When: Wednesday, July 07, 2010 from 9:30 AM – 5:00 PM (GMT) Where: Technology House Shottery Brook Office Park Timothy’s Bridge Road CV37 9NR Stratford Upon Avon United Kingdom Hosted By: Technology Associates International Limited Technology Associates International Limited is one of the leading global project management consultancies specialising in Microsoft Office Project and Enterprise Project Management Solutions. Since 1990, Technology Associates have provided deployment, consultancy, development and training services to more than 500 organisations including some of the world’s leading companies, and we have an international presence throughout the world.   Technology Associates have deployed hundreds of EPM solutions and deployed more than 2,000 Microsoft Project solutions. With ten Microsoft Competencies under our belt, including ISV status, we have built a solid reputation for delivering high quality services and solutions, and providing exceptional value for money. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, with Offices in New York, San Francisco, India and Barcelona, and a strategic partner network covering AsiaPac, Middle East and ROW, we work internationally in delivering EPM and SharePoint solutions to our customer base in over 39 countries. Register for this event now at: https://taipwapm070710-rss.eventbrite.com Event Details: This course is designed to cover all the features of the 2010 Project Web App likely to be used by Project Managers.

When: Monday, June 28, 2010 at 9:30 AM – Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 5:00 PM (GMT) Where: Technology House Shottery Brook Office Park Timothy’s Bridge Road CV37 9NR Stratford Upon Avon United Kingdom Hosted By: Technology Associates International Limited Technology Associates International Limited is one of the leading global project management consultancies specialising in Microsoft Office Project and Enterprise Project Management Solutions. Since 1990, Technology Associates have provided deployment, consultancy, development and training services to more than 500 organisations including some of the world’s leading companies, and we have an international presence throughout the world.   Technology Associates have deployed hundreds of EPM solutions and deployed more than 2,000 Microsoft Project solutions. With ten Microsoft Competencies under our belt, including ISV status, we have built a solid reputation for delivering high quality services and solutions, and providing exceptional value for money. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, with Offices in New York, San Francisco, India and Barcelona, and a strategic partner network covering AsiaPac, Middle East and ROW, we work internationally in delivering EPM and SharePoint solutions to our customer base in over 39 countries. Register for this event now at: https://taiintrotopro2010desktop280610-rss.eventbrite.com Event Details: This course is a 3 day course for those who are new to the Microsoft Project 2010 Desktop product.

When: Monday, July 05, 2010 from 9:30 AM – 5:00 PM (GMT) Where: Technology House Shottery Brook Office Park Timothy’s Bridge Road CV37 9NR Stratford Upon Avon United Kingdom Hosted By: Technology Associates International Limited Technology Associates International Limited is one of the leading global project management consultancies specialising in Microsoft Office Project and Enterprise Project Management Solutions. Since 1990, Technology Associates have provided deployment, consultancy, development and training services to more than 500 organisations including some of the world’s leading companies, and we have an international presence throughout the world.   Technology Associates have deployed hundreds of EPM solutions and deployed more than 2,000 Microsoft Project solutions. With ten Microsoft Competencies under our belt, including ISV status, we have built a solid reputation for delivering high quality services and solutions, and providing exceptional value for money. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, with Offices in New York, San Francisco, India and Barcelona, and a strategic partner network covering AsiaPac, Middle East and ROW, we work internationally in delivering EPM and SharePoint solutions to our customer base in over 39 countries. Register for this event now at: https://taipr2010desktop050710-rss.eventbrite.com Event Details: This course is a 1 day upgrade for those wishing to familiarise themseleves with the new features in the Project 2010 Desktop product.

