I’m very happy to announce that we are now publishing our first Keto News. Our aim is to give you some insights into innovation, development, portfolio management and technology. And naturally some news about our latest product releases and company plans.

This is neither an advertisement nor a typical customer magazine. We would like you to learn from the customer use cases and articles and we hope that the content brings you some new ideas for yourself. And even helps you to develop your skills and knowledge. That is why we call this a functional magazine, not a pure customer magazine. And all the feedback and content ideas are very welcome. Our tone of voice is open and transparent. This is not about telling you how great we are. We want to ask the question: How can we help you to succeed and make your business better?

What’s going on at Keto Software?

Just a few words about us. We’ve had just pure luck that Covid has not hurt our business at all. We have been fully digitally capable for some years and the business has been running without problems. But working almost fully remotely has caused us new big challenges such as how to keep and develop our culture and how to take care of our people. We started first with weekly virtual coffees which have proved to be a very good way of bringing us together. We have learned from our colleagues even more or at least new things when we all join the coffee meeting from our homes.

2022 will be the most important year for our company. We are now raising capital and looks like we are able to close our A-round during the coming weeks. We just signed our first-ever investor and we are just about to sign some other as well. Even if we have a great product and wonderful customer references, it’s been a unique and at the same time not a typical case for investors. We have a platform consisting of several applications, it’s really holistic and normally these kinds of products are owned by 100x larger companies. And we are probably the smallest software company certified with ISO27001. Information security is paramount for Keto.

We aim to double the revenue during 2022. We’ll be launching Keto Platform in Germany during Q4 and we’ve been building our partner concept to be launched during Q3 in European main markets. We’ll strengthen our teams in Finland, the UK and DACH.

Looking forward to a successful year 2022 with you.

Veijo Hytti, CEO

Discover our customers’ stories >

Take a look into Keto’s R&D Lab >

Read some insights on our Blog >

In 2020 we decided to transform ourselves to a 100% remote and digital Enterprise SaaS provider. The whole customer journey can be virtual from customer acquisition to onboarding.

The outcome of this approach means that we need new skills to execute the new concept. We have set up a new team of growth hackers, doing sales and marketing just like we do our own software development: utilizing service design methodology, user-centric design, rapid prototyping, fast fail, efficient scaling and of course, enjoying the work and building the best content to our customers.

Growth hacking is a systematic method for winning new business. Growth hacking is used by many of the most rapidly growing businesses around the world. We do it by creating a team and a process for testing, learning and improving critical parts and keep it data-driven.

We have an ambitious goal: to scale our business lunch round table concept and make it the best virtual event experience in the world. We will organize several events during H1 2021 in Helsinki, München, Zug/Zürich, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Oulu. Our growth hackers will hand pick the right attendees and organize the events remotely. Our guests have the opportunity to meet other people facing similar challenges and hopefully become a longer-term sparring partner with each other.

Hanna and My are part of Icebreaker.vc and Truly Agency Growth Hacker Program. Welcome to the team!

We are coming before we have the leaves in the trees here up north.

Why not to go fishing in the near waters? That’s something we’ve been thinking about for several years. We have now 3 ongoing customer cases in Sweden and according to our discussions, it looks like Sweden and Nordics are the most active and modern places when it comes to digitalization, start-ups, innovation and sustainability. Not to forget human rights, equality, modern remote working and non-hierarchy. Perfect match with our company culture and value we can give to our customers.

Our onboarding and customer service teams are more than excited to start working with Swedish customers. And first activity will be organizing Business Lunch Event in Stockholm on 29.4.2021. We have a new concept where we invite people around innovation and development, offer to meet and discuss topics we are interested in with a 1-Michelin Star Restaurant meal delivered to your home. Wonderful combination of business and lunch during the Covid-19 time.

We start inviting people during first week of March and we will open the invitation pages then. If you want to join, please send us an email: tea.repo@ketosoftware.com

I’m passionate, positive, persistent, sales- and result-oriented and a hard worker. I like to challenge myself by trying new things in order to learn more, develop myself and my skills in life. I also like to be challenged by others as well as challenge others myself. I get driven by a customer-oriented and diverse job that has challenging but still attainable targets. It is very important to me that my work has a meaning and the customers always get what they really need by a provider who truly understands their needs.

I worked as the Head of B2B Sales at Fiuge, which is a package delivery company. For the past almost a year I was working at Singa (a karaoke streaming software, like the Netflix of karaoke) being responsible for its partnerships and the commercial side of the Karaoke World Championship competition owned by Singa. Throughout my career I have worked a lot over the phone but I’m at my best when being face-to-face with people. Especially at Singa I’ve had customers almost in every time zone so I’m also very used to work successfully over video/audio connection.
2 years ago, my path led me to Sweden for a year and I returned to Finland a year ago. My biggest learning during that time was how much I appreciate things at home here in Finland.

