1. Mantra for leveraging Emerging Trends
Rahul Ghodke
Sr. Director Automation Services
Microland Ltd.

3. As projects are becoming more complex and project management more onerous, there has been an
increased demand for more sophisticated and holistic project management solutions in the PM: 3.0 era
(For Third Generation Project Managers). SMAC (Social Media, Mobile, Analytics & Cloud) has emerged
as one of these solutions. SMAC makes available the right information at the right time so project
managers can make the right decision the first time, and it empowers stakeholders both within and
outside the enterprise through effective collaborations. Such tools are not without their own challenges,
and their success is reliant on disciplined collation and organization of multiple levels of information.
While these SMAC trends have made a profound positive business impact for some organizations, not all
organizations have been able to harness the value of their SMAC investments. The value of these
investments depends on many factors, such as business model, operating model, type of business
service/product, customer demographics, organization size, processes, applications, integrations,
organization culture, and so on.
The Gen-Next Project Management will become more and more involved in social, mobile, analytics, and
the cloud (SMAC), which will mean redefining and refining project templates, life cycles, approaches, and
best practices. SMAC means the emergence of a new kind of project management altogether. This paper
describes SMAC, its necessity and benefits and presents a practical discussion on the overall SMAC
Framework and how to successfully drive its adoption across various project types and industries

4. Social media, mobile devices, analytics and cloud computing (SMAC) have combined to create a
technology ecosystem that supports disruptive and sustaining innovation. The ready availability of the
SMAC ecosystem connects customers to new innovations and supports shopping on e-commerce sites
and in brick-and-mortar stores. Importantly, the SMAC application has transcended retail and consumer
marketing activities, and also has significant relevance in banking, healthcare, and other business
functions.
Using the SMAC platform, project managers can develop new products and services by renting
technology capability without owning the infrastructure, software, and support staff. Project management
information systems (PMIS) can leverage the SMAC platform over a secure Internet connection to
support collaboration between team members and enable transparency about a project's health. Social
media, mobile devices, analytics, and cloud computing are the amalgamation of mature technologies for
the 21st century. SMAC will mean redefining and refining project templates, life cycles, approaches, best
practices and a whole new framework to delivery projects and programs in the era of disruptive
technology innovation. It is inevitable that Gen-Next Project Managers’will need to levarage these
tenchnolgy trends and focus on SMAC to deliver high quality projects.
Prevalence of social media, smart devices, instant connectivity have radically altered expectations of
customers. Business growth in 2014 will largely be driven by the opportunity in technologies. Moreover,
integration and confluence of these technologies will form the bedrock of future solutions. According to
the Deloitte Global CIO survey, adoption of these technologies is seen as next highest priority by over 50
percent of global CIOs. Using SMAC technologies, project managers will be expected to deliver a smart,
secure and connected experience. So what does the ‘smart, secure and connected experi ence’ entail? A
smart project will be known for intelligent decisions powered by actionable advanced analytics.
The connected experience will emerge from unified communication, machine-to-machine ecosystem and
a single view of customer(s). All this will not be possible without the underpinning of a secure
infrastructure. Key elements of this secure infrastructure would be: governance and risk compliance,

5. access management, security analytics and threat management. The end result will be true to customers’
expectations: real time, in-context and personalized experience across channels.
Social collaboration is expanding the way people interact with one another and businesses. Mobile
devices have enhanced
customer’s reach to
information from various
sources. Mobile applications
will help businesses reach
these customers and interact
with them at personal level.
These applications can also
collect information regarding
what customers say about
their products. SMAC
technology will help
companies to move into high-margin
businesses due to its
global reach, low overheads
and high availability.
Digitization of business models and processes is key for Project Management in the new era. As society
and national GDPs continue to migrate to the Internet economy, traditional business processes, business
models and even entire industries are being disrupted as products and services become ever -more
digitized. While many industries have already experienced this disruption, such as those in media and
entertainment whose primary
product or service has become
completely digitized (e.g.
books, music, movies, maps),
the next wave is now being felt
as other industries see
aspects of their physical value
chain become ever-more
technology-enabled and
optimized. Newer projects are
conceptulized for SMAC and
delivered with SMAC! SMAC
penetration is forcing
organizations and project
managers to embark on digital
transformation
So what does SMAC mean for Projects Managers? Every day, we are surrounded by digital
technology, such as social media, mobility, analytics, and cloud – otherwise known as SMAC. We rely on
it to make our world, literally, “tick”! The industry analyst firm Gartner recently released its Top 10

