Adjusting Resources Quickly In Times Of Crisis

The New Reality 

There aren't enough hours in the day, dollars in the bank, or people on the floor these days. You've been the lucky one designated to keep things going – how do you even go about determining the best path forward?

We've all had to adapt quickly to our changing environments on a personal level, creating a new routine, identifying critical needs (Toilet Paper!!) for our household and creating plans to use limited time and resources to meet them.   

In the context of our organization, many of the same ideas need to be considered and rapidly applied as well. Basic needs like frozen cookie dough and toilet paper are exchanged for Weapons Systems and IT Development Projects. Just like our families are struggling to determine how to get it all done in these crazy times, organizations also need to create new routines of communication, collaboration, and coordination within their planning processes.  

The virtual world has become the new norm, disrupting traditional ways of “getting things done”.  For the last month, we all have been working from home. We've lost the in-person interaction of our peers sitting around a table and deciding which projects to select. The water cooler chats don't happen, and the simple check-ins aren't as frequent. These small interactions can reassure that everyone is on the same page. Now, you're relying that your teammate saw your last email, made that final change, and has sent you the latest version of your spreadsheet. Rather than sifting through spreadsheets to manually balance your budgets or critical needs we understand now more than ever that technology is our friend!  

One of the many things that Decision Lens does well is address this problem and we have solutions and teams that are ready to assist you in your planning process. 

Communication 

Having one place to meet and communicate is the first step towards success while working virtually. Decision Lens enables users to easily be added by their email address to the portfolio that houses all data and scenarios in one centralized location. 

An added level of transparency is easily obtainable through project-level commenting and audit logs so the continuous conversation is recorded within the application. Without a limit on the number of users and their individual freedom to experiment with what-if plans, we provide one platform where the communication of plans can come together as one. 

Collaboration 

With the potential of multiple people having the

data at their fingertips, user-level permissions regulate the level of engagement each user has in the portfolio. 

Editor roles restrict which users can edit the data for your projects. As new members of the portfolio are added owners, editors, and viewers can contribute through these different levels of engagement. With everything living online, we can ensure that each member on the portfolio is only able to edit what they are assigned to edit!  

Coordination 

In a time of crisis, quickly developing defensible what-if scenarios that capture the impacts of project value, budget constraints, all while mitigating risk and allo

cating resources across ALL investment types may be easier said than done, right? Luckily, technology and algorithms are on our side. 

WHAT projects should I execute? – Here at Decision Lens, creating one central source of data truth is our first key to success. Dynamically adjusting your project list and budget amounts is a continuous process. When the list of must-funds has been handed to you, we can quickly assess trade-offs and with added transparency in your portfolio. Within this setup we must build a consistent decision-making framework. Decision Lens algorithms run hundreds of thousands of combinations to capture the optimal Value, Cost, Risk and Balance in your portfolio to find the best combination of projects in your backlog.  

WHEN can I execute my projects? – Next, we must develop your spend-plan to determine when we can execute our projects with our remaining resources. Decision Lens’ algorithms detect budget over constraints once dollars are being allocated to each project. Algorithmically, we can answer when is the soonest available time to execute projects and actively limit the disruption in your portfolio.   

Lastly, within our framework we can establish several defensible scenarios to compare all trade-offs in your portfolio and determine how to optimally plan and execute the highest priority projects during your planning ho

rizon. Once our framework has been developed, our planning solution can provide multiple scenarios with a simple click of a button! 

Conclusion 

Life as we know it is changing for us all, both personally and in the way we perform our work duties. In these challenging times rest assured, Decision Lens is built for these times and we have a team ready to bring you solutions.  

Want to hear more? Check out our video as we continued this discussion live!