Category: Blog

PMO - Project Management Office. Office supplies on the table.

Benefits of a PMO

Welcome to our blog post on the benefits of a Program Management Office (PMO) and what is a recommended tool to achieve success. In today’s fast-paced business world, organisations are constantly striving for improved project management capabilities. A well-established PMO can provide the necessary structure, processes, and oversight to ensure project success. In this blog post, we will explore the key benefits of a PMO and then introduce you to Smartsheet, a versatile and user-friendly tool that can help you achieve PMO success.

Benefits of a Program Management Office (PMO)

A Program Management Office (PMO) can bring about numerous benefits for an organisation. Let’s dive into some of the most important ones:

1. Enhanced Project Governance

  • With a PMO in place, organisations can establish robust project governance frameworks. This ensures that projects align with strategic objectives, adhere to predefined standards, and follow industry best practices.
  • By enforcing accountability and transparency, a PMO helps in mitigating risks and making informed decisions throughout the project lifecycle.

2. Improved Resource Management

  • Resource management is a crucial aspect of project success. A PMO provides the necessary mechanisms to optimise resource allocation across projects, ensuring that the right people are working on the right tasks at the right time.
  • By centralising resource data, a PMO enables better visibility and coordination, resulting in improved productivity and reduced resource conflicts.

3. Standardised Processes and Methodologies

  • A PMO establishes a common set of processes, methodologies, and tools that are followed consistently across projects. This ensures that projects are executed in a structured manner, minimising errors and promoting efficiency.
  • By leveraging lessons learned and best practices, a PMO helps teams deliver projects more effectively, ultimately leading to higher customer satisfaction.

4. Effective Communication and Collaboration

  • Communication breakdowns can be detrimental to project success. A PMO acts as a facilitator, promoting communication and collaboration among project stakeholders.
  • Through the use of standardised communication channels and tools, a PMO enables seamless information sharing, fostering teamwork and reducing misunderstandings.

5. Strategic Alignment and Business Value

  • Organisations often pursue multiple projects simultaneously. A PMO plays a crucial role in ensuring that these projects align with the overall strategic goals of the organisation.
  • By prioritising and sequencing projects, a PMO helps in optimising resource allocation and maximizing business value, leading to better return on investment (ROI).

The Power of Smartsheet

Now that we understand the benefits of a PMO, let’s introduce you to a tool that can help you achieve PMO success – Smartsheet. Smartsheet is a versatile and user-friendly project management tool that offers a wide range of features to support your PMO efforts.

Seamless Project Planning and Tracking

Smartsheet provides an intuitive interface for project planning and tracking. With its flexible grid-based structure, you can easily create project schedules, define tasks, assign resources, and set dependencies. The Gantt chart view offers a visual representation of your project timeline, allowing you to identify critical paths and manage project constraints effectively.

Real-time Collaboration and Communication

Collaboration is at the heart of Smartsheet. With its robust sharing and commenting capabilities, you can collaborate with your team members in real-time, ensuring everyone is on the same page. Whether it’s discussing project updates, resolving issues, or sharing important documents, Smartsheet provides a centralized platform for effective communication.

Resource Management and Workload Balancing

Smartsheet offers powerful resource management capabilities. You can easily allocate resources to tasks, track their availability, and manage workload balancing. The resource view provides an overview of resource allocation across projects, enabling you to optimise resource utilisation and avoid burnout.

Customisable Dashboards and Reports

Smartsheet allows you to create customisable dashboards and reports, giving you real-time visibility into project progress, resource utilisation, and other key metrics. You can track project milestones, monitor risks, and generate data-driven insights to support decision-making.

Integrations and Automation

Smartsheet integrates seamlessly with popular productivity and collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Office 365, Google Workspace, and Jira. You can automate repetitive tasks, streamline workflows, and eliminate manual data entry through the use of Smartsheet’s extensive library of pre-built templates and automation features.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a Program Management Office (PMO) offers significant benefits to organisations striving for improved project management capabilities. From enhanced project governance to effective communication, a well-established PMO can drive project success. And when it comes to supporting your PMO efforts, Smartsheet proves to be a valuable tool. Its seamless project planning and tracking, real-time collaboration, resource management capabilities, customisable dashboards, and integrations make it an ideal choice for organisations looking to achieve PMO success. Embrace the power of Smartsheet and take your project management to new heights!

