Balancing dynamic resource demands with portfolio complexities

Common resource allocation challenges and how digital PPM solutions can solve them

Effective resource allocation and management is a critical success factor for project portfolio management. Projects can only achieve their intended goals when the right resources with the necessary skills and experience are assigned to the appropriate work packages. However, this task is often fraught with challenges which can result in over or under allocations, delayed timelines, over hiring or under utilizations. For example, one of the obstacles project managers faces is ensuring they have the right people with the right qualifications allocated to projects. It’s a delicate balance between leveraging existing talent and ensuring that team members are equipped with the necessary skills to handle the specific requirements of their assigned work packages. This requires an end-to-end visibility of the available resources, along with their allocations and skill sets. Traditional resource management practices are no longer able to sustain the growing portfolio requirements. So, how can resource managers tackle the resourcing issues? Read on as we present some of the most common resource allocation challenges and how modern PPM solutions like Planisware and Microsoft Project Online can help. Resource Allocation Challenges and how to Solve them?Identifying future skill requirements for long-running projects: Projects can span several years, from drug discovery and development to clinical trials and regulatory approvals. During this extended timeframe, the skill requirements for a project may evolve significantly. At the outset of a project, it can be challenging to accurately predict the specific expertise and competencies that will be needed as the project progresses through various phases. This uncertainty makes it difficult to allocate resources effectively, as the required skills may change, or new specializations may become necessary. Organizations often face situations where there is an unexpected surge in resource demand that exceeds their current bandwidth. In such cases, they must create contingency plans by either downsizing the resource demand, accelerating some projects while delaying others, or adjusting the scope of initiatives to smooth out the resource requirements over time. Digital PPM solution: Digital PPM solutions offer robust capabilities for prioritizing and ranking projects based on critical resource constraints, such as skilled personnel and budgetary limitations. These solutions typically incorporate algorithms and scoring mechanisms that consider various factors, including resource availability, skill requirements, and budgetary considerations. The ranking and scoring system provided by PPM solutions helps PMOs and decision-makers understand which projects should be prioritized based on resource alignment. Projects with higher scores, indicating a better match between resource availability and project requirements, can be given precedence in the portfolio, ensuring optimal resource allocation and increasing the likelihood of successful project execution. This data-driven approach to project prioritization and resource allocation helps organizations make informed decisions, mitigating the risks associated with resource constraints and maximizing the efficient utilization of scarce resources, such as skilled personnel and limited budgets. Lack of visibility and changing resource requirements: Unforeseen circumstances and changing scenarios can affect projects as they progress. Factors such as regulatory changes, emerging scientific developments, competitor activities, or shifts in market dynamics can significantly impact resource requirements. As these scenarios evolve, the resource needs for a project may change, requiring adjustments in staffing, expertise, and resource allocation.Digital PPM solution: By providing real-time insights into resource availability and project demands, these solutions offer better long-term visibility of projects, enabling organizations to effectively plan and allocate resources across their portfolios. With centralized platforms, these solutions enable quick adaptation to changing resource needs by facilitating dynamic resource allocation and planning. Additionally, automated workflows streamline resource management processes, ensuring the resources are allocated promptly and efficiently to meet project requirements. Collaboration features of these solutions foster seamless communication among teams, enabling swift adjustments to resource allocations based on evolving project needs. Moreover, robust risk management capabilities allow organizations to anticipate and mitigate potential disruptions caused by changing resource requirements, ensuring smooth project execution.Sub-optimal resource allocation due to siloed data: In many organizations, project data and resource information are often stored in separate systems or databases, leading to data silos. Such silos can exist between different departments, business units, or even within the same functional area. The lack of integrated and centralized data can significantly hinder effective resource allocation decisions during project portfolio management. When data is siloed, it becomes difficult to obtain a comprehensive view of the organization’s resource pool, their skills, availability, and utilization across various projects.Digital PPM solution: By consolidating data from various sources into a centralized repository, digital PPM solutions eliminate information silos, offering a comprehensive view of portfolio data. Additionally, integrated risk management modules facilitate proactive identification, assessment, and mitigation of project and portfolio risks, reducing the likelihood of delays or failures due to unforeseen circumstances. Robust reporting and analytics capabilities enable real-time visibility into project performance, resource utilization, and portfolio health, empowering data-driven decision-making. Advanced scenario analysis features allow organizations to simulate different resource allocation strategies, project prioritization scenarios, and potential risks, enabling informed decisions before committing resources. Inadequate resource utilization because of poor prioritization: Without clear prioritization, organizations may allocate their limited resources across too many projects simultaneously, leading to resource over-allocation, reduced productivity, and increased stress among team members. This misalignment can result in resources being allocated to projects that do not align with the company’s strategic objectives or long-term goals, leading to wasted efforts and missed opportunities. Furthermore, when resources are spread too thinly, it can cause delays in project delivery, as critical tasks may not receive the necessary attention or resources, leading to bottlenecks and timeline slippages.Digital PPM solution: These solutions typically help incorporate best practices that enable organizations to define and prioritize their strategic objectives, allowing for a clear mapping between projects and overall organizational strategy and facilitating better project prioritization. By integrating strategic objectives into the PPM tool, project proposals can be evaluated based on their alignment with these goals. The solutions can also provide a comprehensive view of how each project contributes to the achievement of specific strategic objectives, enabling decision-makers to prioritize and allocate resources towards projects that are most closely aligned with the organization’s strategic direction.By leveraging digital PPM solutions, companies can effectively align their project portfolios with strategic objectives, optimize resource allocation, and enhance the overall success and impact of their project initiatives. If you also want to incorporate digital PPM solutions within your organization, or are looking to adopt the best PPM practices, team i2e can assist you. We are a trusted partner in digital PPM services and solutions. Reach out today for tailored support and expertise in optimizing your project and portfolio management strategies. Let’s streamline your operations and maximize efficiency together.

