MarketScope for Project and Portfolio Management Software Applications

This MarketScope includes project and portfolio management (PPM) providers that primarily offer on-premises and/or cloud-hosted deployments of their PPM applications. These providers often come from a traditional on-premises PPM software product background, and have been operating in the PPM space for many years. To address mounting market needs for PPM SaaS,¹ they introduced cloud-hosted deployment as an additional option for their customers and prospects. Deployment of a cloud-hosted application is one of many approaches to offering PPM software as a service (SaaS), so it is not unusual to see providers covered in this research refer to their "on demand" or "SaaS" options for PPM customers (see Note 1).

As on-premises and/or cloud-hosted PPM providers, the companies included in this MarketScope are rising to meet the challenges of portfolio, program or project management office (PMO) leaders, program/project managers and resource managers that continue to struggle with:

• Selecting programs and projects and executing them at the "right" time
• Matching and/or balancing supply (human resources, time or money) with demand (investments, programs, projects and unplanned work)
• Monitoring and reporting project status and expenditures to date
• Improving project execution efficiency
• Proactively addressing emergencies on projects
• Addressing changes to the existing and planned projects triggered by shifts in business direction

The PPM products in this research are very mature and robust (see Note 2), in most cases, representing over a decade's worth of product evolution. When choosing a product covered in this MarketScope,² if you decide to deploy it in the cloud using one of these providers, then you will have the same high level of flexibility in outsourcing, customizing, configuring and extending (through integration) your own instance of the PPM product, as you would if you installed the same product on-premises. One difference, though, in choosing cloud-hosted from one of these providers instead of on-premises, is that the subscription-based pricing models allow you to lease, not own, that dedicated instance. As a result, the providers can pass on to the customer some built-in cost savings in choosing cloud-hosted over on-premises deployment of their applications.

Because cloud-hosted is not far removed from traditional hosting of an on-premises instance of a PPM application, customers should expect deep levels of functionality, with the flexibility to customize, configure and extend the PPM product as they see fit. Customers can even choose to physically move their instance in-house with some degree of ease, if they so desire.

As an example, a large engineering firm's IT department recently deployed a PPM software application from a vendor included in this MarketScope. The firm initially selected a cloud-hosted deployment option as a means for staging its deployment incrementally into an existing and complex IT environment. The firm was able to focus on configuration and customization of a dedicated instance in the cloud. Once the firm was comfortable with the system's level of stability and initial adoption and use by a core set of end users, it moved the same dedicated instance on-premises and completed the remainder of its full implementation by integrating the PPM system with other third-party enterprise systems once it physically moved the instance on-site.

As you review the providers and products in this research, you will see that there are small, midsize and large providers offering on-premises and/or cloud-hosted PPM applications. Pricing, therefore, will vary among these providers. Often, midsize and smaller providers in this research offer cost-competitive alternatives with standard, practical functionality. You can expect that large providers offer powerful and robust functionality at a premium price point.

This MarketScope for PPM applications is part of Gartner's PPM Market Universe body of research (see "PPM Market Universe: Using Our PPM Magic Quadrants, MarketScopes and Roundups").

Choosing a PPM provider and PPM products and services is much like shopping for a car. When looking for a car, there are many options, in the form of models, styles, colors, financing and gas mileage, as well as maintenance schedules and service agreements. There are choices also to be made among lower-cost models and options, and higher-cost models and options.

Gartner PPM inquiries indicate a high level of confusion among PPM clients because, much like car shopping, there are so many options. Often, there are trade-offs that go unnoticed during the selection process until after critical choices of provider, product and deployment mode are made. It is as if the person looking for a great deal on a hybrid car was presented with a car-sharing option (for example, Zipcar) with a low monthly fee at the 11th hour. Presently, the market for PPM applications is being disrupted by service providers leveraging SaaS and cloud computing. The most entrenched providers in this market are offering solutions that sustain their traditional market presence, while relatively new entrants lead with alternative solutions such as SaaS (see Note 3). The dynamics of dramatic change we see in the market are caused by the effects of the disruptive innovation of cloud and SaaS on this fairly mature market.³

In the process of assisting many organizations in selecting PPM technologies, we have found it helpful and necessary to distinguish two market spaces. One is driven by user wants and needs to exploit a product-based application (deployed on-premises or cloud-hosted) and is covered in this MarketScope. The other is driven by those looking for a cloud-based subscription service. For Gartner's perspective on cloud-based PPM application services, see "Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Based Project and Portfolio Management Services."

What Is an On-Premises/Cloud-Hosted PPM Provider?

On-premises and cloud-hosted PPM providers offer deployment options allowing their customers and prospects to deploy a dedicated instance of their PPM applications on-site at the customer's facility, and/or in the cloud, in a hosting environment offered by the provider as a "service." These providers almost always have a historical past of providing on-premises deployment of PPM software. However, at some point, as SaaS infiltrated the PPM market, the fastest and least-disruptive route for these on-premises and traditional hosting providers to address increasing demand for PPM SaaS was to retool their hosting services, resources and sales models to support cloud-hosted delivery of their applications for customers.

Although some minor coding changes to the products may have been required by the providers to shift from on-premises to cloud-hosted offerings, most of the product improvements these providers made to embrace SaaS were to their existing traditional hosting environments and server farms. This often involved mainly improving elasticity on the hardware and networking side. Pricing models were then adjusted so that these providers could offer subscription-based or "SaaS" pricing, in addition to the perpetual and other types of on-premises licensing already provided. Subsequently, these providers marketed these new offerings as "SaaS" or "on demand."

