A few weeks back at the PMI Global Congress Conference I attended a break out session led by one of project management's thought leaders, Jim Pennypacker. Jim gave a very informative presentation on branding. I never thought of branding as such a generic discipline. It doesn't only apply to products, it applies to anything that must be sold. Are you a consultant looking for your next engagement, a PMO Director attempting to sell executives on why project management is critical for your organization, or a Marketing Director trying to increase awareness across your industry? As Jim put it clearly in his presentation, we all have a brand. Seriously, think about it. Do you know what your brand is? Are you taking the right steps to market your brand?

In today's economy project management is a brand that we all must sell. With tightening budgets and reduced overhead, project management is needed now more than ever. In order to accomplish the goals originally set forth in the project definition, we must end up with a quality product. After all, that's what a project is right; an initiative with a clearly defined start and finish AND a value-add end result. The best way to grasp a concept is to relate it to familiar scenarios. First, I'm going to help you sell the project management brand to your organization and then I'm going to tell you why EPM Live is the right brand to execute it.

By the way, if you like where I'm going with this all props go to Jim Pennypacker. Feel free to check him out at www.dancecommunications.com. Thanks for the insight Jim!

Let's start by answering one question, "What do I want people to say about my brand?"

Branding Project Management Answer 1: Project Management- Project Management is the discipline required to ensure all initiatives are completed with the most efficient level of time, cost and resources. Project management will ensure that this cost efficient method is both intentional and consistent as you continue to enforce project management throughout your organization. If you could guarantee that all projects are completed utilizing the least amount of dollars, time and resources, resulting in the highest quality product, wouldn't you sign up for that promise? The bad economy is no reason to reduce project management in your organization, now is the time to capitalize on project management, the money you will save and the investments you will protect by utilizing the discipline.

Branding EPM Live Answer 1- EPM Live is a global leader in SharePoint-based project and workforce management applications. EPM Live allows you to analyze all your work within the organization, whether it be projects, help desk requests, work requests, etc. to properly analyze the right projects are getting the right attention to result in the highest level of value for your organization. It is one of the most cost efficient applications in the industry and it resolves some of the most common issues found in most other Enterprise Project Management (EPM) systems on the market today:

1. An enterprise system typically isn't tailored to meet all team's/user's needs. An enterprise system is just that, a tool to be shared and used by the entire organization. The problem is that most teams in an organization work differently. They have different processes, they follow different leaders, they have different areas of focus which results in different work. EPM Live allows you to define your enterprise needs and then customize the tool to meet individual team/group requirements. If each user understands that the tool will meet their needs and resolve their pain points, everyone wins. Executives get to see what they need across the enterprise and individual teams can work the way they work to make the tool effective. Usability equals success; in an enterprise system, the data outputs are only as good as the information going into the tool.
2. Where in my EPM system can I find my service request ticket that is affecting my ability to complete my project tasks on time? Good luck! Another common problem with EPM systems is the ability to accommodate all work, not just project-related tasks. There are several components of EPM that are essential and the most important one is resource management. if you can't effectively manage your resources how will you end up with a quality product within budget and delivered on time? The answer is you can't. In order to perform the resource management needed to obtain project success you must capture all work, not just project tasks. For example, let's say that Jim and Bill are working on my project and for the life of me I can't figure out why they are so far behind on their tasks. I go into the EPM system and I see that they are only 50% allocated to 3 projects combined. Well, as a PM that doesn't give you the insight you need to effectively manage your resources. It also doesn't help Jim and Bill with productivity because most likely they have 3-5 different systems managing the different types of work they have on their plate. How about this idea, let's put them all work in one system!!! Done! EPM Live has the ability to manage all work associated with all resources so that YOU can properly manage your most valuable asset........your resources!
3. Here's a question for executives: Ever look at your project portfolio in your EPM system and wonder why you are only seeing $265,000 worth of projects when you know you have allocated three times that amount for execution? I'll tell you why. Projects are everywhere, not just in your PMO or IT departments. Let's circle back to project management branding. You buy into project management because it proves to be valuable. It is worth investing dollars to hire project managers to manage the large projects, it's almost like buying insurance. You need to protect your original investment of saying "yes" let's execute on it! But an organization's portfolio will never be complete without including all the small projects that keep the business running. For example, do you really need to hire more skilled project managers to run your monthly marketing newsletter or would you rather have marketing expertise? My point exactly! Projects are everywhere and so are the resources running those initiatives. They still make up the overall project portfolio so isn't visibility into all your investments critical in understanding your true portfolio health? YES! A true EPM system must be able to accommodate all projects large and small which means project management maturity will vary. EPM Live allows complex schedule management through Microsoft Project schedules and lightweight schedule management through SharePoint, no project management scheduling expertise needed. Now you can complete your portfolio, accommodate all projects and offer a tool for every user in your organization. Could it get any better than this?

So, let's recap:

• We all must brand ourselves, our skills and our business! A brand must bring consistent value to its audience. What value do you have, what makes you credible and what can you do better to take your brand to the next level?
• Project management is an essential brand for organizations to enforce that will ensure the right projects are being completed at the right time within the given budget. Let's not forget the critical output of any project........increased value.
• EPM Live is the essential brand needed to execute project management within your organization. It's a one enterprise (all users, all processes, all work) fits all solution!