Enterprise Resource Allocation with Microsoft Project Online

Resource management is crucial to ensure the allocation of resources to the right projects- projects that are aligned with your company's goals. Portfolio managers must balance capacity while keeping in mind business needs to prioritize, plan and schedule tasks for the right teams, people, and skillsets.With the advent of Microsoft Project Online, portfolio managers can now effectively manage work, cost, and material resources. Read on, as we tell you how Project Online resource management is packed with many exciting features.What Project Online Offers for Resource Management The powerful Microsoft Project Online helps portfolio managers to:Manage resource engagement requestsEffectively plan resource managementPlanning resource capacityBuild teams in line with the demand.Overview of Resource Engagement Requests Project Online gives the portfolio manager a bird’s eye view of a resource which allows them to make an informed decision whether to accept, reject or modify any resource engagement requests. All the resource requests submitted by your project managers will be displayed in the Resource Center section. Here you can view the request along with the fields like name of the resource, project name, percentage capacity, start and end date of engagement. If everything looks fine, you can click on the accept button, and the resource will be released back to the project manager. One of the best features of Project Online is you can swap generic resources for a specific one, and edit the fields related to the resource. You can also reject a resource engagement request so that the project manager can revise and submit it again. Thus, ensuring all the resources are utilized optimally. Manage the Vast Resource Pool When you have a vast resource pool managing them can be tough. Microsoft Project Online has an enterprise resource pool to streamline resource management individually or in bulk. You can easily add a resource to your project and assign multiple attributes such as the need of approval for assignments, base calendar, and start and end dates to it. If there are many resources, you can run an automatic import using an external data file. The file formats supported by Project Online are .mpp, and .mpt for project files.xlsx, .xlsb, and .xls for excel files; and ..txt, csv, and .xml Estimate Resource CapacityAnother crucial part of resource management is knowing a resource’s availability. This prevents over or underutilization of resources. By using Project Online, you can easily view the availability and allocation of a resource. All you have to do is select any resource in the resource center, click on ‘Capacity Planning.’ Then, under the view tab, select ‘Capacity and Engagement Heatmap.’ This gives you a quick visual of that resource’s availability and allocation. Project Online also gives color codes for quick understanding. For example, if a resource is optimally utilized between their engagement and overall capacity, then their hourly capacity will be highlighted in green. If they are underused then, it will be highlighted in blue, and if overused then the hourly capacity will be in red. If you need to drill down more into the under and over-utilized resources, then simply click on ‘Resource Assignments.’ This will give a detailed view of all the tasks associated with that resource, along with the dates and percentage of work done. These details can help you not only in resource forecasting, but also make informed decisions to reassign workload. Build Teams Building a team for a project is quick and simple with Project Online. Go to the ‘Quick Launch menu,’ select the project for which you need to build a team. Next, click on ‘Build Team,’ under Navigate. Once all the possible resources load as a list on the left side of the screen, select the resource you want and transfer it to the project team. You can also view a summary of the type, cost center, and earliest availability of each resource. Once you have created your team, click save and close and now your team is ready to assign tasks. Microsoft ecosystem advantage Another advantage of Microsoft Project online is its seamless integration with other Microsoft tools. Since Project Online is built on Microsoft 365 Groups, it can be easily integrated with collaboration and data visualization tools such as Teams and Power BI. Microsoft teams: Communicating with other resources is simplified through Project Online. If you need to talk to any resource, simply hover over a name and start instant messaging or a video call through Teams. Power BI: With the help of the Resource Center and Power BI content pack, you can create dashboards with several resource management-focused views. This will help you to assess demand vs capacity and view other insights without the need to perform any manual work. Microsoft Project Online is a powerful PPM solution for resource management. Bid goodbye to excel sheets and hours of manual work to sort out resources. With Project Online you can manage, plan and allocate resources with just a few clicks. Interested to know more about Project Online, then visit www.i2econsulting.com or write to us at solutions@i2econsulting.com