In applying this SaaS strategy and executing on a SaaS-based business transformation, these PPM providers were able to make "ownership" of a dedicated instance of the applications optional for customers, compared to the historical practice of ownership of a PPM instance tied to on-site licensing. The contract and licensing durations of these cloud-hosted offerings, however, remain relatively the same as on-premises and typically span multiple years per contract period. Although there are always some limited exceptions to this fact, offering and securing multiyear contracts is the standard business practice by providers in this MarketScope.

SaaS configuration and installation times, effort and cost of the products in this MarketScope are comparable to those of on-premises deployment of the same. Just as rich, robust functionality and flexibility, coupled with high levels of control reserved for the customer, are hallmarks of on-premises and cloud-hosted PPM products, setup, training, and ongoing maintenance and support can carry with it the risks of heightened levels of complexity, increased duration, and additional costs in professional services and consulting before, during and after implementation, compared to PPM application services offered by cloud-based PPM service providers (see "Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Based Project and Portfolio Management Services").

On-Premises/Cloud-Hosted PPM Providers Target Two Types of PPM Customers

There are two main types of PPM software buyers with differing PPM needs looking at products in the market:

• Execution-level PPM customers — Project managers, resource managers, and team members interested in a project and resource management product to manage the tactical details of project execution and, using reporting services, communicate progress and expenditures back to business sponsors and management.
• Project portfolio-level PPM customers — Business sponsors, steering committees and/or PMOs interested in creating project-related decision frameworks, selecting specific projects based on those frameworks, planning the delivery of those projects or investments, tracking those investments at a high level, and reporting on these activities.

PPM for the Execution-Level Customer

All the providers and products featured in this MarketScope provide centralized request, demand, project, resource and time management capabilities. Reporting services can provide consolidated visibility into the current state of projects, resources and spending. These applications support detailed project or work record creation, scheduling and leveling, resource management and allocation, time reporting, and cost management, among other PPM processes. Reporting services, including portfolio-style reporting, can aggregate the data the system collects from users performing these activities within the PPM system.

Integration with other adjacent systems, including IT management systems (such as help desk), also allows users to funnel different types of work items other than formally defined "projects" into the PPM system to do one or more of the following:

• Capture nonproject resource demand
• Source and allocate nonproject work
• Track the use of resources on nonproject and other work items
• Track the cost of managing nonproject and other work items

Some execution-side PPM configurations can be flexible enough to provide lighter versions of their project and resource management features as an alternative to traditional service desk and trouble ticket management systems. Still, other PPM providers offer general-purpose project creation mechanisms to support different types of projects from different areas of an enterprise, such as marketing, sales, legal, events management, advertising, and other campaign- or regulatory-style work activities.

As an example, an IT department of 150 people in the financial services industry recently acquired a PPM software system to manage the daily task and assignment-level time reporting, project record tracking and data collection, and reporting services to communicate better with its customers (the business) when they would ask questions about the status of their projects. This IT department was not interested in functionality that would help different managers make decisions about what investments in IT they should make and which ideas for investment were the most significant and important. This department is managing approved demand as it comes into its work pipeline. The decisions about one project or idea over another had already been made. This department pursued an execution-level PPM system to help coordinate the collection of data that would lead to better reporting and communication with its customers, while also helping itself better manage the supply and demand imbalances it experiences every day.

Value for PPM customers fitting the previous example is increased when the users interact more often with multiple PPM modules at the lowest levels of work management detail. Adoption among project managers and team members for their daily work efforts is, therefore, critical to successfully deploying the PPM software. Additionally, applying social networking and collaboration features and functions in a PPM context within an execution-side PPM deployment can aid or accelerate daily end-user adoption of the PPM system because it can curb tendencies of project team members to go outside of the PPM system to handle communication and data sharing during project execution activities.

For the execution-level PPM customer, project portfolio reporting services can be the "shiny object" that will convince management of the value in automating execution-level processes. Often, an accurate, working assumption in those cases is that management is not interested in anything involving the PPM system itself outside of the reports that can be accessed from it. In execution-side PPM configurations, business managers do not desire to participate in the PPM system beyond having access to reports and personal dashboards.

PPM for the Project Portfolio-Level Customer

Alternatively, project portfolio-level PPM customers will often look for a top-down, stand-alone system that does a lot more than just portfolio-style project reporting, and does it without disrupting the way a project manager works on a daily basis, or dictating the methods or tools project managers use every day to manage projects. This top-down system does not carry with it a requirement that project managers and team members be actively using the application every day to aid in how they execute projects.

Among the earliest of project portfolio-level PPM customers were a significant number of companies that believed they must implement PPM software automation at painful levels of detail (such as task- and assignment-level time reporting) in order to put themselves in a position to practice project portfolio management and enhance decision making around projects. Unfortunately, many initial PPM software investments failed when this bottom-up approach to project portfolio management was chosen, due mainly to the high levels of complexity, low levels of adoption and extensive organization change management required to get the entire execution side of a project organization using the same system. Fostering adoption of time reporting alone, among a group of 100 team members and project resources, was a formidable challenge for most.

