Searching for a new project management, task management, collaboration and information sharing enterprise tool?  Look no further than Celoxis’ full-featured tool.  Celoxis seems to have an unparalled focus on the project management community’s needs and they are continually striving to meet ever changing demands of the PMs and PMOs they service daily.

Still not convinced?  Let’s check out key features of the Celoxis product…

Special features

I found the Celoxis product to have a full feature set including those that you would expect from a far more expensive project management solution. Here are a few key features that impressed me and seemed to help separate it from the some of the rest of the PM software crowd:

• Advanced Scheduling: Tasks are automatically scheduled based on resource work timings, time zones, holidays and work timings exceptions. It also supports inter-project dependencies.

• Project Portfolio Management: PPM is supported out of the box. But the user can customize it further using custom fields and charts.

• Resource Load Chart: This shows the standard information like resource load breakdown, utilization and conflicts. But it goes beyond that with its ability to solve conflicts on its own.  This was a nice feature and it seemed to do a decent job at it, in my opinion.

• Workflow:  This is an extremely sophisticated piece of software that allows you to create and track business process like bugs, client approvals, risks and change requests.  Since change requests and client approvals are involved in 99% of the projects I manage, I found this feature very helpful.

• RSS feeds:  This is particularly useful if you are a project manager and do not want to log on to the application to keep yourself updated. Unlike other some other products I’ve seen where RSS feeds are simply a list of projects or tasks, this RSS feed contains all the events that occur in projects.

• Custom fields including formula fields: Many types of custom fields are provided, each with its own validation rules to minimize data entry errors. There is even a “formula” field where you can enter your own formula. These fields can be used in report filters, columns and charts.  I realize this is a fairly common feature but I felt it was worth mentioning as I create custom filters and reports on nearly every project I run (see next bullet).

• Custom Reporting: I found the reporting capabilities in the Celoxis product to be very detailed and customizable, which is very helpful to project managers like me who tend to want to use these reports to automate what they bring to the status reporting table with the client – making life a little simpler every week. Every view that you see whether it’s a gantt chart, a pie chart or a table, is a report. Even the dashboard is nothing but a collection of reports. To share data with your client, you create a report.

• User defined drill-down charts: This is something that executives and project managers should love. You can create your own graphical charts which automatically become 'clickable'. You can even use your custom fields as data sets. Supported types are pie, bar and bubble. I just wish the colors were a bit better.

• Interoperability with other systems: Today systems rarely exist in isolation and getting data in and out is a key requirement. Celoxis does quite well in this aspect. The API seemed simple and powerful. Data can be imported and exported in CSV. It also supports two-way synchronization with Microsoft Project. In addition you can do a number of things via email.

• Mobile interface: The mobile interface works on almost any smart phone, not just the iPhone. The interface is quite comprehensive and looks like a native iPhone application.  You still get access to the same dashboard and reports that you would on your desktop browser.

• Client Collaboration: This is a great way to increase transparency with your clients. Depending on what you share (which, yes, you do have some control over), your clients can log on to Celoxis to view project reports, conduct online discussions, download project documents or participate in workflows.

Bottom line for business       

Celoxis has a sophisticated feature set, a wide array of customizations and was pretty easy to use. Support is excellent though there is no phone support. It is available in both hosted and on-premise versions. And you get all of this at an incredibly competitive price. From what I reviewed of the product, I would definitely recommend this software.  Specifically, I highly recommend signing up for their 30-day free trial and testing it out on a project.  For more information on the Celoxis product, visit their site. 

If you are like most project managers out there you likely reach frustration points at certain points in your career – perhaps even monthly or weekly – when you reach limitations in the PM tools available to you to do your job.  I’m sure if we all had enough time in our days – and enough confidence in our abilities – we could map out exactly what we need and get someone to build the perfect PM tool for us…whatever your key job or responsibility may be.  From a project management perspective, that is usually a scheduling and reporting tool that can wrap the process of task management up with the burden of status reporting along with the rose colored glasses view of collaboration and come up with one PM tool that does it all for us and puts us on easy street for the rest of the day or week.  Does that sound like something you’ve dreamed about before?  Maybe five minutes ago?  Am I getting warmer?

Have you ever reached a frustrating point in your PM career where you wonder this very question? Sometimes you wish you may wish you had more experience, or possibly a certification or maybe belonged to a networking group online or in person that could help you work through project issues that are beyond your level of experience or expertise and seem to be threatening your project.

