RCM Technologies, Inc. Announces Acquisition of Project Solutions Group, Inc.

As reported by Global News Wire.

PENNSAUKEN, N.J., July 14, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — RCM Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:RCMT) announced the acquisition of Project Solutions Group, Inc. (PSG), a Marlborough, MA-based specialty provider of project portfolio management and training services for a diverse client base. PSG is a Microsoft Gold-Certified Partner with multiple offices and sales locations nationwide.

PSG has an attractive range of competencies that include Enterprise Project Management, Information Worker Solutions, Portals and Collaboration, and ISV (Independent Software Vendor)/Software Solutions. PSG’s major customers include American Family Insurance, Autodesk, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Continental Airlines, Intuit, M&T Bank, Microsoft, Revlon, Toys R Us and University of Wisconsin – Madison. A newly formed Enterprise Project Management business unit, which encompasses former PSG business, will be part of RCM’s Enterprise Business Solutions group under the leadership of Dale Mansour, RCM Senior Vice President. Former PSG principals Tom Westcott, Tod Monchecourt, and Anisha Mason will manage this new unit.

The RCM Enterprise Business Solutions group’s core mission is to create value-oriented offerings that produce proprietary customized solutions and include intellectual property by bundling software, systems, tools and services into integrated and comprehensive business and technology solutions. PSG’s services fit well within RCM’s overall strategy by complementing and supplementing its existing service offerings. By acquiring PSG, RCM has strengthened the foundational technology layer of its Enterprise Business Solutions group. PSG’s solution expertise, including its Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, enhances RCM’s diversified Microsoft-focused consulting and solution services.

Leon Kopyt, Chairman and CEO of RCM, commented: “We are pleased to welcome PSG into the RCM family and believe that their established Microsoft expertise will greatly contribute toward expanding our Enterprise Business Solutions offerings.”

Read more here.

5 themes recruiters are looking for

Melanie Franklin, CEO of Maven Training, spoke about the market trends hitting project management at a breakfast event in London, UK, recently.

Franklin, who is the author of three books on the soft skills required for project management, spends a lot of time consulting on what organizations need to do in order to deliver better projects.  She’s in and out of board rooms and she hears what people want from project management professionals.  At the moment, these are the trending topics.

Organizations want:

• Knowledge and understanding of best practice
• Technical project management skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Specialist knowledge in a relevant industry sector
• PRINCE2 on your CV

She also said that there’s a wider trend away from ‘project management’ towards PPM, PPRM or P3.  If those acronyms don’t mean anything to you they are:

PPM:  project and programme management
PPRM:  project, programme and risk management
P3:  project, programme and portfolio management.

At interview you should be able to talk knowledgeably about the fact that PPM is the delivery of organisational change and development capability, as opposed to project management which is ‘just’ getting something done.  At board level the discussions now are about programmes and portfolios, which translates as doing the right thing for the business, and not just doing projects for the sake of it.

Those weren’t the words Franklin used exactly, but she was clear that project delivery is about staying OTOBOS and programme delivery is about delivering an outcome or vision and a more strategic change or business transformation.  In summary, when she is hiring or advising people on hiring, she looks for various key skills as follows.

In a project manager:

• Delegation
• Planning
• Delivery on time
• Cost management
• Quality management
• Risk management
• Change management and managing the impact of those changes
• Requirements gathering
• How scope is presented and checked and how often.

In a programme manager:

• Benefits management and realization
• Stakeholder management
• Ability to manage uncertainty with innovation, problem solving skills and creativity
• Ability to manage problems without constantly referring them up.

For both jobs Franklin said she would look at how recent is the candidate’s investment in their knowledge.  For example, if you are going for a job as a project manager you are presenting yourself as an expert in project management.  So how true is this?  When did you last attend an event or networking evening, training course or seminar?  How is this reflected on your CV?  It doesn’t have to cost a lot (read this article for some ideas on things that you can do without corporate investment) but it does have to be recent.

So now you know what employers are looking for in terms of both wide trends and specific skills – good luck with the job hunting!

Agile Project Management and a SIEBEL PM Job

A rather thought provoking article I came across on Agile Project Management.

Agile teams: Focus on the people rather than the process

Rick Freedman believes the agile PM’s most important roles are to create a collaborative environment that enables teams to achieve creative results and to encourage contributors to focus on group goals and agendas rather than the individual.

The NBA Finals are over, and LA Lakers coach Phil Jackson has broken the record of the legendary Red Auerbach by leading his team to the NBA championship for the 10^th time. Jackson’s ability to coach superstar players Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, and to get superstar results from role players Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher, illustrates that leadership matters, and that a group of skilled, confident, and occasionally arrogant individuals can be guided to success and can coalesce as a team.

While other coaches struggle with players who are more interested in individual statistics and personal highlight reels than in getting team results, Jackson has been able to channel the ambitions and skills of his players, both in Chicago and Los Angeles, towards team achievement. Shaquille O’Neal and Scottie Pippen make winning championships a bit easier, but, despite all the outstanding players in the NBA, no other coach demonstrates Jackson’s ability to inspire teams to great outcomes.

What does the NBA have to do with agile PM?

