AirSaas: a next-generation PPM tool — PPM software

Send a regular, anonymous survey to team members to gauge their confidence in the project's success. With AirSaas, you create a cooperative link between IT and the business units. Businesses are no longer IT's customers, and IT is no longer IT's servant. Sound collaboration is essential to the success of projects throughout their lifecycle.

Although the first project management tools began to appear as early as the 80s, it's worth noting that new companies have continued to develop competing software ever since. Another interesting fact: while all these software products now address project portfolio management issues, not all of them were initially developed to serve the same purpose! Some prioritized project management, while others addressed project portfolio management from the outset.

Pain point targeted at the date of creation

We can see that a majority of project portfolio management tools actually began by offering project management services! It was only later that these were supplemented to enable several projects to be run optimally at the same time.‍

It's worth noting, however, that from the outset, some tools focused on project portfolio management (Planview), even if some of them also offered project management functions (Sciforma, Ganttic).

Today, almost all of these softwares meet both needs: project management and project portfolio management. It's then clear that there's a need to streamline decision-making in companies, whether on a project management scale, or on a more global scale using a PPM tool.

Most white papers on the subject agree that, in recent decades, the IT department has evolved from a largely technical role to one focused on the business needs of the department. The IT department is no longer reduced to ensuring the operation of the run, by providing purely technical assistance, but must also need to understand the needs of the various collaborators in order to bring them value in their core business. IT departments' expectations of a tool to manage their projects have therefore inevitably evolved tremendously: from a monitoring tool to manage technical issues, IT departments often need their PPM tool to simplify communication with business units and the feedback of their needs, notably through the mediation of the project manager.

The development of digital technology enables CIOs to help their companies in new ways, and in particular by contributing more to the success of business goals. For example, an IT department can structure the digitization of processes, which saves time for the business units and helps them to be competitive with their competitors. It can even contribute to value creation, in particular by supporting changes to the company's business model. We can also think of the anecdote from Pierre Raschi, CEO of Référence DSI, in which he recounts how a part-time IT department enabled a butchershop to renew its ageing clientele thanks to digital technology.

This structural change in the era of digital technology for a company is leading to the IT department being entrusted with more responsibilities, which in turn means that it has to manage its projects differently, and therefore expects new functionalities from its PPM tools - which in turn means that these tools have to evolve!

The two changes outlined above imply an evolution in the way the IT department collaborates with the various departments and teams within the company. A technically-focused IT department used to try to control the behavior of its employees, so that they were not held back by any technical problems and the information system was not adversely affected. Today, if IT wants to have a positive impact on the company's business, it must be able to understand the needs of the various business units, and therefore work closely with them. And such collaboration requires breaking down the silos that may exist between departments, or within teams themselves, and involving each and every employee. Thus, an IT department wishing to control all existing processes will not need the same type of tool as one seeking to structure a strong collaboration with its teams.

To put it more bluntly, Maslow's pyramids represent two major visions of CIOs in opposition to each other:

Some PPM softwares, such as ERPs, aim to meet all CIO needs in a single package. Many of them are effective, but their lack of flexibility once implemented means that you need to take the time to think things through before making your choice.

On the other hand, other softwares (often SaaS ones) offer fewer functionalities, but can be synchronized with existing tools. In this way, they avoid duplication and reduce the cost of changing a tool - whereas upgrading to a heavy PPM tool will be a major, time-consuming and costly project.

These two types of tool do not correspond to the same vision of the IT department's role. In the case of a software that integrates with existing tools, the IT department is seen as no longer having to acquire a software that enables it to progress on all fronts, but rather as having to be able to connect and disconnect different tools, according to the company's evolution. The idea is to be able to stick to existing needs, constantly, and at lower cost.‍

Depending on the CIO's vision of his role within the company, a collaborative space incorporated directly into his PPM tool can really simplify his day-to-day work and that of his teams. While most companies already use "classic" channels for reporting business needs to the CIO (Teams, Slack), choosing to use a PPM software that offers a more structured exchange interface enables information to be centralized for more effective collaboration.

Jira — by integrating Jira with AirSaas, you automatically get project progress data inside the platform. That gives you one global view of every project and its milestones, without asking your teams to re-enter anything.

Microsoft Teams — AirSaas is integrated with Microsoft Teams. The most important information about projects under way is pushed automatically to the channels of your choice, so the people concerned stay informed where they already work.