Business Management : What will be your next projects?

Business management involves ensuring the smooth running of operations and the well-being of employees. It also includes research, development, digital transformation, etc.

 

Managing a business is also knowing to seize opportunities that are related to your business needs. One of them could be to implement more secure database management or a technological upgrade.

 

What projects would you like to undertake? What projects are you going to undertake? How will you decide on your next project?

 

Draw up a list of potential projects that you could embark on. It is the first step.

 

Business Management: Decide your next projects according to your business needs

Here is a list of questions to help you make choices regarding your next projects

 

• Will projects that are currently underway lead to follow-up projects?
• Are any of your systems nearing the end of their life cycle?
• Is there any new legal obligations looming that your organization will have to comply with?
• Are there changes in organizational structures ahead that will require new systems to be introduced?
• Is your company about to acquire a new business or sell off one of its areas of activity?
• Are you obliged to make changes to your processes and information systems to comply with a new accounting standard or a new industry standard?
• Are there projects which, even when completed, have failed to deliver all the expected functionalities?
• Is there any business process that is causing you performance problems, or for which you have major issues to resolve?
• Does your company’s business strategy require your organization to install new systems so that you can deliver your portion of the strategy concerned?
• What projects in other areas of the company will impact your organization? Do you have to deliver prerequisites for some of these projects? Conversely, must some of these projects deliver prerequisites to you?

 

Prepare a solid business case

Once you have drawn up a list of potential projects, you will need to prepare a business file for each project for which you intend to submit an application for funding. Each of your business files must include a cost evaluation. In this regard, note that it is better to present a range of potential costs rather than a single amount. Why? Because the estimate you currently have in hand is still preliminary and high-level.

 

You must also set out all the benefits that each project will bring, whether financial, strategic, quantitative or qualitative, or whether they involve cost reductions and avoidance. Because a presentation of the proposed solutions must be included in each file, it would be wise to ascertain the level of maturity and robustness of the solutions considered.

 

Your business files will be updated as each project progresses and will enable you to guide the major decisions you will have to take in the course of project completion. It is important to clearly understand your company’s process for prioritizing and allocating funding since this will allow you to optimize the way you present your files. The more profitable your projects are, and the more in line with the corporate strategy they are, the better their chances of being selected by senior management.

 

When preparing your business file, you will have to meet with experts in your area of business. Find out about current best practices in your industry and meet with software vendors who offer potential solutions. At PlanAxion, we offer an independent opinion as well as strategic advisories. Our team can guide yours to solutions and software packages that truly meet your needs.

 

Don’t forget the Human Resources

It is wise to draw up a plan of the human resources required by each of the projects you develop. This will help you determine whether your organization is able to supply all the expertise required and to decide what expertise will come from outside.

 

Some expertise that is particular to your company cannot be acquired on the market and must, therefore, come from your personnel. This is often the ultimate constraint that will dictate the speed at which your project portfolio can be delivered. We invite you to read this to get the best out of the recruitment process.

 

It is not uncommon to find projects competing for rarer resources inside the company, a situation that requires adjudication. In many organizations, the adjudication process is not done in a systematic manner and is subject to political factors, which do not always lead to the best decisions.

 

So, what will be your next projects?

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Jean-François Desroches is Program Manager at PlanAxion Solutions.
He can be reached at jean-francois.desroches@planaxion.com