Digital Transformation and Project Management in Cyprus

Digital transformation refers to converting work processes, activities and business models to meet digital economy requirements until the company is a fully networked digital organisation. In this 2-day training programme, we will be covering practical approaches and tools to support Cypriot companies adapt to digital transformation. These includes methodologies such as Waterfall and Agile Project Management. It also includes a demonstration of software tools such as Asana, Bitrix, Zoho, Facebook and others. The 2-day training will be followed by a 1-day consulting visit to each company. 

Training Agenda Day 1

18 October 2022

Module 1: Digital Transformation

08:50 – 09:50 | 60 minutes

Digital transformation is affecting consumers, suppliers and governments all over the world. Today, citizens, consumers and visitors to Cyprus expect digital interaction with the country, for functions ranging from where the best pizza in Cyprus can be found, to ordering a taxi, to paying the annual Company Levy online.  This session will cover:

• Customer demographics: What is a digital native? How do different demographic groups operate online? How do we measure their activities?
• Working in Internet Time: Internet time is 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year. Customers interact online across all channels.
• How is technology changing? How will the Internet of Things (IoT) and the semantic internet affect consumer interaction?

Module 2: Digital Strategy and Commitment

09:50 – 10:50 | 60 minutes

On order to succeed, enterprises must make a serious commitment to digital operations. This requires strong leadership, organisational transformation and deep cultural change. This session will cover:

• Leadership of digital transformation across organisational silos and barriers.
• Enterprise, unit and individual accountability and responsibility.
• Corporate culture: Work and customer prioritisation and focus.
• Aligning company strategy and positioning with online presence.
• Accountability at different levels in the organisation.

Module 3: Principles of Digital Project Management

11:10 – 12:10 | 60 minutes

This session introduces project management for digital projects. The training subjects include:

• Introduction to project management
• Project management frameworks, including PMI, Waterfall and Agile
• Identification of Enterprise needs
• Distribution into one or more projects, defined as contracts
• Specifications documents and tenders (RFP / RFQ), including budgets
• Tender awards and contracts, including price / quality / time tradeoffs
• Project planning: Gantt charts, timelines, milestones, deliverables
• Meetings and reporting
• Completion process and verification
• Project activities after the project completion
• Service level agreements (SLA)
• Understanding Hosted Services
• Understanding Online and Offline Hybrids (Server versus Cloud)
• Understanding Copyright, Data protection, and confidentiality

Module 4: Waterfall Project Management: Part 1

12:10 – 13:10 | 60 minutes

Introduction, Project Requirements, Contracting

• The five phases of Waterfall Project Management
• Defining Project Requirements
• Drafting a Request for Proposals (RFP) / Request for Quotes (RFQ)
• Differentiating between Inputs and Outputs
• Defining Milestones and Timelines
• Allocation budgets in terms of time and costs to milestones and deliverables
• Preparation needed from the contractor side and the vendor side
• Holding a tender
• Awarding a tender
• Contracting

Module 5: Waterfall Project Management: Part 2

14:10 – 15:40 | 90 minutes

Specifications, Analysis and Design

• Analysis and mapping of business logic and commercial processes
• Drafting the Project Specifications Document
• Identifying deviation between RFP and Project Specifications Document
• Revising budgets and work allocation
• Software / Internet design processes: Wireframe drawing and mock-ups
• User experience / User interaction / customer experience management
• CMS and ecommerce issues
• Data security
• Data back up and disaster recovery

Module 6: Waterfall Project Management: Part 3

16:00 – 17:30 | 90 minutes

Implementation, Verification & Maintenance

• Project implementation
• Reporting and management
• Milestone completion and budget release
• Alpha testing: best practise
• Beta testing: best practise
• Verification
• Handover training
• Post-project maintenance and support
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

Training Agenda Day 2: 19 October 2022 

Module 7: Agile Project Management

08:50 – 10:50 | 120 minutes

This session presents Agile project management. Items covered include:

