Pacific Edge Updates Portfolio-Management OfferingPacific Edge Updates Portfolio-Management Offering

Project portfolio-management firm Pacific Edge Software Inc. on Wednesday launched the latest update of its Project Office software. New features in version 4.0 include better data integration, team collaboration, and Web functionality.

CEO Rob Dickerson says previous users of the software had particularly sought one new feature: better ways to connect the software to other types of information. Version 4.0 uses XML-based data exchange to communicate with Microsoft Project and other data sources. "When people start to use the software, they start to interface it to every back-end system they've got," he says. "Analysis becomes more and more interesting with the more connections you have."

Day traders and stockbrokers have long used sophisticated portfolio-management tools to manage their investments, keeping careful track of exactly where their money is and whether a particular investment is worth holding. Other businesses have followed their lead in the past couple of years. Recent research from Meta Group indicates that one in eight U.S. businesses uses a portfolio-management tool to evaluate IT investments and other critical projects. These tools help companies track all of the potentially thousands of projects under way at any given time, providing data and reports that help executives make smarter decisions.

"This is a really good way to engage the business in meaningful dialog about IT," Meta Group analyst Marnie Ross says. And it's not just good for the bottom line. "The improvement it brings is a better alignment overall, which leads the business to use technology more innovatively," Ross says. As cash-strapped businesses look to make better-informed IT purchases, she adds, portfolio-management tools such as Project Office are becoming increasingly popular.