gr8eat video from EPMO expert Don Kingsberry from the Gates Foundation http://t.co/P2WFLEKPcb #PMO #PPM #OIC14

Don Kingsberry, Head of the EPMO at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, shares insights from years of experience working at six of the fastest growing companies in the world. Hear this compelling talk about best practices for high impact EPMOs.

— Sylvie MacKenzie (@symack) June 26, 2014

After years of slumping sales, the auto industry is rebounding at an unprecedented pace. Auto parts and components suppliers, who were equally battered, now face the challenge of quickly retooling and re-staffing to regain status with OEMs.

This White Paper looks at the current trends and how automotive suppliers can get back on the fast track.

Learn how automotive suppliers can position themselves to help OEMs meet their new model goals.

The last eighteen months have seen incredible activity within Oracle Primavera, with two significant acquisitions, movement of key applications to the Cloud, and new solutions being offered to the market.Oracle’s leadership in the enterprise project portfolio management space continues to grow, with exciting new solution areas being developed to solve historically un-served needs. Watch Paul Verveniotis keynote at Oracle Industry Connect to hear an update of current activities and how his Product Strategy team are paving the way to revolutionary capabilities that will transform EPPM.

Watch here.

Join Eskom CIO Sal Laher to hear firsthand how Eskom–the largest utility in South Africa–has embarked on a transformational journey to implement the largest infrastructure capital investment portfolio in Africa. From actionable metrics through to subcontractor management, Eskom is vastly improving visibility, increasing responsiveness, and driving greater efficiency across a myriad of critical new builds. The utility is creating significant numbers of new jobs and strengthening the delivery of basic services to the people of South Africa in a fast-growing economy. Laher provides information and experiences from Eskom’s own build program.

Watch the keynote presented at Oracle’s Industry Connect here.

Recent research has shown that more than 60 percent of Fortune 1000 companies plan to implement an enterprise project management office (EPMO) over the next two years. Attend this session to learn the value of true enterprisewide portfolio management and the best practices associated with an EPMO. Don Kingsberry, deputy director and leader of the EPMO for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation–the largest private foundation in the world–shares what he has learned over 30 years in establishing six different EPMOs across multiple industries. Kingsberry's focus areas for the session include linking strategy to execution, prioritization, EPMO implementation, critical success factors, and resource management.

Watch the full keynote here.

Witten by: Aaron Larson, POWER Magazine

Productive maintenance turnarounds are vital to long, successful online periods. Getting the work done quickly and properly takes more than just luck. Good planning and excellent communication can lead to safe and efficient outages with fewer hiccups and less stress.

It’s no secret that equipment requires maintenance. Just as your personal vehicle needs an oil change periodically, a power plant needs to shut down regularly for a tune-up to take care of all those little issues that would otherwise turn into big problems.

Most generating companies are preparing for outages continuously. When one outage ends, plans begin for the next. Often planning is in progress for major projects years into the future (Figure 1). Work list items that could not be completed for one reason or another are added to the next outage schedule. The entire process is a full-time job, often with entire departments focused on the task.

But what makes some maintenance periods go smoothly—coming in on budget and on time—while other outages hemorrhage with cost overruns, unexpected delays, and continual surprises? It is very difficult to foresee every possible problem, but planning for contingencies and scheduling appropriately are two vital tasks required to get all involved parties on the same page.

Read the complete article here

The process manufacturing industry is confronting significant infrastructure problems that heighten risks to operations and leave executives struggling to bring their ageing facilities into the twenty-first century, according to a new report by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Oracle. One executive put the challenge in stark terms, saying "It takes years to build a reputation, but one serious infrastructure failure can destroy it." 

The report, "The Impact of Aging Infrastructure in Process Manufacturing Industries," is based on a recent survey of 366 executives. The research found that aging systems are negatively impacting—sometimes substantially—companies in oil and gas, utilities, chemicals, and natural resource industries. A commanding majority—87 percent of the respondents—said aging infrastructure has impacted operations in the past 3 to 5 years, with 1 in 10 saying they suffered severe consequences that they are still trying to fix.
But as a group, the executives see a way to improve agility and seize new opportunities while protecting customers, employees, operations, and corporate images from costly infrastructure failures. The best solutions involve a blend of technology, project planning, and due diligence, the report stated. The executives added that these elements help organizations identify and resolve problems before crises occur.