Here are a few things you can to expand your ability to respond to the needs of your project, your team, and your customer when you are feel you need to improve…

By Cornelius Fichtner, PMP

Studying for and earning your Project Management Professional (PMP)® Certification can be a costly affair, some training courses can cost upwards of several thousand US Dollars. However, there are ways to cut your costs and still have access to valuable and useful study tools. Below we will discuss several ways you can lower the cost of studying for and obtaining your PMP® Certification that does not include spending a lot of money. Read through our seven savings tips and you’ll see that lowering your cost for taking the PMP® Exam is not that hard.

Savings Tip 1 – Join PMI

If you are not already a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), join. You are not required to be a member of PMI to take the PMP® Exam, but being a member can lead to substantial savings. The cost of membership is only $129 USD plus a $10 USD application fee, which is negligible compared to the savings you can see. First, you will receive a member discount of $150 USD for the PMP® Exam. Second, you will have access to resource material at a reduced cost or even free. As a member of PMI you will have access to a free PDF copy of “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)”, a savings of around $40 to $50 USD. Third, as a PMI member you will have access to PMI eReads which contains several PMP® prep books that you can read online at no cost.

Savings Tip 2 – Join Your Local PMI Chapter

In addition to becoming a member of PMI look into joining your local PMI chapter. Not only will you meet other individuals in the project management field, some of which are also working toward obtaining their PMP® Certification, local PMI chapters generally offer good inexpensive PMP® Prep courses. As a member of a local chapter you can save from anywhere from $100 USD to $300 USD (depending upon your chapter) on the cost of attending a PMI Chapter PMP® Prep course.

Savings Tip 3 – Buy Used

Look for second hand resources. When you are looking for PMP® Exam Prep Guides check out websites such as Amazon or EBay for second hand copies, just make sure to purchase the correct edition of the resource to go with the current exam.

Savings Tip 4 – Use Coupons

Coupons can be found for just about anything, and that includes PMP® Prep materials. When you have identified a PMP® Prep product you would like to purchase, take a few moments to do a web search for discount coupon, a few moments of your time can pay off. For example, the best place to find the most current coupons for The PM PrepCast is on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/PrepCast.

Savings Tip 5 – Look for Contests

Look for local contests, often companies will give away their PMP® products as marketing tools at PMP® Chapter meetings. For instance, we offer several of our products as a door prize at PMI Chapter dinner meetings around the world. Check to see if your chapter is giving away any free study resources at their meetings.

Savings Tip 6 – Look for High-Quality Low-Cost Courses

When you are looking for PMP Exam courses to attend, make sure to take your time when researching and comparing courses, there are many on the market to choose from. Keep in mind that the most expensive is not always the best and the least expensive is not necessarily the worst. Read the reviews and testimonials of those who have taken the course. If you cannot find a review or testimonial for the course on its website, take advantage of one of the many online PMP® Prep forums and ask if anyone has taken the specific course you are interested in and ask if they would recommend the course they have taken. The opinions and experiences of others who have paid for and taken a course can be very valuable, and it is free.

Savings Tip 7 – Look for High-Quality Low-Cost Exam Prep Products

Don’t buy the “cheap” stuff when it comes to PMP® Exam prep products like books, flash-cards, apps or formula study guides either. Do your research. There are many high-quality low-cost PMP® Exam prep products on the market to help you study for your PMP Certification. But you do need to take into account that there are also some “cheap” products out there that cost very little and offer very little in regards to actual valuable training. Look for customer recommendations to ensure you would be purchasing quality training materials prior to making any purchase.

Conclusion

Becoming a Project Management Professional can be a costly venture, but there are ways you can lower the cost. One is as a member of PMI you will reduce your exam fees and receive a free PDF copy of the PMBOK Guide to study. By also joining your local PMI Chapter you will have access to any PMP® Exam prep courses the chapter offers at reduced cost. You can also save on study materials by shopping for second hand materials, seeking out coupons, and even possibly receiving free promotional materials at PMI Chapter meetings. Remember that high-cost does not always signify high quality and low-cost does not always equate to low quality. Do your research and look for positive reviews and testimonials from those who have purchased PMP® Exam prep materials and have taken PMP® Prep courses. One low cost resource that will give you everything you need to prepare for your PMP® Certification is The PM PrepCast at www.pm-prepcast.com. This course is PMI R.E.P. approved and available at the fraction of the cost of similar exam preparation tools.

