Here at #IBMConnect 2016, the vision for social project management is growing. Companies who have made investments in enterprise social platforms see that their key value generating activities – namely projects – need to be integrated with that platform. Disconnected Microsoft Project Server environments create silos of collaboration, silos of connection, silos of activity.

ProjExec changes this – instead of silos, projects are integrated into the social fabric of the organization. Key resources for projects can be identified seamlessly, project documentation is version controlled, and can be directly associated with project tasks, issues, and changes. Simply, project management becomes part of the ocean of social interaction within the organization, instead of a land of 10,000 lakes (sorry Minnesota, you know we love you 🙂 ).

Catch the vision for Social Project Management that Trilog Group has been promoting for more than a decade. Technology and platforms have now caught up with the vision, and companies are reaping the benefits. Yours can too.

Today marks the kick off of #IBMConnect 2016 (i.e., IBM ConnectEd, i.e., Lotusphere). I’m glad to be back, even though the Hilton (as nice as it is) feels so foreign. This year’s tag line is “Make Every Moment Count”. This lends itself to imagery of taking action, moving quickly from one achievement to another, and getting things done (whether personally or professionally). IBM Connections’ promise is exactly that – to make every moment count, by linking together the members of an organization and its partner ecosystem into a community that has the available information and communication infrastructure available to make make decisions and mobilize forces for action.

For all of its focus on delivering services, IBM Connections is something that IBM makes that seems to work rather well – when companies can achieve high levels of use of the product. How is this done? Hopefully we’ll hear interesting cases this week of how companies are doing it, but I believe that it still comes down to getting business processes embedded into the platform first, which build organic additional engagement in the platform. If people don’t have a reason to access the platform to get their job done, if users’ incentives are not aligned with platform use, then little value will be attained from platform adoption – no matter how much publicity and “coolness” companies try to wrap around it.

Which brings me to ProjExec. Trilog has been embedded in the IBM social software stack for almost 20 years, first with Flowbuilder, then XSP, and now, for over a decade with ProjExec. ProjExec embeds the business process of project management into the social fabric of IBM Connections – allowing companies to achieve social project management. Social project management is fully social, and fully project management. All of your rigorous project management requirements are included, but made social through tight integration with the IBM Connections platform. Task late? Start a discussion about the task – right from the Gantt chart? Issue pop out of nowhere? Workflow the triage and resolution through your team – with every discussion, every file, every comment, every hour charged, preserved and linked to the associated project tasks. Every team member can see what’s going on, and bring skills to bear – even if the project manager doesn’t know that they have the skills.

So, ProjExec helps you to make every moment count. Check it out at Booth 335 at #IBMConnect 2016. See you there!

Peter Taylor (a.k.a. The Lazy PM) has a new book out, entitled “The Social Project Manager” is ready to be ordered at amazon.com.  In this book, for which Trilog Group contributed a chapter, Peter articulates his core definition of social project management:

“Social project management is based upon the philosophy that, in order to be successful, most projects need the structure of a project plan together with suitable governance but with the value-add of the associated emergent collaboration and coordination tools and techniques.”

This is the same vision that Trilog Group has articulated for years, and has delivered through ProjExec. We highly recommend the book as a way to understand the value and vision of social project management!

For more information about ProjExec, or to get a free trial, click here!