[00:00:00.000] - Chris
In this episode of Great Practices, I'm talking with Tom Clement, Global Vice President of Sales with OpenText. Listen in as our first repeat guest, back by popular demand, of course, talks about how the Internet of Things or IoT projects are transforming the project management and PMO landscape. You'll discover how companies are implementing and benefiting from IoT projects, the challenges they bring to the PMO and project management profession, and four areas is, you need to make sure that you're proficient in to successfully ride this wave. Plus, uncover the one skill you'll need as a project manager or PMO leader to ensure you can successfully ride this next wave of projects without falling off the board and getting washed out. It's hard to say when something is a best practice, but it's much easier to know when something is a great practice. And that's what this podcast is all about. Interviews with PMO and project management leaders who, through years of trial and error, have discovered their own great practices and are now sharing their insights with you. Now, sit back and enjoy the conversation as Chris Kopp uncovers another great practice in this episode. We'd like to welcome you to Great Practices, and today is an all-time first on the podcast.
[00:01:22.030] - Chris
Back by popular demand, we have our first repeat guest, Tom Clement. Now, you may remember Tom from his conversation exactly one year ago about how to manage complex projects. This was the episode where he not only provided valuable insight into the top three challenges and solutions for managing complex technical projects, but he also inspired himself with his own quote about the definition of leadership. It's episode 22. Be sure to check it out if you missed it. You'll be inspired, too. Today, Tom is going to be discussing another relevant topic, The Challenges what is surrounding IoT projects and how you can succeed as a project manager or PMO leader. Here's a question for you. Are the projects that you were managing 10 years ago different than what you were managing five years ago? And are those different from what you're managing today? Well, of course they are. Technology, customer needs, capabilities, they keep changing. So let's keep going. The projects you're going to be managing in the next 5 to 10 years, probably the next 2-4 years with how quickly everything is changing is going to be different than what you're managing today. That's what Tom is going to bring us up to speed on, is what the next wave of projects is going to look like and what you can do to prepare yourself to be ready to ride that wave.
[00:02:45.820] - Chris
Tom, welcome back to Great Practices.
[00:02:48.580] - Tom
Thank you so much, Chris. It's so happy to be your very first, repeat podcast assist. This is great. Thanks so much for inviting me. The topic is right on the way you framed it, how quickly things are evolving in the project management discipline. In this particular space, it's really fascinating. I think it's going to be an interesting topic for your audience.
[00:03:12.800] - Chris
All right. Well, we're looking forward to it. For For the years that weren't on last time, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what it is that you do?
[00:03:20.480] - Tom
Sure. I am a global vice president of sales. I have been a technologist in both sales and service delivery in a number of different companies, most notably where I'm at now, OpenText, and I have responsibility for a few solutions here. We're going to focus and highlight our IoT business, the Internet of Things.
[00:03:44.280] - Chris
Sounds good. As we referenced in the beginning, technology is like the ocean. It just comes in waves. What are some of the waves that you've seen? You said you've been in technology for a while now. What are some of the waves that you've seen that have washed up on shore already that we've already lived through.
[00:04:04.410] - Tom
Yeah. You and I lived through one of those waves quite a while ago. But there are a multitude of technology waves, and we could debate which ones are the most relevant and impactful. But the key wave from my standpoint have been the convergence of voice and data. So that goes all the way back to the telecom days. Then the advent of the Internet itself. Obviously, that was a huge game changer for project managers. Then the mobile revolution. So the advent of all that power and all that technology harnessed in the palm of your hand. And in parallel with the mobile revolution with SaaS, so software as a service, and now companies are taking computing and infrastructure, and they're taking it out into hosted environments. It expanding their solutions, and then the cloud. So with the cloud, now you have companies taking everything off their balance sheets and off their prem and moving it out to service providers. I would characterize the new revolution, the now revolution as IoT.
[00:05:17.010] - Chris
Okay, that's fair. So these waves just keep coming and coming and coming. I'm just reflecting back on this. What do you think this is? Has been maybe the past 25 to 30 years of these These waves that have just continued to change?