By automating their project execution activities, the assumption was that these companies would be killing two birds with one stone — optimizing work execution and enhancing their ability to manage project portfolios through reporting services. Project managers were being forced to use unfamiliar and often redundant detailed project scheduling and management tools just to help the organization collect enough data to generate tabular and graphical views to help them make decisions.

The project portfolio-level reporting often failed to achieve what it set out to do, mainly because providing value was too dependent on automating the bowels of daily work management and incremental time reporting. It was not always all "doom and gloom" though. There were also execution-side successes as well, especially when careful attention was paid to things like organization change management and where the PPM practitioners had stronger management support championing the internal PPM effort.

For customers who chose a stand-alone project portfolio management system, rather than trying to automate the activities of detailed project schedule execution, project managers could report at summary levels into this system, rather than become a slave to it at the detailed work breakdown structure (WBS) level.

As an example, an IT PMO in the healthcare industry needed to manage a complex portfolio of programs and projects involving the introduction of state-of-the-art technologies into its network of hospitals and outpatient care facilities. The undertaking involved everything from software and hardware procurement, installation, configuration, coding and testing, to ensuring records handling and data management would be compliant with patient confidentiality and privacy rules and regulations. The projects themselves would call for a number of different, distinct project management and scheduling tools, so the automation of time collection and reporting, as well as standardizing on specific scheduling tool or project methodology, was not as important to them as seeing the overall status and health of the programs and projects at a portfolio level. For this reason, they sought a "portfolio level" tool that did not require the automation of processes at a project execution level, but rather, allowed anyone owning a project or program to communicate at a portfolio level with other owners and business managers.

Recognizing the distinct needs of portfolio-level PPM customers over those of execution-side customers, a number of PPM providers built independent, stand-alone project portfolio and analysis components that could be sold in two ways:

1. As a stand-alone solution disassociated from whatever PPM software systems or applications are being used for project execution
2. Coupled and/or otherwise sold in conjunction with an execution-side PPM system — to support both PPM customer types

The PPM "Sweet Spot"

Gartner has observed a growing trend of organizations focusing on enhancing the collaboration, communication and reporting that targets the information flow between the project manager (the one responsible for managing and monitoring the work) and the project sponsor (the one asking for the work).⁴

Sweet-spot communication and reporting requires a "just enough" approach to the level of detail required to fit the audience. For example, task- and assignment-level time reporting is omitted purposely. Key tasks, milestones or phases might be tracked, but the sweet spot does not otherwise venture any deeper into more detailed PPM activities. The project manager is producing reports that can drive business-level decisions and actions by the recipients, not delivering detailed activity reports. The sweet spot also avoids pinning the hopes of the entire PPM installation on the automation and mass adoption of processes involving project schedule management and task- and assignment-level time reporting.

Many of the providers in this MarketScope support the sweet spot in many ways. The trick is to match your requirements with a provider and product that give you this first-line visibility without introducing too much complexity and change management to the processes you are automating.

PPM and Agile Development Support

Without adding any new, specific functions, PPM systems have the administrative workflow "plumbing" to be configured for agile development environments. PPM providers, however, are not pretending to be agile development software providers or application life cycle management (ALM) providers. There are PPM benefits that can help development teams manage the body of work that fills a demand pipeline, and a PPM application's workflow flexibility can support some of the communication, collaboration and reporting nuances associated with agile development methods like Scrum.

Successful use of a PPM system to support agile development teams at more detailed levels is mainly dependent on how well that system integrates with a developer's typical development processes and environment. Developers do not want to be forced to jump from their development workspaces to an external PPM system to record time on agile development activities. Although most PPM providers have not fully integrated PPM processes with agile development processes to allow a developer to "stay put" when working on agile activities with PPM reporting implications, there is a growing trend of PPM product innovation to provide preconfigured PPM applications supporting collaboration, communication and project portfolio-level reporting for agile development. Providers with existing footholds in application development process software markets are already planning to provide transparent PPM functionality in integrated development environments.

In addition, some of the PPM providers covered in this MarketScope are emphasizing the importance of tying application development activities and reporting into PPM practices supported out of the box in their PPM products. For example, Gartner is tracking a number of integrations and partnerships forged between PPM providers in this MarketScope and providers like Atlassian and its issue- and bug-tracking Jira product, as well as Rally and its products supporting agile development.

PPM, Social Networking and Collaboration

Social networking and collaboration platforms, capabilities, and integration points are beginning to find their way into PPM applications. Gartner is seeing a few different approaches to applying social networking and collaboration in a PPM context. Some providers in this MarketScope are relying on classic and basic communication tools and functions, including issue tracking, threaded discussions, synchronization and integration to and from email systems and applications, and other mechanisms that have been staples of PPM software products for years. Other providers are partnering with social networking and collaboration providers, such as Chatter, Jive and Yammer. Still, others are planning or fully engaged in developing native social networking and collaboration as part of their core products.

Currently, social networking and collaboration in the PPM context seems more like a fad that could someday fade away, rather than become a legitimate mainstay PPM capability. However, if applied in the right context within a PPM system and project environment, the added features and capabilities could one day trigger viral adoption among end users, and adoption is the key to the success of any PPM software investment.

