Presented Problem: Opinions were driving business decisions instead of data. Data: Contractor was taking 3 weeks instead of 2 to install equipment at each of 29 customer sites. Data: New produst roll-out was 4 months behind schedule and falling farther behind. Consensus Opinion of Marketing and Sales: It was all the contractor’s fault.
History: Marketing group was not focused on managing project. Sales force was not rewarded for getting prerequisites completed so contractor could start work at most sites.
Core Problem: Ineffective project management. No tracking of customer commitments (prerequisites) to adopt and install new technology. The slowdown in the $ 7MM project was hurting sales instead of increasing sales.
New Project Management Result: I took over all project management for the marketing and sales groups to complete this project. Created schedules for each customer site and updated them weekly. Showed 60% of time delay was caused by sales force results, and 35% was caused by marketing trying to prioritorize installations not by who was ready to go, but by unrelated historical sales. All sources of delays clearly identified to focus action by sales force where it was currently needed most. Project delays were reduced by over 90%.
Business Results: Focus was shifted to items on the critical path. Customers who were ready got immediate service. New technology was installed rapidly at customer sites and sales went up over 30%.
Bloomdahl Engineering 