By Avinoam Nowogrodski
Marketing managers are challenged daily to execute the projects in their marketing calendars on time, on budget and with the right degree of quality. The war stories of last-
minute fire drills to create collateral for a trade show, of missing the deadline of a lead-generation campaign because the creative and content were delayed, of the distribution
of an e-mail campaign for an online seminar being too late to deliver the attendance, are all too common.
Most marketing teams suffer from such issues consistently, leading to waste in marketing spend, not to mention a gap between plans and results. Is there anything marketing can
do to improve results by creating better discipline around execution? It is not only possible; it is easy to do. Below are some of the issues marketing managers face.
*Issue 1: Is there a project plan? Most marketing projects require multiple people collaborating to make it happen. Each step needs to be well choreographed to ensure the
brochure is produced on time, contains the right message for the audience it targets and has the look and feel consistent with the brand.
Now imagine dozens of such projects--lead-generation campaigns, webinars, online and print advertisements, trade shows, Web site updates, podcasts, speaking opportunities,
press releases, etc.--all needing to be pushed through a team of limited capacity, with each team member working on multiple projects simultaneously. Without a clearly defined
project plan, tasks are likely to slip through the cracks and delay projects.
*Issue 2: Is the execution against project plan being tracked and managed? A good project plan is a starting point. However, success in a project is derived 20% from good
planning and 80% from solid execution. Most marketing projects are likely to have internal employees working with external consultants from a design or PR agency. A good project
manager requires visibility into the status of each team member's tasks to track its current status.
If there are any surprises, the manager creates a revised plan and communicates the changes to schedule, dependencies and due dates to team members. This process alone can
become a huge drain on time, especially when it is repeated on multiple projects and takes time away from other responsibilities. As a result, most marketing managers take short
cuts in tracking and managing projects, which leads to last-minute surprises.
*Issue 3: Is the team operating in tandem? One of the biggest reasons marketing projects are delayed is team members not being on the same page. The project manager must ensure
that each team member clearly understands their tasks, schedules and dependencies. It is also critical that it be possible for a new member of the team to come up to speed on all
these elements very quickly and to understand the context for some of the decisions made in the past.
Only when everyone is executing tasks cooperatively do the odds of projects being completed on time increase significantly. In most organizations, content such as project
specifications and revisions, and context such as assumptions and acceptable shortcuts, are stored in different places (personal e-mail and file folders on laptops, for example).
A team member has to take the initiative to ensure that his/her assumptions are not incorrect while working on a task. This significantly increases the risk of a chasm between the
plan and results.
*Issue 4: Does your project management tool map to your requirements? A desktop-based project management system is not well equipped to drive flawless execution. Such a system
is designed for full-time program managers, and its complexity can be frustrating for line-of-business managers, where managing projects is only one of many things they do on a
daily basis.
These tools were designed in a pre-Internet era to be used by the project manager on their laptop or desktop. They do not have the capability to automatically query team
members in the background and capture the status of their tasks. (The ability to always view an up-to-date report on the status of a project would free many hours every week from
a project manager's schedule for higher value-added tasks). These tools also do not have mechanisms for team collaboration--a key requirement for success when multiple people are
working simultaneously on more than one project, all with tight deadlines.
The Next Generation Of Project Management Systems
The convergence of Software as a Service (SaaS) and Enterprise 2.0-based collaboration technologies has brought the next generation of project management applications to the
forefront. They are designed to specifically address project team execution problems and enable teams to successfully execute their projects.
Enterprise 2.0 and SaaS- based project management systems leverage e-mail as a mechanism to automatically query team members to get the status of their tasks and update the
plan--all without the involvement of the project manager. As a result, project tracking becomes automatic, providing instant updates and highlights to allow managers to stay on
top of a project's ever-changing status and proactively address potential issues.
These solutions also leverage team-sharing technology to share documents, notes and discussion threads with each work item. This provides team members with an easy way to share
knowledge and be in sync.
In marketing projects, where on-time completion can be the source of competitive advantage in a crowded market, team execution is a key ingredient for successful completion. By
leveraging technologies, the next generation of project systems provides a significant advantage for companies in completing their portfolio of projects on time and increasing
their competitive edge. PRN
CONTACT:
Avinoam Nowogrodski is co-founder and CEO of Clarizen. He can be reached at [email protected].