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Success Stories |
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Simplified powerful project
management technique and managed its integration into a new software product (Indigo Technologies). ParaTeck
discovered a significant untapped opportunity for a project management tool
that could provide an instant snapshot of project health and an early warning
of potential issues developing within projects. ParaTeck decided to approach
a Toronto-based software company which it felt had the best product on the
market and a superior management team. The company agreed to engage ParaTeck
to develop the software specifications and oversee their integration into the
next release of its product. ParaTeck provided designs for the related
features, tested them and developed a marketing plan. The product was
launched with the help of ParaTeck's marketing and sales expertise and has
demonstrated steady sales growth since. |
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Developed and implemented a support
program for software company; achieved dramatic increase in revenue within
first four months (Indigo
Technologies). Indigo
Technologies needed help introducing a subscription support program to its
existing customer base. The challenge was to develop and manage the
communication campaign that would involve persuading customers, most of whom
had been enjoying free support for years, to start paying for it. Indigo
asked ParaTeck to develop a plan. ParaTeck responded by designing a process
complete with flow charts, communication templates and scripts and prepared a
pilot program to test the process on a small number of customers. ParaTeck
implemented the test and the results significantly exceeded expectations so
ParaTeck rolled it out on behalf of Indigo to all customers. The support
campaign generated immediate sales results and achieved all revenue targets,
providing a significant revenue contribution to the company's overall sales
within the first four months. |
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Reversed declining sales by developing
process, concept and business plan for largest provincial lottery corporation
in Canada (Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corp). A provincial lottery corporation was in need of new products
to reverse declining sales. Shawn was asked to provide three alternative new
product ideas. The organization had no process to generate or select ideas
and there was no method to measure return on investment for proposed ideas.
In a six month period, Shawn accomplished the following: |
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The
product with the highest forecasted return on investment was subsequently
launched and has been generating incremental profit since 2000. |
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Enabled creation of revenue generating
online selling technology by defining mining company's business operations (GeoCommerce). A systems integrator was helping a startup company develop an
online marketplace for the mining industry. As manager of professional
services for the systems integrator, Shawn was called upon to assess why the
project team was struggling to develop the technology that was to enable
sales of mining products over the internet. After observing several meetings
and asking pointed questions, Shawn learned that this startup company was
planning to define the company operations after building the technology.
Shawn persuaded the client that the team would continue to struggle until the
business operations were defined. The client then hired him to identify and
document its business operations. He obtained executive sign-off of his
"blueprint" and a new project phase was initiated. The team
developed and implemented the technology within time and budget. |
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Defined business operations to enable
firm to automate its service offerings (Pi Media). A printing organization wanted to re-brand its core service
offerings. The company operations were being supported by over 11 independent
legacy systems across two recently merged companies. For core services to be
offered under a single brand, these systems had to be integrated. Shawn was
engaged to develop the plan. After conducting several key work sessions with
executives, operational managers and technical staff, Shawn defined and
documented the new business operations that would be supported by these
systems. He then coordinated the drafting of and co-wrote a comprehensive
solution describing changes to current business operations, work breakdown,
costs and timing. This plan was used by the organization to integrate the
systems, reduce operating costs and improve cycle time. |
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Implemented
project management processes during explosive growth to expand firm's delivery
capacity and enable doubling of sales (Watco Web
Waves). A system integrator was experiencing explosive growth during
the 1998-2000 tech boom. In response to market demand, it undertook a major
project well beyond the scale of its average engagement. A number of
opportunities of similar scale were presenting themselves and the firm wanted
to be able to pursue them. The firm hired Shawn to manage these engagements
and implement processes that would enable ongoing capability to handle larger
scale projects. After analyzing the firm's culture and approach and then
managing a couple of larger scale projects, Shawn adapted and documented
Project Managment Institute based processes to fit the company culture and
trained the staff to follow them. His approach expanded the firm's delivery
capacity while sales doubled, and was used as a selling tool to successfully
win new opportunities after the boom. |
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Developed and implemented performance
measurement processes to facilitate launch of revenue-dependent software
projects (Maritz
Canada). A training
firm managing over 20 web systems enhancement projects to support sales
training programs for one of its clients was unable to provide adequate progress
reports. Upon being hired, Shawn discovered that documented baselines did not
exist, scope changes were occurring regularly based solely on verbal
agreements and the technical team was recording billable time against
projects already completed. It took just over a month for Shawn to introduce
and train the team on several new quoting, scheduling, time keeping, status
reporting and scope management processes. These new processes enabled the
organization to launch a number of previously floundering projects, including
a delayed major system, and to report meaningful progress on future projects. |
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Implemented scheduling and monitoring
procedures to ensure time-sensitive launch of key government website (Howe Brand Communications). An electronic branding and communications firm was asked by
the Canadian Government to create and launch Heritage Canada's first ever
website. The website project was part of a program to promote accessibility,
knowledge and research of Canadian Heritage. The firm needed a tight process
to meet the Canadian Government's aggressive launch date and coordinate the
many external vendors. ParaTeck was hired to create a set of procedures to
schedule, monitor and report on project progress. After developing the
procedures, ParaTeck introduced them to the team and they were immediately
adopted. ParaTeck was retained to manage schedule updates and progress
reporting until the successful on-schedule launch of the site. |
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Improved client response to sales
calls by streamlining firm's sales operations (Knead
Marketing). An email
marketing company needed a better way to attract and manage new clients. A conflict
was developing, between efforts to service existing customers and the effort
to attract new business. After being hired to assess the company's business
model, ParaTeck helped the firm forecast its market potential and develop a
plan to track progress. He guided the firm to develop realistic sales targets
and then provided an efficient approach, supplemented by friendly software,
to measure performance and effort against the targets. The company is now
producing better results from its sales calls and the new business
development effort complements service to current customers. |
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Recovered $400,000 by launching
project that was about to be cancelled (BeeTrade). A major professional services contractor was managing the
launch of a b2c web site that would enable several vendors to sell sports
memorabilia and rare art. The project was three months behind schedule and
30% over budget. The client was considering termination of the project prior
to launch. Conversations with the technical team and contractor indicated a
high degree of frustration and poor communication. Some probing revealed that
the project deliverables were poorly understood and the business processes to
be automated were not documented. After obtaining agreement on what the
deliverables should be, given the client 's objectives and current situation,
Shawn was able to regain credibility with the client by drafting a schedule
and budget to launch the project. By successfully managing the launch, he
enabled the site to generate revenue and salvaged $400,000 in billable time
that would have been lost had the project been cancelled. |
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Upgraded a system to 30% more
capacity (Grand &
Toy) . An office
supplies company that had pioneered one of the first eCommerce
implementations in Canada was outgrowing its award winning system.
Transaction volumes had grown to levels unsupported by the original system
design and vendors of the outdated underlying technology infrastructure were
no longer providing technical support. The company thought that it only
needed technical experts in the infrastructure technologies to upgrade the
technology platform but it agreed to engage Shawn as project manager. By
developing a comprehensive plan and closely monitoring project performance
against it, Shawn was able to identify and communicate issues that only the
client could resolve before they threatened satisfactory delivery of the
project. Diligent adherence to the planning and monitoring processes enabled
on time, within budget delivery that resulted in an upgraded system with 30%
more than expected transaction capacity improvement. |
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Sponsored by TimeTiger
software
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