Like Jackson, agile project managers often have teams composed of supremely skilled and confident contributors. Like Jackson, many agile project managers often struggle to get arrogant or immature team members to subsume their personal ambitions and instead focus on team results. And, like Jackson, agile project managers must develop a leadership style that inspires and enables team members to achieve.

The coaching metaphor is, in my view, an appropriate analogy to illustrate the type of project leadership that agile methods require. Great agile project managers are coaches, with the critical understanding that, whether it’s shooting hoops or developing software, only the player can make the right decision under the pressure of the moment. Creating the environment that enables the experts to do what they do and setting the strategy while allowing the players to create are attributes of a winning coach and an agile project leader.

SIEBEL CRM Senior Project Manager.

Our global multinational client in the french speaking part of Switzerland is now looking for a Senior Siebel Project Manager/Program Manager to join the project on a long term basis here in the French speaking part of Switzerland.

THE ROLE:
Senior PM for Siebel implementation with role evolving to Program Manager (multiple projects/more countries) as Siebel initiative is planned across next 3 years. You will be in charge of the overall Siebel global implementation.

YOU NEED:
At least 8 years CRM projects, Siebel experience (SFA/BI/Call Centre), global/large scale projects(multi-country deployment), strong project management skills (end-to-end project life cycle, good command of all project areas; technical, process, change, etc), process manufacturing experience, strong communications skills, experience of vendor management.

• University degree or equivalent. Good education is mandatory.
• Fluency in English (written and spoken)
• At least 10 years large complex international experience in delivery of IT/consulting services in the area of CRM with in-depth expertise in implementing CRM software such as Oracle CRM/Siebel
• Experience on business process re-engineering;
• Experience in international working environments; Experience of off-shore delivery model
• Management of project teams
• Advanced business consulting competencies

Nice to have:

• Deep understanding of leading and emerging IT solutions; experience of Siebel on-demand will be appreciated
• Selling skills on high added value services
• Good business acumen for marketing and sales in specific industry/process manufacturing/pharmaceutical/chemical are an advantage

Random News Stories

20 Scenes From Project & Portfolio Management Summit

Everything Channel’s Project & Portfolio Management Summit headed to Southern California last week where the hot topics of discussion included the use of PPM technology to help bring IT costs under control. Pictured here are the much-coveted awards. Following are a look at the show highlights and the winners of this year’s Project & Portfolio Management Summit Innovation Awards.

Slides and Images here…

Project Management Institute and FICCI Sign MoU to Advance the Discipline of Project Management in India

New Delhi, India – Project Management Institute (PMI), the world’s leading not-for-profit professional association for the project management profession and FICCI, India’s apex business organization, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to advance the discipline and practice of project management in India. The MoU aims to advocate, promote and institutionalize project management across government agencies, public sector enterprises and organizations.

Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to a broad range of activities -across sectors like infrastructure, engineering, IT, defense and aerospace, pharmaceuticals among others – in order to ensure that the projects are completed and delivered on time and within budget and to meet the objectives for which they were intended.

Project management becomes critical given the Indian government’s focus on fast tracking infrastructure projects and to meet the growth objectives outlined in the Eleventh Five Year Plan. The MoU covers developing special training modules for government and public sector units on project management. Further, the MoU will enable FICCI access to PMI’s globally developed project management standards, publications and case studies. The agreement also enables the two organizations to share information, conduct joint research and promote the discipline of project management through joint seminars, conferences and through other platforms.

Read the full story here..

Consultative project manager with a collaboration twist

Is there a consultative project manager, with a collaboration twist?

Viktor Michaelsson* is the new breed of project manager, Project Manager 3.0 – if you will. He comes in the morning, and he doesn’t turn on his computer before 1030am. Why?

He knows his projects are on time, on scope and under budget. He understands he has maximized resource usage and he is on his way to the annual bonus.  Most of his team members and colleagues value his open approach and his ideas, and he was even invited before the holidays to speak at a communications workshop.

How does he do it? What is the secret sauce which makes Viktor special?

He combines consultative communication skills with expert collaboration features to keep on top of activities.  A consultative sale is a process of understanding the needs of the customer, developing relationships with customers and clients, and confirming your organization is doing all the right things.  It is used by salespeople around the world in several industries, including telecommunications, technology and services.

A few examples of questions Viktor asks in weekly customer conference calls:

“So, what kind of value would you receive, if we completed the project before time? ”

“How would your company benefit financially if you could now see this information more clearly?”

With these and similar questions, Viktor is building the linkages between customer value and things his team is doing in the field.  After a while, the customer is explicitly stating what he wants done and what the value of the relationship is with the PM.

Plus, he uses advanced online collaboration tools to keep in touch with team members and customers, allowing key stakeholders in delivering project success.  Now if you are the owner of Viktor’s company, or in the sales/marketing department, this must be your #1 project manager, right?

What do you think?

How many VMs are out there? How would your customers benefit from significantly strengthened relationships? How would your company benefit from this type of communication?

*The name was created for dramatic effect only. I checked on Google.com and LinkedIn.com for this name, and it didn’t pop up.  If there is a real Viktor Michaelsson, I apologize for using your name. Please contact me at aleksandar.trazoff[at]seavus.com and I will find another name.