When: Monday, July 19, 2010 at 9:00 AM – Friday, July 23, 2010 at 5:00 PM (GMT) Where: Technology House Shottery Brook Office Park Timothy’s Bridge Road CV37 9NR Stratford Upon Avon United Kingdom Hosted By: Technology Associates International Ltd Technology Associates International ( www.techassoc.com ) is an Approved Training Organisation (ATO), accredited by the APM Group – the leading accreditation, certification and examination body – to deliver PRINCE2® courses.    As a Microsoft Gold Partner, we have over 18 years experience of delivering training solutions.   Our PRINCE2® trainers are skilled experts who take pride in guiding delegates through the PRINCE2® methodology and help them understand how the material applies to their specific personal and organisational circumstances. Register for this event now at: https://prtai19thjuly2010th-rss.eventbrite.com Event Details: The course provides a balance between a learning experience about structured project management and PRINCE2®, and maximising the delegates’ chances of passing the Practitioner exam.   On p assing the examination, a delegate becomes a Registered PRINCE2 ® Practitioner.   The course starts with a period of directed self-study commencing approximately 2 weeks before the classroom event.   This brings everyone up to a common standard of basic familiarity with the language and underlying principles of PRINCE2®, and ensures that the course gets off to a smooth start. Delegates should plan their time for this self-study to ensure that they gain maximum benefit from this essential element of the course.   A minimum of 10 hours should be scheduled if at all possible. The first three days in the classroom follow the lifecycle of a project, explaining the use and benefits of the PRINCE2® processes, themes and techniques, and how these can be adapted to suit a variety of project types and scenarios.   Approximately 30% of this time is spent on practical work and discussion using a “continuous” case study as a basis for exercises that help to reinforce delegate learning.   The following two days are dedicated to reinforcing what has been learnt and to preparing for the Practitioner examination that takes place on the last afternoon.   Full explanation is provided of the types of question used in the examination, together with guidance on how to answer them to best effect. Evening work is provided (approximately one-hour) to enable revision and practice of what has been learned each day. Terms & Conditions of Booking: Payment is due on booking.   Cancellations and Transfers More than 20 working days notice before course commences – £50 cancellation fee is payable From 0 to 20 working days inclusive before course commences – 100 % of the course fee is payable   VERY IMPORTANT: If you are unable to complete a course due to illness or any other reason, you will have to pay the full course fee to attend a future course. No refund will be offered for failing to attend any part of the whole course.   A full copy of our terms and conditions of sale is available on request.                 PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.

Work management solutions for individuals, teams and enterprises. Hear how Microsoft® Project 2010 increases productivity through simple and intuitive user experiences, reduces costs and drives efficiency through unified project and portfolio management, and delivers a powerful work management platform through familiar and connected tools. The future of productivity is now playing. See it today at www.the2010event.com . Join the Project 2010 Live Q&A What: Project Server 2010 When: 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm (PST), 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm (EST) Date: May 12 th

Don’t miss tomorrow morning’s TechNet Webcast: Managing the Project Life Cycle with Demand Management ! Here’s some details : Language(s): English. Product(s): Microsoft Office Project,Microsoft Project 2010. Audience(s): IT Decision Maker,IT Generalist. Duration: 60 Minutes Start Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 8:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada) Event Overview Demand Management, a new feature in Microsoft Project Server 2010, captures work proposals in one place and takes them through a multi-stage governance process using a SharePoint workflow model. In this presentation, we provide an overview of Demand Management and its importance in managing project life cycles, and we explain how to configure Demand Management and the required components. Presenter: Rolly Perreaux, Senior EPM Consultant / Instructor, PMO Logistics Inc. Rolly Perreaux is a senior enterprise project management (EPM) consultant and instructor for PMO Logistics Inc., a company that specializes in EPM consulting services and training. Rolly has more than 25 years business experience and holds various designations from the Project Management Institute (PMP), Microsoft, Compaq, IBM, CheckPoint, and CompTIA, and he has just been awarded a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Microsoft Project. Rolly’s detailed dossier can be viewed at www.pmologistics.com/bio/rollyperreaux.htm , and he frequently blogs at https://rperreaux.spaces.live.com . View other sessions from Microsoft Project: Align People, Work, and Priorities If you have questions or feedback, contact us .

