Tool Sets
Enterprise Project/Portfolio Management (EPM) systems integrate (or attempt to integrate) all data and processes of an organization into a unified system.
A typical EPM system will use multiple components of computer software and hardware to achieve the integration. A key ingredient of most EPM systems is the use of a unified database to store data for the various system modules." Source: Wikipedia
There were over 80 software companies who responded to the PMI Project Management software Survey (ISBN: 1-880410- 52-4) in 1999 and since then there have been newcomers, mergers and acquisitions as the marketplace and technologies have matured. Today we see the key international players using similar technologies i.e. an industry standard database accessed from standard browsers with a workflow engine, requiring minimum IT involvement for implementation and support.
Gartner's Magic quadrant is seen as the measure of the success or suitability of PM software and the vendors eagerly await their updated results. It is, however, easy to over simplify the choice of PM toolset and the Magic quadrants relevance to your company. To put the magic quadrant into perspective you have to take into account that Gartner's driver is to produce a report for its customers, predominantly based in the US and include those software suppliers relevant to the US market who are prepared to pay them for inclusion.
