Project management and Portfolio Rationalization are all variations on the same theme; Planning and prioritizing a series of tasks to achieve the desired outcomes in a predictable and timely manner. The Scorpion difference gives you the ability to manage projects reliably so they are delivered on time, within budget and with minimal business risk. We accomplish this with experienced, qualified managers using our proprietary collection of proven templates and techniques to identify risks up front thus allowing earlier mitigation.

Project Management. Scorpion takes a unique approach going beyond best practices and standards recommended by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Leveraging a full tool kit of services, knowledge, experience and procedures used with other clients, we effectively:

   • Manage complex projects in parallel

   • Ensure these projects are structured around your key business objectives

   • Accelerate project implementation in every way possible

These techniques can cut a project length and cost by more than 50%. We use out-of-the-box techniques such as Earned Value Management, integrated change management and iterative automated testing cycles to proactively mitigate project risks that impact scope, time and budget. Scorpion is fully versed in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) which looks at a product from “cradle to grave” rather than just from inception to going live with version 1.0.

Portfolio Rationalization is management of a collection of Projects or Applications to optimize business spend and value returned.

Project Rationalization: If a company is not canceling the bottom 20% of projects yearly, then it is not managing its project portfolio effectively. We have techniques to help assess and score these projects so that they are ranked in order of their “true” ROI, clearly identifying the bottom 20%.

Technology Rationalization: Within any given company, duplicate technologies accumulate over time. These duplicates need to be identified, analyzed, prioritized and managed (rationalized) to manage and reduce yearly IT support and licensing costs. Scorpion helps by gathering the “true” inventory of ALL tools and technologies and helps you select the most suitable and affordable single technology per category. We then help train and migrate staff onto the selected tools, retire the duplicate tools and renegotiate vendor support agreements for bulk discounts/floating licenses. Finally, we put an IT governance process in place to ensure that the other tools are scanned for regularly so that they do not “creep” back inside the organization.

Example: Internet Service Provider Company

Implementing Service Level Management (SLM) Project

We have had the pleasure of leading multiple ITIL Service Level Management initiatives all with the same results; half the typical cost, within a third of the standard project time.

For example, an internet service provider engaged us to manage a $5 million dollar national Service Level Management project with a 12 person project team. Within 9 months of project kick-off ITIL Service Level Management was implemented in the division that streamlined end-to-end IT work flows. A secondary objective of the project was met that reduced incident response times and improved the number of incidents resolved during the first call. We met all objectives and beat competitor’s quotes for implementing this project in terms of cost as well as time to implement.

Q&A

Q: What unusual techniques or tricks are involved in collapsing time frames without sacrificing quality?

A: Our results are achieved using industry best practice techniques such as iterative development and rapid prototyping integrated with our proprietary project management approach and dedicated strategic use of experts. Quality check points are integrated throughout the development process enabling defects to be found early, limiting impacts on the overall development project.