Event Software?

Wikipedia states “Event planning is the process of planning a festival, ceremony, competition, party, concert, or convention. Event planning can include budgeting, establishing dates and alternate dates, selecting and reserving the event site, acquiring permits (alcohol permits, insurance licenses, etc), coordinating transportation and parking, developing a theme or motif for the event, arranging for speakers and alternate speakers, coordinating location support (such as electricity and other utilities), and arranging decor, event support and security, catering, emergency plans, aid stations, and cleanup. Event management is the application of project management to this process.”   However, few people actually look at event management as a form of project management.  Throughout my career, I have been called a “party planner”, the “party girls”, and many other like monikers.

I plan strategic events that have a specific purpose and goal.  These events take months to plan and include everything from deciding who to invite to what color the linens will be.  Ultimately, I am responsible for making sure as few as 3 or as many as 750 guests get in, get out, and have a fabulous time in between.  Along with making sure I meet the guests’ needs and expectations, I have to keep in mind budget, goals, and the necessary outcome for my office.  If this isn’t project management, I don’t know what is.

As event management has taken a little longer to be seen as a viable career, I feel we are also a little behind in finding tools to help us manage our projects.  Frequently, organizations aren’t willing to spend the money for the event add on or a whole new system so we are stuck with a jumble of excel spreadsheet and outlook calendar items.  We’ve looked, we even purchased one at one point – EventPro, www.eventpro.net/.  It was about $5000 for a year with a week of training.  It would help us with everything!  Ha!! It was so difficult to use and set up, everyone quit within a month.  We tried several times.   It was a mess of a program.  We had to enter each item in several places, leading to multiple entries of the same facilities with minor differences in name or address.  After just a few weeks, the whole things was already a mess.

I do believe there are great tools out there, I just think it will take a shift in priorities and recognition of us as legitimate project managers before we get the technology we really need a deserve.  Maybe some day we can use one of these: www.capterra.com/event-management-software/

 

BBK- Project Plan & Strategy

BBK Project:

BBK (Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait) is one of the premier regional financial services enterprise in providing superior products and services of highly quality through innovation, technology and lifelong client relationships. The bank has expanded in its overseas presence in more locations in which it chooses to operate in order to satisfy the diversified needs of clients. Their project and strategy is to gain a competitive advantage by implementing new projects in the Kingdom and abroad. New projects are opening new Financial Malls across the country, acquire and acquisition of business opportunities arises, and therefore be the leading Bank in Bahrain.

credimax

Bank Plans:

The bank have planned to increase its operation abroad through opening it subsidiary company CrediMax in Kuwait market to better support and expand in its credit card services. While their branch in UAE is an investment branch that does not have a commercial banking services; which it differs in Kuwait and India where they have a full commercial bank with all its benefits and activities.

Financial Statements:

The format of the income statement is in multistep form. The increase in gross profit and net income shows that the bank is growing and it is in the right path within becoming the financial leaders in Bahrain market. The bank is in progress and it shows in its financial statements that the bank is growing and will expand in the future to reach its maximum potential and to benefit from its financial services.

The management may decide to keep a high gross margin from sales and increase sales and the amount of gross margin by increasing operating expenses. You can see that BBK have invested a lot in advertising, by building a new hospital in Muharraq city in the Bank’s name or by the posters on the Highway and commercials in TV.

Even though this shows that most of the banks financing is by creditors, but in a commercial bank as BBK its finance must be from loans, deposits and customer accounts for the bank to operate. But this shows that the creditors are interested in the bank as it pays its creditors with interest. The more debt the bank is the more profit it must earn to ensure the payment of interest to creditors. BBK strong Interest Coverage Ratio of 1.5 shows that it was in no danger of being unable to make interest payments. As the market price is 5 times earnings, investors are paying a high price in relationship to earnings. They do so in the expectations that this bank will continue to be successful. High PE ratios should be interpreted cautiously because low earnings can produce an artificially high PE ratio.

As this is a bank and not company, it does not have most of the liquidity ratios and some other related to inventory and sales ratios.

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I personally choose this topic due to their strong project management team that is being reflected in the growth of the country. I work in a competitor Bank, but these facts should be taken into consideration and highly appraise the project management team in BBK.   As we studied this course that project management has several benefits to any organization as per the following: a) better efficiency in delivering services b) improved customer satisfaction c) enhanced effectiveness in delivering services d) improved growth and development internally within the organization e) gain competitive advantage f) better flexibility g) increased risk assessment h) increase in quality and quantity.