6. Strategic Technology Trends, illuminating how people, places, information and things will all be
connected via the Internet relying on cloud, mobility and smart machines.
Increasingly project managers are using technology to connect with the project teams, vendors and
stakeholders, as well as using it to consume resources & services. SMAC for projects mangers opens up
a plethora of opportunities for faster and easier collaboration and communication, instant information
sharing, greater insights into project health, a uniform and standard project management and control
framework at a lower cost and more off project information is available anytime and anywhere.
Example: In the conventional approach, Telco buyers (principal) – Figure 4 and sellers (contractors) each
have their own project management systems. Project information is transacted manually via complex
paper documentation. Systems require significant user training and familiarization before they can be
utilized effectively. The large amount of paperwork, specific software, hardware and network configuration
result in high operation costs, high maintenance needs and lack of synchronicity between buyer and
seller.
In the SMACéd approach, all the parties — buyer and sellers — are into one project cloud, where they
are integrated into one system. Cloud computing allows project information to be accessed, anytime,
anywhere instantly via desktop, laptop or mobile. Cloud-powered systems require only a web-capable
device and Internet connection: no specific software installation, network setups or dedicated hardware
are needed. This not only saves immediate costs on infrastructure, but also on paperwork, maintenance
and floor space. Maintenance and update works can be carried across cloud-based systems can be with
far shorter downtime than traditional systems. With SMAC, key information is automatically synchronized
so that users are always up-to-date with the project progress through social feeds and assessed using
the power of analtics. Information discrepancy between users and network is a thing of the past.
The key to successful project management in the SMAC eco-system is to create and manage a project
management framework that embeds best practices of project management, cloud computing, social
media, mobility and project analytics methodologies into how one manages projects, inside and outside
the cloud. The impact of SMAC on project management will include a higher emphasis on security,
parallel processing, scalability, and the ability to utilize infinite resources.

7. There are multiple things that Project Managers need to collect and share. First, there are project specs,
changes, and status. Then there’s diagnosing and solving problems that come up during the life of the
project. And, of course, there’s always a need to communicate milestones and accomplishments. For all
of the above, the principles of SMAC can be extremely useful in managing the inflow, interpretation, and
outflow of project information.
SMACéd Project Delivery Framework represents a dramatic shift toward having collaboration as the heart
of project management. As a result, Projectplace focuses on:
 Collaboration, communication & commitment
 Transparent information sharing
 Analytics, social media & cloud inspired tools
 Intuitive and easy to use features

8. The key elements to be considered while setting up projects on a SMAC based project management
platform are summarized below -
People: Create a meaningful, on-going dialogue with colleagues, customers and partners to build and
strengthen relationships and conduct day-to-day project activities to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
The collaboration platform should enable the following:
Manage Project Relationships More Effectively
Set up private workspaces for each of the partners, vendors and suppliers and use them to
share updates and engage in discussions - all from one central location.
Improve Team Communication
Increase social team collaboration with discussion forums, blogs and comments. Keep the team
updated on what you're working on, meet online, and collaborate on projects.
Increase Accountability
Task assignments and reminders reinforce team accountability and highlight individual team
member contributions. Extended the platform reach to mobile devices for easy access
Build Customer Loyalty
Use customer extranets to easily share documents, projects and data in a single, secure
location. Work transparently and build loyalty by creating an open, centralized communication
system.
Projects: Quickly, easily and securely accomplish the project goals. Communicate and share important
project deadlines, goals, documents and presentations with everyone involved.
Stay on Top of Project Deadlines
Assign tasks, manage approvals, schedule and conduct online meetings and manage
milestones for the team to ensure no missed project deadlines.
Get Customers and Business Partners Involved
Invite customers, vendors and contractors into the project workspaces to increase
communication efficiency.
Encourage Team Communication
Simplify project communication using online documents, comment threads and discussions.
Access Project Information from a Central Location
Store important project information securely online so the team can access vital project
information after-hours and while traveling.