[00:05:32.540] - Tom
Yeah, that's exactly what it is. It's about 30 years, those waves, every three, four, five years over that time horizon. Yes, that's almost exactly how long. I don't want to admit it, that I've been at it, enjoying being a technologist, helping companies solve their problems. Yes.
[00:05:55.010] - Chris
Well, you must be a good surfer then. I think that's all that that says right there. You're able stay on the board, so that's great. What is your definition of the Internet of Things? What are these IoT projects going to look like going forward?
[00:06:09.290] - Tom
Iot is such an amorphous term, and the specific definition of it is any machine or device connected via fixed wire or wireless communication to the Internet, and then being able to transmit information in one form or another to and from those devices. And the second piece of this now, which has almost become part of the definition of IoT, is AI. So a lot of people are referring to it as A, IoT, and The A stands for Artificial Intelligence, and AI is the simulation of human intelligence being processed by machines, especially computing systems. So in our company, we call that Aviator IoT. Iot. The way we view the world is, Aviator is in our family of generative AI capabilities. We leverage large language models and private data sets, and then we help solve specific use cases. So think of it this way, Chris. Iot is the ability to deploy, instrument, and infer data across the vast multitude of people, systems, and things.
[00:07:27.220] - Chris
So in examples, have there been any examples examples of how you've seen IoT being deployed in the marketplace?
[00:07:34.400] - Tom
In terms of a continuum. Continuum meaning components that are tied together over time, and a continuum should be Seamless, ultimately. There's solution elements that companies... What are the solution elements and what are companies doing to benefit? There's four things. First, it's the type of devices. In In order to collect data from an IoT standpoint, you need to be collecting it through devices, and we'll talk a little bit about what that is. Second, what type of data is being collected? Third, the types of data that's being captured from integrating things together? And then finally, what are the use cases? Let's talk about, first of all, the first topic. That was number one, and that's the types of devices. So So out in the market, primarily, and there's a whole bunch, but in the interest of time, primarily, we're talking about three different types of devices: QR codes, Bluetooth low energy devices, and RFID. Qr codes are a machine-readable code. Everybody has seen them, everybody's used them, everybody's put their phone up to them. And a QR code gives you back instant feedback. It gives you a landing page. It helps you to get data and information, primarily in B2B, maybe about a a specific product.
[00:09:01.830] - Tom
And we can talk a little bit more about that later. Then you've got radio frequency identification. That just basically tells you where something is. So when you go through a neighborhood and the gate goes up and your car goes into the neighborhood, an RFID device is on the front of your hood of your car, on your light, it opens the gate and you go in. But it doesn't necessarily tell you where you're going, but it allows you in. So that's RFID. And then the last device or type is a combination maybe of all three. Some QR codes deployed, some Bluetooth low energy devices deployed, and some RFID devices deployed, all at scale, all collecting data. Okay, so let's keep going. What type of data is usually integrated together? It could be device data. It could be existing applications that you have in your business. It could be B2B data across multiple parallels and systems. Then what types of data are we collecting? We're location data, situational data, and automation data.
[00:10:09.400] - Chris
Got it.
[00:10:10.400] - Tom
So location data is, where is my stuff? Situational data is, what's the health of my stuff. Then automation data is if you have a whole bunch of different existing solutions that are deployed across your enterprise and you want one pane of glass, one level of visibility to all that data, putting it in an AI engine, being able to see all of that together. That's what companies are doing in terms of deploying IoT solutions. And then the very last piece of the equation, to make it super simple, is All that complicated stuff that I just explained, what do companies want from deploying all those assets? The top three are consumer feedback of an individual SKU, consumer feedback of my product that's sitting on a shelf. When was it bought? Why did someone buy it? Do they want to buy more? And do they want to get feedback on that particular product? You can do that with a QR code as an example. Consumer feedback It's huge.
[00:11:16.160] - Chris
So fundamentally, it really comes down to you've got the input, you've got the process of what you're going to do with that input, and then you've got the output. Now, let me ask you this. So you've got all of these moving parts, and How are you seeing this change or what challenges does this present to project managers and PMO leaders that are now needing to manage this more complex environment with all these moving parts?