My spear time I spend with family, friends and music, singing being my biggest passion. During the hockey season you can often find me from the arena watching games (only HIFK, note from the editor).

I value great team spirit and strong company culture as well as being able to work independently. I hunger for continuous self-development. I live my life by the can-do attitude. I want to see that the company I’m working for is developing continuously and be part of that success story.

Feel free to call/email/sign. Tea.

Year 2020 was a very different and full of surprises. Just like in life, we faced all kinds of surprises. We won and we learnt a lot. Covid-19 and Brexit affected our business in the UK where we were not able to reach the growth targets. Thanks to our existing long-standing customers we were able to grow the recurring revenue. We won also many new customers and were able to accomplish ISO27001 certificate. Other highlights of the year were mainly to build the ability and skills for remote delivery. We had first customers where we implemented the software without meeting the customers face-to-face. 2020 was the year to transform the company from R&D mode into sales and marketing mode. A big cultural change! And big thanks to Microsoft Teams we were able to work efficiently and service our clients around Europe.

Year 2021 looks very promising. We have a very strong new business pipeline in all our focus markets: Nordics, the UK and DACH. We will set up operations in Germany and we will fulfill the growing challenges that the German manufacturing industries are facing in digitalization and sustainability. Our aim is to double the MRR during 2021 without external funding. The company is still self-funded and owned by 5 employees.

After H1 2021 hopefully we have the new normal. The future is bright the future is in no-code technology and user-friendliness.

We wish you all successful year 2021. Stay healthy. Stay positive.

Keto Software is already working with the globally leading bioproduct company UPM, leading sustainable packaging companies Walki and Wipak, largest machinery companies Andritz and Valmet, and now also with the public sector government organization Metsähallitus. We are currently building a vertical solution for bio and sustainable organisations worldwide. We will announce a business roundtable taking place during H2 2021 together with key players in the field. Our aim is to become the leading software tool for managing sustainable innovation, the strongest force besides digitalization.

Some background about our new customer:

Metsähallitus´ purpose is fostering natural values and taking care of our shared wealth responsibly across generations.
Metsähallitus’ operations are based on responsibility and continuous improvement of activities. The goal of Metsähallitus’ activities is to safeguard biodiversity, create opportunities sustainable business and strengthen the vitality of the regions, promote natural wellbeing services and make a contribution to state revenue. Metsähallitus’ activities also respond to global challenges, such as mitigating climate change and adapting to it.

Metsähallitus is an unincorporated state enterprise, which uses, manages and protects state-owned land and water areas under its responsibility in a sustainable manner and reconciles the expectations and goals that its owner, stakeholders and customers have for these areas.

Metsähallitus operates in four business units.
Business is conducted in subsidiaries Metsähallitus Forestry Ltd, MH-Kivi Oy, and Siemen Forelia Oy and in Metsähallitus Property Development, which is part of the Group. As part of its business operations, Metsähallitus is responsible for the sustainable management and use of state-owned forests, forest tree seed production and sales, rental and property development on state-owned land and water areas.
Metsähallitus
• is the steward of state-owned land and water areas, their animals, plants and natural resources.
• is the sum of economic, social, cultural and environmental factors.
• approaches its tasks from the viewpoints of humans, nature and society.
Our work is important
• because we have something precious that must be used and managed, ensuring that it does not lose its value. Metsähallitus’ expertise, networks, value chains and future opportunities are also part of this value.
• because it is about enhancing, increasing and diversifying. Not only preservation.
We are guided by
• a consensus reached by reconciling different views and opinions of how land and water areas should be used and managed.
• a responsible and strategic approach which guides all management, activities and development work in Metsähallitus.
• a scale and timeframe larger than the human: the scale of nature. Eternal.

The scope is for Keto Platform v5 SaaS Service and software development and maintenance including offices in Hyvinkää, Manchester and Zürich. Keto Software has been developing a modern Information Security Management System (ISMS) based on ISO27k. It is the most recognized and trusted Certificate globally. Information security has always been in the heart of our culture. As a small growth company with a target to grow in international markets it has been obvious that we need to certify our SaaS enterprise platform. We have worked closely with the best professionals in the field, Nixu and KPMG to achieve the certificate. Normally organizations that reach the ISO27k level are large global software companies. We are very happy to be on the same level in security standards as the global software providers. Keto Software is trusted by large global customers such as Kone, UPM, Fortum, Valmet, Andritz, WillisTowersWatson and Danfoss. We will keep information security in the heart of our company and keep the trust of all our important customers and stakeholders.

