Crossroads 2002 A-List Award Winners

ProSight, Inc.
Portland, OR

ProSight Portfolios
> IT Portfolio Management

CUSTOMERS AT WORK

Large organizations struggle to align an array of ongoing IT initiatives with strategic objectives. Too often IT groups’ only response to overwhelming complexity is to limit their view of the horizon from one project to the next. ProSight’s portfolio management software customers are steering their organizations effectively. A division of a telecommunications company and a financial services firm were among the reference customers. Common strategic objectives included:

§ Improving IT’s performance as a contributing factor of ROI

§ Prioritizing funding decisions

§ Shortening initiative life cycles

WHY PROSIGHT?

ProSight provides companies with a means of aligning business priorities with technology decisions and IT performance. Companies use ProSight Portfolios to assemble an automated, consistent view of the technology portfolio. Organizations are able to integrate ProSight’s software with existing project, resource, and financial management systems. IT executives and business managers can use ProSight’s software to prioritize technology investments, conduct periodic reviews, evaluate performance, and adjust technology investment selections. The entire leadership team can leverage ProSight Portfolios to improve communication and accountability.

BUSINESS IMPACT

Near-term value: With hundreds of ongoing initiatives, large organizations implement ProSight Portfolios to manage discreet activities – projects, products, vendor or customer initiatives – within the context of overall business goals to ensure that each delivers its expected value. One company is using ProSight Portfolios to determine priorities and coordinate project schedules across 25 different IT infrastructure teams.

Enterprise innovation: Especially in today’s world, IT resources are far from limitless. Resources include the capital, the people, the time, the vendors, and the attention span that managers devote to a specific IT strategy. In the wake of the e-business expansion, companies are using ProSight Portfolios to bring sprawling IT efforts back into alignment with revised corporate objectives. One company is using ProSight Portfolios as a means of providing oversight for a massive multiyear technology reengineering effort.

Technology gains: Traditionally, IT managers have developed project metrics that are best understood within a narrowly defined area. ProSight Portfolios allows companies to tap into the full set of possible data sources to discover the complete set of existing asset, personnel, or budget constraints that new initiatives or existing operations may encounter. One customer describes ProSight as the intelligent presentation layer for aspects of their division’s IT organization.

SUCCESS FACTORS

Business and Technology strategy: Combining business priorities and IT performance indicators in a formal exercise requires significant organizational consideration. One organization spent 10 months developing and testing a set of exhaustive criteria for assessing their technology portfolio.

Learning: Getting IT managers to trust an objective set of metrics is also a significant effort. ProSight advises clients to demonstrate success on a modest scale before introducing the tool to the entire IT organization.

Resources: Finding consistently accurate sources of enterprise performance data was the initial challenge for one organization in the course of its implementation. Performing such an inventory may take more time than originally estimated.

Fit: Large companies managing far-reaching IT initiatives should investigate ProSight Portfolios as a business management tool.

COMPANY INFO

ProSight, Inc., is a private company with 60 employees.

877.531.9121
www.prosight.com
Published: January 2002