[00:11:44.620] - Tom
There's a new level of complexity here with IoT, especially across geographies. There could and likely would be multiple solution providers involved. You have different types of hardware components, as I just mentioned, and that's a complicated undertaking. You have integration with multiple platforms because you can't really harness the value of a solution like this unless it's scaling. The speed need, which with the PMO office, the project management team, would have to react and be able to walk the customer through those solutions and managing change for that entire ecosystem system once it's deployed. So I would call this, the way I would characterize it, Chris, is it's really global ecosystem management as opposed to project management.
[00:12:41.550] - Chris
That is a whole another level, isn't it? That's been introduced for project managers. My goodness. Global ecosystem management.
[00:12:50.800] - Tom
How does my supply chain operate in China versus how I operate it in Malaysia versus how I operate it in Europe versus how I do business in the US? How do I get my Edge devices deployed? Where do I deploy them? How do I infer once I collect that data? And how do I do that continuously over time? That's a huge job for an SME-level program management office.
[00:13:17.690] - Chris
Yeah, there's no doubt about that. So what skills do you see that these program managers, these project managers of the future, are going to need to have in order to successfully ride this wave, this IoT wave?
[00:13:33.190] - Tom
Many of them already have them. I have my top four, but there's probably more. I would say it starts with subject matter level understanding of AI and machine learning. How are those technologies being deployed? What are the best use cases? And IoT and AI are converging. Gartner predicted that 80% of enterprise IoT projects will involve some AI component in 2023, 2024. That's number one. Eighty %. Eighty %, yeah. Pms really understand, what is it? What is AI? How does it work? How are people deploying it? How are projects being successful? The second thing is they should have an understanding of mobile app development because mobile apps often control IoT devices. So it's important that IoT PMs at least know how to create user friendly high performance mobile applications, like how that's done. And they're involved in the rollout and the testing and understanding how the performance of the IoT devices interrelate to your mobile app. Number three is API. Iot automation and testing. Now, that's a core skill right now for most PMs. But APIs, they enable IoT devices to exchange real-time data efficiently and accuracy, and they have to be able to communicate with one another.
[00:15:00.630] - Tom
So I think it's important for IoT professionals to be well-versed in API testing. And then the last one would be really important. So a lot of information security professionals are already out there. So they have a really good head start because they already know the importance of the security of protecting Edge devices. They're really in demand right now. Infosec professionals are really in demand in the IoT space. The thing that makes that component most difficult is that there's an array of implementations and devices, and so they have to be real creative and adaptable to customize their security protocols to make sure that these Edge devices are operational but still can meet their security.
[00:15:48.030] - Chris
You keep mentioning edge devices. How would you define that? What is the definition of an edge device?
[00:15:53.580] - Tom
Yeah, it's an individual component or components that are literally deployed at the edge of the network. Let's say you put a Bluetooth low energy device on a steel pallet that costs your company $30,000 to manufacture, and then you want to track those pallets all over the world. The edge device would be that Bluetooth low energy device If it sits on that pallet, it tells you where it is and potentially the health of that pallet.
[00:16:20.730] - Chris
Got it. Basically, it's on the front line. It's on the front line. It's deployed in the field there is what it is.
[00:16:25.840] - Tom
Yeah, the platform is in the middle. That's the brain and the heart. Then the edge devices are the arms and legs to go out. And you got to connect all of that, and you're never done. Because if you're in year two or year three of a deployment, what's really awesome that's happening in the IoT space is The devices are getting much more sophisticated. They're getting much more intelligent and much less costly. That's had a huge impact on IoT deployments, and then secondarily, 5G. So 5G as a spectrum has allowed us to take a wider array of the spectrum in 5G and apply that just to my IoT devices, and I can do that with a secure spectrum, as opposed to commercially available spectrum. There's so many advances out there. That's why IoT has gotten so important and why most companies, if not all, have some level of investment right now to figure out how do I make my supply chain smarter? That's the best way I can describe it. It's already smart. We're already doing it well.