CERTIFICATE OF REGISTRATION_Keto Software ISO 27001

Cyber Essentials is the UK government-backed cybersecurity scheme. We have achieved the Cyber Essentials Plus level required by some UK government agencies

Mr. Tunkelo is an international business leader who has served major companies, such as Voith, Siemens, ABB, Invensys, and Compaq in global management and technology leadership roles for 25 years in Zurich, London, Munich, Helsinki, and Cleveland (Ohio). His prior experience also includes being CEO of Enfo, a software company of 300 people and a board member at Nixu, the largest cybersecurity consulting company in Finland. Currently Teemu works as CEO of SSH Communication Security. “Keto Software has a modern SaaS platform for managing innovation and development. Next the focus will be scaling up internationally”, Teemu points out.

Mr. Kivinen is an international business leader with careers in Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks in global management and technology leadership roles in Finland and Europe, and during 2010-2018 CEO of YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company. “Keto has interesting solutions both for private and public sector organisations to improve effectiveness, transparency and steering”, says Lauri.

Over the last 10 years, we have developed a highly-effective customer onboarding process that is easy to implement remotely in a matter of hours. Within 2 weeks, you will benefit from a fully customised tool that incorporates all of your own workflows and organisation structure.

The Keto platform is completely Cloud based and requires no onsite installation.

Our project managers are using a range of tools to stay in close contact with our customers and hold meetings remotely.

The Keto platform is exceptionally user friendly and our product trainers are able to deliver fun online training sessions.

All our staff are working remotely wherever possible and are always happy to have a chat with you.

If you need a site meeting, this can be arranged following a suitable risk assessment.

To benefit from a free trial of the software or to discuss a fixed-price Proof of Concept, get in touch today.

Keto Software staff, based in the UK, Finland, Switzerland and Germany, have been subject to various local restrictions but our business has remained unaffected. We are fortunate to have strong demand from new customers and to be able to continue our current projects relatively easily as all our work can be done remotely. We have some great new customer cases announcing soon and we’ve been busy with new customers digitising processes and getting them set up to take control of their portfolios.

Remote-first

Most of our customers are multi-nationals and all of our customers are distributed organisations. Over the last few years we completely redesigned our software, resulting in our Platform v5 that we launched last year. We learnt that business decision-makers’ biggest frustrations with business intelligence tools revolved around solutions requiring massive amounts of custom coding and bodged software components. The more custom coding required, the less likely people were to ever get to really use a truly functional system. Any changes were expensive, if possible at all. With hindsight, moving to a remote-first, mobile-friendly model last year was timely. Perhaps the other pillar to our philosophy is that we believe frankensystems hold businesses back.

SaaS-first

There’s no doubt that true Software-as-a-Service companies with service delivery via public or private cloud have had a distinct edge during this time of remote working. Reliable companies with proven scalable technologies are flying. We owe an enormous debt to our Internet Service Providers for preserving service quality and enabling digital society and digital business. Because our work involves critical business processes, we do spend time outside the software interface, in workshops, helping our customers translate their demands for decision gates and reports – out of meeting minutes and XLS, and into modern business tools. We are fortunate that we can easily do this remotely and for us, the main medium for all this – for consultation, implementation tasks, the onboarding timeline and the presentation of customer processes – the medium is our own SaaS platform.

Customer-first

For some people, especially those familiar with working from home, personal productivity is soaring. We are lucky that the PMO and R&D people we work with everyday tend to be motivated and visionary, agents of change, striving to benefit their team, unit and business.

We are listening. It’s falling into two camps.

Of course, there are those who have to temper their ambition at this time. Work has to slow right now, but for them, it’s a time to assess and articulate their demands for the future. For others, there’s a new-found freedom in changing the physics of daily work life that brings new impetus. It’s seems obvious now that working transparently is a success factor. Innovation is needed now. Transformation projects need to deliver results now. Remote tools are needed now.

Change is inevitable. The way we communicate is changing faster than even the most extreme predictions. We have just witnessed astonishing change in the global workforce. On one hand, showcasing how incredibly adaptable and resilient we can be, on the other, sadly, exposing how inflexible and vulnerable some businesses have been.

We are adapting  – but what is the new normal?

It’s characterised by a heightened awareness, of health, or personal space, of care workers, of the whereabouts of our colleagues, the adaptability of our teachers. I think this new normal is people-first.

