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SCOPE iT is a software service that helps CIOs and CFOs more quickly and accurately
develop IT project plans, including cost estimates, resource requirements and project schedules.
SCOPE iT is designed to reduce the $55 billion annually wasted on failed IT projects, which represents
22% of an average organizations overall IT project budget. SCOPE iT can double an organizations
project success rate, and reduce the time it takes to develop project plans by up to 50%.
Net-net, SCOPE iT can save up to 10% or more of an organizations IT project budget.
SCOPE iT can also help organizations comply with corporate governance frameworks and initiatives,
such as Sarbanes-Oxley (sections 302, 404 & 409), ITIL, CMMI, COBIT and Six Sigma. Corporate spending
on IT governance initiatives, which IDC terms information management for compliance, is projected
to grow from $9.5 billion in 2005 to $20.5 billion in 2009, a 22% annual compounded growth rate.
SCOPE iT helps organizations properly plan and execute these initiatives, ensuring they get their
expected return on this spending. In addition, SCOPE iT improves day-to-day operational compliance
with these initiatives by improving forecast accuracy, establishing standardized planning and forecasting
processes, and creating a self-documenting audit trail.
SCOPE iT provides important up-front project planning capabilities - including estimating, forecasting,
resourcing, scoping and scheduling - that complement project management and PPM applications.
SCOPE iTs key features include its activity-based methodology, central best-practices knowledgebase and
standardized, repeatable process. In addition, SCOPE iTs intuitive, web-based service enables quick and
affordable deployments, and supports on-demand collaboration by users throughout the organization.
SCOPE iT is a web-based application consisting of three primary components:
1) a questionnaire to specify the scale and scope of a given project,
2) a central knowledgebase containing your organizations best-practices cost and schedule information, and
3) an automated, rules-based application engine that processes this information to produce project estimates,
budgets and plans. These components are available as turn-key templates optimized for a pre-defined set of
standard project types. In addition, they are easily customizable to incorporate the unique characteristics
of your specific organization and/or project. To assist in this, SCOPE iT includes a tool called 'IMPORT iT'
that enables you to easily import your organization-specific data.
- SCOPE iT Planner. Allows multiple users to develop plans and estimates across a variety of
IT project types and stages. Includes 11 pre-configured project templates.
- SCOPE iT Planner Pro. A premium version of Planner. Includes all the features of Planner,
plus advanced account and template management capabilities.
- SCOPE iT Open Planner. A free, single-user version of Planner which enables comprehensive
ballpark plans and estimates. Includes two templates: 1) Expanded Ball Park Estimator, and
2) IPv6 Readiness Assessment.
Within both the public and private sector, there is an increasing recognition of the
importance of professional project budgeting and planning tools in properly managing IT
spending, and maximizing an organizations return on its IT resources. With an increased
focus on corporate governance, as reflected in initiatives and certifications such as
Sarbanes-Oxley, ITIL, CMMI, COBIT, and Six Sigma, this importance will continue to grow
into the future.
In the U.S. alone, approximately $255 billion is spent on IT projects annually.
Unfortunately, much of this spending is wasted. On average, only 34% of an organizations
IT projects turn out successful, meaning they are completed on time and on budget.
51% are challenged, meaning they are de-featured, late, or over budget, and 15% flat out
fail, meaning they are cancelled before completion. The problem is even more acute for
large and mid-size organizations. For example, in the development of large business
applications, only 28% are completed on time. 23% are finished late, and 48% are outright
canceled. This poor project performance results in organizations losing, on average, 22%
of their IT project budget. In the U.S., this translates into $55 billion of wasted IT
spending.
Industry experts estimate that formal project cost estimation solutions can double
an organizations project success rate. Applied to the numbers above, this means that an
average organization can save approximately 11% of their annual IT project budget by implementing
a professional project planning solution. This translates into a potential cost savings of
$27.5 billion in the U.S. Unfortunately, less than 25% of IT departments use a formal project
cost estimation tool, and fewer still have established any formal process or methodology around
such a tool.
