The age of collaboration is upon us. The Internet has made it possible to reach countless numbers of people with the click of the mouse – and in so doing, has made project management more efficient, convenient, and less time consuming. In fact, my entire business has evolved from a traditional EHS consulting practice to a professional project management firm providing resources and services across industries and borders. By taking advantage of the technological tools now available to me, my company can deliver more timely and cost efficient solutions to its clients. With information available 24/7, clients can login to a secured site to review and post project updates, issues, and milestones. Online project management has become a critical part of the way we do business – and I suspect that it will become as standard a practice as email in the not-too-distant future for professionals charged with the responsibility of managing projects of scale and complexity.
It is a modern reality that companies today rely heavily on technology to perform tasks faster and more efficiently. Decisions can be turned around in less time and relationships can be forged over a period of days. A standard letter by U.S. post or “snail mail” can take anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks to arrive, while an email from Los Angeles to London can be received moments after being sent, with a message letting you know it’s been read! People are chatting more, negotiating differently, and expecting no less than a 48-hour resolution to problems despite geography.
Email has opened up a new medium of “message” dissemination for most of us although the tools needed to achieve successful project management go beyond one-to-one communications. A collaborative effort among many people across multiple locations requires strong administration. This many-to-many relationship is difficult to manage using traditional tools. There is a lot of information to track, record, discuss, refine and act upon in a typical large scale EHS project. Using online project management as a central clearinghouse makes it possible for information to be available to team members that is pertinent to them and the tasks they are performing on the project. Attending conference calls and meetings only to spend a fraction of the time on issues that affect your part of a project, can be frustrating and unproductive. Using online tools, the project manager has a global picture of the project and can assign tasks to the appropriate players, review progress made, make critical decisions, poll project participants for ideas and suggestions, and involve and communicate with resources when necessary. Let me give you an example from my own experience. Just this past year I was asked by one of my biggest clients to help manage a remediation project in one of its manufacturing facilities in the southern United States. My office is located in Los Angeles. The sub-contractor I found to perform the remediation is based in Maryland. A consultant local to the project, subcontracted to The Phylmar Group used a lab in Arizona, and my client contact is in Northern California. At one time, there were up to 15 different people working on the project. It was a high profile job within the company and its successful resolution meant continued work for my firm, with this “Fortune 500” company. You can bet we were going to do our best to make sure the project objectives were met and the client was satisfied.
We decided that although email, the telephone, the fax machine, and face-to-face meetings could work for communicating during the life of the project, it would be much more efficient to have one central location to house all correspondence pertinent to the project. At the time, I was just piloting a program we now use with most of our clients called eProject.com. eProject.com is an internet-hosted proprietary software licensed to companies individually. My company, The Phylmar Group, Inc., licenses the software for use with our clients and to serve as a testing ground for those who may consider licensing it directly to use across business units and project types. Note: The software is especially useful on projects involving two or more individuals in different locations.
E-project enabled us to have a single clearinghouse of information where all parties could access information critical to this specific remediation project. The only criterion set was that each member needed to have access to the Internet. The software allowed us to create a project, invite members to join our team, and gives us the tools necessary to develop a project plan, assign tasks to specific members of the team, keep an updated log of activities and issues, maintain a member directory, attach reports and letters, and other documents as needed, and alerted us if milestones were approaching or tasks were being assigned. It is a powerful tool that proved critical to the success of this particular remediation project. Over a three month period of time, the project was planned, budgeted, implemented and approved. And, according to our client, it was one of the best-run projects in the history of the company – in any area or business unit.
The Future
Online tools hosted by software providers like eProject.com will continue to proliferate in today’s economy. Collaboration within companies, industry sectors, and between previously distinct businesses will demand tools like eroject.com to keep up with people and responsibilities in various locations around the world. Standard software like Microsoft’s Project or SuperProject, developed by Computer Associates are maintained by the client in a single database, while tools like eProject.com are maintained online and are password protected. While I cannot speak to all of the functionality or lack there of, eProject.com continues to work for us and provides necessary information to our clients. The issue isn’t really about what tools to use. What the project manager of today should understand is that there are a number of tools available in a range of prices. There is no reason for anyone to blame lack of communications as cause for not meeting project and client goals. If there is a willingness to learn, and a plug in the back of your computer leading you to the Internet, there are tools available to meet everyone’s project management needs.
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