“With a well-established PMO and the right tool like Smartsheet, your organisation can achieve project management excellence.”

Where can I learn more about Smartsheet?

We are holding a Smartsheet seminar on Wednesday 24th January 2024 at Kingsman Office Suites, 1 Grenville Street, St Helier, Jersey. JE2 4UF.

To learn more about the seminar and register for this awesome event, click on the following link:

REGISTER

Should you not be able to attend the event but would like more information on Smartsheet and how it can transform your organisation, please contact mike.thorpe@kopconsultancy.com or alternatively feel free to book a short meeting to discuss how Smartsheet’s solutions could assist your business by clicking on the following link.

Book a meeting here

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Mike January 8, 2024 0 Comments

Stay connected with other Smartsheet mobilisers and advocates for a session on how to master the art of productivity and collaboration.

Stay connected with other Smartsheet mobilizers and advocates at the latest of our Smartsheet Seminars! Get ready to dive into the world of Smartsheet and discover how it can revolutionise your work. This in-person event will bring together experts from Cheetah Transformation and Kop Consultancy, enthusiasts, and beginners alike to explore the power of this incredible tool. Come connect and learn from Jersey based companies on how they use Smartsheet to drive their business forward, then share your Smartsheet knowledge and experience during our networking hour.

Join us for a morning filled with interactive presentations, inspiring case studies, and networking opportunities. No matter what your role is within your organisation, or whether you are just curious about Smartsheet, this seminar is the perfect chance to learn, connect, and have fun. Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to enhance your productivity and take your projects or business processes to the next level!

Date: Wednesday 24 January 2024

Venue: Kingsman Office Suites, 1 Grenville Street JE2 4UF Saint Helier Jersey

Agenda

8:30 am – 9:00 am: Complimentary coffee/breakfast team and pastries

9:00 am – 9:10 am: Introduction to Kop Consultancy and Cheetah Transformation

9:10 am – 10:30 am: Case studies detailing how clients have used Smartsheet to:

  • Increase net profit, drive revenue, and engage with employees;
  • Onboard clients, carry out CDD and track ongoing tasks;
  • Create workflow and tracking to progress key customer activities. e.g. reporting, scheduling and deadlines;
  • Onboard staff;
  • Create budgets, financial planning and accounting services;
  • Track marketing and events

To register for this awesome event, click on the following link:

REGISTER

Should you not be able to attend the event but would like more information on Smartsheet and how it can transform your organisation, please contact mike.thorpe@kopconsultancy.com or alternatively feel free to book a short meeting to discuss how Smartsheet’s solutions could assist your business by clicking on the following link.

Book a meeting here

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Mike December 29, 2023 0 Comments

Halloween Smartsheet Seminar

On Hallowe’en, Kop Consultancy hosted a Smartsheet showcase session at Santander Work Café in Jersey.  Guest speakers were Cheetah Transformation, award winning Smartsheet Platinum Partner.

Kop MD, Mike Thorpe said “I am delighted to welcome Cheetah Transformation to the Jersey marketplace; their experience with Smartsheet has certainly strengthened Smartsheet’s presence on the island.”

Cheetah Transformation introduced Smartsheet, the leading collaborative workflow management platform, and evidenced how it is used across multiple industries to make organisations function more effectively and efficiently. From a range of clients, they shared life changing outcomes that users have experienced, such as:

  • Delivering creative campaigns in 4 weeks instead of 6
  • Email traffic reduction of 75%, by moving work into Smartsheet 
  • Time saving of 24 days/year by automating sending & following up of meeting actions
  • Increased productivity of employees leading to cutting back on temporary contractors

A demonstration of Smartsheet and Smartsheet Control Center generated much interest and lead into a lively discussion.  Key topics that generated much interest were:

  • Moving data between platforms;
  • Integration with NAVOne, ViewPoint, Mosaic & Elite;
  • Creation of standardised template sets that enable organisations to scale up quickly to meet demand, in the most efficient way.