Wherever you are in the world, we hope you are safe and you are able to continue to live and work. It is a testing period for all of us and the time of Covid-19 is bringing great suffering to many people. We are fortunate that we can continue our work, almost as normal, and we hope that what we do helps to make others’ work more productive in these difficult circumstances.

As a company and as an individual, I have a positive outlook. For us, it’s business (almost) as usual. For others, we hope you come #backstronger

Yours,

Veijo Hytti, CEO and the Keto Software team

Our Information Security Management System (ISMS) is already based on ISO27001 standard. Our ISMS process has been set up on Q3 2019 and full certification will be reached during 2020.

Our ISMS is compatible with local public sector requirements such as Cyber Essentials in the UK and Katakri in Finland.

• ISMS stands for Information Security Management System.
• ISO/IEC 27001 is an international standard which defines the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and continually improving an information security management system. Organizations can be certified against ISO27001.
• The adoption of an information security management system is a strategic decision for an organization, and its establishment is influenced by the organization’s needs and objectives, security requirements, the organizational processes used and the size and structure of the organization.
• ISO27001 is compatible with other management system standards and structured in similar format.

We have nominated a project manager for the ISMS process, Raimo Hälinen, PhD in computer science. Together with the leading information security consulting company Nixu Corporation we have defined the requirements and set up the system. We aim to have the auditing during Q3 2020 and get the Certificate.

We have put a lot of emphasis during last 12 months in cyber security. We have investigated all of the key processes and documentation regarding information security. We have also selected a new cloud service provider Google Cloud Services to be able to better meet the local and global requirements of our customers.

We are again participating the world’s leading start-up and innovation event. Visit our Booth on the Nov 21!

Keto Software was chosen as the State of Finland (Digital and Population Data Services Agency) project and portfolio software provider. The new service will be more modern and user-friendly than the previous solution. New contract was signed on February 5, 2019, worth 670.000 €.

We made a user survey for the existing main users last spring and based on the results and in-depth discussions with the users we will utilize the results, says Development Manager Paavo Laakso from Digital and Population Data Services Agency (formerly The Population Register Centre).

The verdict: “The result is a strong product, which PMs should start to see regularly over the course of their career. Keto is already the platform of choice in its native Finland.The UK is a big market. Now the German speaking world is in view, via a base in Switzerland.
Keto is already the front runner in the niche of idea generation and management, but the product is a general PM platform. Perhaps it’s because executives who work in the ideas space are early adopters of promising software? Just a theory.
The goal for Keto should be to ramp up the customer base aggressively. But that would mean breaking the habits of a lifetime and blowing their own trumpet. Sarkka says it’s not quite their style.
But with the likes of Danfoss, the City of Helsinki, and other blue chip names talking about Keto, the marketing seems to be taking care of itself.”

Date: Wednesday 17th October 2018
Registration: 2.30pm
Location: Finnish Ambassador’s Residence, 14 Kensington Palace Gardens, London W8 4QP
Cost: Free to Invited Guests
Dress Code: Business Smart

The theme of the event is smart factories, exploring how innovation and changes to manufacturing processes are shaping the future of manufacturing.

With expert speakers from some of the leading innovation and smart factories organisations and an inspirational keynote from an award winning futurist, you will be able to take away some unique insights and opinions.

The event will close with a reception with food and drinks provided to all delegates with lots of opportunities for networking.

Agenda

Speakers

	Rohit Talwar Rohit Talwar is a global futurist, speaker, author, and CEO of Fast Future. His particular interest is smart and sustainable infrastructure. Talwar is the co-author of Designing Your Future, lead editor for The Future of Business, and editor of Technology vs Humanity. He is a co-editor and contributor for Beyond Genuine Stupidity — Ensuring AI Serves Humanity, and The Future Reinvented — Reimagining Life, Society, and Business, and two forthcoming books: Unleashing Human Potential — The Future of AI in Business, and 50:50 — Scenarios for the Next 50 Years.
	Veijo Hytti Veijo Hytti has gathered a unique experience in lean manufacturing, global branding and innovation management within multinational corporations, agencies and growth companies. At Keto Software, Veijo has gained a unique insight into how IoT and smart manufacturing is changing the face of production through his involvement with some of the leading organisations in Scandinavia and Switzerland on improving their return on innovation through the adoption of lean methodologies within project teams.
	Kari Terho Kari Terho is a leading voice on Industrial Internet of Things and expert on smart factory management with over 30 years of insights and experience to draw upon. He is the General Manager with Elisa Smart Factory – part of the leading ITC service provider in Finland. Kari will be share how smart factories are enabling intelligent optimisation and productivity improvements in manufacturing through data, 3D visualisation and analytics with a case study form the European 4.0 Transformation Centre.

