The upsurge in demand management in South Africa mirrors the international trend, according to Francois Retief, MD for local Sciforma distributor, MPS.
A demand is any request or opportunity that will require funding. Examples of demands are new business opportunities, change requests or any other item that will require funding or resources, and thus require approval. The demand management system can also be used to capture risks and issues.
Demand management based on Sciforma provides a number of strategic benefits. "Perhaps the most important benefit is that resources are optimally utilised in line with corporate objectives," says Retief.
Demand process
Usually, anybody in the organisation is able to capture a demand (eg, an idea, business opportunity, change request, risk, etc). Workflow then controls what happens next - a manager is notified that a demand needs his/her attention.
After the demand has been evaluated by passing some gates, it could result in a new candidate project.
Choosing between candidate projects becomes much easier if the scoring is done right. When using Sciforma, the user is guided to easily build a business case while taking into account factors such as market, technical, risk, strategic and product. Also thrown into the mix are schedules, benefits, savings and various costs.
Most important decisions
Needless to say, choosing the correct mix and sequencing of candidate projects is one of the most important decisions an organisation can make. Wrong choices can be disastrous for the future of the company. Once again, Sciforma guides managers to make the right choices by taking into account capacity, time scales, evaluation scores, risks, financial indicators, etc. Various project scenarios are compared and scored.
The winning scenario results in a crop of approved projects ready for execution. For each project, a new workflow is kicked off with its own project life cycle.
Benefits of demand management
* Using Sciforma, the organisation is able to gain a unified view of all demands, requests and opportunities.
* Standardised input forms allow analysis and prioritisation of all demands.
* Distraction-type work is eliminated with a single entry point. It is quite common for a programmer to receive a phone call from somebody in the business asking for a "favour". However, all these favours impact delivery of strategic projects.
* In addition to enforcing good governance, Sciforma workflows allow a rich variety of actions. Examples include notifying stakeholders on the status of their request, locking the budget after approval, kicking off a new portfolio management process or automatically creating a new project with a suitable template. All workflows are easily created inside Sciforma by PMO staff.
* The Sciforma workflow also allows automated updates of other enterprise systems, such as SAP or an incident management system.
According to Retief, most companies who have chosen Sciforma did so because of the extreme flexibility of the solution. "Clients do not know what the future holds. With Sciforma, they have the confidence the system will cater for any future requirements," says Retief.
Invitation
Anybody interested in seeing Sciforma demand management in action is invited to a public presentation at the MPS offices:
Date: Thursday 1 August 2013
Time: 8:30am till 10:30am
Venue: MPS offices, Bryanston. See map.
Please reserve your seat by calling Linda on 011 706 7015 or e-mail linda@mpsys.co.za.
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