Do Small Setups Need HR Department? Let’s Find Out!

HR DepartmentThe term Human Resource Management is widely used in organizations nowadays doesn’t matter how large or small, new or old the enterprise is. But people need to know that why do we need Human Resource Department in every organization and what it actually does. Many people have the perception that the HR department only talks in the interest of management whereas the fact is way different from this perception. In actual Human Resource is the people’s management. It is undoubtedly the key resources of any organization and the reason for the formation of HR department is to strategize and formulate the rules, regulations, and policies of the company keeping in mind the safety and security of employees as well as the employer too.

Today we will specifically, discuss the small setups having 10 to 50 or a maximum of 100 employees in the organization. Do these setups need a separate HR department? The answer is Yes! But why? As we said above the size does not matter, it is actually the work and importance of HR that need to be understood. Any small setup will ultimately grow and become successful one day. Mostly we have seen that at the initial phase small setups do not hire or have any HR department or HR manager but as the time passes and setup starts to grow they realize that they do need HR department. Secondly while establishing a new enterprise how management would hire and manage the staff and their concerns and issues, doesn’t matter if there are only five employees, to retain those five and expand the strength of the office HR department is required.

The most important reason to have HR department from the beginning of any setup is that HR’s tasks are not only to recruit but in reality  Human Resource Department is equally important as any other department because it keeps the company’s liaison with the market and people and then with your employees too. It serves as a bridge between the management and second or third party for business and for any other purposes too. To have HR department from day one will be beneficial because as time will pass your company’s rules, regulations and policies will be aligned according to the changing size of your company.

What Measures HR takes in New and Small Setups?

Let us talk about some important measures HR department takes:

  • It develops an organization’s culture and it is the responsibility of HR department to keep the balance and to maintain the discipline in the office.
  • Set your organization’s values and objectives and keeps on giving a reminder to the employees.
  • Creates a hierarchal structure of organization.
  • Develops the staffing plan according to the needs and requirements of the company.
  • Plan the salary structure according to the budget.
  • Advising compensation and benefits plan for employee’s attraction and retention.
  • Introduce the company in the market amongst potential employees.
  • Setup the hiring process and criteria
  • Gives orientation, training, and molds the employee’s expertise according to the company’s requirements.
  • Closely monitoring the environment of the office and each employee’s performance.

As time is passing, Human Resource Department is adding value and becoming more and more important for organizations. They are playing an important role in organizational development.

Primavera Project Portfolio Management EPPM

The world is moving fast. Time is flying. People are evolving. This is all happening due to rapid advancements in technology and its use in personal and professional life is increasing day by day making tasks easier yet competitive. To meet the fast pace environment organizations are struggling to get the best resources and be the best amongst all.

To meet and greet the organization’s complex and time-driven projects Oracle provided Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management System.

What does Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management System (EPPM) actually do? In simple words, it provides competitive advantage to rapidly growing organizations by managing the sheer volume of incoming projects remotely through internet. Managing here means it ease and share the workload of project manager who sometimes due to the overload of projects miss out important details. This system enables project managers to share project and role wise information through the system which can be accessible by all hence it plans and prioritize that how & which task should be done by whom and also it execute, manage and update about the ongoing process and progress of the project in the way that everyone from bottom to upper management who is part of the project can track all the updates and progress of the project which decreases the risk of failure.

Isn’t it sound interesting? But there is more in it. Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management EPPM eliminates the communication gap between team members and project managers. It is designed in such a way that all the members of the project from upper to lower management can stay connected globally through mobile interface which enables each one of them to share the updates, problems and their solution which adds value in terms of organizational context.

Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management EPPM is a simple user interface design easily manageable. It strategizes and prioritizes work according to project’s deadline that enables project managers to allocate their resources efficiently and effectively in the best possible manner.

Key Features:

  • Unrestricted and easy availability of information regarding the project
  • Timely delivery of every project
  • Prioritize work according to deadlines
  • Proper allocation of resources by keeping your budget as low as possible.
  • Enables upper and lower management staff to work in teams.

An organization’s management has to take decisions keeping in mind company’s goals and objectives as well as right allocation of funds that are being given for projects. It is the responsibility of senior management that before making an investment they should be aware of all the fluctuations taking place in the markets regarding the project.

Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management System (EPPM) has empowered organizations to gain supreme levels of governance for their corporate profiles and facilitating them to make decisions about the right allocation of the funds as well as resources. It allows management to get the complete view of company’s ongoing projects with the progress ratio of current projects as well as it formulates them to make assessments and make decisions for their future investments.

Secret Lies in Collaborative Work Spaces

You often wonder how crucial is the environment of the office? The answer lies in observations and countless statistics that prove the importance of a balanced and positive environment in the success of businesses, be it small or large. The fact is that the office environment speaks for itself.

When it comes to project management, an environment that is collaborative and enthusiastic keeps the team aligned to its goals and tasks which eventually leads to successful delivery of outcome.

The reinforcement and impact of such an environment are often underestimated in project management. Below is a set of strategies that a project manager should implement to ensure that the environment at work maximizes productivity and success.

  1. Appreciation and positivity:

When a team member performs well at a given task, appreciate. Give appreciation where it’s due even if it’s for something as small as submitting work on time or working overtime to finish work. Appreciation might seem insignificant but in the long-run, it fosters positivity among team members and increases their self-confidence which is vital to producing a better quality of work. Moreover, appreciation pushes team members to do even better next time. However, constructive criticism should also be given where needed without degrading or insulting any of the team members. Lastly, the variety of opinions and think tanks always lead to improved and enhanced results.

  1. Build Rapport and Communication:

There should be a solid and well-built rapport between upper management and the team. The concerns, suggestions etc from the team members should be effectively communicated to the upper management. Also, feedback from the upper management should also be conveyed to the team members so as to ensure a two-way flow between the two units. As the gap between seniors and juniors diminishes, a positive change can be definitely noticed as that makes the team members feel that their opinions and words hold value. Moreover, communication between everyone involved in the project should be constantly using an email or dashboard. Communication gap can be eradicated by giving every member the confidence to share their input and being concise and clear about their thoughts. No office environment can succeed in suffocating conditions where members are not allowed to share or discuss.

  1. Set Realistic Goals and Expectations:

Do not overburden the team with the excessive workload. It’s often assumed that working under pressure yields better results. That is an utter misconception. Working under pressure diminishes the quality of work. The key to brilliant project outcome is assigning tasks to each member with realistic deadlines that give them time to experiment and do as well as possible. However, it cannot be denied setting bars high occasionally helps members grow their skills and come out of their comfort zones to discover their hidden talent.

  1. Follow a set of rules:

Every member of the team, regardless of his/her position, should and must follow the rules made and set. Standard processes and rules regarding every project help the team members stay connected about the project and keep them on the same page.

Project Management is key to success for a business

Companies that are having a bad business record are now jumping on project management bandwagon and showing that how important project management is for the success of the business. In the today’s challenging economic world, the executive management needs to understand the important strategic role the project management is playing in the success of the business. If an organization wants to pursue their plans for the success and stability of their business so they need to know the worth of project management instead of considering them as a functional activity and they should place them at the core of their of business processes. At the same time, the responsibility lies with the project managers to engage better with senior management for the sake of the business. We are mistakenly thinking that project management is only important for industries such as engineering, construction, manufacturing. Indeed it is necessary for these industries but not only these. Project management requires a team of talented and skillful people. Those people are responsible for the planning and then executing that plan for the success of the business. The sound plan can mean a difference between the success and failure of the business.

Why project management is important

Project management deals with the unexpected before it becomes a bigger problem. It helps you to focus on the bigger targets of an organization, let them be more productive and allow you to spend less time on a low value-added task which allows you to concentrate on the high-value task. It leads to overall efficiency and if your project team is efficient and if it works efficiently so it will reflect all parts of your project. Project management team leads to better monitoring of the overall project, this overall overview, available activities, and resources helps you to make the right decisions. This helps you to use your resources to more ambitious projects. The most important factor is that Project management helps in enhancement of team management, as the human resource is the important asset of an organization. This allows your team to share knowledge and work in synergy throughout your business project.

It is essential for every business whether it is small or established. It helps the organization to reach the goal within the predetermined budget and time. It is a big challenge for the small organization as they have to deal with projects with limited resources. It involves the identification of the right project management and then applying it to the desired project.

