| | 19CIOReviewNOVEMBER 2021tenets as the `as a service' model, 5 Points facilitates agile, quick-to-implement project management services that address the challenges of project delivery and procurement policies. In other words, 5 Points offers a compelling alternative to the traditional contract project management model. Taraboletti remarks, "We not only equip clients with a dedicated project manager, but also a project management portal and project administrators--all for the same cost that they might pay for a much less experienced body-shop project manager."Further elucidating on the aspect, Taraboletti adds, "Even with a global pandemic on the backdrop, our clients have seen little impact on their ongoing projects. Led by our experienced project managers and equipped with our tools, practices, performance dashboards, and controls, each project is completed successfully with minimal impact to timelines or budget." Clients can leverage the portal to manage schedules, RAID logs, documents, and performance. It also comes with collaboration tools for conferencing and a virtual breakroom. Through the virtual breakroom feature, 5 Points acknowledges the impact that virtual work situations have had on teamwork, collaboration, and working relationships. The virtual breakroom facilitates informal interactions, which lead to the development of working relationships and highly effective teams. "The portal provides our project managers with the critical, proven dashboard-style red-yellow-green (RYG) scoring, which immediately surfaces the issues facing a project. With this information in hand, our PMs can quickly direct their attention and energy toward mitigating issues," affirms Taraboletti. This structured approach not only allows 5 Points to efficiently manage clients' projects but also naturally results in the alignment of the project team to a common structure, approach, and framework.5 Points is built on the belief that optimal results can only be achieved when working collaboratively, in true partnership, with clients. Typically, clients approach the team to seek assistance in recovering a troubled project. In a good number of cases, their projects have reached that position under the leadership of underqualified project managers as a consequence of well-intended but flawed procurement policies. "We do not just throw in the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK) at the problem but assess the client's situation and select the right set of tools and practices to divert the project to a positive trajectory. We then apply additional management tools and techniques to assure ongoing management through the project completion," says Taraboletti.Delving deeper into the patterns in project management, it is evident that effectively managing complex, enterprise-level, highly visible projects like ERP implementation is crucial. In such an engagement, 5 Points spearheads the project and lays a solid foundation. Building on it, the team strives to align with the traditional measures of budget, schedule, and scope. One particular instance brought to light a recurring challenge to both 5 Point Consulting's as well as their project's success. At the time, the team was working with a pharmaceutical firm on a global ERP implementation. Although the major part of the project was running well, alongside were smaller, dependent tasks such as the deployment of ruggedized handhelds within a warehouse and expansion of a wireless network, all of which were neglected. "On a three-person wireless LAN implementation project, if you are late by three months, the cost overruns are nominal but when that same three month delay results in a delay for 300-person project, the ripple effect is significant," avers Taraboletti. It is at this juncture that 5 Points saw the immense opportunity PMaaS holds to quickly, easily, and cost-effectively support the smaller projects and ensure that their delays do not impact the larger projects.Having established itself as an innovator in the retail, utility, and automotive sectors, 5 Points' veteran team is now steering toward expanding its base to a new sector. "One of our goals over the next few months is to balance our overall portfolio so that we aren't subjected to the ebb and flow of the economy," states Taraboletti. Empowered by decades of project management experience and a relentless drive to boost customer success, 5 Points is undoubtedly transforming project management into an agile, scalable service model. David Taraboletti
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