Recession Drives Demand for Hosted Project Management and Portfolio Management

Hot on the heels of CA's Clarity on Demand launch, Planview is announcing a SaaS version of its Planview Enterprise project portfolio management applications suite next week.

Also next week, long-time IT services provider Compuware is releasing a new version of its Changepoint PPM software, which the company has offered in a SaaS model since the late 90s. Compuware Changepoint Product Manager Greg Davidson says Changepoint 2009 includes enhanced functionality designed to address IT leaders' needs during a recession for more financial transparency and the ability to allocate staff across projects.

The recession has so many companies wary of making major investments in new software that some are turning to on demand project management software because the flexibility of the model allows them to only pay for the software as long as they need it, and that could be just for the duration of a given project.

Helge Scheil, corporate senior vice president of products and general manager of IT governance at CA, notes that food manufacturer Kellogg began using Clarity On Demand in early September because it needed project management software it could get up and running quickly for a major project.

"They needed to get a project management and program management solution in for a specific project they were running internally," Scheil says of the cereal maker. "They wanted to rent our solution for the duration of that project. That's a demand we're starting to see more and more."