Rob Eberstein, Cheetah Transformation MD, commenting on the event said “It has been great to meet so many people focussed on improving how their business operates, and the experience their customers have. We are excited about the opportunity to help Jersey companies work more efficiently. ”

For more information on Smartsheet and how it can transform your organisation, contact mike.thorpe@kopconsultancy.com or alternatively feel free to book a short meeting to discuss how Smartsheet’s solutions could assist your business.

Book a meeting here

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Mike October 31, 2023 0 Comments

Join Kop Consultancy and Cheetah Transformation for a joint seminar

Kop Consultancy are holding the next of our Partner Showcase events.  This will be a held at Santander’s Work Cafe in Jersey on Tuesday 31st October from 8:15 am to 10:30 am.

Kop Consultancy have recently entered into a partnership with Cheetah Transformation who were Smartsheet’s 2022/2023 EMEA partner of the year. The selection criteria for the winning partner were annual growth and proven capabilities. Cheetah Transformation’s strong technical capabilities were a key element in the award, as well as the number of consultants holding Smartsheet’s Professional Services Certification.

Kop have been Smartsheet partners since 2018 and continue to work with their clients but due to Cheetah’s extensive experience have decided to partner with them and offer a greater range of technical and development services. 

Cheetah Transformation works with organisations across the world to implement Smartsheet solutions and change the way they work and manage projects. They work with many multinational organisations, the value being one solution accessible, visible and operational across all their project management teams, no matter where they are located.


Smartsheet can help from an Executive, Operations, Finance, HR, IT, Marketing, Operations, PMO, Compliance or Sales perspective enabling you to collaborate seamlessly, make better decisions faster and automate work processes so you and your team can achieve more!

Following complimentary coffee/breakfast tea and pastries, this introductory workshop will focus on how customers benefit expertise in a range of ways, a brief agenda of the morning is as follows:

  • Case studies detailing how clients have used Smartsheet to:
  • Increasing net profit, driving revenue, and engaging employees.
    • Onboards clients, carry out CDD and track ongoing tasks
    • Workflow and tracking progress of key customer activities. e.g. Reporting, scheduling and deadlines.
    • Onboarding staff
    • Budgets, financial planning and accounting services
    • Marketing and events
  • Demo’s including all of the above
  • Q&A

There will also be an opportunity to schedule 1-1 sessions after the event and during the day. Details of this will be included in any notification confirming your attendance.Whether you are brand new to Smartsheet or an existing customer we would be delighted for you to join us.

Should you not be able to attend but require any further information on Smartsheet please email mike.thorpe@kopconsultancy.com or alternatively feel free to book a short meeting to discuss how Smartsheet’s solutions could assist your business.

Book a meeting here

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Mike October 16, 2023 0 Comments

Join Kop Consultancy and iManage for a joint seminar

Kop Consultancy is holding a joint seminar with iManage on Tuesday 24th May at the Digital Hub, in Grenville Street from 12:45 pm to 2:00 pm

As iManage partners, we are working with a number of Jersey businesses to develop functionality and templates to ensure that their solutions are streamlined for their line of business.

Their artificial intelligence and powerful document and email management creates connections across data, systems, and people, while leveraging the context of organisational content to fuel deep insights, informed business decisions, and collaboration. Underpinned by advanced, need-to-know security, iManage delivers sophisticated governance approaches, enabling workflows to help solve complex business challenges, resulting in better business outcomes.

iManage Work:

is an email and document management system that improves professionals’ productivity, collaboration, and knowledge management. It’s intuitive, efficient, and it’s user-designed experience, particularly for the search and upload of content, and version control encourages adoption.

also ensures secure handling of sensitive and high-value content by managing internal and external access according to organisational policies and establishing an audit trail around who has accessed and changed content.

is integrated with leading email and office productivity applications and can be integrated with numerous other third-party or internally developed solutions via its API and extensive range of partners.

Sandwiches and refreshments will be served and there will also be time after the event to discuss more individual needs with iManage and also ourselves, should this be appropriate.

It would be great to see you at the event, please register using the button below.