Venue

The Residence of the Ambassador of Finland
14 Kensington Palace Gardens
London
W8 4QP

Sponsors

Traditionally we’re used to thinking about project portfolio management as an administrative process with the goal of controlling change and decision making.

The process begins with someone writing a formal document – a project proposal. The next person will then look over and evaluate the document and move it onwards to be processed further. Experts will give their assessments to aid in the decision making. Typically the small proposals will be processed at a lower level and the bigger ones at board level. Proposals that are selected for execution will be monitored through continuous reporting while controlling any changes that occur during the process.

The end goal is to ensure that every part of the process is executed properly to make sure that we make more good decisions than bad ones. Unfortunately the relevant information is often spread over various documents and formats, leading to a lot of experts’ time wasted when trying to collect and connect those bits of information manually, thus delaying decision making.

It all comes down to how we manage knowledge. Usually the knowledge exists but in the wrong place or format, and we waste resources trying to interpret it. Organisations cannot afford to waste time like this in today’s world. It’s crucial to make the right decisions faster and save experts’ time for more important and more value creating tasks.

What needs to be achieved:

• Decrease the amount of manual work – input information once only.
• Automatise reporting to enable quicker information sharing.
• Automatise recurring decisions to improve speed.
• Establish metrics to measure process efficiency.

How to achieve these:

• Build a process that is as simple as possible.
• Utilise automation wherever possible. Let the smart software bots and low code programs automate the repeated tasks for you.
• Knowledge has to be transferable between systems – use open systems and prevent information from getting stuck or lost along the way.
• Build one source of truth. The same piece of information should only be maintained once.
• Be practical. It’s not rocket science.
• Proceed in steps. Do not wait until you have all the information in control – Get the small quick victories on the way.

The end result should look like manufacturing industry’s automation process – simple, quick and efficient to serve your organisation’s needs. Not like an experimental science project that is trying to solve all the problems in the world.

Looking for a tool to help you reach these goals? Please check out how the Keto Platform can help you solve these problems, or send us a message to book a demo.

Markus Halonen
Project Director
Keto Software Oy

In today’s complex world it is crucial for companies to improve their efficiency without compromising on quality. Without a well developed system in place, however, it is very difficult to keep track of what is happening within your organisation at each level.

Action bias is possibly one of the most prominent causes of inefficiency in companies that often leads to issues such as resources being wasted on less profitable projects that are not in alignment with your company’s strategy, or product launches frequently getting delayed for various reasons. It can be difficult to spot given that ‘dynamic’ behavior has become a norm in today’s business world. Needless to say, if left unnoticed this inefficiency may have a very negative effect on your company’s profit potential.

One of the best (if not the best) solution to inefficiency caused by action bias is Agile Project Portfolio Management (Agile PPM):

• PPM refers to a company managing and analysing their proposed and ongoing ideas and projects, at all levels, with the aim of optimising resource allocation and scheduling to achieve their goals.
• Agile practices take this one step further: they have evolved for complex and uncertain tasks where flexibility and constant improvement is valuable – Agile projects often consist of many short but efficient development cycles.

The importance of 1) planning and 2) reporting/tracking throughout the innovation process cannot be emphasised enough.

1) When each idea starts with an analysis of its potential benefits and risks to the organisation and its strategic goals, it is much easier to keep track of whether resources are really going to the most viable ideas.

2) When the most profitable ideas have been identified, it is necessary to continue tracking their progress to ensure they stay within the time and resource constraints. When project management is done efficiently, there will be more time and space for better ideas.

Keto Software has perfected Agile PPM with our hybrid model of both traditional Waterfall (GANTT) type projects and Agile projects. Keto’s hybrid model makes it simple to have all possible kinds of projects organisation-wide on one platform, so that it is easy for you and your colleagues to keep track of them with various relevant features:

• From Idea Portfolio Management to Project Portfolio Management – intuitive and insightful tools for each phase of the innovation process and for reviewing the bigger picture.
• Strategy Deployment – from strategic objectives to tangible actions. KPIs are easy to follow with the transparent and efficient reporting.
• Resource Management – keep employees engaged with a clear focus and costs in control with efficient resource utilisation.
• Quality management – compare the initial projections and actual results and track the progress of your entire portfolio as well as individual projects.
• And many other functions to support your goals including the ability to integrate with other Enterprise Systems such as Excel and SAP for maximised efficiency.

We’d love to help you out. Send us a chat if you’d like to find out more or order a free private online demo from the Keto website.

