|
| |
| |
| |
June 2013: Volume 3, Number 6
| |
In This Issue
 BeMo to offer Dedicated Hosted Project Server on Microsoft Azure
 BeMo has deployed Project Server solutions on Microsoft Azure. These solutions are currently in Beta test mode and general availability is expected by end of June 2013. The BeMo Azure solutions will be available in any of the Azure datacenter including: US North Central - Chicago, IL; US South Central - San Antonio, TX; West Europe - Amsterdam; North Europe - Dublin; East Asia - Hong Kong and South-East Asia - Singapore. BeMo is very excited to be able to offer Microsoft Project Server, on Microsoft Azure, fully managed by the BeMo Project Server technical experts with 24/7 monitoring and support. Detailed information concerning options, availability, and prices to be announced shortly - Stay tuned!
Why I Decided to be a Scheduling Specialist by Cindy Lewis
Should You Strive to Be the Expert in Everything in Your Field? This is a question that took me years to answer for myself and ironically the answer came to light through a personal experience.
Years ago my ear, nose, and throat doctor was evaluating me for a second surgery to correct a new breathing problem I was having. After having such great success with my last surgery, I put all of my faith in him to perform my next operation. What happened after I left the office was something I was not expecting. After some time had passed, my doctor called me personally to tell me that he felt my current issue with my nose is something that he can do; however, he really felt I needed an expert who specialized in external facial surgery to correct my current problem. His expertise was more internal. I have extreme respect for my doctor who knew where his expertise was and was not. He even recommended a surgeon who he already personally evaluated based on the work done on his own son after a dog bite to the face. My doctor did not just send me off on my own, he personally explained the situation to my new doctor and even wrote a letter on my behalf to my insurance company to negotiate for reimbursement. I felt like I was working with a team not just one person to achieve the best results I could get.
Over the years, I have personally applied this approach to what I do with customers. I will let them know what I am an expert at and where I am not. While it might seem like everyone can be an expert at everything within their field, that just isn't practical. What works instead for me is to decide what my specialty is and partner with someone else who has a complementary specialty. I find that this approach works well for several reasons:
- Customers appreciate my honesty
- I can recommend a best of the best comprehensive solution
- I can eliminate things from my head that I do not want to specialize in and leave that knowledge to true experts
BeMo is a great example of a company that I partner with for these reasons. Their expertise is hosting and that is what they focus on. I realize James at BeMo has told me the same thing over and over again but my brain doesn't need to master hosting because BeMo has it covered. Just like my company can count on me to know all the ins and outs of scheduling with Microsoft Project/Project Server/Project Online and tackle every situation customers come up with and provide a best practices solution. Since I have seen first hand the happy customers that BeMo provides, I can continue to recommend them for companies choosing the freedom of hosting.
Just like in my personal story above, I could perform the role of two different doctors by configuring a hosted Project Server solution, but there is no way for me to be an expert at two things which require years of practice, experience and constantly pushing the limits of knowledge to stay on top of the latest updates. Instead, I choose to be a scheduling expert and I hope you will respect me for that decision.
 Cindy Lewis, PMP, PMI-SP, MCTS, MCT, MVP Director of Knowledge Management/Senior Project Advisor at Advisicon
You can reach Cindy at Cindy.Lewis@Advisicon.com
For information on Advisicon visit: www.advisicon.com
BeMo Partner Update
BeMo is excited to announce that we added three new consulting and training partners during May.
Knowldegewoods (www.knowledgewoods.in) are an ISO 9001: 2008 certified organization offer Training, Consulting and Support services on a global platform. Being a leading PMI® Global R.E.P., ASQ R.S.P and a Microsoft® Learning Partner, we help people succeed in their professional life with Internationally Recognized Certifications such as PMP, ITIL, Six Sigma, Microsoft SharePoint, Dynamics CRM, etc.
Headquartered in Noida, India, we hone the skills of professionals through IT, Project / Program / Portfolio Management, Quality Management, Customer Relationship Management, and in many more dimensions.
Since our start in 2007, we have successfully worked with over 500 corporate clients and over 15,000+ candidates for their professional certification and/or competency development initiatives.
Over the years, we have undertaken key assignments for over 150 clients in Five (5) Countries serving 55+ industries providing them with the results they want.
We are committed to facilitate companies in the task of developing and maintaining competitive advantage, ensuring growth and survival in the competitive business scenarios, through the design and delivery of the highest standards of professional training, consulting and support services.
Contact: Mohd Tasleem
tasleem@knowledgewoods.in
Phone: +91 120 4060 100
Pcubed (www.pcubed.com) is a global leader in delivering critical programs and portfolios for major organizations across industries. Part of the Pcubed success story is our deep understanding and experience with Microsoft Project Server through delivery of thousands of implementations globally over the last 10 years. Pcubed is a key Microsoft Gold partner, with coveted "Gold-level" competency in PPM (Project Server software) and a seat on the Microsoft product advisory council. A consulting partnership with Pcubed not only delivers a software solution based on our unique IP and lessons-learned, it provides real business outcomes by improving the structure of portfolios, driving programs, and developing project management capability in our client.