It would be interesting to see how the coming years will benefit BBK and maybe by this strategy and plan be the leading Financial Institute in the Kingdom.

 

http://www.bbkonline.com

http://www.bbkonline.com.kw

http://www.bbkindia.com/

Where OpsManagement Falls Short

 

[PROCESS]

Operations managers often strive to improve the company’s performance in some way, but at times, their efforts become unsuccessful and often fall short of the company’s goal. In a WSJ article, it says that 60% of companies who have used the six-sigma process (a quality control procedure) have failed. When putting together a project plan, participants (employees) are often excited at the beginning to learn about the new procedures, but as they are pulled to their max, the excitement quickly dwindles and they lost motivation and the effort needed to complete the project successfully. This is referred to as the stretching phase of the six-sigma system. Towards the middle of the project was when top managers really get involved and begin monitoring the employees progress. During this time, the team focuses on precision rather than quantity. Once they perfect their tasks, their quantity is expected to begin going up and the project is seen as successful. During this middle phase however, is also when managers begin to over look other projects and focus on other groups of workers. This is when precision & production become unstable and the project begins to fail because employees record their achievements inaccurately. This is referred to as the yielding phase. During the third  stage of decline, failing, the project often gets stretched to its limits, excitement is no longer there, inaccuracies are constant, and the production is at a standstill. The project can no longer go on and can no longer be successful due to the lack of effort by the team members, executives, and advisers. At this point, it is common that the project has lost its funding due to its lack of progress.  It is suggested in this article that the improvement teams have no more than six to nine members and that they be monitored by an improvement supervisor who knows how to handle situations and projects like these. The article also suggests that executive employees monitor the successes and failures of the teams work in order to make accurate assessments on the status of the project. By relying on only one person (the executive) to record the accuracy of the project, the team is able to eliminate any inaccuracies that may have occurred. After assigning team members, projects should begin within six to eight weeks to ensure that they get the proper funding and attention needed to be successful. If projects push their start date out too far, it is common that the resources and funding needed will be spent elsewhere and that team members will loose interest and have conflicting goals with each-other.  What do you think the best way to set up a team is?

bi_process

 

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703298004574457471313938130.html

Business Degrees a MUST for Project Managers

It was just a short time ago we talked about project management and even did an in class activity, “The Sky’s the Limit,” to give us the general ideas regarding project management. After researching project management a bit more online I read an article by Jennifer Mateyaschuk from Information Newsweek. As we all know, it is very important for a business project manager to have relative experience in managing a project due to the in depth processes needed to complete projects. Ron Schevlin, who is a analyst for a research company said it best, “The project manager doesn’t necessarily direct the picture, but he or she makes sure the funding is there, the right skills are used in the right places at the right times, and the projects are completed on time and within budget.”

These key ideas, “right skills, right places, right times and staying within budget,” are the key parts of a project manager’s responsibility. His/her job is to use the resources given to them most efficiently and at the lowest cost. This is why people with excellent time management and budgeting skills are some of the best candidate for this position. However, relative business skills are needed in order to effectively be in this position. This may be why a number of project managers are attending business conferences or going back to school to specialize in a particular department.

This is important when it comes to understanding the needs of customers but also listening to employees, co-workers, and other managers. Personally speaking, I would not want to be a project manager in the start of my career in a new industry because my lack of experience will negatively impact the company. I noticed when looking for jobs, any job title that has the words “project manager” will have required qualifications of at least 5 years of relative industry experience and preferred qualifications will have MBA in some business related category, listed. A lot of credit goes out to project managers as they have the weight of the company on their shoulders at all times. They are directly responsible for making sure the company remains profitable and maximizes profits. Projects that are over budget and/or completed late means lost profit for the company. Loss of profit could mean loss of jobs for employees/workers and even ultimately mean firing of the project manager. For these reasons, projects managers are usually compensated pretty well.

How many of you would like to be a project manager? I know I would, but only after having experience to manage large projects!

Mateyaschuk, Jennfier. “Project Managers Learn Value Of Business Skills.”Informationweek. N.p., 7 Dec. 1998. Web. 25 June 2012. <http://www.informationweek.com/712/12capro.htm>.