Delivering Project Profitability

In its Delivering Project Profitability: On Time and Under Budget report, Aberdeen researchers explain that a business’s success is a function of its people, tools and technology working in harmony. Those companies widely regarded as best-in-class performers have mastered the marriage of all three.

As a matter of course, engineering firms are concerned with the application of physics and mathematics in pursuit of any number of solutions that will make some area of humanity’s time on this planet easier, faster, cleaner and smarter. The profession is a demanding mistress for the ongoing requirement it makes of its participants to stay current with ever-more-relevant knowledge.

Challenges Facing Engineering Firms

Even the ordinary challenges that confront engineering companies in their day-to-day operations are considerable. The imperative to engage in efficient estimating, bidding and delivery are givens. Add to that a struggling economy and the new competition emerging markets bring to the table and you’ve got a scene ripe for revision.

As with pretty much every business making any noise today, engineering companies employ computers and software broadly. In addition to conventional business application software, engineers draw heavily on a vast store of computer-aided applications designed particularly for their profession. It’s a recipe that has the potential to become an inefficient stew very quickly, if not managed with a big-picture eye.

To that end, Aberdeen nominates those companies with a demonstrated facility for stirring the pot.

Best Practices for Engineering Firms

The trick, it turns out, is to identify and implement a system of standardized best practices across the enterprise. As described in the report, Aberdeen’s nominated best-in-class performers are 57% more likely than their poorer-performing competitors to have such a system in place.

Consistency & Standardization

But the key is consistency. Among the prickly hallmarks of a project-management environment is a jumble of competing software applications that threaten to upend progress with their inherent incompatibility. Those organizations gunning for the most stellar corporate showings have standardized their project management applications across the board.

Just the same, Aberdeen points out, barely half of the best-in-class firms it identified for the purposes of this report had adopted such project-management best practices. There’s much potential for improvement here.

The Course of Action

At the end of the day, Aberdeen’s paper urges its readers to undertake a course of action that includes a range of tasks: the implementation of enterprise applications overseeing project scheduling, management, reporting and costing; the introduction of a method by which all stakeholders can be kept up to speed on a project’s progress; and the furnishing of all the players with those tools that will facilitate collaboration.

By establishing their revised selves, engineering companies can achieve performance levels that elevate them to the top-of-their-game.

Read the Aberdeen report on Delivering Project Profitability: On Time and Under Budget.

But PR firms’ own operations are often organizational disasters, surviving courtesy of momentum alone.

Critical to success for PR players, in an industry that boasts some $6 billion in annual transactions, is a strong back-office system that exploits current technology and engages proven processes.

Here’s how:

1. Get Consistent

Sure, your PR firm is pure genius, regularly unleashing displays of brilliance on an unwitting public. But having the creative stuff in hand is only one side of the equation. The other side could be your business, languishing in a state of disrepair and the result, an amalgam more characteristic of the last decade than the current one. Consolidate your systems—from accounting to time recording to billing—and yank your operation into modern day. With everyone reading, from the same script, duplications and overlaps will disappear.

2.Increase Your Web Presence

Today’s websites are a thousand times more sophisticated than their predecessors. The best include streaming newsfeeds from your blog. Providing the capacity for individuals to upload content and enough interactive elements to keep visitors lingering for meaningful lengths of time.

3. Automate

Productivity will climb, by adopting a combination of automated integrated general ledger controls, project management modules, time and resource tracking tools, and role-based workflows for your business. Replacing manual systems with clever automated solutions will help with job and resource management, financial controls, corporate workflow and billing.  This will also provide the benefit of freeing up resources for more creative application.

4. Update Your Telephone

The telecommunications industry has not, historically, taken good care of the small and medium business sector, including many PR firms. Typically, these folks make do with systems cobbled together from multi-line telephones, answering machines and overpriced telecomm services. But all that’s changed with the advent of sophisticated telephony solutions—featuring a slew of powerful, flexible features to increase a company’s professional image, cut its communications bills and increase its responsiveness. These sleek telephony solutions are also now affordable enough for smaller firms to employ.

Private Branch Exchanges allow many phone users to share a system with fewer telephone company lines—a clear boon to a company’s efficiency—and voice over IP technology allows the performance of such functions as tracking conversions from outside marketing campaigns, routing calls to different departments, and managing all calls, voicemails and call transcripts from a single interface. Finally, establishing a corporate IP network to run all your lines through will translate into immediate savings on your phone bill, particularly if your people bounce between branches or engage in any kind of long distance.