9. Track Progress
Track time spent on each task and milestone to ensure proper allocation of resources to
projects' goals. Use analytics to access constrains & health of the project for status reporting.
Workflow Automation: Automate and streamline the existing business procedures, increase efficiency
and productivity.
Assign and Prioritize Tasks
Recurring administrative tasks and reminders can be set up on a workflow that repeats the task
daily, weekly or monthly. Each task can be set priority levels, due dates and update requests and
should have the flexibility to assign as many team members to it as needed.
Automate Work Order Requests
A customer can submit a work order request, triggering an email notification to a contractor with
appointment time and details.
Automate Internal and External Request Processes
Use of dynamic online databases and workflow capabilities to automate both internal and
external request processes, such as vacation or information requests.
Streamline Document Approval Process
Once a document is created should be able to notify subscribers, which triggers a workflow that
creates a task to edit the document by a due date.
Collaborative and Social Workplaces: Work together with project teams, customers and partners within
secure or open (but controlled) online environments. Set up workspaces according to department,
customer, vendor, project or product. Each workspace can include its own file system, projects, task lists,
blog, forum, calendar and more.
Company and Department Intranets
Set up a custom-branded intranet for the team(s). Use the intranet to share internal information
such as employee directories, company announcements, training manuals and HR forms. Each
department within a company can also set up its own workspace to share team-specific
information.
Client Extranets and Social Sites
Customer extranets provide a secure, easily accessible location to track projects and share and
store project reports, files and communication.
Project Workspaces
Create workspaces for specific projects and use them to manage tasks, schedule meetings,
share files and collaborate in real-time on documents. Invite contractors, vendors and other

10. external members who are involved with the project into the workspace for easier collaboration.
Partner Portals
Connect with business partners outside the firewall in a secure, password-protected
environment. Share marketing materials, product information, promotions, announcements and
more. Control external members' permissions and parameters to make sure that this exchange
of information is only being seen by the right people.
Documentations: Powerful document editing and collaboration features, enhanced with social features
such as comment threads and notifications, make document collaboration easier. The SMAC
collaboration platform should enable to following:
Create and Share Files
Create online documents, spreadsheets and reports inside the platform or upload or
import data from Word or Excel.
Store Files Securely in the Cloud
Upload and store files in one central location with secure access to view, edit and
download content anytime, anywhere.
Control Document Versions
Review past versions of documents to see what changes were made and who made
them. Restore a previous version as needed.
Locate Files in Seconds
Find any document, file, web clipping or image in seconds with an integrated full text
search tool.
Web Folders
Upload, modify and delete files wherever needed. Maintain a central project repository
While SMAC is shifting much of the computing from dedicated IT environments to a combination of both
private and public clouds with extended mobility reach, the fundamental business functions (marketing,
sales, design, delivery, implementation, support etc.) and associated processes (concept-to-offering,
order-to cash, prospect-to-customer etc.) remain intact. Today, more than ever, the rigor of project
management is needed to ensure these functions and processes deliver the expected results while taking
full advantage of the benefits offered by the SMAC environments. So what does SMAC mean to project
management and what will the rise of the new dominant players in cloud portend for the project
management discipline?

