Getting Down and Dirty with a Story on Collaborative Innovation

Editor’s Note: Last fall, our senior practice leader Doug Collins began a story about the fictional Dirty Maple Flooring Company. How do they embrace the practice of collaborative innovation as a way to solve critical business problems in the Digital Age? The episodesappear bi-weekly on InnovationManagement.se. Doug reflects here on how his work with Mindjet clients...

Shark Tank Your Gate Meetings

Have you seen the hit ABC TV show, Shark Tank? (Or, as it’s known elsewhere around the world, Dragon’s Den?) Its inspirational premise sparks the creative genius in each of us as regular folks go into the “tank” to pitch their inventions and ideas to a panel of “shark” investors, all of whom attack with...

Sales Planning Software in Pharmaceuticals and Biotechs – Enrich Consulting

What is sales planning software? Sales planning software is used in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries to drive R&D, marketing, and manufacturing decisions both for in-market products and for medicines still in development. Functionally, it captures sales forecasts for each product in a company’s portfolio across geographies, patient segments, and product formulations. The forecasts are...

Too Busy to Improve Billable or Field Utilization? $6,000,000 a Year Busy?

During a recent Field Services conference, I asked the audience to make the following calculations: Multiply the Average Billable Hourly Rate (or Cost) per person and the Average Number of Hours that person should be “off bench” per year. (When we looked at industry averages, we came up with $200/person X 2,175 and came up...

Is the Resource Dilemma Solvable? The State of Resource Management and Capacity Planning 2014

Productivity and the efficient use of resources is attained when the right resources are working on the right projects at the precisely the right time. No matter if you’re in IT, the PMO, marketing, or in a professional service organization, resources are specialized, shared, and matrixed – making effective resource management a complicated goal! You need...

Talent Strains and Trending Solutions for Professional Services [Infographic]

What do analysts see when all the data points to a looming talent shortage for professional services? They research what best-in-class organizations are doing to combat the problem. In this particular instance, Service Performance Insight gleaned from their annual PS Maturity Benchmark study that organizations that had technology tools with three attributes fared considerably better...

First look: Tasktop Sync Integrates Visual Studio Online with popular DevOps Tools

I’m excited about returning to TechEd for the first time in 3 years.  In 2011, I attended my first TechEd in Atlanta.  It was an exciting time for Tasktop; we had just announced Visual Studio support for Tasktop Dev and were a couple months away from announcing Tasktop Sync, our flagship integration hub for the...

Killing Products: Gone, but Never Forgotten

A few weeks ago Carrie Nauyalis posted an inspiring blog about the positive aspects of killing products early in the innovation process and how it can be similar to a Jazz funeral. The piece was so well received that she expanded the blog into a full article on Innovation Management.se. Here’s a short synopsis and...

Connecting the Dots to Understand the Reality of Your Innovation Management Maturity

5 Tips to get your Innovation Management Program on the Right Track In a recent article posted on Innovation Management.se, Steve Beaumont outlines 5 things organizations can do to bridge the perception gap between executive management and reality for innovation management maturity. Educate executives – use the Fourth Product Portfolio Management Benchmark Survey to provide evidence...

Projects@Work Features Jerry Manas’ Tips for Better Project Estimates

Is it bigger than a breadbox? This week Projects at Work published “10 Tips for Better Estimates” by best-selling business author Jerry Manas (and contributor on Portfolio Perspectives). This article extracts points from Jerry’s white paper titled, Bigger than a Breadbox: 10 Tips for Better Project Estimates. Here’s a short synopsis and a link to read...