"Commercial and Business Management"

Event Report

The latest two meetings of PROMS-G held in Hewlett-Packard's premises in Bracknell were in place of the originally scheduled Autumn School. They were conceived as part of the Commercial and Business Management School which will fortunately had to be postponed.

It is best to report on both meetings as part of this entity; the first was given by Ian Henley of Contact to Contract and dealt with all the commercial aspects which a project manager must keep in mind at all times during the life of a project. Ian emphasised the need for Project Manager input from the bid stage right through to project completion. Ian illustrated his talk with a number of practical examples in which he had been involved. The thrust of his talk was to emphasise that the commercial success of your project should be very high in a project managers thinking at all times.

The second linked presentation was by Stuart Wilde or Siemens Business Services and compared and contrasted the two sides of the contract for an outsourcing exercise. He highlighted the need to set then manage expectations of the management on both the Customer and Supplier parties to the contract. The need for change control, strictly applied, would go a long way to the management of these expectations and the successful completion of the exercise. Success in these areas would lead to satisfaction on both sides with increased chances of further and renewal contracts.

Both of these presentations addressed vital but often overlooked aspects for success for Project Management and should not be missed when they form part of the Spring School to be held in Bristol next March.

The slides for this event will be made after the repeat of the school in Bristol in Spring 2004.