Introduction

The PMO Podcast™ is a syndicated podcast channel oriented to PMO managers and project office staff. The PMO Podcast seeks to bring information and insights for PMOs of all sizes via 10-15 minute podcast episodes. The format of the show includes "The Featured Story of the Show" which is typically an interview with a guest "The PMO Podcast Memo" which is a short topic of interest and "The PMO Podcast Mailbag" which is a listener question or comment.

Transcript of the Featured Story in The PMO Podcast™ – Episode 39

Mark:

And that is The PMO Podcast Memo. Now on to The PMO Podcast featured story "Hosted or Installed PPM? @task let's you choose an interview with Abraham Knell VP of Sales @task."

Today I am very happy to have with us an expert in project management portfolio management and software delivery models both software as a service and the traditional enterprise installed Mr. Abe Knell VP of Sales at @task. Abe thank you for joining us today and welcome to the show.

Abe:

It is a pleasure to be here.

Mark:

Before we get started can you tell us a little bit about yourself..? How did you start your career? How long have you been in with @task? And do you have any special or unique hobbies?

Abe:

Well I started my career in sales a long time ago selling appliances at a small mom and pop shop. I moved into technology sales (a better fit for me I might add) by selling firewall virus protection system integration software and then advanced technology training. 

However I have never seen a market hotter than Project & Portfolio Management software.

I have been with @task since the beginning. Employee #1.

I have a number of hobbies that I enjoy. Perhaps one of the more unique ones and maybe a bit odd is visiting old cemeteries in most every town I visit. Whether on vacation or business trips I always like to find an old cemetery to walk through. I find you can learn a lot about a town and its history this way.

Mark:

I see (ad lib) ..... Abe let's get right to it and talk about PM software as a service? We all know what PM software is but the term software as a service is rather new. What exactly is software as a service and how is it different from the ASP model or software on demand or are they all referring to basically the same thing?

Abe:

Mark whether you call it Software As a Service...or SaaS or ASP or OnDemand -it is basically referring to the same thing. Every provider of PM software tries to put their unique spin but the basic components are: the software provider hosts the application for their clients usually for a subscription based fee- whether that is month-to-month or a yearly subscription fee.

Mark:

Abe analysts claim that by the year 2010 30% of new software will be delivered as software as a service. Can you give us some perspective and reasons for that?

Abe:

Well Mark as they say 50% of all statistics or claims are made up. But on this one I think that claim will be accurate.

There are many things driving this increase. First a shift in the groups and disciplines who are adopting PPM software. It is not just IT anymore. Sales Marketing and other groups are increasing the demand for PM software across the enterprise.

Many of these groups don't want to wait for the politics of IT to allocate a server decide to support it and then deal with the ongoing maintenance. These groups want to get up and running quickly and receive an immediate return on their investment. 

Even IT groups are moving to software as a service. Their bandwidth is often times stretched so thin they can't keep up with the demand of maintaining software.

Much of the hype around Software as a Service frankly is provider driven. Just like IT supporting growing user bases is costly for us. By pushing the Software As A Service model to customers much of the customer support becomes product related instead of installation or maintenance related. 

Providers have the same "stretched thin" issues when supporting software as customer IT groups. We like to be focused on product innovation rather than support.

Even now with the "software as a service buzz" around us companies like to host applications they deem "critical" in house. PPM software more and more is receiving the "business critical" software label.  

For @task we don't care either way we try and keep our offering as flexible as possible. As a web-based option- there is zero desktop management with @task whether you host it yourself or if we host it for you. The IT folks love us! and the application truly is not difficult to maintain.

Mark:

Now let's talk a little bit about your offering. But first how long has @task been at this? That is providing PPM software. And have you always provided both options hosted and enterprise?

Abe:

Mark @task has been offering both "hosted and enterprise" options since the beginning- which was about 6 years ago. We saw a need for project management software to be built for the whole team- not just for project managers. Team Members and Executives were getting left out of the project loop and managers were left with inaccurate timelines and work forecasts on their projects.

Managers and Executives left to their own devices make poor decisions

Mark:

Abe is @task unique in that you provide your solution as both a Software as a Service and as installable software? And can you tell us more about these two options? Typically who would look to the hosted offering and who might be a better fit for the enterprise offering? Are the core features the same and can you migrate from the hosted offering to your enterprise offering?  

Abe:

Yes we ARE unique as the only providers who offer both solutions who will run on all browsers platforms and databases. All core features are the same and yes you can migrate from the hosted to the enterprise offering.

We are actually seeing a number of our competitors completely abandoning the marketing of installed versions. 

The way we have architected @task it is not difficult for us to manage an installation or to host it for a client. The marketplace is so varied in its preferred browsers platforms and databases we have made it a point to deliver a product where the Linux and Mac guys don't get left out.

The question I hear asked most often is- which one is more economical for my company? Recent studies have shown the # OF USERS  to be the determining factor. Companies smaller than 100 where IT resources are usually not as strong are better candidates for software as a service. Larger companies have dedicated IT resources in place and studies have shown it is more economical to host themselves.

Mark:

I have heard @task described as a project management solution for the whole team as opposed to just the project manager of those in the PMO or IT Department. Can you tell us more about that?

Abe:

I can't tell you how many times I have sat in a Project Management Office or with project managers in an IT dept and been blown away with how truly removed they are from the actual work. Too often they are not able to LEAD INSTEAD they are left to rewrite history.

The time saved by having a PMO in the first place- is wasted in tracking down status and running reports for Executives.