Find out how others in the power and energy sector are adapting and developing new strategies to address the issues of ageing infrastructure. Compare your own experiences and strategies against those of your peers with Oracle’s interactive benchmarking test, take the test and receive a complimentary four-page personalized report It’s a simple 5 minute test that gives you an instant graphical snapshot and recommendations on how to turn your organization’s ageing infrastructure issues into an opportunity.

Read the full article in the EPPM Information In-depth newsletter here.

A new white paper from Oracle, "Manufacturing Outlook: Improving Time to Market, Operational Effectiveness, and Innovation in a Highly Competitive Environment," explains that there's good news and bad news for US manufacturers in the current economic environment. On the plus side, manufacturing production is expected to grow by 2.4 percent in 2014 and 4.1 percent in 2015. The bad news? Many manufacturers are still struggling to recover in the aftermath of the recession, when many companies closed plants, reduced staff, and lost customers.

In the following interview, John Reichard, Oracle's director of discrete industry strategy, discusses how an updated business strategy and the right enterprise project portfolio management (EPPM) solution can help manufacturers capitalize on growth opportunities in today's volatile market.

Q: What current fundamentals make the US a strong manufacturing environment?
A: First, this country has a mature and extensive infrastructure in place, along with a strong workforce that is highly trained and skilled with the latest technology used in sophisticated manufacturing processes.

Q: What's the flipside? What challenges will manufacturers be facing in the months ahead?
A: One of the biggest is the ability to quickly bring the right products to market at the right time. If a manufacturer can't meet changing customer demands, customers will look to competitors. The challenge extends beyond satisfying current demand—manufacturers must continually replicate the product delivery process to keep sales momentum growing and create greater market share.

As the business impact of project portfolios grows, organizations worldwide are challenged to deliver operational excellence, maintain financial discipline, and mitigate risks.
Watch a series of short videos from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) , and download EIU reports to get unique insights into how enterprise project portfolio management (EPPM) can help. Listen to senior executives at global organizations as they discuss how to plan, resource, execute, and assess projects—and what to do if things go wrong. 

Listen to the following experts:

• Wells Fargo, Vice President of Project Management Office Manager

• NASA, Chief Knowledge Officer

• Conoco-Phillips, Senior Vice President of Project Development and Procurement

• DuPont Vice, President of Corporate Supply Chains and Central Competency

• US Department of Energy’s Office of Project Management and Evaluation

• Fluor Corporation, Senior Vice President

• CH2M Hill, Senior Vice President and Programme Manager

• American Water Company, Vice President of Operations

• Voltaix, LLC - Executive Vice President of Operations and Technology

• Gates Corporation, President and COO

As customer expectations grow, many financial services organizations are struggling to keep up. Customers want a faster, more efficient service across all channels, and won’t hesitate to look elsewhere to find it. But how can you accelerate service, stay on top of ever–evolving regulations, and stay ahead of the competition?

It’s important to:

• Develop new agility to stay ahead of the competition
• Simplify compliance to protect and enhance your reputation
• Increase customer satisfaction in a highly competitive market
• Take full control with enterprise project portfolio management

Learn how you can improve operational efficiency, quickly respond to changing customer demand and build competitive advantage.

Taken from the 4^th edition of Construction Connection’s digital magazine

Asset-intensive projects, regardless of scope and scale, are under constant pressure to control costs, meet demanding schedules and manage risk. For E&C contractors, one large problematic project could wipe out a year’s worth of profit. The risks to owners and operators are equally bad—ranging from discontented stakeholders to lost revenues.

Yet according to the Building in change: project construction in asset-intensive industries special report[1] prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), over one-third of asset-intensive companies miss their budget (39%) and schedule targets (34%) on major projects at least one-quarter of the time; and more than 60% of respondents blame unexpected change for at least one-half of all project overruns.

No doubt, the lifecycle of a capital asset project is fraught with challenges.

Craig Larson, director of E&C Industry at Oracle, explains, “Owners and project teams need effective ways to manage projects from concept to completion and react with agility to unplanned changes to deliver multiyear projects on budget and schedule.”

Read the full article to learn more about the common platforms and standards that support the lifecycle of a project and the long-term operational efficiency of an organization.