Innovate with confidence leveraging iManage’s extensive ecosystem of partners and integrations.

We hopefully look forward to you joining us for the webinar.

Should you feel that other members of the team would benefit from attending, please feel free to pass the invitation on to them.

We are limiting numbers for the event to 20 as we want this to be a very focused event.

Should you not be able to attend but require any further information on iManage please email me direct:mike.thorpe@kopconsultancy.com

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Mike May 10, 2022 0 Comments

Kop Partner Webinar – iManage – Making Knowledge Work

For Law Firms, Trust, Wealth Management and Fund Management companies, having an effective records management and function in place to support it is key.

iManage are dedicated to making knowledge work by enabling organisations to uncover and activate the knowledge that exists inside their business content and communications.

Their artificial intelligence and powerful document and email management creates connections across data, systems, and people, while leveraging the context of organisational content to fuel deep insights, informed business decisions, and collaboration. Underpinned by advanced, need-to-know security, iManage delivers sophisticated governance approaches, enabling workflows to help solve complex business challenges, resulting in better business outcomes.

Kop Consultancy and iManage are holding a joint webinar on Wednesday 23rd March from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm (GMT) to explain how they have been able to help thousands of clients in four core ways: 

Create

Find and create value inside your organisation and activate your expertise. 

Collaborate

Connect and share safely anywhere and eliminate friction to make faster, better decisions. 

Protect

Manage and protect the IP under your care by embedding governance security into your workflows.

Innovate

Innovate with confidence leveraging iManage’s extensive ecosystem of partners and integrations.

We hopefully look forward to you joining us for the webinar.

Register in advance

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Should you not be able to attend but require any further information on iManage please email me direct:mike.thorpe@kopconsultancy.com

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Mike March 1, 2022 0 Comments

Kop Partner Showcase – iManage

For Law Firms, Trust, Wealth Management and Fund Management companies, having an effective records management and function in place to support it is key.

iManage are dedicated to making knowledge work by enabling organisations to uncover and activate the knowledge that exists inside their business content and communications.

iManage’s artificial intelligence and powerful document and email management creates connections across data, systems, and people, while leveraging the context of organisational content to fuel deep insights, informed business decisions, and collaboration. Underpinned by advanced, need-to-know security, iManage delivers sophisticated governance approaches, enabling workflows to help solve complex business challenges, resulting in better business outcomes.

Short presentations from Kop Consultancy and iManage will be held over breakfast on Wednesday 26th January 2022 at Santander’s Work Cafe in Jersey from 8:30 am to 10:30 am to explain how iManage has helped thousands of clients in four core ways:

Create

Find and create value inside your organisation and activate your expertise. 

Collaborate

Connect and share safely anywhere and eliminate friction to make faster, better decisions. 

Protect

Manage and protect the IP under your care by embedding governance security into your workflows.

Innovate

Innovate with confidence leveraging iManage’s extensive ecosystem of partners and integrations.

Short presentations from Kop and iManage will be followed by networking, drinks and canapes.

Places are limited and will be offered on a first come, first served basis.

To register click on the following link: Kop Partner Showcase – iManage

Should you not be able to attend but require any further information on Smartsheet please email me direct: mike.thorpe@kopconsultancy.com

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Mike November 4, 2021 0 Comments

Kop Partner Showcase – Smartsheet

Kop Consultancy are proud to announce our next Partner Showcase event.  This will be a held at Santander’s Work Cafe in Jersey on Wednesday 19th January 2022 from 8:30 am to 10:30 am.

Technology has enabled us to transition to work from home during the global pandemic. But our next challenge, is to understand how to spend less time in meetings and less time providing updates. 

Smartsheet offers collaboration software and solutions that creates team efficiencies, effectiveness and scale to some of the world’s largest companies.

Our presentation will focus on driving productive collaboration, aligning on assignments, timelines, and a single source of truth to manage work.

Whether you are brand new to Smartsheet or an existing customer we would be delighted for you to join us for a series of short presentations to be followed by drinks and canapes? 

The following are some of the topics, covering how Smartsheet can help from an Executive, Finance, HR, IT, Marketing, Operations, PMO, Sales perspective enabling you to collaborate seamlessly, make better decisions faster and automate work processes so you and your team can achieve more!