[00:17:28.350] - Chris
How do we do it even better? I want to go back to these four skills that you mentioned. You're basically saying you want to become a SME in AI, right? Mobile app development.
[00:17:41.370] - Tom
Know how it works, at least know how it works and how it's going to apply to your solution.
[00:17:45.970] - Tom
The API automation and testing, and then finally, just information security, understanding how that all works. If you were to bundle it all together, and I think that's the thing, too, is just like, project manager, you're not going to be an expert in all of these things. That's just not your job. But man, does it make a big difference when you can at least talk the language and you can understand what is being said and you understand, obviously, the environment you're working in?
[00:18:11.300] - Tom
Yeah. Chris, those are usually tied to your success criteria for the project, too. So you've written that statement of work, the team's deploying, and how do we know it's successful? Well, the AI engine is working. It's getting the right level to the right attributes and the right details. So it's meaningful. The data has become meaningful to us. I can see it. I can display it anywhere. We've deployed APIs, so they're repeatable and they're scalable. We could deploy those APIs elsewhere and the whole solution is secure. Because if it's not secure, that could present a whole other problem. Yeah.
[00:18:50.380] - Chris
Now, that'll be another episode we'll do.
[00:18:52.390] - Tom
Yeah, maybe in the future. I used to sell managed security solutions years ago. So yeah. And see, I had a background in information security, so that did help me, that has helped me in some ways, at least to be able to understand the importance of creating a digital identity and then allowing that digital identity access rights, and that digital identity could be a person or a thing on a platform.
[00:19:14.590] - Chris
We definitely appreciate this insight into this next wave of projects and programs that are coming. Is there any other advice, Tom, that you would give our listeners to manage these types of projects as well as keep up with these changes? You're talking about becoming proficient in all of these areas. How do you How can you even do that? How can you keep up with all these improvements and enhancements that are coming?
[00:19:35.560] - Tom
I think number one is to have the ability to adapt and change as a project manager. This is an incredibly relevant topic. It's here. It's not new. It's been around for a while, but it's definitely presenting itself in a totally different way because of AI. I think one of the most significant contributions of AI is its ability to analyze vast amounts of data quickly and more accurately. It's the insights, it's the analysis. That's what's happening. Then what you do with that is you have informed decisions about key operational aspects such as cost savings, new revenue streams. I mean, these projects are really tied so tightly now to business results. And those PMs and PMOs that can deploy these technologies quickly and accurately, understand all the components, the complexities, can put an accurate project schedule together and then hold everybody accountable. It's a very difficult task, but it's a rewarding task for sure, and very important for all companies at this point.
[00:20:41.840] - Chris
So core fundamental project management practices will still be needed, and then we just got to layer that with this new education and this new technology and the new way of doing things and ride that way for the next 2-4 years. Then who knows what's after that?
[00:20:56.370] - Tom
Or longer, but you absolutely nailed it. Yeah, those I think these four principles that we've grown up with are never going to change for project managers, but there are new components of learning that have to be adopted to.
[00:21:09.900] - Chris
I think, and you use the word, and I love the word, adaptability. Because if you just think you're going to keep doing what you're always doing, you're going to wipe out on that wave is what's going to happen. You just got to be adaptable and change the times. Tom, what is the best way for someone to contact you if they want to learn more about this IoT and how this is going to be changing the world going forward? What's the best way to reach you?
[00:21:31.890] - Tom
Just hit me up on LinkedIn. I'm a LinkedIn person. I'm in LinkedIn every day. I love communicating with people that way and looking at other people, what they're doing with their businesses. I think LinkedIn has become an ecosystem. It's a way we all communicate. I'm right out there, Tom Clement. You can look me up there and make new connections every day with peers. I've got some mentors out there. I've got a whole bunch of people that I have worked with over the years. It's a very small world that we're all operating in right now.
[00:22:05.430] - Chris
It sure is. All right. Well, we'll also include that in the show notes, your LinkedIn profile, and we'll look forward to having you on maybe the third time in the near future.
[00:22:15.420] - Tom
That could be. I could set an all-time record at that point. No one ever could get to achieve that.
