HP Touts PPM Portfolio

July 24, 2008

HP detailed new solutions that help chief information officers (CIOs) prioritize and align their IT investments to deliver better business outcomes.

Part of the broader HP Business Technology Optimization (BTO) software portfolio, the new release of HP Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) Center 7.5 delivers integrated IT management capabilities that span project and portfolio management, application lifecycle management and IT service management.

To help CIOs get the visibility they need to better track and manage their technology investments across their IT organizations, HP delivers new integrations between HP PPM Center 7.5 and the following BTO software:

HP Service Management Center – provides a service-based approach to managing the business of technology. Stakeholders gain visibility through a single, integrated system that provides real-time transparency at any stage of the request process.

HP Quality Center – delivers a “quality organization in a box,” enabling companies to build and support a quality assurance center of excellence with HP Center Management for Quality Center software.

HP Universal Configuration Management Database (CMDB) – lowers business risk by managing the impact of changes and defining which configuration items will be affected earlier in the change lifecycle process.

“CIOs often have difficulty tracking investments to demonstrate business value due to ill-defined checks and balances and unclear results, putting IT organizations in a vulnerable position,” said Ken Cheney, director of products, Project and Portfolio Management Center, HP. “HP’s powerful BTO portfolio enables CIOs to deliver credibility, competency and contribution, which are key to demonstrating value to the business.”

Key enhancements to HP PPM Center include:

”As a FORTUNE 125 company and one of the nation’s largest wholesale power sellers, Constellation Energy requires strict focus on operating efficiencies to help drive long-term growth and remain competitive,” said Jeff Johnson, vice president, Infrastructure, Constellation Energy. “HP is an important technology partner, offering us an integrated platform that provides complete cradle-to-grave management of the services IT delivers to the business. HP’s lifecycle approach helps our entire IT organization automate disparate functions in order to align IT investments to strategic goals, while reducing cost and risk to the business.”

In a recent Economist Intelligence Unit survey of 1,125 IT leaders worldwide, a majority of respondents stated IT integration would assist them in improving business results the most. Additionally, 80 percent of respondents agreed that automation of IT functions frees up time and resources for innovation.

HP PPM Center helps IT to better support key business technology initiatives – including deploying service-oriented architectures, multi-vendor outsourcing, data center consolidation, and compliance – by reducing redundant activities, creating better visibility and providing flexible processes between technology silos.

In addition, it supports Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) v3 and other process improvements for application upgrades and application portfolio rationalization.

According to Forrester Research, “HP’s Business Technology Optimization (BTO) software offering makes the vendor particularly well positioned to offer an integrated IT management solution. … This means that the product is an especially good fit for buyers that: intend to get a handle on all of IT spend and want the option of a full-service PPM solution to complement the software.”

HP PPM Center is offered as either an in-house deployment or via HP Software as a Service (SaaS). Other HP SaaS offerings include HP Quality Center, HP Service Manager, HP Performance Center, HP Application Security Center and HP Business Availability Center.