General: Learn how to get started as a new user

Executive: Increasing net profit, driving revenue, and engaging employees.

Finance: Budget and forecasting, purchase request management, vendor selection/ on-boarding, end-to-end spend control 

HR: Recruiting and hiring, Employee on-boarding, Career development training 

IT: New systems rollout, New hire checklist, IT ticketing

Marketing: Campaign management, Event planning, Content development 

Operations: Policies and procedures, Goal-setting and KPIs, Operational efficiency 

management 

Sales: Pipeline management, Revenue forecasting, Sales operations 

PMO: Project plans and schedules, Project rollups, Budget management 

For most businesses, the main objectives are increasing net profit, driving revenue, and engaging employees. Executives and leaders develop the strategies and plans—determining appropriate budgets, technologies, and talent to achieve goals and scale growth. One area that remains a key challenge is how to remove organisational obstacles to increase workforce productivity. While it’s easy to identify specific problems, it’s difficult to find comprehensive solutions.

Places are limited and will be offered on a first come, first served basis.

To register click on the following link: Kop Partner Showcase – Smartsheet

Should you not be able to attend but require any further information on Smartsheet please email me direct: mike.thorpe@kopconsultancy.com

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Mike November 3, 2021 0 Comments

Kop Partner Showcase – MetaphorIT

Join MetaphorIT and KoP Consultancy for our Modern Workspace Session

We are so glad to be back in Jersey! Its been a crazy year however the power of technology has enabled us all to stay in touch and continue to run our businesses. We are in a new era of working and the cloud is ever as important.

Metaphor IT and KOP Consultancy have a packed agenda as always to keep you informed on the latest news from some great vendors, what is trending within the industry and how we can continue to help.

Modern Workspace Agenda:

  • Tea / Coffee & Breakfast
  • Introduction to Metaphor IT & KOP Consultancy
    • Who we are?
    • What have we been doing in lockdown?
  • Adoption of the Cloud in Luxembourg (CSSF Regulation)
    • The regulators stance on Cloud Services
    • How to satisfy some of the common hurdles
    • Is total segregation necessary?
  • Microsoft Update Session
    • Technology & Licensing
  • Citrix Update Session
    • What’s New / What’s Coming
  • Q & A / Close

When is it? Wednesday, 24th November 2021, 08:30 – 10:30
Where is it? The Royal Yacht Hotel, Weighbridge, St Helier, JE2 3NF
How to register? Click here to register your seat

Should you not be able to attend but require any further information on MetaphorIT please email me direct: mike.thorpe@kopconsultancy.com

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Mike October 27, 2021 0 Comments

Kop Partner Showcase – Enabling Business Outcomes

Kop Consultancy are proud to announce our forthcoming Partner Showcase event.  This will be a held over breakfast at Santander’s new Work Cafe on Wednesday 16th June from 8:30 am to 10:30 am.

We have gathered together an impressive panel of partner organisations to highlight how their services and applications can help you meet key business outcomes, enabling you to:

  • Generate new business
  • Manage on-boarding and KYC/CDD
  • Create efficiencies through process improvements
  • Utilise technology to support wider business outcomes using familiar tools you already own eg O365, Teams 
  • Benefit from cost-effective Cloud/SaaS systems – offering clients best-in-class security
  • Collaborate with clients easily
  • Access documents and emails from anywhere and at any time

Comnexa: Salesforce and CRM and Smartsheet integration/api’s

DocsCorp: Document productivity and compliance

iManage: Document Management and Security

Kop: Project Management and Training

MetaphorIT: Microsoft, Citrix, Remote working, Cloud Virtualisation, Cyber Security

Puritas: Compliance, Fund Administration and Bank Payments

Smartsheet: Collaboration

Snap: Marketing and Website design

Places are limited and will be offered on a first come, first served basis.

To register click on the following link: Kop Partner Showcase – Enabling Business Outcomes

Should you not be able to attend but require any further information on any of the above services, applications or specific partners please email us direct: mike.thorpe@kopconsultancy.com

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Mike June 3, 2021 0 Comments