[00:22:20.630] - Chris
Exactly. All right, Tom. Well, thanks for jumping on today. It was a pleasure talking to you.
[00:22:25.020] - Tom
All right. Take care. Thanks a lot for the time. See you.
[00:22:29.730] - Chris
That was another great episode of Great Practices today, and we appreciate Tom joining us for the second time, and we'll be definitely looking forward to number three coming up. So what were some of these great practices and insights that came from this episode and talking with Tom? Well, I liked really looking at technology as different waves. We went through the waves that we've been through already, the convergence of data, Internet, mobile revolution, software as a service, It's cloud. Now, the next wave right now is the Internet of Things, and arguably AI, obviously. And so what? This has all gone over the past 25 or 30 years. So every four or five years, there's going to be another wave of technology and different types of projects that's going to wash up on the shore that we, as project managers and PMO leaders, need to be prepared for. How about his succinct definition of the Internet of Things? The The ability to deploy, instrument, and transfer data across a vast multitude of people, systems, and things. That really describes what the environment is that we're working in now. So that means that companies, when they're talking about this, They need to understand what types of devices they're going to use.
[00:23:48.220] - Chris
They're going to need to understand what types of data are going to be needed. And then what that data that is being captured from these different devices, what is it that they're going to do with it? So there's all of these different aspects of projects that maybe you didn't have to think about that so much before, but now that's just going to be par for the course for these new types of projects that we're managing. Speaking of these new types of projects that we're managing, how does the IoT type of project change the way that we are managing projects? Well, there's a lot more players involved right now, isn't there? There's the solution providers that Tom was bringing out, the different hardware providers. There's integration with multiple platforms. There's a necessity for speed to get to market faster. And he was really talking about, you need to view it as this global ecosystem management. He gave the example, you have to know how you're operating in China versus Malaysia versus the US versus Europe. So these IoT projects make that possible, but we need to be prepared as project managers and PMO leaders in order to make that happen.
[00:25:03.080] - Chris
So what skills has he successfully seen project managers bring to the table that can ride this wave? Four aspects. Here they are. You need to become a SME of AI and machine learning. Have an understanding of mobile app development. Have an understanding of API automation and testing, and finally, be familiar with information security. Now, it's not like you have to be an expert in all of these, and I know I use the word SME of AI and machine learning, but you need to be familiar and knowledgeable enough. And literally, that is as easy as just beginning to take courses. There are so many great courses in any of these aspects of managing IoT courses that you can take through LinkedIn learning, through Udeme, whatever. You can just at least become familiar with the concepts and the idea and the terminology and the vocabulary, and then begin to apply that towards the projects that you're managing. And finally, ask them the question about, how can you keep up with all of these improvements and these enhancements and these changes that's going on in the marketplace? It was the key point that he brought out that was just absolutely critical for anybody in this space, is the ability to adapt and change.
[00:26:25.140] - Chris
So if you got that adaptable gene, I guess, in your system, or the the ability to realize that what you're going to be doing tomorrow is different than today, and you're always going to be preparing for that, you're going to do okay. If, however, you find yourself being inflexible, and we've always done it this way, and this is the way that we're going to always do it, you can forget about it. You're going to be on that wave that is absolutely going to wash you out of this new market that is opening up with these IoT projects. And if you couple that with an understanding of the importance of business results, and then the basics of project management and PMO management, project schedules, resource management, risk management, communication plans. If you pull all of that together, you've got a recipe for being able to really ride that next wave all the way to the beach, where you can get back out again and do it again in the next four or five years. So again, we'd like to thank Tom for being on today. And if you have a great practice that you'd like to share, go to thepmoleader.
[00:27:31.220] - Chris
Com, click on Explore, Great Practices podcast, and then fill out the form at the bottom of the screen. Someone will get in touch with you shortly. And be sure not to miss a single episode by subscribing to Great Practices on your favorite podcast platform. And if you like what you hear, we've had some great episodes and great guests. We've got many more to come. Be sure to share this podcast with your manager, colleagues, and any others you think would benefit. Thanks for listening to this episode today, and keep putting great practices into practice.
