Chris and Krishna from Microsoft announced performance and scale improvements in Project Online – http://blogs.office.com/2014/10/21/performance-scale-improvements-project-online/. Worth reading!
Jan
Microsoft Project
UMT360 Events: United Kingdom– “Integrated IT Portfolio Management” #IIPA #ITPPM #ITFM # APM #msProject #SharePoint
Dear Project customers and Enterprise Portfolio Management explorers! We are planning number of local events in Europe – starting off with the UK!
Did you know that leading industry analysts predict many IT departments will be connecting PPM with other portfolios, like APM very soon? Join us to learn more about how UMT360 can help you digitize investment planning and controls across your enterprise portfolios! Indeed building on top or Microsoft SharePoint and Project Server!
Book you calendar – 30 October 15:00 – 16:00 GMT – “Integrated IT Portfolio Management? Go for it!”
We are pleased that Wellingtone UK will be hosting this first webinar in the UK for us! Register today!
Hope to see you in few weeks – stay tuned – more coming to UK and other countries like Germany, France, Sweden!
@Microsoft #PPM #msPartner? #msProject Online IUR now available!
Exciting times – Microsoft Project Group announced the availability of Microsoft Project Online and Project Lite as Internal Use Rights (UIR) benefit to Microsoft PPM partners!
As Silver or Gold PPM partner – go to https://www.microsoft.com/msppdd and activate your benefit! Notice that the licenses need to be redeemed only in one online tenant, they can’t be spit among your demo, production and development online environments as Office 365 or CRM.
Enjoy!
Jan
Transform Your #2015 Planning! #MSProject #PPM @UMT360
Join UMT360’s CEO Mike Gruia to learn how to transform your 2015 planning!
“With 2015 fast approaching, portfolio planning tops the list of concerns for executives and PMOs across the globe. However Executives have known for years that the portfolio planning processes used by most organizations are badly broken, but the recent financial crisis has turned this weakness into a potentially fatal flaw. While economic recovery is in full swing, the majority of CEOs, CFOs and CIOs believe that heightened uncertainty will remain part of the new norm—placing continued pressure on portfolio investment planning.”
#WPC14 and @Microsoft @Project
I had the pleasure to participate at WPC14 on Wednesday last week!
The morning was kicked-off by the new Microsoft CEO, he was not running like Steve and screaming to try to pump up the audience by his “entrée” but rather by the depth of his thoughts and demonstrations of innovative technologies. The slide below says “Partners who inspire” – and this is an interesting realization that Microsoft acknowledges partners as not only business partners, but also as a source of “inspirations” going forward. Glad to be on the other side now 
The Azure predictive algorithms demo from the ThyssenKrupp Elevators – be able to send maintenance before the system breaks – was simply very powerful – see the demo!
Where it got really exiting from the @Project perspective was when @Project and Visio we called-pout on the slide that that talked about differentiating applications for Windows platform…
The booth – this time Microsoft tried something different – roaming workload/product “experts” in the one Office365 booth space. Interesting idea – unfortunately it showed that when the booth does not have a big green Project logo – people simply will not ask about it…
The first Project session “#CL400: Help Your Customers Choose the Right Project & Portfolio Management Tool” was led by Krishna and provided the overview of the Project family from work-management to high end PPM with Office365, Project Pro for Office365 and Project Online. There were three demos – Raja showed task management in SharePoint, Yahya Project Pro for Office365 and Krishna Project Online. If you have not seen the mock-up of the upcoming work management and resource management – make sure to check it out!
The second Project session “#CL443: Grow your offerings and profitability with Microsoft Project and Project Lite” was led by Yuval @ Microsoft who is the new partner manager on the business group side – congratulations! I’m very excited about his partner and Project background! Awesome!
Yuval was highlighting partners of the year in the PPM space – Sensei – Kenneth, Projility – Rob, CPS – Ivan and UMT360.
All the partners had a chance to present their solution – Kenneth from Sensei –
Sorry Rob and Ivan the photos did not turn out well. Since I was talking about the partner opportunity for #msPartners with @UMT360 I did not master to take a selfie at the same time… – here https://cdn.tri-digital.com/WPC/2014/CL443.mp4 is the session recording – highly encouraging to check it out!
Jan
#msProject #msPartners working towards Silver #PPM Competency? Here are few tips…
I have I decided to write a series of posts to help partners “formally” achieve Silver and Gold PPM competencies, this article talks about Silver PPM, the Gold PPM will be out in few weeks 
The silver PPM requirements officially published on MPN (Microsoft Partner Network) – https://mspartner.microsoft.com/en/us/pages/membership/project-portfolio-management-competency.aspx. This article focuses on working with the MPN tool (further “system”), it does not cover the best practices being a great partner nor best practices conducting great deployments.
I assume you are already registered on MPN (further “system”) – if you have not done so do it http://partners.microsoft.com. You need to use your Windows Live ID (newly called Microsoft Account) to sign-in. MAKE SURE your legal name and “doing business as” (DBA) name is correct. You can change DBA, but changing Legal name requires contacting MPN Support and may take few days to change.
