SAPO close-out

We are proud to have successfully rolled out VizPro® at the South African Post Office, the 2008 South African Company of the Year. We closed the project on 9 October, following a seven month project comprising more than 300 work-sessions in which key processes were mapped into improved practices in support of SAPO’s strategic goals. We deployed four VizPro® teams during the project and engaged with over 250 workshop participants during the project. We delivered 184 core processes, each of which was mapped interactively with SAPO staff.

The project brought about:

	Interactive, fun and high energy workshops
	Good to excellent role player participation, resulting in ownership and buy-in  Teamwork whilst up-skilling staff
	Aligned business functions that are de-silo’d with duplication eliminated
	Clear roles and responsibilities
	Inefficiencies and redundancies identified and removed
	Learning & continuous improvement
	Performance defined and linked to measurement metrics.

The benefits of this project include:

	Documented processes which serve multiple purposes, including risk management, performance management and quality management
	Change and change management
	Knowledge having being captured, institutional IP retained and management of knowledge and IPenabled
	Buy-in, eliminating the need to on-sell change and new structures
	Skills transfer within and between units
	Understanding of interaction and dependencies between units
	Elimination of Role duplication
	A non-threatening environment that facilitates innovative thinking and participation by those who know what needs to be done to improve the business processes
	Defined job profiles which are linked to steps in processes
	An organogram informed by what (processes) the business needs to deliver on strategically.

For more details on this project, see the case study.
 

TenStep conference in Turkey

Michélle presented details of the TenStep SDO value offer to 22 Global Partners in Istanbul and demonstrated the application of the SDO tools by means of the SAPO case study. Pétanque entered into a Joint Venture with TenStep, Inc to provide add-on services, in addition to Project Management, that deliver strategy for enterprises. The TenStep SDO JV was formally endorsed by the Global Partners as a Practice Group within the TenStep Partner Structure. There are over 40 TenStep offices globally. Read more about the TenStep Strategy Delivery Office at www.tenstepsdo.com .
 

Every day project management

by MJ Fick

It struck me recently that there are quite a number of P-words in the Pétanque business – Process, Business Planning, Project Management, Program Management, Project Office Management! These disciplines are closely related but Process is generally more thought of to belong in the business space, where the Project Management disciplines are associated with formal projects in IT or Construction.

This is not quite true. Our process management methodology VizPro® ties in very well with all the project management disciplines. The PMBok® defines no less than 46 processes that are critical to the successful management of projects. Project Managers need to focus on the careful execution of processes and ensure that the project team and other stakeholders understand and follow them.

Conversely, it is also true that project management disciplines and knowledge come in very handy if business in general adopt a “projectised” approach to smaller business initiatives which are in fact projects - like a marketing campaign, organising a conference, implementing a business change initiative, etc. For this purpose, TenStep Inc -our joint venture partner- developed a 1 day course in Project Management for business people. It provides business people with essential project management skills to ensure improved success of the many “informal” business projects. Feel free to contact us at info@petanque-c.com for more information on this course, or contact TenStep directly at TSinfo@TenStepSA.com.

Welcome

We look forward to start working with ArcelorMittal this month.

Increase your productivity

With the holidays coming up many of us have to rush to get work done before taking leave. A good way to increase productivity and tick tasks off your To-Do list is to schedule a Project-Kill Day. Scott Young explains how in his article Triple Your Productivity Tomorrow. This is what you should do to get ready for the holidays:

	Wake Up Early
	Exercise in the morning
	Create a Fixed To-Do List
	Isolate Yourself
	Cut the Cables
	Big Rocks First
	No Mid-Task Breaks
	Break Minimally
	Batch Small Tasks Together
	Walk Quickly
	Build Up Speed
	Do Something Important, Not Just Urgent

Pétanque wishes you a productive November and happy holidays in December!

VizPro® video

If you haven’t seen VizPro® in action yet, we invite you to watch the VizPro® video at our website. It shows you how we work, and how VizPro® is applied to map business processes in an interactive workshop format. You don’t need a media player, you can just view the video here.
 

Conference cancelled

IQPC’s Performance Management conference that we announced in the previous edition of En Route, has been cancelled since IQPC has closed its South African offices. There is a likelihood of this conference taking place in 2009 with another conference organiser, we will keep you posted.

Happy Birthday Two Oceans Aquarium!

Our CSI partner, the Aquarium, has 'come of age' and turns 13 years old this year! They celebrate their birthday on 13 November 2008 and to commemorate the momentous occasion, all children under the age of thirteen will be given free access to the Aquarium on Saturday 15 November 2008.

In addition, people who join as annual members of the Aquarium on this day will receive a thirteen-month membership (one month free). This gesture is in appreciation and gratitude to the millions of visitors who have visited the Aquarium over the past thirteen years and in particular to all Capetonians for their past and continued support.

Offices

The Colosseum
Foyer 3, 1st Floor
Century Way
Century City
Cape Town
Tel: 0861 PTNQUE (786783)
(international: +27 21 5260473)

You can download the directions from our website.