Primavera helps you as a team of project management. You can rely on it for a project manager. Primavera personnel are experienced project management professionals having experience and leads your projects to the successful outcome. It includes planning, development, innovation, initiation, execution, and control. Primavera has a team of skillful and talented personnel that are having expertise in manufacturing, refinery, medicine, high tech industries, hospitals, aviation, office building, and renovations. Primavera has been supporting companies in long and short-term projects. It supports when your project is near the deadline with scarce resources, Primavera helps you with its highly experienced and qualified project management professionals.

How to Start your Entrepreneurial Journey

An entrepreneur has to start from somewhere whether its a small business or it is an established one. It is sometimes hard to start a new business. It is considered a daunting task. There is a myriad issue an entrepreneur may face. It may be a legal issue, financial issue, human resource issue, a marketing issue, advertising issue, or product development issue, there might be a list of the endless issues. The new entrepreneurs are overwhelmed by all the information they are expected to know.

To start a new business you should come up with a unique name. The name has a significant impact on your business and your success. If you choose the wrong name it may lead to the insurmountable burden. You should avoid copyright names as well.

One of the most important and difficult things is to raise financing. One should understand it clearly. Raising financing for the startup of business will likely be more difficult than one can imagine. It takes a lot of efforts to convince the investors to invest in your company. It is never possible without advertising and showing benefits to the investors the company could offer in the future. So you need to avoid such things that put hurdles in your way.

Focus on building a great product is the first and foremost important thing in product development. The one thing that should be kept in mind is that, don’t take forever to launch the product. If your product is not great that not a problem it should be good at least. The product has to be different in a good way than your competitor’s offering. Never dawdle to take your product in the market on time because the customer review is important for the success of the business as it is the best way to improve the product.

For a successful business it is important to be continually attracting, building and even if necessary so educate the target market. You should make a strong marketing strategy. To have a strong market strategy make sure that you follow the following steps:

  • Promote your product on social media, this will help you to strengthen your relationship with the public.
  • You can take help from content marketing, it can be done by writing guest articles for some relevant websites.
  • Learn about the fundamentals of SEO, this will help your buyers that are searching for your product might find it on the top of the list.

Always be prepared for the big challenges. A successful company or business may face big challenges on its way to success. So, coming up with the best products would be the biggest challenge. So to have a successful business you should have a strong plan and vision. Make sure that you find the best employees for the business and placing the right man for the right job. You should work more than you expect. Never get discouraged when you face rejection from your customers.

Primavera plays an important role in growing your business. It helps you to know the worth of your business. Whether its product development, advertising, marketing or strategy making, primavera help you to win the competition in the market

Monetizing Your Website – Pros and Cons

Your site has a lot of traffic, great! Now you can use it to make money. However, monetizing a website is not something limited. There are so many options available and you have to choose the correct after understanding each method and adequately weighing its pros and cons. In this blog post, we have compiled the two methods and listed pros and cons of each to help your reach a decision accordingly and earn huge sums of money.

Affiliate Marketing:

This method involved advertising a paid good/service on your website and earning a specific percentage of the amount the company makes from each sale made using your website. To simply put, you get a commission if a buyer has purchased something using the link on your website. Find affiliate programs that suit you and generate income.

Affiliate marketing is beneficial in the sense that it generates a sufficient income because regular and new visitors of your website might find the product or service interesting. It is also easy to join since nothing technical is involved. The income generated is stable, provided that the products/services are updates every once in a while and revolve around the same area as your website.

Affiliate marketing also comes with some cons, as do most other ways of monetizing websites. Firstly, some research is required as to which product or service goes along with your website. For example, you cannot advertise something about cars on your blog about books. A better option would be something like a book shop offering discounts or having new sales. Secondly, you might lose visitors on your website if people do not find the products interesting enough and consider it a nuisance.  Thirdly, your website must have top quality traffic to be involved in affiliate marketing.

Membership Website:

This means you have to create a website that contains specialized content that can only be viewed by visitors who have a membership. Visitors that have not signed up for membership cannot view the content. While this method is one the best available out there, it involves a lot of time and effort.

The pros of building a membership website are that there is no intermediate aspect involved. You are free to set the annual or monthly membership rate as per your choices. You are also in direct cooperation and conversation with your visitors. The revenue collected by this method is far greater than any other provided that you have a good number of members subscribing for paid content. Moreover, members can get a suitable payment package.

