Project Management Software
Dear Editor
Thank you for taking the time to read this Press Kit to find out more about ProjectManager.com This kit provides an overview of our company, our industry and why we’re different. It also provides the brand assets you need to get started. We hope you enjoy reading it.
If you have questions, then please email our CEO at [email protected] and he’ll be glad to help.
So read on to find out more…
Company
Founded in 2008 in New Zealand, we provide a Software-as-a-Service that allows users to see the progress of their projects visually. Our software is unique because it tells people whether their projects are on track by providing real-time charts, dashboards and reports online. It also comes with the best online Gantt Chart on the planet.
In total, over 12,000 people pay for our software-as-a service each month.
52% of users are in the US, 25% are in the UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand and the remaining 23% are in 100 countries. 15% of users pre-pay for the service on an annual basis.
Customers range from small businesses to large enterprises, with user volumes from a single user account to nearly 300 users. We have high profile clients including NASA, the United Nations and Siemens among others using the software for business critical projects.
With 25 staff and funded purely out of cash-flow, we have also created the largest Project Management community in the industry, with 500,000 - 1 million followers.
Product
The software is unique as it contains all of the most commonly used features from Microsoft Project, and it’s online. As Microsoft Project Professional retails at over $1000 per user license and our pricing starts at just $25/user/month, it avoids an expensive upfront capital purchase and allows the customer to acquire the same features through a low monthly subscription from their operating budget. Discounts for large user volumes reduce the price to as little as $10/user/month, making the software affordable for any size of company.
As well as saving money, the software allows people to import their existing project plans and immediately see whether their projects are on track visually, through a graphical dashboard. By telling people immediately whether their projects are on track, they see the value within minutes of subscribing to the service and that initial value incentivizes them to move their projects onto our online platform quickly.
The software features also allow people to replace their existing project tracking, reporting and timesheet systems - allowing them to store all of their project information in one place.
The following 3 features are heavily used by customers:
Project Dashboard
The Project Dashboard shows you whether your projects are currently on track. You can view your project health, progress and efficiency. And you can find out whether you’re on schedule and under budget. The dashboard is updated real-time, always providing you with a latest view of the project, as it happens.
Project Planner
You can create detailed Project Plans in minutes. In fact, all of the commonly used Microsoft Project features have been included in this smart online planning software.
Project Reporting
You can produce Weekly Status Reports at the click of a button. The reports can be emailed to your peers, or save and print them as you wish.
All of the reports needed to monitor and track project progress are included in this intuitive report builder.
Whether you’re planning, tracking or reporting on projects, there’s nothing quite like ProjectManager.com
Target Market
Our ideal customer is from a medium sized company with a customer base of 20-200 users. The reason is that single users do not always have projects “on the go” at any one time and enterprise level customers with large volumes of users (e.g. 500+) have special needs that require direct sales and complex feature requests.
Customers with 20-200 users have projects on the go constantly. They require a system that is powerful but simple to use and without the sales and support overhead.
Industry
Ten years ago, the Project Management industry was primarily made up of large IT, Telco, Construction and Engineering companies who undertook major projects of work. As a Project Manager, you needed a formal certification and training and you typically managed a single project at a time. Projects were overseen by a separate group in an Organization (a “Project Office”) and anyone involved in projects typically reported to that group.
The market required Enterprise level software with complex feature sets to manage a small number of large business critical projects at a time. Project Managers typically took the “big bang” approach and “Project Management” was a highly specialized discipline.
Over the past 10 years, we have seen dramatic change.
These days, people in all walks of life manage projects without formal training or qualifications. They cover all industries and all project sizes. A Project Manager will manage dozens of smaller projects at a time, so they have no need for expensively priced server side software with complex feature sets. Instead they want simple to use software that is more affordably priced and they want it online to allow for the distributed nature of their teams.
Project management has gone from being a specialised trade, to being commoditized. Whether it’s a Manufacturing Production Manager that manages their own process improvement projects, or a Marketing person managing brand initiatives, everyone in business is typically involved in projects these days, in some form or other.