What got lost in the translation was the necessity for the concurrent adoption, in this evolutionary process, of a corporate-minded approach.

Fine Tuning vs. Reinventing the Wheel

It’s a vast and wildly generalized thing to say, but ad agencies aren’t run like other businesses are. They are idea factories; precious little clutches of genius, too often too engaged in the business of reinventing the wheel to appreciate the value of tuning the engine. But an advertising agency, for all its creative chaos, is every bit the business as the electronics superstore or the accounting firm. Make money or die.

The Golden Years of Advertising

As Don Draper can readily attest, the ad business had its heyday a half century ago. An exploding middle class with postwar dollars to spend was an enthusiastic convert to any number of brands, and the advertising agencies that sprang up to facilitate this exchange have today become the éminences grise of the place. Mass communication pioneers like David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach and Leo Burnett reinvented the industry muscularly and set impressive standards for advertising, cunning that some would argue have never been equaled.

Advertising in 2010

Fast forward to current day – the digital revolution has come and stayed, bringing with it rewritten rules for every corner of the business. We sell advertising differently now, buy it differently, produce it differently, regard it differently. On top of that, corporate clients are pushing harder than ever for cost consciousness and efficiency from their agency partners.

But the business models that oversee the industry have not enjoyed similar revision. Add the recession’s bitter legacy to the scene and cover your ears: there’s a battle cry for a new way of conducting business in the air.

The days when agency management could afford to administrate in the same kind of paper-shuffling, improvised, responsiveness-is-everything fashion that made their creative departments so fruitful are gone. Today’s corporate climate demands a system, particularly in light of the digitally distributed workforces that populate it.

If you don’t have one, get one. Fast. And if you don’t know how, well, just ask.

Departments must be linked to one another; communication must be instant; management must be in a position to provide feedback and direction in a meaningful, effective way; agencies need to be able to pledge protection of clients’ sensitive client data—and reassure clients that their systems are up to the task. And so on.

Automation, in this revised agency reality, must be king.

The Next Generation of Advertising

Those industry participants who understand the value of a comprehensive revolution, who appreciate the need for adopting an entirely new way of conducting business, who are prepared to enact wholesale change in their operations such that business success will equal creative success, these are the next generation of advertising superstars.

Forecasting – Essential to Every Strategic Business Decision

Call it an art or call it a science—just so long as you call it essential to the continued success of your professional services firm.

Forecasting is the material acknowledgement of the much-ballyhooed crie de coeur that time is money. The more you shell out doing stuff that’s providing no return, the more you’ve wasted. Full stop.

Every last strategic decision a person makes in his/her business should be powered by forecasting, in some shape of form.

Here are seven tips for making the most of it.

1. Pick a Method

According to the Journal of Business Forecasting Methods & Systems, there are three models of business forecasting systems. In the time-series model, data are projected forward according to one of any number of established methods, each of which works from the same basic premise: patterns from the recent past will persist. In the cause-and-effect model, there’s the assumption of an inciting incident that produces a particular outcome. In the judgmental model, managers attempt the seemingly impossible; forecasting in the absence of useful historical data, either because there ain’t any about or because they’ve been rendered obsolete

2. Research

Business forecasting is an ever-more-complicated beast, emerging spectacularly in recent years as the Swiss Army knife of business tools, characterized by a vast range of tackle, from simple electronic spreadsheets to enterprise resource planning software, electronic data interchange networks, advanced supply chain management schemes and an endless stream of Web-enabled technology. Clever forecasting systems have to be able to facilitate data-sharing partnerships among businesses, accept input from a range of different data sources and platforms, operate on an open architecture and feature an array of analysis techniques and approaches. Big breath. Acquaint yourself with the breadth of considerations in play before making any commitments on this front.

3. Choose Measurement Periods that Make Sense

The success someone will enjoy with his forecasting foray is tied up significantly with the period of time he/she nominates to measure. While forecasting is inherently associated with future events, the task depends heavily on events of the past: specifically, during that period singled out for data aggregation. Pick stretches that are neither typical nor atypical.

4. Spread the Wealth

Forecasts are needed throughout an organization. From the mailroom to human resources to the reception desk; every arm of a professional firm needs to be reaching into the potential of this particular brand of predicting. Forecasts produced by an isolated band of individuals are useless. The more heads involved in this delicate and notoriously oversensitive approach to securing future business success, the more likely it will produce some joy.