• The Agile Manifesto
• Agile project lifecycle / adaptive project lifecycle
• When to choose agile as a project management method
• Advantages and disadvantages of iterative design
• Advantages and disadvantages of self-organising teams and groups
• Impact on agile project management and project budgets
• Scrum & kaizen processes
• The role of the project manager or scrum master in agile projects
• Risks of using agile in Cyprus
• How to choose an agile technology vendor in Cyprus

Module 8 Digital Outsourcing and Contracting

11:10 – 12:30 | 80 minutes

This session provides an in-depth view at writing digital contracts for specific projects as well as larger outsourcing initiatives. It covers elements that enable a company to “own” and to control a digital initiative, such as web design, pay-per-click marketing, etc. Several contracts will be presented and their clauses explained. Components include:

• “Make or buy” decisions: When to outsource; when to hire full-time capability
• Role of the outsourced service provider / role of the contractor
• Verifying vendor capabilities: how to differentiate hype from reality
• Contract structure
• Content ownership
• Intellectual property rights: own content / vendor platforms / third party providers (for instance, digital photographs or media)
• Best practise in contract management
• Best practise in digital asset management
• Contract milestones and clauses
• Penalties and break-up clauses for non-performance
• Service-Level Agreement (SLA) contracts, including defining critical incidents, level of impact, response times, and performance levels

Module 9: Using Project & Team Management Software

12:30 – 13:10 / 14:10 – 14:30 | 40 + 20 minutes

This session reviews different options for online project management and team management. This is an effective tool for managing digital projects and initiatives for small enterprises, as it allows for multiple users to login, track progress, assign tasks, etc. We will review:

• Choosing online project management software
• Asana
• Basecamp
• Jira

Module 10: Budgets & ROI

14:30 – 15:40 | 70 minutes

Many enterprises cannot adequately measure digital project budgets and return on investment. This session will provide a detailed structure and analytical framework for budgeting using Microsoft Excel.

Expenditure calculations:

• Contracts
• Cost overruns
• Financial versus time expenditure
• Opportunity costs

Income calculations

• Revenue
• Intangible benefits
• Long-term revenue opportunities

Return on Investment (ROI) methods

• Net cost basis
• Terminal / asset value basis

Module 11: A 5-Year Plan to Digital Transformation

16:00 – 17:30 | 90 minutes

We review the core digital operations needed for online competition in Cyprus today. These include:

• Website development and core website features and functions
• Social media management and advertising
• Electronic Newsletters and email marketing
• Online advertising (PPC and branded)
• Search engine optimisation
• Online customer care
• Analytics and monitoring

We look at how rapidly the environment is changing, and how we anticipate Cypriot companies will be operating five years from now. Key issues that will be faced in the future include:

• Big Data: How will enterprises store and extra value from big data? What types of analytics will be mined for product / service discounting, customer account regeneration, product selection and evolution?
• Customer profiling: How will databases use artificial intelligence to general customer profiles, consumption propensity, predictive marketing and tailoring special offers to customer profiles?
• Internet of Things: The IoT embeds intelligent agents into items. In the future, everything from food packaging to office materials will be tagged. Items will be traced en route, in storage and in consumption, including disposal. This fundamentally changes how suppliers view and predict ordering, replenishment, pricing, promotions, value chain, buffer stock levels, and all other related activities.
• Artificial intelligence and Intelligent agents: Right now, we depend on human agents, e.g. in a call centre, to handle customer requests. In the future, artificial intelligence will handle that automatically. This requires a standardisation of functions and much greater attention to commercial logic pathways and decision-making.
• Consolidation of Online Data: Right now, there are too many channels available, and all channels are fragmented. It is impossible, for instance, to integrate Facebook chat information and customer profiles with a standard ERP. In the future, integration will occur automatically, creating new challenges and opportunities for suppliers.