CA Technologies announced a new release of its project management software designed to help improve customers' ability to reduce costs through improved productivity and a simplified user experience; to achieve faster time-to-value from their software investment; and to collaboratively innovate across varied functions within the enterprise.
The latest release, CA Clarity Project & Portfolio Management v13, is intended to extend capabilities across enterprise IT departments and beyond, Kelly Blice, vice president, service and portfolio management for CA Technologies, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "Traditionally, CA Clarity PPM has been used within IT departments," she says. "However, with the addition of ideation, requirements planning and Agile planning, the solution is gaining more users outside of IT. For instance, we have customers using CA Clarity PPM for new product development. Additionally, we are seeing more users outside the PMO office focused on strategic business planning."
The new release provides for improved productivity through a new user interface designed to simplify the user experience to enhance productivity and help reduce costs. The new UI incorporates more refined navigation across the solution with streamlined menus, search-as-you-type data validation, and in-line editing. The new version also features improved interactive charts, dashboards and Gantt views that make real-time PPM information accessible and relevant to anyone at any level across the organization.
Common use cases for CA Clarity PPM "include development of new services, products, and applications," Blice says. "We also see customers managing initiatives such as data center consolidation and software rationalization. Others are using it as part of the decision-making process for moving appropriate business services to the cloud." Available on premises, on-demand as a service, or hosted and implemented by CA Services, the new release helps extend the way partners and customers view and use the solution as well.
By leveraging Chatter from Salesforce.com, CA Clarity PPM incorporates enterprise social collaboration, thus refining requirements planning and Agile project delivery. Chatter feeds also can be directed to smart phones for real-time collaboration and allow users to "follow" items of interest ranging from ideas, requirements, tasks or individuals. "Expanding development approaches such as Agile methodology is shifting the way IT and development managers address projects," says Blice. "They have more choices in how to get projects completed faster and can even blend Agile and traditional methods in a single project. CA Clarity PPM normalizes the status of all projects regardless of methodology to provide transparency in dashboards and reporting. This enables managers to look at their portfolio holistically and shift to a more strategic view."
For additional information, visit CA Technologies at www.ca.com.