At the moment, partnerships with third-party collaboration platforms and the resulting PPM-to-social networking integrations do not feel much different from leaving a PPM application and going into an email system to discuss a project with team members or other constituents. That may soon change, however, if something more meaningful and useful evolves from this introduction of social networking and collaboration in PPM software functionality. If providers figure out the right amount of social networking and collaboration ingredients, then they should add in their products to drive value for their end users. Those PPM end users will more likely stay inside the PPM software system to collaborate and communicate, rather than leave that system to use outside personal productivity tools and services, like email, to hold PPM discussions.

PPM and Mobile Device Support

Mobile device support is beginning to find its way into the R&D efforts and PPM products of providers included in this MarketScope. Many of these PPM providers are using HTML5 to connect a PPM system to a number of mobile devices, including tablets and smartphones. There seems to be a strong consensus among many of the PPM providers in this MarketScope that building dedicated applications for a series of known wireless and mobile devices available in the field would only create too much overhead and complexity for them. Instead, these providers are mostly leveraging HTML5 development to push specific features and capabilities out to mobile users of their PPM product.

There are three main mobile capabilities these PPM providers are focused on delivering early to their customers. The first one is time reporting, allowing end users to report their time from mobile devices into the PPM system. Second, these providers are also pushing out to mobile devices the ability to approve items within a process flow of a PPM system. This allows managers to approve, for example, time sheets or project ideas or requests, from mobile devices. The third focus is in pushing out executive reporting to mobile devices, so end users (for example, business managers or project managers) can access and view reports and dashboard information generated from a PPM system from their tablet or smartphone.

Consumers should expect slow, but continued and incremental mobile support to appear in their respective PPM products of choice over time, with HTML5 being the main vehicle for delivering it. Providers will be challenged in bringing more and more features and functions to mobile devices, as the nature and characteristics of mobile devices can limit a PPM end user's ability to perform certain functions easily in a PPM system from their tablet or smartphone. For instance, many PPM systems up to this point have been designed to be accessible via browser, and historically, the working assumption was that the browser was being launched from a PC, terminal or laptop device. Tablets and other mobile devices, however, may not always include things like keyboards or a mouse/cursor and, therefore, performing certain functions within a PPM system could prove difficult or even be impossible if attempting to do so through certain mobile devices.

Reasons Why You Might Choose One of These MarketScope PPM Providers Over a Cloud-Based PPM Service

• You want full control over your PPM instance, including the reserved option to outsource/insource your PPM system at will as you see fit, as well as the ability to highly customize and configure it, and integrate it with third-party in-house assets to fit your specific needs.
• You are highly sensitive to data privacy/security issues, and there is no option for you other than on-premises or virtual private cloud implementation.
• You want the most robust, functionally rich PPM capabilities and features.
• You are prepared to make a long-term financial commitment to PPM applications.
• You can plan for an initial implementation that will take 90 days or longer to complete.
• You are at a Level 3 maturity on Gartner's ITScore PPM Maturity Model and require a robust PPM system.
• You have a large target end-user group numbering in the high 100s or even 1,000s, and therefore, it would serve you better to have your own dedicated instance of a PPM system.
• You have sufficient funding and strong management backing for a significant purchase and implementation.
• You have an existing strategic relationship with one of the relevant providers.

Market/Market Segment Description

This portion of the estimated $1 billion PPM market¹ involves some very large providers and some midtier and smaller providers operating in the PPM space for as long as 14 or more years. They offer robust (and, at times, complex) PPM application software products. In a majority of cases, 75% or more of the installed bases for each of the providers in this camp are using on-premises and traditional hosted instances of the provider's PPM product, although these PPM providers also have embraced cloud-hosted as a deployment option they refer to as "on demand" or "SaaS."

These providers predominantly sell multiyear contracts for their software and services. Most of them have also added subscription-based pricing models. Their traditional hosting models have also, in many cases, been adjusted to support cloud-hosted as a deployment option. Implementation times take anywhere from three months to a full year and involve the setup and configuration of a dedicated instance of the software.

Average deal sizes for these providers range from 250 through 350 users per deal, but can easily scale up to as high as thousands of users.

Market Dynamics: Strong Positive Providers and Products

Providers receiving a Strong Positive rating in this MarketScope demonstrate a strong global market presence, depth and breadth in PPM functionality and integration to complementary IT software systems, and a strong commitment to cloud hosting that required these providers to make significant internal changes to accommodate a new business model without disrupting current operations. The development of a cloud-hosted deployment option for customers, a subscription-based pricing model, and key internal organizational and financial reporting changes made within the provider's company to enable this are all hallmarks of PPM providers rated Strong Positive. For these providers, a large percentage of all new sales are now cloud-hosted sales, although they are equally dedicated to deploying and supporting on-premises installations for customers interested in that option. These providers began developing a SaaS strategy as far back as 2007. The PPM functionality provided by these providers is comprehensive. In addition, these providers also provide extensions, bolt-on applications and enhancements, and other complementary products and services to support different types of PPM environments, different types of project and work management practices, different types of portfolio management practices and styles, and several integration points to bring in third-party data from sources external to the PPM system. Prospects should expect to engage in long-term investments with these providers, as their products are robust, but at times can also be complex. PPM software from these providers is typically considered to be priced at a premium, although many users mitigate this by choosing a cloud-hosted deployment of their software over an on-premises deployment of the same.