For most organizations, producing accurate IT project cost and schedule estimates is a
very time consuming and difficult process. The required information is either scattered throughout
the organization or inaccessible, and most organizations do not maintain accurate metrics about
their historical project performance. In addition, few organizations have adopted a standardized
estimating methodology which incorporates any organizational learning or best practices processes.
This leads to individual project managers using their own data and home grown methodologies, which
fail to leverage the most accurate information sources and estimating expertise within the organization.
This ad-hoc approach to project estimation and planning leads to poor project success rates and an
inefficient use of IT estimation resources.
SCOPE iT enables you to develop more accurate IT project plans, including cost estimates,
resource requirements and time schedules. SCOPE iT solutions empower organizations to significantly
reduce the over $55 billion annually wasted by poorly planned IT projects. In ROI terms, $0.22 of
every $1.00 invested in IT goes to canceled or challenged projects. The average Fortune 500 company
loses over $20 million annually. By using SCOPE iT, this same organization can save up to
$10 million or more per year.
SCOPE iT creates more accurate plans by providing a standardized, repeatable process and central
knowledgebase incorporating your organizations best-practices cost and schedule information. This
information is derived from actual historical performance and the collaboration of subject matter
experts throughout your organization. This enables SCOPE iT to leverage organizational learning,
with each new project adding to the accuracy and utility of the solution. Also, SCOPE iT is available
anytime, anywhere, to any estimator within your organization, ensuring consistency across all estimates
and plans, even for less experienced estimators.
More accurate estimates enable your organization to make better informed decisions about how to
allocate resources across potential projects, and even help you identify challenged projects before
they begin. These more accurate estimates also ensure that a project is properly resourced and planned
before it starts.
SCOPE iTs standardized, repeatable process improves compliance with governance initiatives such
as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), ITIL, CMMI, COBIT, and Six Sigma. SCOPE iTs documentation also contains a
listing of all the assumptions behind a given projects estimates and plans. This serves as an important
communication tool during all stages of a project. It helps highlight erroneous assumptions, justify
estimates to others within your organization, and provides a historical basis for governance initiatives.
One of the biggest challenges to completing projects on time and on budget is the impact of
mid-stream changes. These may include changes to project scope and requirements, available resources,
deliverable deadlines, etc. SCOPE iT helps you quickly assess the impact of any potential changes to
your projects cost, schedule, and resource requirements.
SCOPE iT also significantly reduces the time, and associated cost, of producing project estimates
and plans. SCOPE iTs central knowledgebase saves time spent searching the organization and compiling
required information from scratch. In addition, SCOPE iTs standardized process and automated, rules-based
application engine save time spent developing ad-hoc methodologies, then manually processing project-specific data.
Finally, SCOPE iT automatically produces project reports in MS Word, Excel and Project, reducing the time
required to prepare project documentation.
SCOPE iT also helps professional services organizations improve their profitability. Because SCOPE iT
enables quicker estimates, it reduces the time required to prepare accurate project proposals. In addition,
SCOPE iTs estimates are more accurate, encompassing, and actionable, helping to ensure that projects are
profitability bid. From a client perspective, companies and governmental agencies can use SCOPE iT as a tool
to evaluate professional services proposals and prepare feasibility studies.