Building a membership has a few but significant cons. There is a wide range of free content available on the internet. There’s nothing out there that is not on the internet. The question arises, then why should someone pay for your content? In this internet dominated world, theirs is a great pressure to produce content that stands out from the rest otherwise nobody would be convinced enough to sign up for membership. Only high quality content and efficient ways to gain customer’s trust can get you members. Additionally, you have to be prepared to deal with maintenance costs and invest a lot of time in your content.

Project Management for Newbie’s

project-maangementProject management is a serious business. The reason for using this title is I believe the new entrants to software development don’t realize or take it serious what a serious and stressful job project management is.

The newbie’s these days think that it is a cool job as in the TV series, “the apprentice” where in each episode each project manager is given a single task for a week but that is not the case in reality, the project management is far more adverse and hectic job. It is indeed a tough job, no matter how big or small the project is.

The most important key factors in managing projects are:

  • Evaluating what is done
  • Determining where you are on the way of getting things done.

When the project management was started in the early days, risk wasn’t the issue that was being focused on. Only focus was on time and budget, the job of it was just to deliver what was being asked by the stakeholders. But with the passage of time things have changed radically which is a positive thing and should be acknowledged. The process of risk management is given importance and the project evaluators as well as the stake holders give due importance to this factor.

The most critical and soft skill is understanding the psychology. Projects and most importantly successful projects are all about teams, successful teams make successful projects. And successful team is made by a project manager who very well understands the psychological needs of the members. Understanding the psychology is very important while dealing with the stake holders understanding the needs of the business sponsors.

Here I present an analogy, a lighter one for a better understanding of what project management is,

To understand this analogy let us compare IT with Golf;

There are four factors that are compatible between golf and IT.

  1. It looks simple but believes you me, it is not.
  2. A very little mistake can lead to major problem; an error is the last thing you might want to encounter.
  3. Second guessing others is easy, when it’s in your hands, its easy being an expert with hindsight.
  4. Very difficult thing to do is to sustain a consistent level of performance.

A very important question asked these days is where and how the education should be started these days as there are few industries where the project management  is taken seriously, to name a few, the sectors like banking, aerospace and pharmaceuticals are some. But there are still some smaller or bigger ones where the term project management hasn’t made an impact or the due importance is not given.

The questions arises from where the education should be started, the answer is from the stake holders, they should be made to realize not everything can be handled by the same

Old traditional way where everything was decided in a board room and people followed what was discussed , now every stage needs supervision.

PSGINCS

Consultation Services for Primavera P6

consultingThere is a wide range of consultation services available for primavera p6. Solutions that are most critical to your project are offered.  Consulting while solving some ambiguous problem is a way to minimize the effort and work and go in the right direction while you still have time.

In this article we will provide you with some of the most successful and known consulting services providers related to primavera P6 portfolio management. This would be indeed of great help for companies who are still in deciding phase whether to opt for primavera services or not, whether they will be able to implement them successfully in their organization for their crucial projects. Would it be a source of uplift and progress with making the projects which are critical for their business, a success?

These all questions are definitely answered by consultations service companies.

Few of them are listed below.

CBA: critical business analysis inc.

A short about the company includes, that their history goes back to 30 years. Since then they have been committed to advancement of project and program management expertise.  Decades of real world experiences offering a wide range of professional services in a variety of industries.

CBA inc. is seasoned with professionals that provide you with the best of assistance. Giving you a variety of project management. The services and support is given with the best of knowledge. The expert knowledge comprises of portfolio project management. That is re enforced with real world experiences. Based on skills and aptitude of people involve in your project. The most important thing is their training services for primavera.

The processes they use include:

  • Business process development
  • Software implementation
  • Process documentation
  • Custom training development
  • Report writing

The people involved in consultation services are

CBA has been helping preventing project failures since the past 30 years of their services. A highly recommended one.

EBS:

With more than 12 years of experience, EBS gives integrated services for IT solutions and project management market. Part of the Insynchro group of companies, they have extended their operations across Asia pacific region providing services that range from complex implementations across the world.

Their expertise include oracle and Microsoft stack of project related solutions, services and trainings as well as their very own project centric board room solution also known as IXD.

The IXD is basically designed to serve the neglected project business stakeholders. Supporting large capital intensive projects in oil, gas, utilities, miming, telecommunications, aerospace, and infrastructure, transportation, public and construction sectors.