Silver PPM REQIUREMENTS (as or April 2014):
- THREE CUSTOMER REFERENCES – I highly advise you to talk to you customer and explain the whole process. The customer has to confirm the reference you submit by opening e-mail sent by Microsoft. The e-mail is sent from “microsoft@e-mail.microsoft.com”, and if your customer is not receiving this e-mail – you need to make sure customer has this e-mail on safe sender list… You are not CC’ed on this e-mail, so you have to trust that the “system” sends the e-mail and validate receipt with your customer. Sometimes you may get “Notification of Customer Reference Request” to your inbox when you send the reference e-mail but sometime you may just get the “Customer Reference Approved”… If you customers is not receiving the e-mail – you can’t re-send it right away (you can after 5 days) and if you need to re-send immediately (e.g. customer added the sender to safe list) you have to contact the MPN Support to sort it out. When you are submitting the reference, make sure you have all details, including the use case and detailed description of the reference. Validating the reference could take anywhere from minutes to days, depending on multiple factors – from speed of e-mail systems, anti-spam filters, time zones – all the way to eruptions on the sun. It’s wise to shoot for one or two more references to be safe that you meet the requirement.
- ONE SALES ASSESMENT – the sales assessment is relatively straight forward, Microsoft provides full training and the assessment is based on that training. I have recently published an article on how you can speed-up the training – in this post. Please DO print/PDF the certificate you get at the end in case your assessment does not show as completed. My feeling is that there is a lag after you complete the assessment and before you will see the assessment as completed in the “system”. I have seen anything from several hours to several days.
- TWO MCPs with TWO PROJECT EXAMS – you need two MCPs and BOTH have to take the exam 74-343 Managing Projects with Microsoft Project 2013 and 74-344 Managing Programs and Projects with Project Server 2013. Make sure to add the right MCP ID of your Associated People with your Organization.
- For exam prep – check http://www.procert.com/finder/ Microsoft –> Microsoft Project 2013. Also Amazon.com has series of good books. Your local fellow training partner may have other ides too
- 74-344 Managing Programs and Projects with Project Server 2013 is NO LONGER Technical – the biggest “surprised” feedback I heard. Check the Skills Measured section here http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/exam-74-344.aspx.
- 74-343 Managing Projects with Microsoft Project 2013 requires knowledge of the Project desktop, including deep dive in scheduling and usage views. Check the Skills Measured section here http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/exam-74-343.aspx.
- Once all above is satisfied – accept the legal agreement (it is 40 pages when pasted to Word so it may take some time to read through it) and pay the Silver fee (plus tax).
- Done
The “formal” process and work with “system” might take an extra time, plan for it. Patience. Patience. Patience.
Good luck!
Jan
Do it quicker! Sales and Marketing Assessment for #msProject #PPM competency
Many of you are renewing their PPM competency and need one or two socialists to pass the new Microsoft Partner Network Sales Specialist Competency Assessment for Project and Portfolio Management.
The good news is that the assessment is fully based on the accompanying training https://mspartnerlp.mspartner.microsoft.com/LearningPath/LearningPath/DLPaths?trackId=530&rowId=1030&trackPathId=6185 in the Partner Learning Center. In other words the questions asked are only based on the training.
Here is one trick that is built into the player that allows you to sit the training for a shorter amount of time – you can change the play speed to Fast (Ctrl+shift+G) or right-click the Media Player controls and select “Play speed” – see the picture below.
Good luck & happy passing!
Jan
What’s included in Microsoft Project Lite?
This announcement shows EXACT functionality included in Project Lite! Can’t wait! For $7 get everyone on!
UMT360 Webinar: Project & Portfolio Financial Controls for Microsoft Project Server
Despite the significant investments in PPM, it is failing to deliver the anticipated results. UMT360’s research shows that today companies are failing to realize up to 46% of the planned business value from the project portfolios. One of the main reasons for this loss in value is many PMO’s simply do not view projects as business investments, and as a result fail to effectively integrate financial management and PPM to proactively gauge the economic impact of poor project performance and take corrective actions.
Join this webinar to see how UMT360 can help you gain complete financial Intelligence across your project portfolios and increase ROI.
In this webinar you will learn how to:
- Eliminate the need for Excel and standardize investment governance controls across the PPM lifecycle
- Streamline capital planning and build stronger business cases business cases
- Automate financial tracking and variance analysis and move to an agile re-planning process
- Establish a benefits realization framework
UMT360, the only Enterprise Portfolio Management solution built on SharePoint with seamless Project Server integration, is helping companies take their PPM to the next level.
Register today http://bit.ly/1jx5nie
Check the top 40 rated sessions from the Project Conference 2014 #ProjConf!
Time to get immersed into the Project Conference 2014 sessions again – here is the list of top 40 rated sessions by conference attendees – a list for all of us to review and watch those most appealing sessions! All session recordings available here http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Project/2014. CONGRATS speakers – GREAT job!