Contact: Richard Greenall Richard.Greenall@Pcubed.com
Phone: +61 1300 791 530
Phenom (www.phenomus.com) is a tool-agnostic, full-service Project Portfolio Management (PPM) consulting company. We focus on the process, technology and people - not the sale of a product. Our motivation is that whatever tool is selected and implemented meets and exceeds our customers' expectations. We assist our customers in selecting, designing, implementing and teaching different PPM solutions. We create Technology and Strategic Roadmaps to align their business goals and objectives. We then assist them in implementation throughout the organization. We assist with tool selection, designing and deploying Business Intelligence and Business Scorecard solutions, defining PMO and project management/portfolio management processes, as well as implementing Earned Value Analysis and Statistical Process Control. PHENOM has experience in deploying more than 300 PPM solutions, and with our best-of-breed methodology, we ensure success to each and every customer, whether you're just starting out and don't know where to turn or they want to take their current implementation to the next level.
Contact: Michelle Thomas
Michelle.Thomas@phenomus.com
Phone: +1 855 318 6327 ext. 702
Finally, everyone at BeMo wants to extend our best wishes to UMT Consulting for being named Microsoft 2013 Project and Portfolio Partner of the Year. For more details visit http://umtblog.com/2013/06/04/umt-named-microsoft-2013-project-portfolio-management-partner-of-the-year. UMT Consulting (www.umt.com) is one of BeMo oldest partners.
| |
BeMo 2013 or 2010 Content Packs same low price of $59 per month for either
|
The BeMo 2010 and 2013 Content Packs were developed to provide hands-on capability for the training of project managers, PWA users, PMO staff, anyone who will be working with Project Professional 2010 or Project Professional 2013 or Project Pro for Office 365 connected to Project Server 2010 or 2013 in an enterprise-wide project management environment. It can also be used as a demonstration framework to illustrate the features and functions of Project Server 20130 or 2010.
Each image has a 120 + Enterprise Resource Pool, over 20 projects and proposals, including a two comprehensive programs, all with customized Project Sites. A comprehensive cost-based Portfolio Analysis strategy. It also includes customized BI (Business Intelligence).
Most importantly the BeMo Content Packs can be accessed using your IE and your own copy of Project Professional 2010 / 2013 / Project Pro for Office 365 there is no virtualization software or special hardware required.
|
For more information visit www.bemopro.com
| |
What is Disaster Recovery or DR and How Does it Work?
This the first in a series of articles that will explore various aspects of the world of hosted Project Server.
At its core DR is a process that allows BeMo to restore our client's data to a given point in time after a disaster has occurred. To be able to execute a DR plan first requires that we have the required data. Every 2-days, we create recovery points of all system files for each servers that is part of a client's environment. Once every 24 hours, we take a full backup of all system files including the SQL databases for each server that is part of a client environment. We retain the recovery point data for 15 days and the full SQL backups for 28 days.
Bottom Line: If there should ever be the requirement to perform a recover, the most data that any client could lose would be what they had processed during the past 24 hr. This could only occur if the disaster occurred at the end of the 24-hour back-up cycle. All backup data is safeguarded within our data centers at all times.
The other aspect of DR is the recovery / restore process. The BeMo plan allows bare metal recovery and consists of the following:
- If possible a backup of the databases is performed - reduce the amount of client data that will be lost.
- Repair the faulty original hardware, if that could be accomplished within 4 hours.
- Prepare one of our standby server to become the target for recovery.
From this point on, we would perform a bare metal recovery either on the original hardware or on one of our standby server using the most up-to-date data that was available.
Last point: If the original hardware could not be used for recovery, it would then be disposed of properly making absolutely certain that all of the clients data is removed.
Another aspect of DR is how does BeMo become aware that a potential disaster has occurred? BeMo has a highly sophisticated "Health Monitoring System." This system consists of a combination of four independent monitoring systems that work 24/7/365. Three of these systems are proprietary in nature. They are all designed to detect abnormalities in our hosting environment. This allows us to proactively detect possible failures or inform us in case of a critical event had occurred. The fourth system is a 3rd party service from Uptrends.com which monitor every clients server's uptime every 5 minutes and from over 100 locations world-wide. To give you some idea of the scale of the effort the following is a map of the BeMo datacenters:
The above has described BeMo's general approach to Disaster Recovery (DR) which is standard in BeMo Project Online - our multi-tenant offering and offered as an option in our four dedicated hosting plans. BeMo is always prepared to work with clients that have special requirements to develop and implement a Disaster Recovery (DR) plan that meets their unique needs. This includes offering our dedicated host clients the option of a 99.95% uptime guarantee - all clients automatically get a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
Next Issue
The next BeMo News will be published in late July. We are still organizing the content.
| | | |
|
|
BeMo Corp
2360 Corporate Circle
Henderson, Nevada 89074
+1 702 529 0820 |
|
|
|
|
|