Their oracle product suite includes:

Their services include:

  • Consultations
  • Planning
  • Integration
  • Earned value management for primavera
  • Upgrade and installation for products.

Why a Good Team is a Primal Virtue for Project Success

project-succssA team, a dream team to be precise is a quality that can defeat any obstacle or hardship experienced during project making. Yet more on the soft skills. It has always been impressive that how people work effectively if they are given confidence and respect, with these two powerful tools things can never get out of your hand. Project management is all about keeping things in your hand. What is happening and how things should go the right way is the primal virtue a project management should focus on. Knowing your stuff and being able to share your expertise while not being utterly persuasive or slightly dominating is a virtue for a good team, a capable team with the right professional attitude goes a long way.

A good project team is always better then a spectacular team. Micro managing a team is never a good step; it will always add mess and might deviate you from the right path where you need to focus on important basis. If you try to become a super star, micro managing everything, trying to get every little detail, interfering, dominating, the superstar will get carried away. You just need to be focused and humble at the same time. There’s a famous saying;

Fill your bowl to the brim

It will spill.

Over sharpen your knife,

And the edge will soon be blunt.

More on soft leadership, pushy project managers may think they are being effective but they are not. Believe you me they are just losing a member. Surely a bad impact on team. Better to be relaxed and go with the flow. For that way, the team will be positive and motivated. That’s not to say you can be incompetent and get away with it. The team will soon find you out. Just be fair, respectful and honest, and you might earn all the respect in the world.

A wise project manager will get all the respect. He must be like water who gets its way easily. And goes anywhere freely. It is yielding and flows naturally. He doesn’t push things or get carried away momentarily.

Enlightened leadership:

A leadership that is soft isn’t selfish and thinks of collective progress. A good team is lead by these. Continuing the theme of soft leadership.  The main quality is selflessness, a project manager who is selfish and thinks only of himself either alienate the rest of the team or worse the team that is the correct way. And start to behave in the similar way adapting to similar characteristics.

The reason is a good project manager who is supportive, builds confidence and makes space for other people to grow and progress as he progresses.

A famous proverb is;

Heaven and earth are long lasting

Why are they long lasting?

They use no personal agenda.

So they last long.

There are a number of courses available online on how to be a good project manager.

Handling Your Nerves While Doing a Project

project-management-on-your-nurvesStaying calm while handling your projects is the most important thing. There can be a lot of pressure while handling project specially when the deadlines need to be met and resources need to be balanced. Other factors can be the nature, task or inter dependencies. Top management always want it quicker, is it isn’t cheaper and better.

Things are not well versed if the project manager responds to the management pressure by interfering with the team and pressurizing the team, the efforts and skills of the team gets demoralized. The lesson we learn from agile approach is to sit back and let the team do their work. While the pressure prevails. It helps a lot as the team gets confidence what they are capable of and results in a lot more motivation. If this isn’t done the pressure is build up and with tour interruption in pity things wile you lose your focus the team loses their way too. Even the scrum master is there to facilitate. The team gets motivated, the results are great and the projects gets successful, and what you get, satisfaction, a new energy to get things right as well as appreciation and support from the top management.

A wise project manager is guided by the way he feels. The most important of the factor is believing your gut instinct and not to get effected by what is happening around. Staying calm helps you focus and realize what’s going on inside your head and collaborating with your gut instinct. The rest of the team will get on it , pick up the pace and stay centered. The old thought which is practiced by every successful individual. Pause and take time to reflect, the way become clear, and acting the right way becomes easier. Agile project management is all about empowering your team, which is very much in line with the team. When the members of a project work together, there is a inner space created among them, the team then collaborate, grows, work hard, collaborate and make successful projects in that space, while doing this the only thing that matters and what makes it a success is confidence and believe on each other’s skills. A wise project manager always give importance to the silences, silences that prevails within the inner space of the team, which tells a lot about the happenings. It reveals team’s essential mood.

The most primal virtue is to not to take sides or getting involved in any kind of conspiracies. Squabbles are the worst thing that can happen to a team. A correct approach is also very important while resolving the issues or negotiating with people who are not motivated enough.

A leader is persuasive but not dominating, you can make other’s work for you only if they listen to you and not find your behavior dominating or interfering, they never like the project manager to take all the credit for their work, which is ethically wrong too.

PSGINCS

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