New project management tool from Metafuse

Metafuse, developer of mid-market Web-based project management solutions, has announced the release of Project Insight 5.1, which offers baseline, advanced project costing features and configurable project health indicators, TMCnet reports.

Project Insight 5.1 allows project managers to save their initial project plan as a baseline on their project schedules, and to save multiple baselines on their schedules and review them at anytime over the Web.

The product also offers augmented project costing and accounting features, including project-level targeted budgeting, improved task-level estimating and budgeting, linking contracts to projects and/or tasks, and the ability to export multiple invoices at one time to QuickBooks.

Over the past five years, project portfolio management (PPM) has been a function primarily used by IT professionals. In that role, PPM software tracked application development and project expenditures at various stages, says CRN.

Recently, a market shift has given vendors, such as eProject, many opportunities to expand these PPM methodologies into activities outside of IT by changing some of their business processes into project-controlled initiatives.

This shift, primarily in the mid-market, is generating new business opportunities for large PPM software vendors. However, the challenge today for many PPM vendors has been in transitioning complex project features and process workflows into customisable features that all business users can understand and use without a steep learning curve.

Performance Solutions Technology, developer of software for people in management, has announced the newest release of its flagship product - MProWeb, the company said in a press release. MProWeb 4.1, a browser-based Web services application, joins ManagePro 6.9.1, its sister desktop application, which was released on 28 October.

Both provide performance, project and meeting management solutions - solutions that help people succeed by staying focused upon outcomes, up-to-date on project status, in-touch with their employees and supported by well documented feedback loops.

MProWeb and ManagePro synchronise with the most common current information tools, including: Microsoft Outlook and Project, Palm Pilot, Novell`s GroupWise and IBM`s Lotus Notes.