This change in who and how projects are managed has led to widespread growth in industry. The target market has changed from being “a specialist niche of highly experienced project managers” to being “anyone in business”. As such, Gartner now report that “The market for PPM solutions is estimated at $1 billion” (1)
This growth has been further fuelled by the recession, as Governments invest in large infrastructure projects to boost the economy. These large projects are comprised of smaller projects that involve hundreds of thousands of companies across the globe and everyone it seems wants to manage them online. In this way, government agencies can communicate with external vendors across the internet, keeping track of progress online.
In short, the project management industry is booming as a direct result of the change in who and how projects are managed, as well as being helped along by the recession.
Market Segments
Gartner characterise the market (2) as including two discrete segments: a. Those offering “Portfolio” level software to large enterprises.
b. Those offering “Execution” level software to individuals, small and medium sized businesses. We have explained these segments and how they map to target customers and competitors below:
Project Portfolio Management
At the top of the triangle, software houses focus on large enterprises as they used to 10 years ago with a direct sales approach and a complex feature-rich product. The business model isn’t highly scalable for volume as there is a smaller target market, so they have a high price point and they build direct 1-2-1 relationships with their customers. This isn’t our target market.
The key players in this market include Primavera, Planview, Clarizen and Daptiv. Most have extensive VC funding, as large development and sales teams are required to support the complex needs of
Project Management
In the middle of the triangle, software houses such as ProjectManager.com focus on small to
medium sized businesses with less complex requirements. It’s a “low touch” model and very scalable due to the wide target market. Prices are affordable to users at all level of the triangle, yet high enough to maximize profits. We see this as the “sweet spot” in the market.
To qualify for this segment, the player must have a fully functioning Gantt chart, differentiating it from the Task Management level. As such, there are few players in this market segment. The key players are ProjectManager.com, Smartsheet, AceProject and AtTask.
Task Management
At this level, software houses focus on individuals who want to manage basic task lists. There is no formal project planning, tracking or reporting needed, like in the middle of the triangle.
The market is ripe with providers in this space, as many web design companies have simply put their internally built systems for managing client work, online. The first to do this was BaseCamp and since then, hundreds of providers have entered this space as there is a low barrier to entry.
This isn’t our target market as the price point is far too low, so large volumes of customers are needed to make it a profitable business. The only players in this space that stand out from the rest are Basecamp, Podio and Asana.
Community
We have built the “World’s Largest Project Management Community” of more than 750,000
followers. This community includes the largest PM LinkedIn Group, PM YouTube Channel, iTunes PM mobile app install base, PM email subscription list and social community in the world. Each of the communities were created and grown independently, so they don’t overlap in numbers.
Customers
We have lots of high profile customers that love and heavily use our software, including:
• NASA. They initially signed up for the rollout of their educational projects and it is now used by over 100 Project Managers and teams across the nation to manage key IT, engineering and contracting projects. See https://www.projectmanager.com/project-managers.php
• United Nations. IFAD, a specialized agency of the United Nations have used the product for 4 years now, for managing large multi-national aid programs.
• US Postal Service: Over 200 Project Managers use ProjectManager.com each day to manage large postal projects.
• Seimens: Multiple departments within Seimens use the product to manage large IT projects. • Volvo: They heavily use the product for manufacturing projects for the production of motorcars. These are just a few of the high calibre companies using our software to deliver their projects successfully.
CEO
Our CEO is Jason Westland.
After studying Information Systems, Law and Economics at University, Jason spent the next 20 years immersed in Project Management. He’s overseen thousands of projects, from small to large, including a 1 billion dollar implementation for British Rail.
Jason is passionate about Project Management. He wrote the best-selling book “The Project
Management Life Cycle” and has been an author for “CIO”, “Computerworld” and “Channel World”. He also authors the world’s most popular Project Management newsletter, which is read by 300,000 people around the globe.
Passionate about building high growth businesses, Jason founded Method123.com in 2004 and and
MPMM.com in 2006 which were acquired by a US consulting firm TenStep in 2012.
He then went on to found ProjectManager.com in 2008 and ProjectPlan.com in 2010. He is well travelled and loves extreme sports.
More information:
• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonwestland
• CrunchBase: http://www.crunchbase.com/person/jason-westland
Press Contacts
For all press enquiries, please contact one of the following people: Craig Barrett
Senior VP of Marketing
Jason Westland CEO and Founder