How technology can fill gaps within resource management for overall PPM success

Resource management is often the most overlooked aspect of R&D portfolio and project management. Despite its crucial role in ensuring project success, many organizations focus predominantly on project selection and prioritization, but neglect or defer addressing the complexities of allocating limited resources across multiple projects. This can lead to bottlenecks, delays and inefficiencies that not only undermine portfolio performance but also significantly impact time-to-market for new therapies. Research highlights that effective resource management and allocation can improve project success rates by up to 40%, underscoring their critical role in project portfolio success.McKinsey's report on strategic financial planning emphasizes that organizations which align their strategic financial plans with their resource allocation processes tend to outperform their peers. Companies that reallocate resources across business units within the year are significantly more likely to achieve superior revenue growth and return on capital In this blog, we will delve into how technical advancements can help resource and project managers have deeper visibility into named resource forecast, allocation, capacity and more. Leveraging technology for efficient resource management in life sciences Effective resource management is crucial, especially considering that large pharmaceutical companies typically manage hundreds of cross-functional and functional projects simultaneously across different therapeutic areas. With R&D spending in the industry averaging 15-20% of revenue, efficient allocation of both financial and human resources is key to portfolio success. Technology plays a vital role in effectively implementing any effective resource management. Life sciences organizations have an established ecosystem of tools and platforms which help to efficiently manage resources across all projects and portfolios. However, decisions on resource management capabilities are made through the lens of the enterprise, and typically do not provide the precision and granularity needed in the functional lines. In addition, data disparity and silos can still exist due to gaps in the tools in terms of visibility into named resource allocation, a clear idea on all auxiliary tasks assigned to the resources, etc. This can lead to insufficient visibility into resource allocation, task management, and coordination across teams. Introducing Alloc8 With vast experience in PPM resource management for the life sciences, i2e Consulting developed Alloc8. It is a dedicated resource management tool that seamlessly integrates with your existing PPM ecosystem and focuses specifically on optimizing the use of human resources. Alloc8 is a unique tool which complements and extends existing enterprise tools by giving complete visibility of resource forecasts and allocation to line leads, department heads and product teams that require granular resource management data. It integrates resource data (required to make informed resource allocation) from various systems such as PPM tool (project schedules, resource needs and forecasts at the role level) HR system (employee skills, and name allocations), and Full Time Equivalents (FTEs). Alloc8 then extends visibility into named resource forecasts, allocation, and capacity. With intuitive features like task allocation, real-time progress tracking, and efficient coordination, Alloc8 empowers teams to optimize resource utilization, and enhance project efficiency. Let’s go deeper into how Alloc8 can help life sciences organizations take data-driven decisions when it comes to resource allocation. Features Complete view: The tool integrates and extends information from different sources and offers a comprehensive view of the number of resources, their project schedules, forecasts, full-time equivalents, and HR systems. Spreadsheets are replaced with the compiled data, offering visibility into the skill sets and resource capacity. Automated workflow and optimization: Project managers can manage workloads effectively by utilizing the resources based on their availability and skillset. The advanced automated resource requisition fosters a shared model, thereby reducing internal conflicts and avoiding under- and over-allocation. Improved alerting and issue management: Alloc8 shares alerts and flags, proactively surfacing potential areas of concern. If desired, it can automatically takes meetings-related information from Outlook to streamline the collection of time spent/planned on project related meetings to enhance the identification of capacity constraints. Tracking and interactive visuals: Alloc8 provides detailed reports, interactive visuals, and real-time tracking that enables necessary changes as per the project’s progress. This keeps the project’s stakeholders informed and monitors the workflow as per the demands. Dashboards: The tool displays the forecasted availability of the resources for multiple tasks that lets the managers identify gaps and bridge them to minimize risks. Additionally, it facilitates governance and lets the managers devise mitigation strategies. For more details, check out Alloc8Now that we understand how technology can contribute to improving the efficiency of resource management, let’s see what business outcomes organizations can reap from a streamlined, and visible resource management process. Improves productivity One major advantage of efficient resource allocation is the boost in productivity it brings to an organization. With proper distribution of resources, organizations make sure that every team or project gets the right tools, time, and support that is required to achieve the best outcomes. It also ensures that employees aren't wasting time looking manually for resources or waiting for approvals; instead, they can focus on their main tasks and duties. Furthermore, resource allocation highlights bottlenecks or overburdened areas, allowing for timely corrections.A well-implemented resource allocation strategy significantly enhances productivity and streamlines operations, resulting in greater efficiency and better outcomes for the whole organization. 2. Boosts decision-making Efficient resource allocation provides resource and project managers with a clear understanding of the available resources and their distribution. This transparency allows for informed choices based on accurate data. Strategic resource allocation helps optimize efficiency, productivity, and overall success. With a well-structured plan and efficient decision-making, businesses can achieve their goals more effectively and boost profitability. 3. Enhances financial performance Smart resource allocation can significantly improve a company's financial performance. By distributing resources wisely, organizations can maximize productivity and minimize waste and unnecessary expenses. Proper allocation ensures every department or project receives the support and funding needed to meet its goals efficiently. This leads to smoother operations, better efficiency, and higher profitability. Additionally, it helps identify overused or underused resources, allowing for redirection to areas where they are needed most. Refining resource allocation strategies enhances financial performance and drives sustainable growth. Resource management in life sciences management is crucial to support complex, multi-disciplinary and long duration projects. Life sciences organizations are on a continuous journey to make their processes efficient and automated. Tools like Alloc8 would seamlessly integrate into your existing PPM systems and fill any gaps.