11. At a minimum, SMAC will:
 Usher in large complex projects, which in the past were not feasible due to limited compute,
storage or network capacities within an organization
 Enable the parsing of multiple transactions in a highly distributed environment made up of
multiple providers, to be processed in tandem and subsequently aggregated
 Provide real-time collaboration between globally dispersed teams
 Allow rapid staging, set-up and take-down of a variety of compute environments as needed to
test/validate an application
 Enable real-time project management software with a rich set of web-based tools.
 Provide rich analytics capability to access and predict project behavior and status
 Help in alleviating some of the pressures they have faced keeping pace of projects with the
escalating demands of corporate executives, strategic business units, and end-users.
 Ease of information sharing between delivery team members, customer team members and
executive management
 Enable rapid dashboard info on portfolio of projects
 Facilitate more remote management & Meetings using web-based tools
 Enable collaborative tool for resource management & used for projects with unpredictable
scalability
 Lead to greater resource sharing, greater economies of scale, and greater levels of architectural
standardization and process optimization[1]
 Realize project savings through agility and speed of implementation. It enables projects to cut
back on capital spending and optimize operational expenses[4]
 Enable users of IT-related services to focus on what the services provide to them rather than how
the services are implemented or hosted[2]
 Leverage the virtually instant agility, flexibility and reach, to dynamically access anything or
anybody, and the virtually infinite diversity of available functionalities arising from composite
applications and components allowed by cloud computing[3]
 Provide higher value for creativity and innovation as it enables enterprises to focus on business
objectives and, therefore, allocate more resources to solve business problems. It enables IT
availability to broader masses of individuals, thus creating a pool of talent that has not existed
before.
Despite these expected gains, it will require, the rigor and discipline of the time tested Project
Management approach, methodology and perseverance, to fully realize these benefits. Like an air traffic
control system, the project management discipline in the SMAC world will be tasked with the responsibility
for overseeing, organizing, managing, and guiding a highly complex mixture of transactions that are
processed concurrently in different parts of the cloud. Just as the safety of passengers and airplanes
depends on the skills of controllers and pilots, the successful completion and delivery of the SMAC
enabled projects will depend on the Project Managers, empowered with project management frameworks
and proven methodologies, and combined with experience and discipline.
Communication & Ownership: SMAC is scary for many people since it puts all data into someone else’s
data center in the cloud. The communication of the cloud based projects needs to be done at every level
of organization and should have full executive support & buy in, otherwise the project will languish for
weeks or months waiting for people to grab onto the concept.

12. Activities Logging: Organization should have a better way of getting and processing logs on the cloud
and social media. This helps for satisfying the needs for compliance reporting and preventing
unauthorized access to production systems.
Documentation: Organizations should not rely on the Vendors Documentation for SMAC based projects.
Either they should take the approach of own documentation in such a way that everything should be
followed to duplicate past processes in the accurate manner. SMAC systems should be documented as
the organization internal project.
Access Control: Project Information on the SMAC platform when extended on mobile devices exposes
risk of miss handling. A robust assess control framework and authentication is key for SMAC platforms
ROI: When organizations leverage SMAC there will be obvious measurable cost savings in the offering.
Organization should manage the SMAC projects in such a manner that they should not overspend on
platform management vs. actual project management.
User Management: Administration should provide the access to the tools or servers based on certain
specific roles to the user. The tools that provide auditing and reporting needs to be used that helps in
logging the user activities. Use of shared credentials should be avoided.
Even in a dedicated IT environment, the possibility of project failure is high. In the SMAC case, the risk
grows exponentially. The parallel processing, easy social & mobile information reach, dependency on
analytical framework and on-demand scalability that the cloud offers requires a robust project
management discipline to guide through the dark as well as friendly clouds while execution. This will call
for higher scrutiny on security and a much more technologically savvy project teams.
When embarking on SMAC initiatives, organizations have to consider their strengths and weaknesses
with respect to their own culture, change management capabilities, and so on. It is a best practice to
develop the strategy and architecture at the enterprise level and implement them in a phased manner.
Organizations should build the strategic foundation while implementing quick -win and tactical initiatives
and then leverage these investments

14. [1] “Economies of Scale Are the Key to Cloud Computing Benefits”, Gartner, June 2008
[2] “SMAC: Defining and Describing an Emerging Phenomenon”, Gartner, June 2012
[3] “Cloud-Computing Service Trends: Business Value Opportunities and Management Challenges, Part
2”, Gartner, February 2010
Dr. Rahul Ghodke, PMP® has fourteen years plus experience in large infrastructure and IT service
transition, transformation and implementation projects in ITIL-based managed service environments. As a
Sr. Director at Microland, he heads automation services and has vast experience in developing and
managing SaaS based ITSM tooling solutions.
Rahul has a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA- Information Management) from SP Jain
Institute of Management Research, Mumbai, India and a Doctor of Communication Design (Information
Systems) from School of Information Arts and Technologies, University of Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Rahul is also a Certified Project Management Professional from Project Management Institute, USA and
holds Expert, Masters & Foundation certifications in ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library)
from ISEB, UK and EXIN, Netherlands.
Rahul is a frequent speaker at multiple international conferences on IT Service Management, Project/
Program Management and High Maturity Best Practices and has received multiple leadership awards.
Rahul is a SMAC evangelist and believes and works towards building a true connected universe.
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