Planview, a project portfolio management software supplier, has just rolled out a comprehensive new analytics product, Planview Enterprise
 Insight Analytics. It serves as an executive dashboard to track spending, progress, and general updates on IT-related projects. Last week, I spoke with Patrick Tickle their Executive Vice President of Products. After we discussed the wonders of Austin, Texas, where they are located and I started my childhood, Patrick first gave me a bit about the company. Planview has been working in the resource management space since 1989. Their original founder, Pat Durbin, is still the CEO. For the first 15 years they ran on cash earned. Four years ago they took some venture funding to accelerate their move to the next level. Their market faced a subsequent wave of acquisitions as many of the big players picked up this capability through the “buy” mode. Planview remained independent.

Patrick said they have now become the largest independent provider remaining in this space. This allows them to be the independent alternative in a growing market and “sit amongst giants in the right Gartner quadrant.” He mentioned that Gartner reported 23% growth last year in their market space, 18% the year before and 14% the year before that. I am not surprised with this growth as the new tools are opening up the enterprise, allowing for greater transparency and accountability. Patrick thinks the market is still ripe for further growth and I agree.

Planview Enterprise 
Insight Analytics is built through .Net on Microsoft SQL Server and SharePoint with OLAP reporting functionality. This allows executives to access data sets through a variety of interfaces including SharePoint, Outlook, and Excel. Integration with the Microsoft platform expands the access to portfolio management metrics as people can start from the places they normally work. It also allows clients to drop the Insight Analytics tool into other Sharepoint-based portals within their enterprise. In addition to providing familiar starting points, clients can drop data from Insight Analytics into such tools as Excel and Powerpoint, giving it greater exposure, especially to executives. With Insight Analytics you can find data on such issues as total cost of ownership, resource allocation, work management, vendor costs, and alignment of actual implementation to strategic goals. There is also role-based security. Here is a screen shot of Insight Analytics seen through Outlook.

Here is a screen shot of Insight Analytics embed in a Powerpoint presentation.

Planview’s decision to build Insight Analytics tightly integrated with the Sharepoint platform came though three stages. First, they put their help system in Sharepoint for Planview Enterprise, their flagship project portfolio management system. This created a dynamic help system that allowed them to infuse it with the existing portfolio management expertise they can developed over 19 years, currently offered through Planview PRISMS®, another of their products. It also allowed Planview to integrate their extensive library of computer-based training modules that already existed. Next, they integrated Sharepoint as their content management and collaboration system for their project portfolio management system. Based on the success of these first two moves, the final step was the creation of their new Insight Analytics in .NET, tightly integrated with Sharepoint. Here is a screen shot of Insight Analytics accessed through a Sharepoint portal.

Patrick said are three main areas within companies where Insight Analytics is being used. First, there are the large IT organizations, their traditional base. Product development groups are an emerging market for them. Product development groups across industries face many of the same issues, such as getting things out on time, on budget, and with the best feature set. As a result, Planview has found take up in a variety of industries from complex IT firms to a company that makes baseball cards and has to make sure the right cards are available for opening day. The third area of growth is corporate strategy. The enterprise needs to monitor progress and alignment of initiatives with strategy and Insight Analytics can offer the needed data. Planview reports that the tool is not primarily being used to curb spending but rather to allocate spending towards projects that will deliver the greatest value. Providing greater transparency within the enterprise to the right people is a growing trend in enterprise 2.0. I see Enterprise
 Insight Analytics as an excellent and timely move by Planview to enhance their product offerings.