UMT, the original developer of the Portfolio Server portion of the MS Project Server 'unified' suit of products, has announced another part and piece of the solution.
It is called 'Portfolio Financial Management Server.' If you want to track budgets, capital expenses, labor costs and more, now you will need to integrate this solution into the overall mix.
UMT writes in their white paper, "the financial management engine....has been quite elusive..budgets were often prepared without regard to the fact that many enterprise investments are funded by several cost centers." They call financial management a 'game changer' as it provides an understanding of the financial impact of specific projects on the enterprise as a whole.
What I find laughable is that this 'new' functionality for MSPS is a feature set that Project Insight has offered in its web-based project management software since 2001 (without messy add ons or modules). Project Insight offers not only the planned budget versus and actuals, but it also provides client-facing teams with the ability to track data like proposed charges, billable charges and the variances. What's more a project manager may even track what has been invoiced as well.
Why does financial management in a portfolio solution have to be seen as something 'new?' Well, that's the marketing spin, but don't be fooled by that. Invest in a solution that was developed from the ground up to track financials on tasks, projects and portfolios, not as an awkward afterthought.
Cynthia West
Vice President, Project Insight