Project portfolio management software helps CIOs cope with budget cuts

By Kristen Caretta, Associate Editor | Mar 4, 2009

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As companies struggle with scarce resources in a tough economy, more CIOs are looking to project portfolio management (PPM) software for organization and efficiency, whether or not they have a project management office (PMO).

PPM software solutions found a convert in Phil Bertolini, CIO of Oakland County, Mich. Faced with a $1.5 million budget cut, Bertolini and his team found their PPM solution, CA Inc.'s Clarity, to be essential in determining priorities.

'With the PPM, we know what we're doing from the administration to discretionary projects,' Bertolini said. 'When new development began to shrink and we had to reduce, we were able to look at the project list, find the lowest priority on the list and make the reduction.'

Indeed, Bertolini has made strong project management a priority; his organization has had a PMO since the mid-1990s. Initially regarding the process of using the PPM software as 'bureaucratic,' Bertolini said he quickly realized the benefits of incorporating it into his overall project management scheme.

Project portfolio management software is aimed at improving project management efficiency by cataloguing all the projects in the IT queue and generating automated conclusions based on input information (spending, time frame, employee resources needed, etc.) to prioritize and organize projects on the table. Bertolini said these conclusions then help in managing IT budget cuts and carry weight in budget discussions with business users.

'I have more leverage to get what I ask for, because we can prove where the budget is being spent and provide a status update every quarter,' he said.

Bertolini said Oakland County's PPM investment has more than paid for itself. It cost about 1.5% of a total IT annual budget of $40-45 million, he said -- about $600,000.