Computers, Internet

Project Management Software is Hot


Software that manages corporate projects over the Internet is gaining momentum, leading software startups from around the world to relocate to the United States -- the biggest  business market.

One such company is Clarizen, an Israeli software startup, that moved to Silicon Valley earlier this month to tap the growing demand for project management software. “Being close to the market is not only a statement, it’s something that you need to commit to do,” said CEO Avinoam Nowogrodski.

Project management software helps companies manage resources, time, people, and  budgets. According to research firm Gartner, the project management market is worth $750 million a year worldwide, and is growing 11 percent annually.

Companies like Clarizen offer this software as a service over the Internet for a monthly subscription fee per user. The online delivery medium helps employees working remotely log into their company’s system from anywhere.

Although Clarizen’s software development will remain largely in Israel, Mr. Nowogrodski and the company’s sales and marketing staff are based in San Mateo, California. Clarizen has yet to unveil a commercial version of its software but says more than 1,000 customers have signed up for its beta version that was launched in June.

Because the project management software market has heated up, venture capitalists are also showing interest in the world of on-demand software. Clarizen, for instance, received $7 million in first round funding last December from top tier VCs Benchmark Capital and Carmel Ventures.

Competitors in this space are also attracting funding. Seattle-based eProject received a $12 million second-round funding last May from Bay Partners and Kennet Partners. Orem, Utah-based AtTask received a $7 million first-round funding from OpenView Venture Partners in June. SmartSheet.com, based in Bellevue, Washington, is a company that provides an on-demand version of Microsoft’s Excel software. The company announced last June that it received $4 million in a first-round funding led by Madrona Venture Group.

Despite all the competition, Mr. Nowogrodski believes there is enough to go around for everyone. “Most companies are doing project management,” he said. “When you have an objective to achieve and have a group of people, you need to plan the activity and that is when project management comes in.”

Comments

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Forget Clarizen's beta ... I'm using @task and it leaves competitors in the dust - many Fortune 500 and top brands already have chosen @task, which was recently given the Gold on TopTenReviews beating out the "big boys." AtTask, Inc. is smokin' with the release of its new version "@task Enterprise" on August 15. It comes complete with MS Outlook, Salesforce and QuickBooks integration - as well as Apple and iPhone widgets. There's a lot of nipping at the heels of MS Project and eProject. Smart and nimble will win this race.
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I wonder why @task are so stressed about Clarizen's success that they had to post this comment.
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What you talkin' bout Willis? (I mean Eric) - @task rocks. Hate the game - don't hate the playa.
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Actually, I'm a PM with a top brand company and we have been using @task for six months - and it's not half bad. SmartSheet is pretty good too. Both have saved my butt more than once.
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we enjoy using @task Enterprise on our iPhones ... pretty cool stuff. I don't think it's a he said she said situation as referenced above - it's more about how progressive a company is to adopt new concepts - and what your needs are
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Wow! So many @task fans? I wonder why? I'm also a PM, however my company is not huge. We' are a small business and @task is a bit heavy for us. There're hundreds of features, but we simply don't need all of them. We are happy with Wrike. http://www.wrike.com/ It's lightweight, easily accessible from any computer or PDA, and it saves time :)
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@task has good feed back so will give it a go. We as a small company decide to investigate the use of project management software within our company and essentially got off to a bad footing having been seduced by the Tenforce.com sales literature. however we soon discovered that it did not live up to the claims made and not only did we keep receiving java errors but also discovered cases of missing records and lock out from the system so it was a complete waste of time.