5. Measure

There’s no promise of growth for that which is never reflected upon. Any forecasting technology worth its teeth provides the means for measuring its accuracy. Indeed, the more sophisticated the forecasting technology, the greater the need for robust accuracy measurements that take it to task.

6. Never Drop the Ball

Forecasting is an ongoing concern. It’s folly to imagine you’ve ever completed this task, can tie it tidily up in a string and move on to the next thing. Forecasts need to be measured, compared and updated…constantly.

7. Seek Help

Just as options for forecasting tools have exploded in recent times, so has the pool of folks with the expertise for advising on them. At 360 Visibility, there’s no shortage of valuable counsel available. Engage our assistance. We’ve got lots to share.

This solution will allow the Hamilton Port Authority to continue to grow with Dynamics NAV. In implementing 360 PropertyManager© to manage their properties and marina, they expect to gain significant functionality and maximize efficiencies.

Janet Knight, CFO Hamilton Port Authority (Left)/Jens Baun VP Sales 360 Visibility (Right) Capturing the signing of the agreement to deliver 360 PropertyManager© to the Hamilton Port Authority.
360 Visibility was selected by the Hamilton Port Authority (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) for their unique, proprietary property management solution that is built directly into Dynamics NAV 2009, unlike any other Microsoft Partner in North America.

“Dynamics NAV is familiar to our people, is reliable for standard business activities, flexible for our non-standard needs and scalable enough to grow along with us. With 360 PropertyManager we can continue to stay on our single-application platform with NAV, and we can keep integrating more and more of our business processes into the solution. 360 Visibility’s expertise with 360 PropertyManager and Microsoft Dynamics NAV makes them the right choice for this project’s success,” said Janet Knight, Hamilton Port Authority CFO. “We expect the move to 360 PropertyManager to provide significant value for our company.”

The current version of Dynamics NAV 2009 will have to be installed for the first phase of the project, upgrading Hamilton Port Authority from existing Dynamics NAV version 4.0.

360 PropertyManager for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009©
“360 PropertyManager for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 is a turn-key solution based on traditional NAV architecture, enabling us to provide Hamilton Port Authority and our other customers the benefits of implementing an out-of-the box solution that remains flexible and can be tailored to meet their needs” says Jens Baun, 360 Visibility Inc., Vice President of Sales.
360 Visibility is dedicated to offering industry-specific customized enterprise solutions to Canadian businesses. They are a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and located in Toronto, Canada. 360 Visibility’s Business Management Specialist provide businesses with the tools to efficiently manage their business, enabling them to seize new opportunities and circumvent common downfalls.

“We are proud to team up with Hamilton Port Authority and to provide them with a solution that will make it possible to integrate each of their business processes into NAV 2009 and 360 PropertyManager, ” declared Lynn Cooke, President and CEO of 360 Visibility.

Hamilton Port Authority
Since 1912, Hamilton Port Authority (formerly Hamilton Harbour Commissioners) has managed the busiest of Canada’s Great Lakes ports, Hamilton’s industrial port lands. The yearly cargo passing through Hamilton’s ports is approximately 12-million tonnes on more than 700 vessels. This accounts for over a 1/4 of all St. Lawrence Seaway Systems movements annually.

With approximately 150,000 square feet of office space, around 2,000,000 square feet of warehouse space, more than 9,000 metres of wharf and exceeding 600 acres of land, the Hamilton Port Authority manages an extensive real estate portfolio. Striving to be “The Great Lakes Port of Choice”, the Hamilton Port Authority lives by their strong mission statement of “Partnering for Progress”.

For more information:
Jens Baun, VP Sales and Business Development
Telephone: (905) 907- 3617
jbaun@360visibility.com

Janet Knight, Chief Financial Officer
Telephone: (905) 525-4330 #226
jknight@hamiltonport.ca

No Harmony for Property Managers

Harmony is in particularly short supply in the property management field these days, as those professionals charged with overseeing large-scale physical interests struggle to understand this new layer of complication the government has seen fit to impose on their lives.

There are some who say that no segment of the population will feel the effects of the HST more acutely than landlords. Not only are they now paying 8% more to heat their properties (and some 85% of landlords include heat in their rent), they will be charged HST on a slew of other necessities of life, including: utilities, repairs, legal services, garbage disposal, snow removal, cleaning services, landscaping, accounting and property management.

