In large projects there is a built-in tension between the end users in the organization (end customer) and the organization itself (the major customer). Confused? Me too.. still don't panic! The problem with this definition, which is common in the market and important, is because if we do not know how to correctly define who the client is, the essence of our role as a representative of the client side in the project will cease to exist.
If we go to the seemingly dry definitions, the sponsor Sponsor is the person who authorized the project manager, and can be the owner, the financier, the client, the project management. The sponsor is the owner of the business plan of the project and therefore we will call him for the sake of illustration "the big customer". The customer is the party that is supposed to receive the final product of the project, he is the one who will meet the reality whether he met the dream or not and he is the one who will actually use it and as far as it seems he will also be the one who is entrusted with the joint operation and maintenance of the final product, hopefully planned ahead of time with Defining a learning period for getting to know the project's products, which will of course be defined as part of the delivery and acceptance of the project's product, hereinafter referred to as the "end customer". For the sake of illustration, I will give a number of illustrations from different worlds, which we will discuss in this article.
An entrepreneur decided to establish a server farm (Data Center) to provide a response to large companies - who is the client in the project? Are you setting up the server farm or the end users who will require the use of the farm?
A technology company decided to gather all its divisions to one campus in the center of the country, who is the customer? The company or the divisions?
A command in the IDF decided to gather all its wings into one base in the center of the country, who is the client? The command or the wings?
As part of the projects we manage with clients in both the security market and the business market, we encounter this dilemma time and time again! It is not for nothing that Dviewsion's vision is to form a bridge between the large client (hereafter the organization) and the client at the end (hereafter the end users) and in front of the planning and execution factors, thus bridging the dream and the reality that the end users will encounter.
The distinction between the types of customers is important and critical and we should not confuse them because in the end they are all important for the promotion of the common interests in the project. The term "customer" has many definitions and different meanings in different contexts. The largest client, often in its broadest definition, is the client involved on behalf of the organization in the project as a professional who manages the resources and strategic decisions that affect the project in the field of finance, procurement, legal advice, etc. The end customer is the main user for whom the functionality is critical, and for whom the project should serve him in his current work directly or indirectly, therefore it is recommended and desirable to hear his opinion and share in every decision before the new building/campus is "dropped" on him. (By the way, both types of customers are often partners in the direct or indirect use of resources and will therefore be partners in the same sectors..)
We learn over time that the larger the project in terms of establishing a campus for example, the more significant gap will be created for the organization between the initiation phase in which apparently individual characterization will be carried out with all the end customers and the occupancy phase in which the end customer is critical to the phase of absorbing the campus and managing it with all that implies and its ability to contain And manage the joint operation and maintenance system in one clear day!
Therefore, it is important to understand that managing the client side of a project for the benefit of a large organization does not come to serve only one party, but a number of parties that are an integral part of the project, and our main task is to know how to bridge the parties at all stages of the project - from initiation to occupancy within the organization, in order to create a single front Uniform towards our partners outside the organization and above all not to confuse the subcontractors as to who the client is!
Comments