Just one generation ago, the courier industry was essentially nonexistent. Today, in 2008, it is one of the largest means of transporting daily shipments for all industry sectors. According to the US Department of Commerce statistics, air freight accounted for nearly 40 percent of all international trade merchandise in 2007, equaling about $4.8 trillion (US), with express delivery accounting for 20 percent (or $2.4 trillion) of that amount Read the rest of this entry »

Well, a few months after Part I of this blog post was published, which focused on Deltek’s pre-New Mountain Capital private equity investment era, the time has finally come for us to analyze why being again publicly traded should (or should not) work better for Deltek this time. If one is to judge merely by the most recent financial figures, it would appear to be working well, but my focus here is on some lingering “softer” issues too.

So, when the new management team took the helm at Deltek in mid 2005, it realized that many good things had happened over the previous two decades at the company, but that one can never be too complacent. Indeed, room for improvements existed in many regards, or at least  some challenges could always be turned into opportunities. Read the rest of this entry »

In my last posting I wrote about the functions of project management. When I considered alternatives to MS Project, I started thinking about the functions of Project Portfolio Management (PPM) software and concluded that they were similar in many respects. Read the rest of this entry »

In a previous blog post, I wrote about the Project Manager’s role and some of the constraints that affect the daily life of a PM, namely: scope, time, and cost. This post will focus on some of the tools a PM uses on a day-to-day basis (and why), and some of the limiting factors that these tools present. In order to understand the use of PM tools it is essential to have an understanding of the PM’s role in the area of software deployment strategy, and the techniques used to realize the PM’s objectives. Read the rest of this entry »

The competitive environment that both Manufacturers and Distributors alike have experienced in recent years in the era of Globalization, Currency Fluctuation, and Market Pressures has given rise to the business impetus to run a leaner operation to remain competitive. These issues have trickled down to the IT department. IT Professionals are at times facing an enormous obstacle. They are expected to align the organization’s IT infrastructure with the strategic and operational components of the Business to improve upon Service Delivery. Read the rest of this entry »

The recent marketing push to integrate both small and medium sized businesses by large IT hardware and software vendors makes strategic sense. Both business groups are plagued with similar issues including small IT budgets and limited technical resources. Frequently SMBs target their IT acquisitions either in the hope of lowering costs or solving problems. Read the rest of this entry »

So you’re well on your way in terms of deploying the enterprise software. With great care and diligent planning you have assembled your team and despite your best efforts in securing resources and communicating schedules and responsibilities your Project Schedule is falling behind. You wonder if only I had selected the other vendor I wouldn’t have to be preparing this project update for first thing tomorrow morning.

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Through the implementation of enterprise wide systems many organizations have experienced success in transforming their enterprise from a reactionary task driven environment into a modern proactive, cohesive organization which can provide visibility to Senior Management and to customers and suppliers alike. ERP implementations are usually large, complex projects, involving large groups of people and other resources, working together under considerable time pressure and facing many unforeseen developments. Not surprisingly, many of these implementations turn out to be less successful than originally intended. Read the rest of this entry »