IT Portfolio Management Trend Is Reshaping Project Management Software, According to Recent SPEX Evaluations.

Business & Technology Editors

RESTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 20, 2002

Project Management, Professional Services Automation, and

Portfolio Analysis Converge to Redefine the Market and

the Project Management Discipline

New research from SPEX shows project management software offerings are now headed toward the concept of project portfolio management (PPM).

Instead of managing a single project, PPM involves planning, managing, and measuring organizational effectiveness across projects to facilitate better investment decisions.

"We believe the PPM framework that we've laid out in the SPEX module will become a key blueprint for vendors. We will increasingly see solutions mapped to this framework during the next 12-24 months, as users demand greater visibility, robustness, and integration among the disparate elements related to PPM," said Ted Tzirimis, senior research analyst with SPEX.

In its new evaluation, SPEX provides detailed assessments of the 16 leading vendors targeting PPM applications, as well as the state of the market landscape, enabling client organizations to accelerate their decisions about which application to select and when. The report highlights the tradeoffs between traditional project management applications and offerings from enterprise resource planning (ERP) and professional services automation (PSA) vendors that are increasingly encroaching on the same functional footprint. The SPEX PPM module is the most recent addition to its extensive research product family, known and respected for its long history of providing unbiased, hands-on evaluations and detailed side-by-side comparisons of enterprise software packages. This module currently provides evaluations of the following applications:

-- PlanView (PlanView)

-- Niku 6 (Niku)

-- Artemis Views/Portfolio Director (Artemis)

-- Primavera TeamPlay (Primavera)

-- Microsoft Project 2002 (Microsoft)

-- Open Plan, Cobra, and WelcomHome (Welcom)

-- Evolve 5 (Evolve)

-- Changepoint (Changepoint)

-- Lawson Services Automation (Lawson)

-- PeopleSoft ESA (PeopleSoft)

-- Oracle e-Business Suite for Professional Services (Oracle)

-- Novient eServices (Novient/Solution 6)

-- The Business Engine Network (BusinessEngine)

-- Kintana 4.5 (Kintana)

-- The Edge for IT (Pacific Edge)

-- AllFusion Process Management Suite (CA)

The research module contains more than 400 evaluation criteria focusing on such vital decision points as architecture, integration, opportunity management, demand/issue management, resource management, data management, planning and scheduling, optimization and progress measurement, estimation, time management, expense management, billing and invoicing, project/cost accounting, process management and workflow, knowledge management and collaboration, portfolio analysis, portals and dashboards, and report and analysis functions. It contains an industry overview, market analysis, technology primer, selection guide, and SPEXmark(TM) ratings. SPEX evaluations can then be customized to meet specific needs using the SPEX online model, which contains detailed questions, analysis, and positioning graphs illustrating functional depth in critical areas. All components of the SPEX research module are available from the Clients Area of the SPEX Web site. As part of their annual subscription, SPEX subscribers also receive a series of updates and new-product evaluations -- and inSPEXion, SPEX's monthly e-mail newsletter.

About SPEX

SPEX is the leading authority for enterprise and Web-based software technology evaluations. A division of META Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: METG), SPEX provides comprehensive enterprise software product evaluations to help global companies quickly select critical business applications and IT solutions. SPEX -- in combination with META Group's METAspectrum(SM), which provides IT professionals with a view into critical market success factors and vendor positioning -- delivers comprehensive evaluations of both technology markets and vendor product offerings. SPEX evaluations can be customized using WebCompass -- an online model that contains detailed questions, analyses, and positioning graphs illustrating functional depth in critical areas -- to meet users' specific requirements. Additional information on META Group's SPEX offerings can be found at www.checkspex.com. For more information about METAspectrum, visit www.metagroup.com/metaspectrum.

SPEX evaluations and results are the sole property of META Group, Inc. All rights are reserved. Permission to use the results requires prior written approval from META Group, Inc., and should not be deemed an endorsement of any company or product.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Fact sheets that include SPEXmark ratings for all packages evaluated in the SPEX Project Portfolio Management research module are available from Peter Ward at [e-mail] or 203-973-6700.