About the author: 
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP is a noted PMP expert. He has helped over 16,000 students prepare for the PMP Exam with The Project Management PrepCast and offers one of the Best PMP Exam Simulators on the market.

Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM – the brilliant mind behind The PM PrepCast will be launching a new product soon - called The Agile PrepCast.

The Agile Prepcast will be launched in the coming 3 months. So be one of the first ones to receive their Early bird information newsletter PLUS get a 20% discount when they launch.
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The price for the The Agile Prepcast will be $129.99. But you will receive a 20% discount coupon on the day of the launch so you will only pay only $104.00. It's that simple.

With The Agile Prepcast you can ensure your readiness in taking the PMI- ACP exam.  Sign up to their email list now! www.pm-prepcast.com/agile

Courtesy of Instantis – a global leader in Enterprise PPM

We are now winding down the data collection phase of our global study on IT resource and capacity management processes and maturity levels. As promised in we will continue to share and preview some of the results and conclusions. This week I took a look at current realized benefits of resource management practices and processes as well as desired and achievable benefits. By overlaying current benefits with targeted future benefits, we can identify the gaps between where the majority of organizations are today with their IT resource management initiatives and where they hope to go. As discussed below, the largest gap relates to the ability of the resource management process to positively impact project outcomes.

To understand current benefits, the following question and choices were provided.

(1)   Which business benefits, if any, does your CURRENT resource and capacity management process deliver (check all that apply)?

(2)   Given your organizational context, what are the 3 most desirable and achievable business benefits that your IDEAL resource and capacity management process would deliver (check up to 3)?

523 organizations responded to these questions and over 1,200 answers were selected to each question. The results are as follows:

Gaps between achieved and desired benefits in order of decreasing size are therefore as follows.

Note: The percentage below indicates the size of the gap which represents the difference between the percentage of respondents identifying the benefit as current or realized and the percentage of respondents indicating the benefit as ideal and relevant (but not yet achieved).

(1)    Increased project success rates and improved cycle times via timely assignment of the right resources (25%)

(2)    Improved budget and cost management through better planning, tracking and reporting on resource costs (16%)

(3)    Ability to accommodate incremental demand with existing resources via more granular and bottom-up project schedule information (13%)

(4)    Ability to plan capacity to meet project resource demands (10%).

Organizations are most adept at achieving basic resource visibility, ensuring higher priority projects are resourced and managing individual utilization rates.

As previously indicated, the biggest challenge by far is improving project success rates by ensuring that the right resources are assigned quickly. Organizations struggle with the process of allocating, assigning and deploying resources efficiently and systematically. Resource assignment was described by one respondent as “crisis based.” Based on other response comments there is particular angst in inventorying skills and locating the right resource for the job in a timely manner. By cross-tabulating this benefits information with specific questions regarding resource allocation and assignment processes, we hope to uncover the specific obstacles to increasing successful project outcomes.

Recently, Instantis announced the publication of  the “IT Resource Management Maturity – Global Study Results” white paper. If you have ever checked Instantis’ blog you know that they have been previewing results and interesting conclusions as they have become available during the data collection process. Now, they are happy to make the complete complimentary white paper available for immediate download from the Instantis website.

In June 2012, Instantis launched this global study on IT resource management processes and practices. The data gathering phase of this effort consisted of administering and collecting over 500 survey responses from private and public sector organizations over a three month period ending in August 2012. The 43-page study results white paper is perhaps the most comprehensive examination to date of the evolution of IT resource management maturity in industry and government.

The goal of this study was two-fold:

(1)  To identify industry best practices and benchmarks by better understanding and characterizing the level of maturity of IT resource and capacity management processes achieved by organizations of various types, sizes, geographies and project management office (PMO) scopes.

(2)  To validate and/or refine the hypotheses, framework, and recommendations put forward in the Resource Management Maturity Model™ (RMMM) for the purposes of subsequently publishing a new and improved version.

At a high level, the report concludes that, in general, overall resource and capacity management maturity levels are low with respect to the optimal and achievable level of maturity. It concludes that organizations should take a balanced approach to the maturation process by progressing the individual maturity levels of the component processes and “dimensions” – such as resource assignment, roles, cost tracking, capacity planning, approvals, etc. – in a coordinated manner.

Please check it out and give them your feedback. They have opened a discussion thread on the Enterprise PPM Community discussion group on LinkedIn as well.