To learn why our customers such as Kone, Tata Steel, Danfoss and Serres love Keto, get our Whitepaper here.

Is agility still a matter of balance, or should we jump all the way in and leave everything else we know behind? And how does this relate to everyday Project Portfolio Management (PPM) processes?

When we do not know exactly what we should be doing, to avoid the anxiety of doing nothing we often end up doing just anything, even if it does not help at all. In psychology this phenomenon is called ”action bias”. In business life it’s called ”dynamic behavior”.

The dictionary defines ”bias for action” as: ”The propensity to act or decide without customary analysis or sufficient information; ‘just do it’ and contemplate later”.

When I learned about Agile software development for the first time in the mid-90s I was excited and energised. After the first few paragraphs I thought that we had been Agile for ages without even realising it. We had always just started coding, without necessarily thinking about exactly what it was that we were supposed to code. Then I read further, learned more, and understood that we had not been Agile at all, we had been foolish. I learned that ”Agile” did require some planning and consideration after all, it was just that we should be planning things differently. So for me personally, it was back to the drawing board.

The key question of proper is ”How can we distinguish between good decisions and bad ones”? This is obviously not a new question, but in the age of Agile, it’s importance has increased dramatically. Our operating environment seems to require more and more speed and whilst we can perhaps alter our mindset for this, faster decision-making also introduces significant dangers.

In the ”good old days” all we needed to ask ourselves was this: Should
we do this?

With the front end now being considerably more complex, the original
question must now be phased into three steps:

1. Should we experiment with this?
2. After the experiments, does this still look attractive and feasible?
3. Should we do this?

Moderation is one of the virtues parents always try to instill in their children. We were told that excessive use of anything was to be strictly avoided. Organisations, however, do not have parents moderating their behaviour. Unleashed, organised groups of people typically try too much, try to fix everything and try to do it immediately. In the Agile age, the dangers of this operating style are growing exponentially. This is especially the case if the word ”Agile” is misinterpreted and reduced to mere speed and flexibility. It certainly is about speed and flexibility, but it must be about many other things at the same time.

We are witnessing the most rapid transformation of the business environment ever. Changing factors continue adding complexity to our world. Still, every leader has been assigned fixed goals, and these goals often have fixed metrics attached to them. Doing nothing is obviously not an option, so we must do something. Not knowing exactly what we should be doing in order to avoid the anxiety of doing nothing, we often end up doing just anything, even if it would not help achieve any goals. In psychology this phenomenon is called ”action bias”, and in business life it’s called ”dynamic behaviour”.

Modern business environments also seem to demand that decision making is ”efficient”, which is often misinterpreted to mean ”quick and dirty”. There is no time to get to a profound and clear decision. More and more large companies proclaim themselves ”Agile” and my guess is that each board member would give a different answer from the true meaning of the word in their public statement.

Even if some of the aggressive transformations have succeeded, I believe most of them have not. We just rarely get to hear of enterprises that have failed because of their too ”dynamic” behaviours. To a random observer, their ”dynamicity” and ”agility” might have seemed closer to aimless charging back and forth.

So, there seems to be quite a few risks involved. What are the risks, and how are we to avoid those?

When a human being sees something that needs fixing, we naturally want to get it fixed. This is basically a good thing, but without moderation we can drift towards obsessive behaviour, both as individuals and groups. Organisations can stray to ”binge-eating”, or meaning of fulfilling their real needs by conducting some useless, surrogate activites.

Doing something just for doing something’s sake is not to be confused with controlled experimenting. Actually, we should be promoting increased experimentation, feasibility studies, research, quick prototyping or Lean Service Creation just to name a few examples. This should be a strategic decision, and there should be a target for
the minimum amount of feasibilibity work conducted at the front end of the implementation pipeline.

Naturally there should also be an upper limit for the amount of pre-project work undertaken. In case we do not define and enforce this range, we are intentionally generating a risk factor. If we do not experiment with new things, we will soon lag behind our competitors. If we experiment too much, we risk the actual delivery of new
products or ser-vices to the marketplace. In the end, it is a matter of balance between two ends. This risk factors become even stronger if our strategy and vision statement is too broad, so that they do not focus our direction. A strategy that wants everything gets nothing.

What should we do if all or some of these stories sound too familiar?

When planning a new governance model, at least some of the following themes should be considered:

1. Despite of any warnings or instructions, a human being (or even a CEO) will still want it all. Systems or models can never fully prevent us from blocking the smooth flow by initiating too many efforts simultaneously. A system should prompt us towards self-control and responsible behavior through indicating what is possible right now and what is not.

