Project Portfolio Management Software Review 1 Project Portfolio Management Software Review Pamela Jackson IT Project and Change Management
Project Portfolio Management Software Review 2 Project Portfolio Management Software Review The project portfolio management software I ve chosen to review is OPX2 by Planisware. It integrates project management, resource management, and project portfolio management all in one package, as depicted by their logo shown in Diagram 1. Diagram 1. The organization, Planisware, USA, develops software for managing new product development, research and development, and managing information technology. It was incorporated in 1999 and has been experiencing a compounded 30-50% profit increase annually. The most important or prestigious product they offer is OPX2, which is used by numerous Fortune 500 companies. Among their customers are seven of the top ten pharmaceutical/biotech organizations. They have positioned their US headquarters in San Francisco, California and maintain several offices across the US and Europe. (Planisware, 2006)
Project Portfolio Management Software Review 3 The portfolio management module provides customized reporting to assist with strategic planning and decision making. It provides a real-time view of the portfolio and generates forecasts and budgets. Managing initiatives is enhanced with the ability to perform what if scenarios for analysis and comparisons. OPX2 allows the ability to track schedules and manage projects at the project level, much like Microsoft (MS) Project. The software layout for Gantt charts and task distribution are very similar, but OPX2 promises to provide much more flexibility. They state you can breeze right through with managing project schedules. The entire program is web based, accessible from your desktop. The likeness to MS Project is likely intentional to add to the versatility of exporting project information from OPX2 to MS Project. Diagram 2. The ability to manage resources with OPX2 looks very flexible and useful. The integration of resource management assists with distributing resources and provides a top level view of resource allocations. OPX2 provides colorful graphs and various options for displaying resource information, as shown in Diagram 2, which has been taken directly from their website.
Project Portfolio Management Software Review 4 The software can be customized for any business, which reduces the need to work around vanilla boxed software. However, as shown in Diagram 2, too much customized information can begin to decrease the effectiveness of quick and valuable information at the press of a button. OPX2 can be run on Windows 2003, NT, or XP and on UNIX or Linux. It uses an Oracle database, Structure Query Language (SQL) server, and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC). ODBC is a standard database access method that makes it possible to access any data from any application. OXP2 is delivered in a standard version as well as industry specific versions such as OPX2IT, OPX2 NPD, OPX2 Pharma, and OPX2 Aerospace and Defense. Virtual Projects (2006) discusses the application and its four main modules, which are: 1. OPX2 Pro this is the main module used as a project management and scheduling tool 2. OPX2 TimeCard this is a module for entering timesheet information 3. OPX2 Server this is the synchronized import/export module designed for communications with MS Project 4. OXP2 Intranet Server allows the user to publish project plans on the organization s intranet as well as web access to project data. OPX2 is template driven and can be customized for user interfaces. The user can define the fields and add them to the underlying database model and perform online queries and macros. Using a standard web browser, the project information can be accessed with JAVA support. The intranet server also allows shared libraries among different projects. OPX2 also provides the flexibility of customizing reports, tables, and charts. Security is provided by a role based access model and permissions can be defined at different levels such as site, group, user, project, and organization. OPX2 also supports multiple languages, among which are French and Italian.
Project Portfolio Management Software Review 5 Planisware feels that the feature that sets their product apart from the competition is that OPX2 is designed specifically to meet the needs of new product development. Centric Software (2006) discusses new product development and how businesses are under pressure to deliver at an accelerated pace. Developers are in a race to be the first to the market with the right product. To do this, they must achieve a balance between producing what the customer wants and doing it at a speed that will ensure a competitive edge. Planisware is a leading research and development (R & D) company in new product development (NPD) and currently manage over forty billion annually in R & D, from which OPX2 was born. OPX2 is used successfully by organizations such as: Nextel Sprint Montana Department of Transportation Chiron Vertex UCB Pharmaceuticals Porsche Volvo Parts L Oreal Testimonies among their customers show they prefer the ability to implement their own methodology and operate with a dynamic structure that is custom designed to fit their business processes. They also state that OPX2 allows them to have a high level of project transparency
Project Portfolio Management Software Review 6 with information available in real time. This sets the foundation for effective project and portfolio management.
Project Portfolio Management Software Review 7 References Centric Software (2006). Repeat ew Product Development ( PD) and ew Product Introduction ( PI) Successes. Retrieved August 8, 2006 from http://www.centricsoftware.com/default.asp?url=solutions§ion=npinpd_proce ss&gclid=cl7qqupj0yycfuntfqodpkwk6q Planisware (2006). OPX2 by Planisware. Retrieved August 8, 2006 from http://www.planiswareusa.com/index.html Virtual Projects (2006). The product. Retrieved August 9, 2006 from http://www.vrtprj.com/products/opx2.html