Due to the large number of technologies, the growing enterprise specialization and the vast amount of information available, XXI century projects are characterized by a high complexity level. It’s quite common to find projects that integrate multiple technologies which are initially unrelated, along with information processing systems in a changing and geographically wide environment.

New needs for project managers

In this century, project managers need to plan and design solutions that meets the customers’ needs with tight deadlines and budgets, as well as being able to adapt to contingency planning. They play a crucial role and are forced to quickly learn and understand many radically different technologies, in addition to being able to explore the market looking for available solutions, comparing and choosing the best suited to the requirements in terms of functionality and costs.

Given the wealth of information available and the high level of specialization within several markets and technologies, the technological suppliers often become the project manager’s best allies. The involvement of an experienced supplier in each of the project areas, incorporates the specific “know-how” to each of the mentioned project sections. This ensures good project design, planning and implementation and also increases the chance of success.

Involved suppliers: the key to success

An involved supplier that understands the project as a whole, will provide information on its product, technology or services from an expert’s point of view, allowing a more robust design which will integrate more easily with the other project’s components. During the planning stage, the forecasts related to the different project phases are crucial, and an involved supplier will provide reliable information to estimate timing, increasing the probability of fulfilling the foreseen tasks.

During the implementation phase, the project’s high complexity increases the likelihood of unforeseen issues. The management of contingencies is essential and the supplier’s degree of involvement within the project is crucial at this stage. Generally, having a large supplier with standardized products and little flexibility, implies that the project manager must assume most of the initiative and contribute him/herself the possible solutions and alternatives which will allow reaching the project objectives.

However, collaborating with suppliers who are used to evaluating their clients’ projects as their own, by providing own resources and venturing on the project’s success, facilitates the management of these contingencies. The supplier, as an expert in certain project sections, has the knowledge to analyze and study the possible technical contingencies, as well as accelerating the time in which they can be carried out, by changing its components and/or providing possible alternatives. In the management planning, an involved supplier will find ways to accelerate its processes to adjust itself as much as possible to planning changes that may have been put into place.

For example, an involved manufacturer would be one that, in addition to incorporating all the processes that optimize its devices’ quality and price, also introduces services into its added value chain. These facilitate their products development and can range from guarantees and maintenance to facilitate project management, to having consulting departments and technical advice centers, to accompany their client in the project’s first stages.

Teldat, with 30 years’ experience in projects, is a flexible company that has always been able to understand their customers, getting involved as a supplier, seeing their customer success as its own. That nature has been one of the founding points of a successful company developed around its customers, that has premise not only to provide innovative and quality technology, but also the whole project support, and ultimately the necessary involvement to ensure their customers’ project success.