Enterprise software analyst firm Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) recently launched its Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Evaluation Center, to help project managers, consultants, and decision makers compare the most qualified PPM systems based on their own, unique priorities.

Leading industry analyst research predicts that “through 2005, as a result of continued market penetration of enterprise application suite vendors, project portfolio management will maintain its high growth, averaging between 35% and 50% year over year.” (Gartner, 2003)

In response, software evaluation firm, Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) (http://www.TechnologyEvaluation.Com/press) created its Project Portfolio Management (PPM) evaluation center (http://ppm.technologyevaluation.com/press) to help companies with the challenging process of selecting a PPM software solution.

Defined as a process that allows companies to align projects with available resources and corporate strategies, while providing for best value and reduced risk (Wideman, 2002, http://www.maxwideman.com/pmglossary/index.htm), project portfolio management is experiencing significant growth.

Neil Stolovitsky, a PPM analyst at Technology Evaluation Centers, (http://www.TechnologyEvaluation.Com/press) asserts that “as technology becomes increasingly central to an organization’s survival, solutions that can facilitate, streamline, and monitor IT governance are becoming a ’must have’ in large IT departments”.

Before companies approach vendors for a request for proposal (RFP), TEC suggests companies engage in an on-line comparison of the leading solutions under consideration, in order to save time, money, and staffing resources during the selection process.

According to the Standish Group (2005), 52.7 percent of IT projects cost 189 percent of the original estimates. This represents $75 billion (USD) yearly that is spent on failed IT projects in the United States alone. Organizations are losing billions of dollars each year because they select the wrong hardware, middleware, and software, as a result of inadequate vendor information and evaluation processes. Such losses are increasingly apparent within price-sensitive, small and medium enterprises, which require accurate IT information to be collected quickly and cost-effectively during software evaluation processes.

According to TEC, selections for PPM, ERP, ECM, CRM, or SCM solutions may fail to accomplish what customers want, because customers did not begin their selection processes with a good understanding of their requirements. TEC believes that problems arise when customers do not prepare a proper request for information (RFI) to evaluate the pertinent responses from their short listed vendors. However, TEC states that its sophisticated means for performing requirements analysis will ease customers' selection burdens.

About Technology Evaluation Centers Inc. (TEC)

Technology Evaluation Center (TEC) (http://www.TechnologyEvaluation.Com/press) is a leading on-line source for impartial technology and consulting evaluations. TEC has been aiding software selection since 1993 to reduce the cost, risk, and time associated with software selection. It has twenty-two on-line technology evaluation centers, ranging from ERP, CRM, SCM, to business intelligence, that contain thousands of detailed criteria on over 500 technology solutions. TEC receives over 1.6 million visitors per month to its sites and millions of page views per month are generated by a global audience of senior c-level and VP executives, technology and functional managers, consultants, and IT professionals.
For more information, see the company's web site http://www.technologyevaluation.com/press.

About the Project Portfolio Management Evaluation Center

The Project Portfolio Management Software (PPM) Evaluation Center (http://ppm.technologyevaluation.com/press) is a new on-line decision support system featuring research on some of the more well-known firms in PPM. The knowledge base consists of more than 1,000 criteria for analyzing project portfolio management solutions firms.
The TEC PPM Evaluation Center (http://ppm.technologyevaluation.com/press) covers a broad range of features from resource planning, portfolio management, project management, time management, expense reporting and project billing/costing to workflow, knowledge management, and collaboration. Performance management and analytics are also included in the RFI.
For more information, see the web site at http://ppm.technologyevaluation.com/press.

Contact:

Lynne Brash, Coordinator, Media Relations
Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC),
740 St. Maurice, 4th floor,
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
H3C 1L5

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Bibliography:

Gartner Inc. SAP’s Ambitious Approach to Project Portfolio Management. March 24, 2003.

Hanscome, R. IT People and Process Improvement: Core Functions. Meta Delta File: ADS 1240. META Group: January 9, 2003.

Phelan, P. Frey, N. Avoiding Failure in Large IT Projects: New Risk and Project Management Imperatives. Gartner, Inc.: July 18, 2002

Stolovitsky, N. “Professional Services Organizations Automate their Processes,” TEC Newsletter, 10 November 2005, ( 4 December 2005).

Wideman, R. M. Wideman Comparative Glossary of Common Project Management Terms v3.1. March, 2002
http://www.maxwideman.com/pmglossary/index.htm