Market Dynamics: Positive Providers and Products

Providers receiving a Positive rating in this MarketScope demonstrate a strong global market presence, depth or breadth in PPM functionality, and a solid product integration capability. These providers have launched a fairly recent cloud-hosted deployment option, or they are on the verge of doing so. For many of these providers, a large percentage of all new sales are mainly on-premises or traditional hosting arrangements, as opposed to cloud-hosted sales and deployments. The PPM functionality provided by these providers is comprehensive, and these providers also provide extensions, bolt-on applications and enhancements, and other complementary products and services to support different types of PPM environments, different types of project and work management practices, different types of portfolio management practices and styles, and several integration points to bring in third-party data from sources external to the PPM system. Prospects should expect to engage in long-term investments with these providers, as their products are robust, but at times can also be complex. Pricing varies among Positive-rated providers. Some of the providers offer a cost-effective on-premises or traditional hosted installation, whereas others might be premium-priced similar to the pricing of Strong Positive providers included in this MarketScope.

Market Dynamics: Promising Providers and Products

Providers receiving a Promising rating in this MarketScope demonstrate an emerging or established PPM market presence, and their products are quite mature with a core set of comprehensive PPM functionality and integration to third-party software systems. The future development of (or continued nurturing of) a cloud-hosted deployment option for customers is part of their vision, but in some cases, the cloud-based PPM strategy and resulting product innovations might be relatively thin, with either little or no current offering available to the general public. For these providers, a large percentage of all new sales tend to be of on-premises deployments. Some Promising-rated providers included in this research may also only currently support customers in specific regions of the world. Others might be missing key features and functions supporting certain internal IT PPM processes. In the PPM process areas where they do focus, however, functionality can be deep, vertical-industry-focused, or even specific to nuances of different PPM environments. These providers can offer a practical set of PPM features and functions at a cost-effective price, while also allowing users to have full control over their own dedicated instance of the software.

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

The providers and products in this PPM application software MarketScope meet and/or exceed the following inclusion criteria:

• The product must be a PPM product primarily supporting internal IT PPM.
• The product must be generally available (GA) and actively marketed for at least the past five years.
• Product deployment modes are significantly on-premises or cloud-hosted and deployed as a "dedicated instance" for each customer.
• A provider's main business model and historical track record is that of offering long-term contracts of three or more years on a consistent basis.
• Providers do not regularly or typically support prospects requiring less than 20 licenses per implementation. In many cases, a minimum number of end users (for example, 100 users) are required for these providers to engage a prospect wanting to use their PPM products.
• Deployment times range from three to 12 months for complete implementations.
• As much as 75% or more of the existing provider's PPM installed base is on dedicated instances, on multiyear contracts, and/or deployed on-premises or cloud-hosted.
• Providers have secured at least 10 new customers in the past 12 months.
• Providers must have at least $10 million in annual revenue, or significant financial backing.

Rating for Overall Market/Market Segment

Overall Market Rating: Strong Positive

The PPM software application market has shown marked resilience, having grown when most enterprise software markets receded since the global economic crisis of 2008. The features and functions of the products in this market are strong and mature. Demand for PPM applications has not wavered, but, rather, increased exponentially over the past 10 years.^4,5 Deep maturity is making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between competing products on feature/function alone. For buyers, this means that many of the typical PPM features and functions you would require when selecting a PPM system for the first time are likely to be in many of the products you evaluate.

There are still many other points of differentiation, such as the approach and scope of the product being developed, the rearchitecture of the products to support the latest advances in Web development, the speed of deployment, the cost of the system in relation to number of end users, the amount of complexity within the system, the integration bridges available to third-party systems and products, and the deployment options and corresponding pricing models available from the provider. Many of the providers in this MarketScope address SaaS by offering, in addition to on-premises deployment, a cloud-hosted option wrapped around a subscription-based pricing model. This allows them to provide the same robust functionality they have built up in their product over the past decade "as a service."^6,7,8

Evaluation Criteria

Source: Gartner (June 2012)

Source: Gartner (June 2012)

Vendor Product/Service Analysis

Augeo Software

Product Name: Augeo6

Rating: Promising

Augeo Software provides an execution-level PPM system it calls Augeo6. Augeo6 includes portfolios and dashboard reports for project monitoring, capacity planning and risk management, with drill-down and navigation into project details. The system is a Java-based software system and can support a number of Web servers, as well as Microsoft and Oracle databases. Augeo6 introduces the beginnings of a first-time SaaS offering by Augeo Software. The company is also in the midst of splitting out its SaaS-based Planzone project collaboration platform to be managed as a separate business, but while also continuing to connect the two complementary sets of PPM services through integration that would allow optional use of Augeo6 as a data repository for Planzone users. Augeo6 also introduced some improvements, such as an updated architecture and graphical user interface (GUI), added business intelligence features using a QlikView reports library, a hosted project lab and testing ground for customers and prospects, and added training and services to support customers with adoption.

BMC Software

Product Name: BMC IT Business Management Suite

Rating: Positive

BMC's IT Business Management Suite provides PPM capabilities mainly through two core parts of the product: BMC Demand and Resource Management and BMC IT Business Management Foundation. BMC Demand and Resource Management provides the ability to inventory demand; analyze portfolios to identify business value and budget and high-level staff availability; prioritize and select projects; budget and track financial costs to projects; plan and staff resources to projects; and collect time against the effort spent on projects. The BMC IT Business Management Foundation provides a common data store for sharing BMC's PPM capabilities with data from IT operations or other parts of IT consuming services, time, people and money. Recent enhancements include the introduction of a SaaS option, as well as integration to BMC Remedy Change and Release Management and BMC Service Request Management. Users can centralize the capture of project and operational demand through an automated portal, as well as add and account for releases and operational changes triggered by a project, and the effort and cost of those changes as part of the project spend. BMC's biggest hurdle to clear as it relates to PPM was its dependency on on-premises as its main deployment option for customers. While BMC has added a SaaS offering and has seen an increase in customers considering the SaaS option, it is early in its adoption, and the majority of its customer base remains on-premises. BMC continues to ramp up and nurture its SaaS PPM offering to provide a cost alternative to on-premises BMC product deployment.

