COLUMBUS, Ohio – September 29, 2009 – Driven by the understanding that the IT priorities for higher education are different than those for the corporate environment, TeamDynamixHE [1] today announced the formation of the TeamDynamixHE Advisory Council (TAC). The self governed council, which is made up of TeamDynamixHE customers, will serve as the product governance committee for the company, providing insider insights and ideas that will help drive future innovation for TeamDynamixHE’s Web-based project and portfolio management [2] solution. Major changes in the company’s recent product release were driven directly by the needs and enhancement requests of the TAC members.
Among the members of the TAC are the following:
- Bart Prickett, Director of I.T. Support Services, Columbus State Community College;
- Bruce Bills, Software Engineering Director, BYU-Idaho;
- Clay Fulton, PPM Project Lead, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pa.);
- Glenda Ranallo, Project Manager, Syracuse University;
- Patrick Bennett, Executive Director of Campus Services, Franklin University (Columbus, Ohio); and
- Wonda Yuhasz, WebCT Coordinator, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
“It has become increasingly evident that project management solutions that are designed for the corporate world simply do not translate well in higher education,” stated Fulton, a founding TAC member. “There is a big difference in higher education IT planning [3] and corporate planning, and our needs and priorities are not the same as those of a large corporation. While TeamDynamixHE was designed for the higher education market, maintaining the connection and keeping a pulse on the changing dynamics of the industry are important to the company. As a council, we work closely with TeamDynamixHE to help deliver a product roadmap that will inevitably benefit the entire industry.”
Ranallo added, “We formed this team to help ensure that TeamDynamixHE continues to be useful and valuable as a tool for higher education IT groups to fulfill and communicate their institutional missions.”
TAC Chairperson Bennett noted, “Higher education is highly consensus- and committee-based, requiring a low-risk approach and greater communication. Frequently, there is a wider range of project management understanding, therefore tools and processes have to accommodate both the novice and expert. Our environments are more open to cross-institution collaboration and have a greater opportunity to benefit from knowledge sharing. And finally, compliance, student experience, retention, educational quality and maintaining accreditation are bigger drivers than hard ROI, which is the main focus for corporate PPM solutions. With these factors in mind, all of us in the council have a tremendous interest in steering a maturity model and a solution that can serve as a PPM standard and help improve IT governance across higher education.”
The TAC meets quarterly to discuss product ideas and help prioritize the changes for future versions of the company’s product. The council is self-directed and has elected various leadership positions to facilitate meetings and interaction with TeamDynamixHE.
“We initiated the advisory council to work similar to how colleges and universities operate, using consensus- and committee-based methods to help us ensure that we continue to deliver a solution that is in line with the needs of our customers,” said Andrew Graf, lead analyst for TeamDynamixHE. “We appreciate the time and effort of our council members and look forward to their ongoing contributions to the evolution of TeamDynamixHE and the overall support for project management in higher education.”
About TeamDynamixHE
TeamDynamixHE is the leading provider of Web-based project and portfolio management (PPM [4]) solutions for the higher education [1] market. The company’s suite of project tracking, reporting and portfolio management software provides the work tools and environment necessary for successful project management and delivery, in addition to project and portfolio management and planning, IT governance, resource management, helpdesk ticketing [5], time and expense tracking [6] and knowledge management [7]. TeamDynamixHE is currently used by a number of leading colleges and universities [8], including Syracuse University, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbus State Community College, The Ohio State University and Franklin University. The company is based in Columbus, Ohio. For more information, visit www.teamdynamixhe.com [1].
###