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In managing the execution of a project, you have two
primary goals: keep your project on time and on budget.
However, no amount of management skill will compensate
for poor initial planning. Where many plans fall apart is
in failing to elicit input from the right people while in
the planning stages and failing to account for risks
properly. This is where Vanguard can help.
Bringing Together People, Analytics, and Systems
The Vanguard System™ is a comprehensive business
solution for improving the quality, reliability, and
speed of management decisions. It does this by helping
you Collaborate with colleagues
on important plans, Analyze alternatives
using state-of-the-art modeling and simulation
techniques, Automate routine
decisions using expert system technology, and Improve
overall management effectiveness by adding
structure to a normally chaotic process.
Business improvement is all about working smarter.
Vanguard brings together the people, analytics, and
systems required to help your business operate
intelligently.
Collaborative Planning
Vanguard is unique in its ability to allow many people
from different functional areas and geographic locations
to participate in a joint planning process. This is
accomplished through an easy-to-use, Web interface that
gives participants real-time access to the specific areas
you permission.
Risk Analysis
Collaboration has the advantage of helping to ensure
that all possible risks are understood before a project
begins. However, the wealth of information coming from
many people also presents a problem--how do you perform
analysis on a plan where there are many different
opinions about the possible outcomes, timing, and cost of
each task? This is where Vanguard's Risk Analysis
capabilities come in.
Vanguard allows you to build a model that reflects
characteristics of your project and exercise the model to
understand the importance and likelihood of key risks. In
fact, Vanguard includes tools that will automatically
show you what risks pose the greatest threat to your
project's success. Vanguard will even tell you what
opportunities offer the greatest potential.
Cost Modeling
A key step in the initial planning process is to
assess the potential cost of a project. With Vanguard,
you do this by building a collaborative cost model. You
begin by breaking the project into sections and assign
the responsibility of modeling each section to a person
who has direct knowledge of the tasks involved. The
Vanguard System rolls up all section models to create a
high-level cost model with all risks and uncertainties
preserved. What's more, the unified model is completely
open and transparent, giving all participants the ability
to understand and comment on others' assumptions.
Portfolio Management
In most companies, many projects compete for the same
resources (cash, people, equipment, etc.). You want to
decide which projects to pursue based, in part, on how
each project affects the availability of resources for
other projects. Choosing a portfolio of projects is
similar to choosing a portfolio of stocks--making the
right choices can significantly reduce risk while
preserving overall return.
Vanguard helps with portfolio management using its
Collaborative Planning architecture. You can roll-up
individual project models into a portfolio model with a
few simple clicks in the Web interface, no need to
rebuild, or summarize project models. You get a complete
picture of all risks and uncertainties across the entire
project portfolio or even across your entire company.
Knowledge Automation
The new Content Management System (CMS) is a Web-based knowledge automation development tool for non-programmers. CMS Web-based applications guide customers or employees through complex decision-making processes using interactive, automated question and answer sessions. They are core software applications that can improve the operational efficiency of your key business processes. CMS assists project managers in improving efficiency by enabling then to automate decision-making processes quickly, regardless of their programming experience.
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