Initiatives / CR Management - Whizible : Integration Tool for Service Organisations.

Whizible® Initiatives is the platform for documenting, sharing, evaluation and selection of the innovative initiatives, CRs to existing projects and potential projects by of the growth-oriented organizations and helps* converting them into executable projects and monitoring these.

The leadership teams of organizations focused on growing their businesses have a challenging job of selecting the right innovative ideas, CRs to existing projects and turn them into successful business outcomes.

Whizible® Initiatives provides an intelligent framework to solve questions such as:

• Which initiatives / CRs should be prioritized and why?

• How do we differentiate between strategic and operational initiatives?

• How much money has already been spent on this initiative / CRs? What is the development stage?

• What happened to the program that CEO / CTO / CIO sponsored?

• How do I give visibility into execution progress of initiatives to users of my business?

• Didn’t we propose a similar initiative/ CR earlier and discussed it a lot before finally dropping it?

The way information about a corporate initiative or CR is captured and communicated throughout the approval process is a challenge for organizations. Critical information is often missing at the time of decision making. This can cause strategic mix-up, where projects with questionable business value can get approved, while “the next big move”, might get delayed or shelved altogether.

Whizible® Initiatives provides an optimal web-based platform for standardization, repository of relevant documents and artefacts, stage gate approval workflow and conversion* of approved workflows into programs and projects. Whizible® Initiatives adopts the stage gate methodology that facilitates multiple and extensive reviews of innovation initiatives / CRs before approving them as projects.

Conceptual framework supporting Whizible® initiatives

Risk vs costs through the lifecycle of new initiatives / CRs.

• As the clarity improves during the execution process, the risks mitigate but costs accrue

• When the number of initiatives is large, it becomes difficult to prioritize initiatives that are aligned with the organization’s business goals

• The risks at this stage are high and closing the right initiatives to follow through and convert into program is vital to contain the costs that accrue in execution stage

Stage Gate methodology

Stage Gate methodology ensures that the information captured and validated at every stage of the evaluation. It is vital that there is an online repository of all the initiatives/ CRs and related documents, which can be reviewed through checklists at appropriate stages.

Some Example of Stage Gate methodology:

• Concept -> pre- feasibility -> Feasibility -> Implementation -> launch -> review

• Initiation -> Initial assessment->Definition-> Execution->Completion

• Ideation-> Preliminary Investigation->Business case->Realization->Commissioning>Handover acceptance

• Idea generation->Research->Authorization-> Production-> Commissioning>Completion

• Request for enhancement / CR ->PMO lead review->stakeholder review-> stakeholder approval->Directors review->Team review->Assign Project Code

The following diagram depicts different stage gates that an initiative progresses.

Whizible® initiatives provides an optimal platform for standardization, Stage gate approval workflow and conversion* of approved workflow into programs and projects. Whizible® initiatives adopts the Stage Gate Methodology and facilitates multiple and extensive review of any project.

Standardize Initiatives/ CR Templates

Whizible® initiatives provides intuitive, easy to complete templates to capture all of the relevant information about an initiative. It also routes this to stakeholders to facilitate uniform communication and gain common understanding of the importance.

The information is also dependent on all the stages. Any supporting documentation such as business cases, design specification and SWOT analyses can also be attached to the initiatives.

Create Repository of Artefacts / Documents

All relevant documents and artefacts are stored along with the CR / Initiative so that these are always available in the repository.

Categorize and Prioritize Initiatives/ CRs:

Initiatives/ CRs can also be categorized using any number of different criteria, to enable an appropriate filtering and management of the portfolio of initiatives. Prioritization is done based on the criteria important to the organization.

The stage gate process ensures that the initiatives / CRs progress through the various phases of decision points in a planned manner based on defined workflow.

Dashboard to Monitor Initiative:

Whizible® initiatives uses Dashboard to graphically show all the CRs, projects or initiatives in a portfolio in a variety of ways.

This helps senior management to evaluate, approve or reject, authorize programs within the product itself.

The execution status of the programs* can also be monitored through Dashboard.

While Whizible® initiatives allows organizations to capture, prioritize and choose the right initiatives, Whizible® Project

Execution Management allows them to manage the complete lifecycle of execution of program and projects.

Whizible® PEM software suite provides modular solution for all project management processes such as

Project Planning, WBS and Processes, Resource scheduling and management, Timesheet and invoicing management, a Helpdesk for issues management for project teams and customers, business intelligence Dashboard, Custom metrics and project closure and knowledge management.

Whizible® Initiatives and PEM together, provide a seamless monitoring of employee driven organizational initiatives as well as the up-to-date execution status to the management.

*Whizible® Initiatives and Whizible® PEM (Project Execution Management) are licensed separately, as well as a bundle. The visibility into execution status needs integration of both the products.