2. Even the most transparent information system does not substitute for profound dialogue between people. A shared understanding of the matters often requires a vast amount of discussion. A governance model should not alienate us from human interaction, but call for an authentic dialogue.

3. Transparency requires openness, and each one of us should keep our true goals visible for others to see. It’s the ideas that should be competing with each other, not the individuals involved. Transparency is also a key word when designing the technical solutions around PPM strategy.

4. While we should seize new opportunities, we should still choose our battles wisely. Guidelines and processes do not eliminate the need for intuition and experience, they should on the contrary provide a framework for our ideas to flourish.

5. Everyone loves their own ideas and abandoning them is painful. However, with more and more ideas on the table, non-feasible ones must be discarded quicker than ever before. We must ”fail fast”.

6. An Agile governance model must have an inescapable, built-in flow. Output must be predictable, and opportunities must progress steadily. Less mature ideas must give way to more viable ones, and less profitable opportunities must wait for the more attractive ones to be implemented first. The implementation pipeline should be kept separate, and once an idea gets to the actual implementation phase, it should not be interrupted any more.

7. If the ”dynamicity delusion” prevails, decision-making can become random or arbitrary, resulting in increasing amounts of unfinished or wasted work. In systemic thinking, the outer control loop – the decisionmaking – must have the slowest cycle, otherwise the system will start oscillating.

8. Driving in fog with a 10-metre visibility can be nerve-wrecking and panicked reactions cannot always be avoided. Personal tolerance for uncertainty is vital, but this is not a natural talent for most of us and needs to be learned.

All this sets demands to our strategy and vision. Both of them have to be carefully crafted and also carefully communicated. A vision statement, for instance, must be at the same time inspiring and practical and this is not easy to achieve. If our vision is not practical enough, it does not support us in our Agile choices.
On one hand Agile leadership is just common sense. On the other hand, however, some parts of it are counter-intuitive. Consequently, whatever framework we build for governing our operations, it must support both transparency of decision-making and full visibility to the available resources.

The most surefire way to fail is to remain in the action bias mindset and deliver fast decisions just for decisions’ sake. Another way of avoiding success is to decide everything alone, without discussing the content of ideas thoroughly with the other stakeholders.

Teppo Nurminen
CEO of Project Institute Finland

Teppo is a leading thinker on all elements of Project Management, Change Management and developing best practices within PPM and has over 25 years of experience.

Date: Tuesday 21st March 2017
Time: 9.00am to 12.30pm
Location: Google Campus, Shoreditch, London
Cost: Free

Click here to book

The theme of the event is the journey to Agile from traditional project management methods and exploring the role of innovation within organisations.

With expert speakers from some of the leading project management organisations and inspirational innovators, you will be able to take away some unique insights and opinions.

Refreshments and breakfast will be provided to all delegates and there will be lots of opportunities for networking.

Agenda

09.00 Registration/Breakfast on Arrival
09.30 Dean Latchana
10.00 Agile Change from Adrian Pyne
10.30 Networking Break
11.00 Scandinavian Approach to Project Management from Veijo Hytti
11.45 How To Innovate from Josh Valman
12.30 Close/Networking

Speakers

Venue

Campus London (A Google Space)
4-5 Bonhill Street
London EC2A 4BX

Getting to Project Innovation 2017
Nearest Tube Stations: Old Street or Moorgate

Sponsored by

There’s so much change that’s so critical to how the working world operates – and you could be shaping that change.

Technology at Keto Software

Technology is embedded throughout our cloud based solutions and underpins all we do – we create cutting edge innovation platforms that allows thousands of people and operations globally to become more innovative and to run better projects.

How will Keto Software help me grow?

Our team is growing rapidly, as is the range of services we provide. So we’re investing heavily in growing the skills and knowledge of our technology professionals. From your in-depth knowledge to your general business and personal skills, you’ll always keep learning.
You will be working on high-profile innovation change projects for some of the leading businesses and organisations around such as Siemens, Boots and HMRC from day one.

Training and Development

As you learn on the job and in specific technological skills, you’ll be part of our unique development programme. We’ll support you in all the training you need to become the very best technology professional you can be.
This starts with a week-long residential course at our Helsinki Technology Centre for all new technology graduates.

Scandinavian Roots

Keto Software has been established for just over 10 years from the company headquarters just outside of Helsinki in Finland. You will experience first-hand the Scandinavian work culture of fairness, equality, professionalism and a positive work/life balance in everything that we do.

Locations

We operate all over the world, and with a global perspective in everything we do.
The main UK technology operations are located in Manchester, Bristol and the Isle of Man.

Entry Requirements

You are eligible to apply for this programme if you are studying for an honours degree or have graduated with an honours degree.