CA Technologies

Product Name: CA Clarity PPM

Rating: Strong Positive

CA Clarity PPM represents more than a decade's worth of aggressive PPM software product innovation. Today, CA Clarity PPM supports a number of different PPM scenarios inside and outside of internal IT, including, but not limited to, IT PPM and new product development PPM. CA Clarity PPM's main focus is and always has been predominantly on internal IT PPM. As such, the product has evolved and matured to support a number of different IT work types, including formally defined projects, application enhancements and change requests, and IT service requests. CA Clarity PPM can be deployed on-premises or as a service. It supports both execution-level PPM customers and project portfolio-level PPM customers. CA Technologies also offers complementary application services supporting the management of ideas, agile development, and product management via CA Idea Vision (ideation), CA Agile Vision (agile planning) and CA Product Vision (requirements planning). Because it is one of the stronger IT PPM products competing in the market, CA Clarity PPM is not for the faint of heart. Clients should be committed to a long-term approach toward PPM adoption and maturity. CA Technologies has invested in several areas to simplify how its clients purchase, implement and adopt CA Clarity PPM, including internal consulting services, built-in end-user training, and local and global partnerships with boutique and major consulting firms offering PPM process consulting as a practice area.

Cardinis Solutions

Product Name: Cardinis Suite

Rating: Promising

Cardinis Solutions is an Italian, top-down project portfolio-level PPM provider providing a strong emphasis on portfolio-level features supporting the management of programs and projects, with development focused on the needs of IT and other departments. Cardinis Solutions is a small provider compared with a number of others in this research. It currently has a limited global reach and does not yet offer SaaS as a deployment option. However, the Cardinis Suite's core portfolio capabilities allow companies to invest in IT-based PPM, while also providing an underlying framework to build out WBS-level details of programs and projects at a cost-effective price. Currently, Cardinis Solutions is in a better position to support local customers and others in different parts of Europe than in North America. Recent enhancements to the Cardinis Suite include an ALM integration module, added executive dashboards, a key performance indicator (KPI) data mart of tables containing quality planning indicators that are customizable, a dynamic forms designer module, offline project progress views, enhancements to project progress and OBS functionality, SAP CMS integration modules, a client management module, and a function point module for calculating function points based on project plans.

Compuware

Product Name: Changepoint

Rating: Strong Positive

Compuware's Changepoint represents more than a decade's worth of PPM innovation and development, providing a strong and comprehensive set of PPM features and functions covering portfolio, demand, project, resource, time and cost management, with multiple variations and configurations designed to support specific PPM use cases and scenarios. Changepoint's support for resource-intensive service delivery organizations is perhaps its most significant strength, in addition to a long-standing, proven time-tracking system. Changepoint can be deployed on-premises or as a service, and customers can move between the two delivery options. Changepoint is one of the stronger PPM products competing in the market, but with strong PPM capabilities comes a heightened level of inherent complexity. Compuware addresses the complexity of its applications through prepackaged mixes of workflows, reports, business rules and consulting practices it calls Accelerators. Changepoint product enhancements in releases SP2 and SP3 include usability, navigation, and user interface improvements and revamping, as well as enhanced data mart reporting, an added Silverlight-based resource management worksheet, and performance and overall functionality and usability improvements to Changepoint's overall resource management capabilities. Changepoint product releases SP2 and SP3 include enhancements to its resource management capabilities, financial reporting, user interface and data mart reporting.

Genius Inside

Product Name: Genius Project

Rating: Promising

Genius Project, in its multiple iterations as an execution-level PPM software system, including Genius Project for Domino, Genius Project Enterprise PPM and Genius Project On-Demand PPM, continues to support multiple types of work environments, including internal IT departments, new product development and professional services, and other project environments, such as capital expenditure or marketing. Genius Inside has been in the PPM software business for nearly 15 years, operates mainly in Western Europe (with an additional focus on North American markets) and has an average number of users per customer that continues to increase year over year. Genius Inside continues to nurture a cloud-hosted offering for its customers and added a number of enhancements to applications, including an added KPI module, enhanced Gantt charting, improved user interface, support for project requests and help desk/trouble tickets as work items, support for scrum, configurable views, meeting management, project output tracking, and the Genius Live social collaboration platform. Genius Inside uses Dojo for mobile application development, allowing users to connect to Genius Project using tablets and smartphones. Genius Inside supports project environments via cloud or on-premises deployment, and is one of a few rare PPM providers also supporting IBM Domino and DB2 as the back-end database for PPM, while offering customers a good set of core functions at cost-competitive prices.

