their processes and requirements around programme management, benefit tracking and resource supply and demand and PPO has needed to ensure that we lead in these new trends,” explains Guy.
Many of these trends relate to innovation. For example, the emergence of agile in the project management space is something that PPO has implemented into the product to remain current. They are currently working on bench-marking and project prediction models to give project offices better insights in what their project timeline and efforts will be for proposed projects making use of previous project delivery and data.
Guy sees it as key to support Project Management South Africa (PMSA) and all project management platforms to drive the PM community to greater success and value.
At the conference, Guy will be leading a high profile panel discussion on how project management can deliver strategic value in terms of innovation; and delivering a case study that explores some of the innovative and disruptive ways in which project managers are communicating project status to their stakeholders.
As to why PPO is lending support to the conference, and why this knowledge delivery channel is so important, Guy says, “The conference gives us an opportunity to engage with practitioners and understand their challenges and needs to ensure that our software and offering provides value to them. Unlike other industries, project professionals have few opportunities to take their game to the next level. Live events and conferences (on this scale) endorsed by Project Management South Africa happen only every two years and this provides a unique learning and career building opportunities that you just can’t find anywhere else.”
He adds, “It’s a great opportunity to meet experts and influencers face to face and there is a nothing like being in a room of like-minded people who are all willing to take time away from the office to learn something new and better their skills.”
ABOUT THIS EVENT
Project Management South Africa (PMSA) is the autonomous SAQA recognised professional body for project, programme and portfolio managers across sectors. It is committed to growing a body of knowledge for project management in South Africa and on the African content by encouraging discourse and creating opportunities for knowledge generation and sharing through initiatives such as the PMSA National Conference.
For more information on this event visit /www.projectmanagement.org.za/page/PMSAConference2016 or contact Dilshaan Duearte 011 257 8003 | events@projectmanagement.org.za
