When looking at a potential PPM tool to support the establishment of a project office, there are a number of different vendors vying for the business. Some promote a service model (SaaS) where you don't actually own the software, but you subscribe to a hosted service, whereas others promote a purchase model where you buy a packaged solution and implement on your infrastructure (on-premise).
According to Philip Knagg, project manager, CA Southern Africa, the latter tend to be the more functionally rich tools. “Some might say bells and whistles, but we prefer to think of them as advanced functional essentials,” says Knagg. “The former tend to be more prescriptive in their content and sometimes even simplistic.”
SaaS vendors tend to focus on the cost of the on-premise purchase and the time to value, and the on-premise people will concentrate on the functional richness of their solution and the security that you get by partnering with an industry leader as well as the time to value.
Knagg says that when you are making your decision, it is important that you ask yourself the right questions. These should include questions such as, are my needs going to stay as they are right now or do I need a functionally rich solution that will grow with me? Is it important for me to partner with a vendor who is a leader in the PPM market? How easily can I migrate to an on premise solution? Does my vendor support my chosen methods?
“It isn't a black and white 'simplicity versus richness' and 'low cost subscription versus expensive purchase' decision,” explains Knagg. “All possibilities must be taken into account and therefore the choice of vendor is important, as you need a good solution with the support service.”
“CA Southern Africa recently announced its Clarity PPM On Demand solution providing a functionally rich enterprise PPM solution delivered as a service and at a per user price,” says Knagg. “For organisations looking to get started quickly, CA offers CA Clarity PPM On Demand Essentials, a low-risk solution that combines the most common PPM functions, including demand management, project management, resource management and portfolio governance, with built-in on-demand end-user training and the industry's first five-day fixed price implementation programme.”
According to CA Southern Africa, this new solution includes streamlined dashboards, templates and reports to manage projects, resources, demand and the portfolio, yet allows customers to easily add more capabilities and best practices as their maturity grows.
For clients looking for more advanced PPM capabilities, CA introduces the first PPM on-demand offerings tailored specifically for IT governance, PMBOK and PRINCE2 and New Product Development. “Rather than spending months configuring generic PPM software-as-service, CA customers are up and running quickly with the functionality, training and content appropriate for their needs, such as pre-built integrations with IT planning and control applications, Stage-Gate certified product development content and ANSI-748 earned value management reporting,” explains Knagg.
“Our new CA Clarity PPM On Demand offerings align perfectly with the needs of our customers, allowing them to focus on maximising value from their investments at the lowest cost and level of risk, and the rapid uptake of our on-demand services demonstrates that customers value not only complete functionality, but also market leadership and a long track record of success and investment in project and portfolio management,” he concludes.
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