HP

Product Name: HP Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) Center

Rating: Positive

HP PPM Center has been maturing as a PPM product for more than a decade in the PPM market. IT departments make up a large majority of the HP PPM Center installed base, in keeping with the product's initial and continued focus on supporting the specific PPM needs of IT. HP PPM Center is based on a strong, foundational workflow engine, allowing the system to provide out-of-the-box process mapping, workflow and business rules for managing a project life cycle from idea capture to project execution and completion. Because it is one of the stronger IT PPM products competing in the market, HP PPM Center is not for the faint of heart. It is priced at a premium and comes with a heightened level of inherent complexity, which also provides the product with the ability to scale to meet differing customer needs. HP also augments this complexity through a mix of internal consulting services and local and global partnerships, with small and large consultancies offering PPM process consulting as a practice area. HP PPM could use some improvements in the area of performance to reduce lag time, such as when users are attempting to bring up lists of tasks in the system, as well as more customization and configuration options at the work plan level, improvements to overall usability, and more customization options for its what-if scenario planning capability. Integrations to Service Manager and other HP software products are provided by HP, but to some of the benefits of these integrations, customers report that customization is required. And while customers do have access to dashboards and BusinessObjects-based reports embedded within HP PPM Center, they still ask for more native reporting.

Microsoft

Product Name: Microsoft Project Server 2010

Rating: Positive

Microsoft Project Server 2010 is a landmark release for prospective PPM application users and existing Project Server customers, because this release includes SharePoint 2010 as the foundation for workflow, document management and collaboration. Adding SharePoint 2010 underscores the software provider's focus of SharePoint as the cornerstone of its Enterprise Project Management (EPM) solution, which includes, among other things, the use of Office applications, including Project Professional, as well as other Microsoft components, productivity applications and software. Project Server 2010 also includes enhanced project creation features that do not require the use of Project Professional. Service Pack 1 (SP1) introduced multiple browser support for Web-based time entry, enhanced synchronization between task lists managed in Project and task lists managed in SharePoint, time-phased support for manually scheduled tasks, and improvements to project scheduling in the Project Web App. Other added modules and enhancements include a Visual Studio Team Foundation Server and Project Server integration pack, Office 365 support, and Dynamics SL 2011 and AX 2012 connectors for Project Server. From a license fee perspective, Microsoft Project Server 2010 can be one of the more cost-effective PPM products deployable on-premises. Microsoft relies heavily on its partner network to manage implementations and consulting services for Project Server 2010.

Oracle

Product Name: Oracle Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management Suite

Rating: Positive

The Oracle Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management Suite, which includes Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM), Primavera Portfolio Management and Primavera P6 Analytics, is arguably one of the strongest, long-standing PPM software systems in the market, providing detailed control and management of large, complex projects. Improvements in Primavera P6 to the user's experience, however, allow P6 to accommodate the needs of project managers interested in managing smaller, less complex projects. Oracle continues to make substantial investments in its Primavera suite, including a complete redesign and redevelopment of Primavera P6, initially as part of release 8.1 and continued as part of the current release 8.2, as a Web-native software system, representing a much-needed improvement to the base architecture on which P6 was founded years ago. In redeveloping P6, Oracle also offers Primavera P6 as a hosted solution and is planning to aggressively promote Primavera P6 with Oracle Fusion Applications as a SaaS solution later this year. Oracle continues to alleviate the learning curve of the system through role-specific interfaces, including those for casual users. Alternative user interfaces, such as smartphone application, email integration, configurable forms, the simplification of the native Web-based UI, and the Oracle User Productivity Kit, are tailored for casual users.

Planisware

Product Name: Planisware

Rating: Positive

Planisware is a software provider representing more than 15 years of experience as a business and as a PPM software provider. Planisware is a top-down project portfolio-level PPM system, as well as an execution-level PPM system providing core detailed project and resource management capabilities. Planisware can support a variety of project environments and vertical industries, including bio and life sciences, energy, automotive, and others. Planisware provides a SaaS offering that it uses mainly as a staging platform for new or inexperienced customers to eventual on-premises deployment. A number of recent enhancements to the product include additional support for managing project, application, and/or product life cycles, with road-mapping capabilities matching each respective life cycle. Planisware's strength and ability to leverage top-down portfolio management to support the distinct management needs of different classes of portfolio-level elements, as well as innovations within its product, such as competitive analysis capabilities for new product planning and development, is reflected in its premium pricing.

Planview

Product Name: Planview Enterprise

Rating: Strong Positive

Planview is a Texas-based software provider that has dedicated the past 22 years to developing PPM software systems with strong and comprehensive features and functions covering portfolio, demand, project, resource, time and cost management with multiple variations and configurations designed to support specific PPM use cases and scenarios. The complete Planview Enterprise product lineup is made up of components supporting PPM, including Enterprise Portfolio Management, Insight Analytics, Service Portfolio Management, Product Portfolio Management, Ideation Management and Planview Process Builder. Planview offers Planview Enterprise on-premises and as a SaaS deployment option for internal IT and new product development PPM environments. The provider offers a multitude of integration bridges and APIs for connecting to financial systems, application management systems and ITSM systems. Planview's PlanviewPRISMS.com brings its PPM process best practices and Planview configuration guidelines to the Web for its customer base. Planview also improved its integration with Microsoft Project, enhancing the ability to access projects within Planview using Microsoft Project, as well as extending the business rules of portfolio planning in Planview Enterprise to Microsoft Project. Planview has enjoyed longevity in the marketplace as an independent PPM provider operating in the space and has a favorable track record. Its product, Planview Enterprise, is one of the most robust PPM products in the market.