If the typical user production worker or whatever you want to call the frontline worker is putting good information into a tool- and the managers are truly managing- the executives get better information in order to make better decisions.

Work actually gets done in @task. Teams come together- whether in a standardized process that has become automated or by collaborating on important work actually in the tool! It's a Crazy Thought- but @task actually allows the typical user to update their own task.

When PM software and PM Offices are truly involved with the whole team Executives Managers and Team Members-  at the work level-  you have more effective PMOs and Project Managers. 

Mark:

Abe you just mentioned a wide variety of people. You know one of the complaints against project management software is that it is very difficult to learn and to use. How does @task address this? Is @task easier to learn and easy to use?

Abe:

Mark no question it is easier to use. It's even easier to buy J Project Managers are no different than the typical user- they want it to be simple- yet powerful enough to get the job done. Sometimes the more powerful the application the more "Yuck" it gets.

The first thing @task does- is allows users to focus JUST on the features they use. @task's security model will literally turn off features for users that should never or don't ever want to use particular areas of the application. Also, Portals and Dashboards display only relevant projects tasks and issues.

@task employs an easy to navigate tabbed interface and @task is FAST. We utilized many Web 2.0 features such as AJAX Flash and dynamic HTML to make the user experience feel more like a desktop application.  No more annoying page refreshes at every turn and ridiculous pop-up screens.

Mark:

Abe what about working with the things that a company already has? Few organizations start from scratch. Yet many PPM solutions force users to set aside what they already know and have and to adopt new unfamiliar unwieldy processes that could choke a horse. How does @task address this? Can you use @task with products like Microsoft Project Excel and Crystal? And can you link or navigate to other HTML resources such as intranet methodology content?

Abe:

Well Mark you are exactly right- few organizations do start from scratch. We find for the most part the horse is already being choked. The combination of e-mail excel lots of phone calls and yellow pads of paper — which all get printed on reams just to hold a status report meeting- has become unwieldy.

One of our Fortune 500 clients before using @task was in that unwieldy state After implementing @task they reduced a critical 55-Week manufacturing process involving a team of 850 people by 7 weeks. And we increased their "on-time" project percentage by 28%.

I have read reports that as much as 25% of work gets "lost in the cracks" because there is no central place with visibility into ALL the work.

AtTask LOVES to work with companies who already have a defined process or way of doing things- EVEN companies who have captured some of what they do in Microsoft Project or Excel. @task helps them centralize and give visibility to that work.

@task Standardizes and Automates their processes and projects and allows them to collaborate on that work. Dynamic companies have teams of people projects issues and documents strewn all over the place. @task pulls it all together.

Work captured in @task can populate link or navigate to CRM ERP HR or Finanical Applications via Web Services APIs. Reports Statuses or entire project information can be exported into PDF Excel Crystal or other HTML intranets.

Mark:

Abe how about support for diverse multinational project teams. Does @task provide features for local language?

Abe:

Si @task puede ayudar companias en todo el mundo. @task Version 4 was built with globalization in mind. It is currently being localized in Chinese, Japanese, German, Spanish and others. Many of our clients and new opportunities are International. Employees of @task speak English, Japanese, Chinese, Hindi, Telugu, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and Texan.

Mark:

Abe one last question. Can you summarize three areas of benefit that PMOs will enjoy as an @task customer?

Abe:

That's easy. Powerful Tools Powerful Design and People like to Use it.

First, Powerful Tools: PMO's will love that @task provides a centralized place to track everything from schedules and assignments to documents notes and issues. Powerful reporting tools and search tools deliver all the information you need to make critical business decisions quickly and effectively.

@task will handle any scheduling curve ball you can throw at it ... and then some.

It has easy-to-use worksheets intuitive Gantt chart views and helpful portfolio overviews that make it easy to centrally manage complex schedules with visibility across a global organization.

No other project and portfolio management tool can match the power of @task.

For example you can edit 200 tasks delete five documents convert five issues to projects and view a real-time status report – all in less than a minute.

Second, Powerful Design: @task provides unmatched flexibility in the way you can install and use it. @task is the only project and portfolio management solution that is browser-independent platform-independent and database independent. You won't be required to invest in hardware or work on platforms you don't want. Because we support clustered servers and redundant data we are able to scale to thousands of users and still maintain data integrity. You can't find a PPM solution that is more reliable or scalable.

Third, People Like to Use @task: Executives managers and team members of all departments like @task because it's easy-to-use and feature-rich. That's why @task has the highest user adoption rates in the industry. Most PPM software is complicated and slow. @task is not. People enjoy using @task because it doesn't bog them down with complexity. Although @task provides powerful tools comprised of thousands of features that manage huge amounts of data it's easy and fun to use!

Mark:

Oh one more last question. We have covered quite a bit of ground. How can our visitors find out more about @task and how can be contact you for more information?

Abe:

Sure For more information visit attask.com that's attask.com. Or email attask-sales@attask.com. Or call 866-441-0001.

Mark:

Abe thank you again for being our guest and featured story for today's show. I suspect that every PMO seeking to implement project management and PPM tools has been or is now thinking about different tools and different usage models. As @task continues to enjoy market success as software as a service continues to grow and evolve and as traditional enterprise software continues to provide what it does best we hope you will come back and keep us informed and on the right track.

Abe:

Thank you for having me on the show. I would be happy to come back.

Mark:

Ladies and gentleman that is Abraham Knell VP of Sales for @task and our feature for today's show "Hosted or Installed PPM? @task let's you choose."