Enjoy!
| Code | Track | Title | Speakers |
| PC224 | Product | SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business: Is now the time to move to the cloud? | Matt Berg |
| PC403 | Technical | Extending Project Online and on-premises with JavaScript Apps | Martin Laukkanen |
| PC212 | Business | How Con Edison Utilizes Dynamic Planning Process ‘Sweep” to Optimize a $2bn Capital Portfolio to Increase ROI | Frank LaRocca |
| PC402 | Product | Advanced Task Mode: Manually Schedule vs. Auto Schedule, How Hard Can It Be? | Dan Renier |
| PC248 | Product | Real World Reports: Business Intelligence in Project Online and Project Server 2013 | Andrew Lavinsky; Mike McLean |
| PC307 | Business | Lead The Enterprise Social Revolution: How to Drive Sustainable Adoption | Dux Raymond Sy |
| PC309 | Business | Forecast Scheduling: Fad or Fundamental? | Eric Uyttewaal |
| PC300 | Product | Implementing your organizational process in SharePoint, Project Server and Office 365 with Nintex | Alexander Burton |
| PC316 | Product | MS Project Server at Qualcomm – Lessons Learned and Many Tricks | Nelson Diaz |
| PC238 | Business | ROI: Accelerating your time to value with Project Online | Cindy Lewis; Tad Haas |
| PC206 | Technical | First Impressions supporting Project Server 2013 and Project Online | Brian Smith |
| PC208 | Business | Breaking Bad Project Management: Winning Strategies for the PM, PMO and Executives | Dux Raymond Sy; Isabel Merlano |
| PC205 | Business | Tens of millions saved and 200k Projects: Verizon’s Quest for Continuous Improvement with EPM | Christophe Fullam |
| PC249 | Product | What’s New in Project 2013 desktop | Heather Heide |
| PC252 | Product | Adding objectivity and rigor with portfolio analysis and optimization using Project Online and Project Server 2013 | Luke Humphrey; Prasanna Adavi |
| PC306 | Product | Fast Track Project Management Success: 5 Steps to Rapidly Implement Project Online | Dux Raymond Sy |
| PC229 | Business | Ingersoll Rand: 16 Global Brands Leading Innovation Using One Central Project, Portfolio, and Program Management System | Robert Hickman |
| PC209 | Technical | Troubleshooting Tips for Project and Project Server | Adrian Jenkins; Brian Smith |
| PC327 | Technical | Workflow deep dive in Project Online and Project Server 2013 | Biatrice Ambrosa |
| PC231 | Business | CSC’s Transformation using Project Server | Ryan Jackson |
| PC242 | Business | PPM Adoption in an Evolving Culture | Dane Truhett; Tony Zink |
| PC310 | Business | Project Worst Practice – Learning from other peoples mistakes | Brian Smith; Ian White; Peter Charquero Kestenholz |
| PC230 | Product | From Excel Workbooks to Portfolio Analysis in Seven Steps and Two Days using Project Online. | Gary Chefetz |
| PC400 | Technical | Microsoft Project Server 2013 Supercharged – Performance, scalability and architectural improvements | Chris Elwell |
| PC278 | Business | Charge-up Microsoft Project with Apps | Dene Cleaver; Kenneth Steiness; Tad Haas |
| PC282 | Business | Reimagining Microsoft’s Innovation Hub with SharePoint Online, Project Online and Yammer for Social Innovation Management | Simon Floyd |
| PC243 | Business | How to Utilize the Right Project & Portfolio Management Solution to Deliver PM Success | Dux Raymond Sy; Jan Kalis |
| PC250 | Product | Resources: Your most important assets. Managing resources in Project Online and Project Server 2013 | Jean Donati |
| PC225 | Product | Tips & Tricks using MS Project 2013 | Ellen Lehnert, PMP, MVP |
| PC247 | Technical | Project Server 2013 – administration for IT Professionals and PMO | Alex Savescu |
| PC253 | Product | Introducing Project Online, an Office 365 Service | Mike McLean |
| PC320 | Product | Allegan Case Study – Best Practices for Expanding Project Server across Your Organization | Scott Clausen |
| PC308 | Business | Surviving Workforce Reductions Through mPWR | Emmanuel Fadullon; Kevin Watson |
| PC257 | Business | Success factors for mega projects | Markus Tomas; Sven Blumberg |
| PC328 | Technical | Get your hands dirty with Microsoft Project Server 2013 architecture | Chris Boyd |
| PC202 | Business | Gartner Shares the Most Important PPM Trends for 2014 | Ben Chamberlain; Donna Fitzgerald |
| PC222 | Technical | Building Stellar Project BI Dashboards with Visio | Chris Hopkins |
| PC313 | Business | EVM De-Mystified – Understanding Earned Value Management with The New Project | Matthew Davis |
| PC279 | Business | Exxaro Case Study – How one of the World’s Greatest Mining Companies Took Islands of Tools and Created an Enterprise Solution | Adriaan Goosen |
| PC283 | Product | Managing Agile Projects using Microsoft Project | Alexander Rodov; Matthias Ebinger |
