Thinking Bigger

  ProjectsAtWork  

Monica Barron of AMR Research explains how PSA tools are expanding beyond internal IT departments.

The label, "professional services automation," doesn't do justice to the tools in this category, says Monica Barron, an analyst at AMR Research in  Boston. As a term, PSA is a relic, she says.

"The beginning of the market was vertical in that it automated professional services organizations," Barron says. "But since then, there has been an emergence of other uses. The tools can manage product development, clinical trials, mergers, marketing projects-any discrete chunk of work."

Barron prefers to call the category enterprise venture management (EVM). "It's much bigger than IT projects," she says. "The tools can be used for anything where users need to manage time, money and resources."

The "bigger" application of the programs reveals a market rich with potential, Barron says. There is a lot of room for vendors to expand sales, especially to existing customers. For example, a company might be using a tool in its IT department, but its marketing or product development departments could benefit, too.

Barron says this is already the fastest-growing part of the market. "Vendors don't want to be pigeonholed as PSA," she says. "The use of their products could…

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