Greetings everyone, and happy-almost-spring. Lately I’ve been focusing on understanding the costs (in all its forms) of delivering and managing Tier 1 applications. For the sake of discussion, let’s define a “Tier 1” app in terms of reliability or “quality of service”. In a previous post , I discussed four tiers of criticality for enterprise applications. While you may disagree with some of the names, there should be little argument that there are classes of applications that are truly critical to the success or failure of a business; the so-called “mission critical” application. These apps are also referred more generically to be called “Tier 1 applications”. These applications hold a special level of importance in the corporate enterprise because their failure (measured in terms of reduced service quality or complete outages) would have a profound effect on the business including any or all of the following: Widespread business stoppage with significant revenue impact Risk to human health/environment Public, wide-spread damage to organization’s reputation Company-wide productivity is compromised Examples of these types of applications are eCommerce (amazon.com, ebay, etc.), 911 response systems, stock and commodity trading systems, and airline reservation systems (some would also put CRM and corporate email into this group too). ( Note : while some have referred to Tier 1 apps with examples such as Exchange, SharePoint, SQL, Oracle, DB2, etc., I claim they are missing the point. With the possible exception of SharePoint, these other examples support the application and need to be treated as part of the overall solution, not as the solution itself.) It’s obvious that these applications are important to the business for the reasons listed above as well as others. They represent a significant importance to the business when they run well and a huge impact to the business when they don’t. Tier 1 Apps Put Quality and GRC Ahead of Cost What I find interesting, however, is that these apps hold a special place in the minds (and the wallets) of business and IT leaders. Despite the IT maturity of an organization, companies will “invest” whatever it takes to keep these applications up and running with the highest levels of quality expected of their customers. Even for organizations that do not have a culture of IT maturity improvement, Tier 1 apps will always enjoy financial and human resource availability to ensure those apps remain highly available. While the driver for most applications in the organization (60%-80%) is cost (delivery and ongoing maintenance), Quality of Service (QoS) and Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance are foremost. The implications of this can be profound, particularly for companies that do not have a practice of IT maturity improvement. Highly mature organizations imbue the practices of service delivery with high quality, high compliance, and low risk across the entire portfolio of their service catalog, without incurring the huge costs of maintenance. Less mature organizations, on the other hand, will tend to be reactive in nature and waste resources to ensure these Tier 1 applications remain healthy. The costs incurred can come from many sources such as expensive consulting resources, inefficient, time-consuming processes, and an over-reliance on expensive technologies. In short, these organizations will throw whatever is necessary at a Tier 1 app to keep it up and running to meet any explicit or implicit quality and compliance bars exist. What to Do? Learn The Lessons from Tier 1 App Delivery and Management Regardless of how you define it, every business of any appreciable size has Tier 1 applications. Unfortunately, many IT organizations do not have a very high level of IT maturity and yet, these Tier 1 apps demand it. As a result of this gap, significant wasteful costs are incurred to keep them up and running. Where there are pockets of good, mature IT practices, they probably exist within the realm of Tier 1 service delivery. Unfortunately, what also exists is REALLY bad process too, all in service of maintaining high quality of service. In my role as an enterprise consultant for many years I’ve seen countless “all hands on deck” events when a Tier 1 app went down. There was a mad scramble to restore service, all the while work on other important IT functions was put aside. For that reason, IT organizations should look at the mature practices and policies they do have have (many of which will be implied) for their Tier 1 apps and see how to apply them across their IT service portfolio, but not simply because it’s “good practice.” The organization needs to also take a hard look at recent emergency situations as much to understand what cost is being incurred to restore service as to understand how to minimize their occurrences. By using the lessons learned from their Tier 1 app efforts (both the good and bad), IT organizations will reduce their overall delivery and operating costs by becoming more efficient in the deliver of IT services through such activities as: Rationalizing the costs of high availability Reducing the reliance on expensive consulting and support resources Becoming smarter and more targeted about information security Designing apps with the right level of service (how many “9s” are needed?) Resolving incidents more quickly with appropriate service monitoring Conclusion The overall message is simple and taken from an old adage: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. IT organizations and the businesses they support will lower their overall delivery and operations costs when they look to the best practices learned from the delivery and maintenance of their Tier 1 apps and apply them generally across their organization. All the Best, Erik Svenson, Application Platform Lead, War on Cost Team