Written by: Iain Graham, Director, Process Manufacturing Strategy, Oracle Primavera

In all the years I’ve worked with the energy and utilities sector, it seems that two things remain constant: the need to replace or repair ageing infrastructure and the apparent low level of funds available to many organizations to do so. In many instances, the infrastructure that these organizations rely on is ageing faster than it is being replaced. I suspect those tasked with keeping these assets up and running might recognize the phrases “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” and “out of sight, out of mind” when seeking more investment for preventative work. Yet failure to adequately address ageing infrastructure can cause a big headache for many companies, diverting resources and funds to remedial action and possibly impeding growth.

Customers don’t always fully understand the issues energy and utility companies face and expect a reliable yet lowest-cost service. The result is that, pushed to keep costs down, companies continue to sweat their infrastructure assets beyond their original intended life so as to maximize operational value, while even further demands are placed on those assets through growth. This approach brings increased risk of an infrastructure failure and no one wants to be to blame when the lights go out.

A new report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), based on a global survey of executives in the oil & gas, utility, chemical and natural resource industries, examines the impact of ageing infrastructure. A key finding in the report is that one of the biggest perceived obstacles for organizations is meeting infrastructure maintenance schedule and budget goals, resulting in poor project planning, regulatory interference and a lack of resources. In addressing those obstacles, there are things some companies may do to ease the problem of aging infrastructure, without necessarily requiring large-scale additional funding. The report found that many organizations believed they could overcome obstacles, meet budget and expansion goals through better planning processes. Deploying enterprise project portfolio management (EPPM) could help to optimize use of key resources, improve planning and project execution, and prioritize the right projects, amongst other benefits.

You can read the full report here.

Oracle announces a new leadership event, Oracle Industry Connect, which will gather executives from communications, financial services, health sciences, retail, utilities and other project-management intensive industries to showcase how they tackle complex business challenges and drive innovation in their specific industries. The event will take place March 25-26, 2014, in Boston.

By: John Reichard, Oracle Primavera Discrete Industry Strategy Director

Manufacturing is critical to the global economy. It is driven by innovation and operational excellence, which impacts the economy and international trade—all in a volatile and demanding marketplace; A global marketplace which over the last few years has been strained by economic, political and environmental stress. Economists describe the business climate as gradually improving but still very sensitive to market conditions and customer demands. Or is this really the new normal environment for businesses?

Manufacturers that survived the difficult economy over the last few years, now face a more competitive environment where they must do more with less to win. They will have to optimize dwindling experienced resources, choose projects wisely for improved financial results, and better manage risk to deliver on time in order to thrive. How will you innovate, evolve and compete to win in this new normal global marketplace?

One way for industries to compete is to strike a balance between innovation and process improvement to better align new product development to corporate strategy. This Innovation brings in new streams of value while process improvement provides the back-end insurance that the innovations achieved will continuously deliver competitive value. New innovation will help increase revenue, market share while building customer value. These are very important drivers to the discrete industries. We find that new product introductions contribute significantly to business growth. Companies that invest in development find it is not an optional extra but rather crucial to business growth and profitability. Is innovation a high priority for your company?

To stay competitive, many industrial manufacturing companies are focusing on global efficiency through greater collaboration, and visibility across program and projects worldwide. This transparency helps, in today’s complex product design and manufacturing initiatives resulting in higher customer satisfaction and profit margins. These metrics are vital to measuring a company’s success in bringing the right products to market on time. Cost overruns or late product launches result in the loss of credibility and financially impact to the bottom-line. How does your company ensure that you are designing, building and delivering products as promised and avoiding costly delays when different functional teams aren’t always in sync?

How do you:

• Drive Innovation–Innovation is considered one of the most critical drivers to a company’s competitiveness. How do you choose which programs or projects satisfy customer demand, and improve market share with the required return on investment?
• Manage Risk - Risk requires identification and management to mitigate potential quality, warranty, legal and environmental issues. Are you managing change successfully and mitigating its effects?
• Understand Capacity–Do you have the right resources to match the demand in the markets you plan to grow in?

Each of these questions can be answered and objectives accomplished with the help of an enterprise project portfolio management solution that can streamline operations, improve time to market, increase agility, and provide visibility and transparency with all stakeholders.

If you would like to know more about how to: compete and win in the global marketplace, then I invite you to visit Oracle’s Primavera industrial manufacturing industry page for more information.