PM-Partners in global reseller drive for project management portal

Says up to 60 percent of projects today fail.

International project services company PM-Partners Group has made its heath checks and capability assessment solutions available through a portal for resellers to white label.

PM-Partners director Peter Swan said that from a third to a half of projects fail, adding that even when companies buy enterprise project management softwarem, often it was wasted due to poor design and implementation.  “Projects are still failing for the same reasons.”

The portal will simplify things, he said. PM-Pulse follows collaboration with Queensland software company Assessment Portal, which specialises in converting project management specialists' knowledge into online assessment of projects.

At its core are two enterprise project management solutions chosen from a possible 180, PM Partners said.

Britain's iPlanWare develops tools for scalable web project management and collaboration. US Planview provides portfolio management with real-time analytics and reporting along with process management to improve visibility and allow the more efficient allocation of resources.

About 90 percent of larger organisations wanted project management solutions, Swan said, responsible for PM-Partners' doubling in size over the past three years. It counted high profile Australian clients including Westpac and Newcrest Mining.

Online, client projects are managed remotely, obviating the need for PM Partners staff to be on site with clients, saving time and money.  For instance, a customer had a project in Perth that PM-Partners was managing from Sydney.

PM-Partners will roll it out to systems integrators, consultancies and hosters who can white label the solution with their own brands.

"We already partner with many of these companies to provide them with skilled project managers or business analysts,” Swan said. “Now they can also resell online project health checks and project manager and business-analyst-capability assessments."

PM-Partners’ said its project health check capability helped integrators shoulder the burden of managing complex projects.

"Many integrators get trapped in organisationally complex projects where their project managers are severely challenged,” Swan said.

“A project health check gives an objective view of where the project is going wrong without any arguments or finger-pointing or can simply provide peace of mind for executives by adding rigour to high risk initiatives."

Those involved in projects had a "360-degree-style" feedback, he said,  to create an accurate perspective on the project.  

PM-Partners project manager and business-analyst-capability assessment identified strengths and needs of project participants from directors to team members, to support delivery of targeted professional development programs.