Written by: Sateria H. Tinsley, PMP, SSGB
The Dunwoody Dinner Meeting was held on June 9, 2014 at The Westin Perimeter North. The PMI Atlanta dinner meeting is the project management event of the month. Featuring a 30 minute general networking, table power networking, a dynamic presentation, and delicious dinner. This month the keynote presentation consisted of announcing the 2014 PMI Atlanta Chapter Project of the Year Awards.
Paulette Strain, VP of Programs, acknowledged our judges:
o Arthur (Art) L. Brown, President – LeScot Enterprises, Inc.
o David V. Tennant, PE, PMP, Windward Consulting Group, LLC
o Colonel Richard L. Teters, Jr., Retired – U.S. Army and Professor – Kennesaw State University
Each winning project manager presented a summary of their project, including successes, lessons learned, and obstacles they encountered. Congratulations to our winners and honorable mentions!
1st Place
The Coca-Cola Company--McDash-Business Intelligence Dashboard for McDonald’s Division at The Coca-Cola Company
Manufacturing
2nd Place
Manheim Technology/Cox Enterprise-- Demand Management Implementation Project
Service
3rd Place
The Home Depot-- Blackberry Refresh Project
Retail
Honorable Mentions
• The City of Atlanta – IT Department – ATL 311 Program
• Kone, Inc. – Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport – Vertical Transportation Upgrades, Phases 1 and 2 (KONE EcoMod on 16 Escalators and 2 Moving Walks) Project
• Northrop Grumman/CDC – Chronic Disease Management Information Systems (CMIS) Project
• The Rockdale County MIS Department – Rockdale County MIS ITIL Implementation – Phase I Project
• Genuine Parts Corporation (NAPA and GPC) Catalog Operations – The NAPA Parts Pro SE Project
Be sure to join us in July for our “Career Month”! Included is our Recruiters Panel Dinner Meeting on July 14th at the Westin Perimeter North, Full Day Seminar – "Managing Your Career for Project Managers" by Dr. James T. Brown, PE, PMP, CSP, and our Second Quarterly Networking Social on July 15th at The Georgian Club in Cobb County. More information can be found at pmiatlanta.org.
We thank Systems Evolution, Inc. for sponsoring this month’s dinner meeting!
Systems Evolution, Inc Founder's Message/Company Background
In 1992 I was at a crossroad in my career. I was either going to get out of the consulting business altogether, or I was going to find a consulting firm that more adequately reflected what I wanted to be a part of and my values. As I thought about what I liked, and didn’t like about consulting, it came down to three core issues:
Consistency – What would it take to deliver consistency that our clients can count on, so that they know what to expect each and every time they do business with us. No A team and B team, and no green beans. Just seasoned professionals with similar values, talents, and motivation would work with the clients.
Commitment – How does an organization win the loyalty of its consultants so the client does not have to worry about turnover, or losing critical resources half way through a project? How do we ensure that we hire professionals interested in a career in consulting, as opposed to a consulting job being used as a stepping stone in their career? Then, how do we give those professionals, sufficient reasons to choose to spend the remainder of their professional career with us.
Collaboration – How do we provide the culture, incentives, and tools so individual consultants can deliver the collective value of the entire organization – so that we are not wasting precious time and money reinventing wheels or solving problems that have already been solved? If our consultants can spend their time tailoring proven solutions and best practices to their clients’ unique circumstances, the clients will receive greater value and the consultants will continually grow.
These are some pretty interesting issues! But it was fairly easy to boil them down into four Core Values. However, the devil is always in the details, and it is not easy to remain true to values and principles while the market is constantly changing.
Recently SEI celebrated its 20th anniversary. We have prospered through multiple economic boom and bust cycles and constant change in the market and competitive landscape. Our tactics, techniques and tools have changed to deal with changing opportunities and challenges, but our core values and guiding principles have not.