Protecting the Tenants – Not the Property Managers

More than that, the Ontario government has seen to it that these folks are not in a position to recoup the money from their tenants. In a move largely speculated to be motivated by a desire to avoid widespread unrest among tenants, Premier Dalton McGuinty has chosen to exempt people living in rental housing—at least for the short term—from the HST’s sting.

Those folks holding the mortgage documents for those properties, meanwhile, will absorb the true effects of this adjustment to overall housing costs.

The Burden to the Property Owner

It’s a ridiculous move, this, not only for the way it unfairly burdens property owners, but for the inevitable roosting in which these chickens will eventually come home to engage. The HST will catch up with rents eventually, and drive them up too.

In the meantime, property managers will wrestle with how to fold the 8% sales tax increase, along with the hike to the heating fuel bill itself and the anticipated 2% inflation, into their lives. The provincial landlords’ association says the HST, once the dust has cleared, will amount to a 5% increase in the overall costs of operating a rental building; the potential for the occasional HST-inspired saving notwithstanding.

Restricted Increase for Rental Rates

More than that, landlords in this province are restricted with regards to how much they can increase their rental rates. The government has put a 0.7% cap on this, the most onerous since rent regulation was introduced to Ontario. Landlords cannot exercise this increase until next year.

And to make matters worse, the McGuinty Liberals canceled the provision for landlords to raise rents more than guidelines dictate in the face of extraordinary costs, calling it a “loophole”.

Property managers are going to be juggling price hikes on a number of fronts, as the rest of us are. Only thing is, they can’t make compensations for it elsewhere, while the rest of us can.

What a quagmire.

To my mind, this new tax is an affront to property managers in this province since it blends the 8% PST with the 5% GST. It puts an unfair limitation on how much their business can earn—and it is a business, after all.

Before this HST nonsense overwhelms you entirely, let 360 Visibility step in with its comprehensive property management software solutions to tightly manage your expenses, leases, invoices, assets, documents, reporting, maintenance schedules and—yes, the ever-lovin’ HST.

There are lots of people out there who could stand to take that message on board—at both ends of its delivery.

Most at fault? The so-called businesses who regularly clutter the airwaves with outrageous extensions of impossible generosity. “Free!” their ads scream. “Free value assessments!” “Free project scoping!”

I see this on the infrastructure side, too. “We will give you a free network assessment,” they announce, grandly. And then they hit you with a $30k proposal.

Free speech aside, I really do wish these noises would cease and desist. I wish that someone in corporate Canada would pipe up at last and fess up to the facts we already know: Nothing is for FREE.

What kind of value, after all, is attached to something no one’s thought to assign a price to? And just because an up-front fee is not included in a vendor’s initial overture doesn’t mean for a minute that one isn’t going to jump out from behind the bushes and bite you in the back.

Almost as liable, then, are the naïfs at the receiving end who buy into the hype. Everyone should be wary of hawkers offering services at no cost.

Surely, though, the great majority of us are wise to this game. We scoff at the notion that anyone would accept these proposals at face value, blithely believing they’ve stumbled upon some insider’s stash of goodwill, untapped and awaiting their grateful plundering.

Make no mistake: We’re all in business to make a buck. Representing ourselves otherwise is manipulative and deceitful in the extreme, and—what’s more—betrays an insulting assessment of the would-be customer at the receiving end of the offer.

Here at 360 Visibility, we charge for the value we deliver. If a customer feels he/she didn’t receive said value, we’ll refund him/her outlay without hesitation. More than good business, that’s real business, not the stuff of fantasy, populated by hopeful souls ever believing that the concept of something for nothing is real (or at least that they can convince an unwitting consumer of same).

In these days of the so-called new economy, where good combats evil and authentic takes on processed in regular bouts, how could you possibly engage with someone who is essentially not telling the truth?

Buying business to business is an exercise that is based to its roots on relationships, an essential to the establishment of an enduring and mutually beneficial exchange. What kind of relationship can possibly emerge from an arrangement whose foundations are built on such dishonest ground?

Nothing in life is free. If you don’t pay for it, you don’t get it. Ask your employees if they’ll give you a week’s work gratis, and watch the response. Heed Alice Cooper’s counsel in, “Sign upon the bloody line/ A drop of yours, a drop of mine/ Nothing’s free/ Eternally/ Nothing’s free”.

Or just ask your dad. He’ll tell ya.