Send your CV and covering letter to gavin.stark@ketosoftware.com

Date: Wednesday 19th October 2016
Time: 9.00am to 12.30pm
Location: MediaCityUK, Manchester
Cost: Free

Click here to book

The theme of the event is the journey to Agile from traditional project management methods and exploring practical approaches on how to manage this process.

With expert speakers from some of the leading project management organisations, you will be able to take away some unique insights and opinions.

Lunch and breakfast will be provided to all delegates and there will be lots of opportunities for networking.

Agenda

09.00 Registration/Breakfast on Arrival
09.30 Path to Agile from Ian Carroll
10.00 Making Projects Human from Brian Wernham
10.30 Networking Break
10.45 Scandinavian Approach to Project Management from Veijo Hytti
11.30 Applying Lean UX from Imran Younis
12.00 Networking Lunch

Speakers

	Ian Carroll Ian is a Brickell Key Award winner in 2015, consultant, coach and speaker on all topics related to Lean, Kanban and Agile software development. Using his 25 years of hands-on experience he helps clients transform their organisations using Kanban and other Lean and Agile techniques. Ian has trained and coached hundreds of software development teams in Agile, Lean, and Kanban techniques and has broken new ground by scaling lean principles to the portfolio level and beyond.
	Brian Wernham Brian Wernham has more than 30 years’ experience in adaptive change program leadership. He has worked at the National Audit Office drafting reports for the Public Accounts Committee and has extensive international hands-on delivery leadership experience in USA, UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany and offshore in Bangalore. Brian is a Board member of the Association for Project Management and a Fellow of the APM and also the BCS with an MBA from Henley Management College.
	Veijo Hytti Veijo has gathered a unique experience in global branding and digital business both in multinational corporations, agencies and growth companies. At Keto Software, Veijo has been working with many leading organisations in Scandinavia and Switzerland on improving their return on innovation through the adoption of lean methodologies within project teams.
	Imran Younis Imran is an award winning User Experience Designer and international speaker. His career spans over 15 years, producing great user experience strategies for world-class brands and Fortune 500 companies. He has helped teams build great products, based on understanding their users in public, private and start-up companies.

Venue

OnThe7th (www.onthe7th.co.uk)
7th floor
The Landing
Blue Tower
MediaCityUk
Salford
M50 2ST

The entrance to The Landing can be found at the side of The MediaCityUK Studios, opposite Costa Coffee.

Getting to Project Management North

By Car – 10 minutes from Manchester City Centre, (Sat Nav: M50 2EQ for NCP car park)
By Air – 20 minutes from Manchester Airport, 40 minutes from John Lennon Airport (Liverpool)
By Train – Well connected to Piccadilly, Victoria and Deansgate via the MediaCityUK tram
By Bus – Serviced by the CityConnect50, X50, 79 and 245 bus routes

Sponsored by

What do we mean with a POC?

• Gathering feedback, learning and evolving in workshops
• Matching the software with your own processes
• Minimizing project risks before engaging
• Collaborating to align expectations
• Defining success
• Proofing of the planned and expected results / performance
• Basis for the detailed Keto offer

Targets of POC

• To understand the common organisational interests, differences and challenges in order to jointly define a solution which builds on your strengths
• To experience the value Keto can provide in the digital transformation of your business
• To find and to share the mutual understanding and best practices to develop the leading innovation programme

Summary of our generic implementation process consists of the following stages:

1. Project set up

• Virtual or personal meeting for demo and presentation

2. POC set up and intensive use during 4 weeks

Workshop 1 Discovery

• Background, targets and expectations
• Benchmarking & best practices  Your own ”Touch”
• Identifying your high potential / low risk topics
• Definition the POC coverage – depth vs. width of functonalities
• Specification and parameters of functions for customization
• Tasks and responsibilities
• Kick-off
• 2 weeks Sprint 1: setting up first demo

Virtual follow up sessions when required

Workshop 2 Navigation

• Demo meeting and specifications for Sprint 2
• 2 weeks Sprint 2: demo finalised
• Acceptance meeting
• Feedback meeting for drafting the content of Live use Offer
• In total 4 weeks POC duration

Review and Feedback

• User feedback
• Review of concept
• Return on results
• Changes and improvements
• Input for detailed offer

Investment
A fixed price based on number of functions – this amount will be credited when contract for Keto will be signed after POC.

3. Proposed Live use after go decision

• Pilot adjustments for Sprint 3-6
• Integrations
• Training of key users
• Launch communication
• Pilot acceptance
• Pilot for limited use
• Global roll-out