- Improves the utilization of IT resources
- Reduces the cost and time to prepare project estimates and plans by up to 50%
- Maximizes the return (ROI) on IT spending
- Helps save up to 10% or more of an organizations IT project budget
- Improves the accountability/governance of the IT department
- Doubles an organizations project success rate
- Helps compliance with governance initiatives like SOX, ITIL, CMMI, COBIT, and Six Sigma
Net result: Improves the efficiency and accountability of IT, reducing overall costs and maximizing return on investment (ROI)
- Maximizes the return (ROI) on IT spending
- Helps save up to 10% or more of an organizations IT project budget
- Improves the utilization of IT resources
- Reduces the cost and time to prepare project estimates and plans by up to 50%
- Serves as a communication tool within the business unit
- Closes the gap between IT and business users by relating estimates to real-life activities and deliverables
Net result: Enables tighter management of IT spending, freeing up budget for other mission critical business initiatives
- Improves the accountability of the IT department
- Doubles an organizations project success rate
- Helps compliance with governance initiatives like SOX, ITIL, CMMI, COBIT, and Six Sigma
- Mitigates the risk of late, over-budget projects
- Improves the utilization of IT resources
- Reduces the cost and time to prepare project estimates and plans by up to 50%
- Serves as a communication tool for executive staff and business units
- Documents all estimation assumptions for any given project
- Closes the gap between IT and business users by relating estimates to real-life activities and deliverables
- Provides a vehicle for subject matter experts to review, modify & coach re: assumptions
Net result: Improves the efficiency and accountability of IT, maximizing the availability of funds for critical IT projects
- Reduces the time it takes to prepare estimates by up to 50%
- Frees up time to work on other important initiatives
- Doubles project success rates
- Reduces the risk of late, over budget projects
- Provides an accountability tool
- Documents initial assumptions and the impact of mid-stream changes
Net result: Increases job effectiveness by enabling quicker, more accurate, and more justifiable plans and estimates
- Reduces the time it takes to prepare project proposals by up to 50% or more
- Creates more accurate proposals, increasing per-project profitability
- Helps close deals by providing a framework for vendor/customer interaction
Net result: Improves close rates & per-project profitability
- Ensures "best people, best practices" consistency for all plans & estimates
- Benefits from a continuous improvement cycle derived from all projects
- Improves accountability & governance: SOX, ITIL, CMMI, COBIT, Six Sigma, etc.
- Ensures all planners work with best-practices data
- Enables centralized management of cost and schedule information
- Provides an important tool for project intelligence & analytics
- Customizable templates provide a quick jump-start for any project
- Produces holistic plans & estimates covering all facets and phases of a project
- Relates costs to tangible, real-world activities and deliverables
- Leverages subject-matter expertise throughout the organization
- Enables company-wide collaboration - anytime, anywhere
- Low start-up, overhead and maintenance costs
- Enables anytime, anywhere access across the organization
- Customers are always using the latest version of the application
- Security features include data encryption, SSL encryption, quadruple network
redundancy, network intrusion systems, and controlled physical data centers
- Security updates are automatically applied to the application
- User security controls access to the organizations information
- Can learn and use in under 2 hours
- Facilitates rapid deployment across the organization
- Minimizes training costs
- Using IMPORT iT, customers can easily import their organizational data into SCOPE iT
- Pre-defined templates create a starting point for virtually any IT project
- Web-based system negates hardware and software acquisition and installation
- Easily tailored to customer needs & data - not a black box
- Templates can be optimized for specific projects and/or organizations
- Customers can easily import their organizational data into SCOPE iT
- Ready-made document of project plans and underlying assumptions
- XML output enables easy exporting to project management & PPM apps
SCOPE iTs templates provide an important head-start in developing estimates, budgets
and plans for any project. Each template represents a type of project, and contains a set
of pre-configured questions and cost and process assumptions. Different templates are used
because projects can be very different. For example, a Windows XP implementation project is
very different from a .Net custom development project - each likely have different hardware,
different software, different types of people, even different systems development methodologies.
SCOPE iT includes a number of pre-configured templates for a set of typical project types.
These templates can be used as is, or easily modified to incorporate the unique characteristics
of your specific organization and/or project. In addition, new templates can easily be created
for different project types. New templates can usually be created in as little time as a couple
of days. SCOPE iT and our partners offer programs to assist in this development work.
Pre-configured templates are currently available for the following project types:
- Infrastructure Deployment
- Enterprise Infrastructure Deployment
- Microsoft Custom Development
- Oracle Custom Development
- Expanded OO Function Point Estimator
- Maintenance and Enhancements
- Requirements Based Estimates
- Use Case Based Estimates
- Ball Park Estimator
- Expanded Ball Park Estimator
- IPv6 Readiness Assessment
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