Project InVision

Product Name: Project InVision

Rating: Promising

Do not let the size of Project InVision fool you. This PPM software provider may be smaller compared to many others included in this research. However, Project InVision has been in the PPM business for 19 years as a provider of SaaS and on-premises execution-level PPM software, supporting the automation of processes and activities occurring mainly among project managers, resource managers and team members in a variety of project environments. Project InVision includes PPM functionality supporting project and resource management, while also leveraging reporting services to create project, project portfolio and resource utilization views. Perhaps one of the most recent and noticeable improvements to Project InVision is its fully redesigned application interface — a much-needed improvement if Project InVision wants to take advantage of the most recent advances in Web development technologies. Other recent Project InVision improvements include optimized mechanisms for adding new end users and an integration with Microsoft Project that includes Schedule Sentry, an alerting and flagging feature that identifies and highlights changes to schedule information that may cause problems when importing Microsoft Project files back into Project InVision. Project InVision, although smaller than other providers and limited in global reach, can provide a core set of project and resource management capabilities at a cost-effective price, earning a Promising rating.

Project.net

Product Name: Project.net

Rating: Promising

Project.net is a small, resilient PPM software provider, having maintained the availability and continued development of Project.net as a PPM system for more than 10 years. Project.net initially built some fundamental project management capabilities as the core of its PPM offering, but now focuses mainly on enabling project-based collaboration and communication using recent developments in online and software technology. Using blogs and wikis, Project.net enhances its system by enabling and encouraging the use of social networking and communication tools as a part of daily project status reporting and updating. Recent additions and enhancements to the product include the availability of wikis and blogs for use in the system, as well as a resource management component, time sheeting and third-party accounting system integration, BI integration, and a Web services API. Project.net is smaller than other providers included in this research and has a limited global reach, but it can also provide a core set of project management capabilities at a very low cost of entry.

SAP

Product Name: SAP Portfolio and Project Management

Rating: Positive

SAP's former cProject and Resource and Portfolio Management (RPM) offerings have been combined into one product on a single platform called SAP Portfolio and Project Management. Existing SAP customers can automate PPM processes to manage projects in IT, in product development, in architecture/engineering/construction environments and in service delivery, using SAP PPM. The PPM product can be sold as a stand-alone system, used in conjunction with SAP Project System, or integrated with third-party applications. Integrating SAP PPM with SAP Project System extends the reach of SAP PPM to support capital project management. SAP also provides its own native scheduler in SAP PPM for project managers who do not want to incorporate Microsoft Project into their SAP PPM environments. SAP also embedded portfolio analysis features in SAP PPM, providing visibility into the health of a portfolio or items within a portfolio, as well as status indicators designed to alert managers when projects experience cost or budget overruns. One key characteristic of an SAP PPM system is its ability to leverage an existing investment a customer already made in SAP business applications and platforms. As an ERP vendor, SAP can fold an investment of SAP PPM into an existing SAP customer's enterprise agreement — a differentiator when comparing the licensing models of other providers included in this research. SAP now offers rapid deployment solutions to reduce upstart time and configuration of SAP PPM, including a set of PPM features and functions that are commonly needed by PPM customers and prospects for planning and resource management, as well as financial management and reporting.

Sciforma

Product Name: Sciforma 4.0

Rating: Positive

Sciforma is a provider of planning and execution-level PPM software it calls Sciforma 4.0 (formerly known as PSNext), supporting the detailed optimization and automation of processes and activities occurring mainly among portfolio managers, project managers, resource managers, and team members in IT and other project environments. Sciforma 4.0 is a Java-based environment and provides a strong core of demand, portfolio, project, resource, time and cost management features, coupled with reporting services supporting project portfolio management, resource utilization, and project costing and analysis. Additions to the Sciforma product include enhanced usability, improved workflow capabilities, customization of application presentation to end users and an agile task board. Other improvements include a redesigned interface for cost data entry, tracking of project record changes and user logins and logouts, "workspaces" that are user- and role-defined, drag and drop assignment of resources and resulting utilization views to show over-allocation, a project tree to help users navigate to specific projects, in-line filtering, and improved user interface and design. Sciforma's pricing model is a bit unusual in the marketplace, because it is based on the purchase and consumption of tokens for the varied number and roles of end users interacting with the system over time. If your project environment does not fit well into the typical per-named-user pricing model found in the PPM market, then Sciforma's token-based pricing model offers an alternative licensing arrangement that may support your needs.

SemanticSpace

Product Name: PPM Studio

Rating: Promising

SemanticSpace is a software provider dedicated to supporting the pressing project management and other PPM needs of software and/or application development groups and teams using its larger suite of software products to support application development processes and management mainly centered in IT. The provider offers PPM functionality mainly in on-premises deployment mode. Recent improvements and additions include functions supporting agile software development and project management, integration between PPM Studio and Microsoft SharePoint, support for custom fields at the project level, custom dashboarding capabilities, and a capitalization view for capitalized projects. The company recognizes that that PPM concepts, automated processes, and best practices should be applied to application development and management environments, and it offers a PPM Lite product as a stand-alone PPM product and PPM Studio, which connects directly to the provider's application development and ALM tools.

Additional research contributions: Audrey Apfel, James Duggan, Donna Fitzgerald, Michael Hanford, Matt Light, Elise Olding and Lars Mieritz.