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Welcom Releases WelcomPortfolio 2.5

New Capabilities Provide Executives With a Structured Method for Evaluating, Selecting and Prioritizing Projects to Best Support Corporate Business Strategy

Welcom, a global leader in project portfolio management solutions, today announced the availability of WelcomPortfolio 2.5, a project portfolio analysis tool that provides a structured approach to evaluating, selecting and prioritizing projects across the enterprise. New capabilities include the ability to track and create budgets based on different resource types, including non-labor resources, resource availability modeling, and enhanced capacity planning to better control and account for resource usage spanning multiple project portfolios.

Designed for executives and program managers responsible for overseeing multiple initiatives, WelcomPortfolio 2.5 provides the link between an organization's strategic objectives and the projects that are chosen to ensure that the right projects are being done and that they are aligned with business goals. In addition to providing a structured approach to the project selection process, it also allows project leaders to easily assess project value at any point in the project life cycle through integration other project and cost management systems, including Welcom's Open Plan®, Cobra® and WelcomRisk(TM), as well as Microsoft Project® and Primavera® P3e®. Using built-in adapters, connections can be set up to virtually any other product that uses a SQL data source or that can provide Web services.

"WelcomPortfolio 2.5 helps executives make a well-balanced assessment of each project under consideration and evaluate its impact on the organization's business strategy," said Steve Cook, president, Welcom. "More and more companies are turning to formal project portfolio analysis to ensure their valuable resources are spent on the projects most conducive to business success."

New features in version 2.5 include new resource types for tracking and creating budgets based on labor and non-labor type resources; Resource Availability Modeling that shows when resources are used at various times throughout a project's lifecycle to save labor costs by preventing double data entry; the automatic generation of cash flow values based on resources assigned to each project; a Cumulative Variance Option to help decision makers decide which project to pursue by displaying the difference between resource capacity and cumulative demand; the ability to set Criteria Thresholds (passing grades) and provide immediate visibility to a project in trouble or that no longer satisfies organization needs; and support for Welcom's Cobra 4.x earned value and cost management tool.

Improvements to existing functions include an improved Capacity Planner that takes into account resource usage across multiple portfolios and provides valuable information for running "What if" scenarios; the ability to view total hours, cost and revenue totals for each line item in the Project and Capacity Planners; prevention against double data entry; the ability to perform "What if" scenarios using different weights of criteria; and more reporting and Portfolio Workbook print options.

WelcomPortfolio is now available from Welcom and its international network of distributors. Pricing starts at $15,000 (U.S.) for five named users. For more information, contact Welcom at sales@welcom.com or call 1-800-349-8854 (1-281-558-0514).

About WelcomPortfolio

WelcomPortfolio is a project portfolio analysis tool that provides a structured approach to evaluating, selecting, and prioritizing projects so that resources are always invested in the right Projects -- those that best fit with current business strategy. Beyond project selection, WelcomPortfolio provides real-time project information required to make decisions about when to take on new initiatives, and where to allocate critical resources. Through the use of built-in external adapters, project metrics and information about current resource demand from other systems can be integrated to evaluate ongoing project effort, and to ensure accurate capacity planning.

About Welcom

Welcom (www.welcom.com) leads in the invention, development, and implementation of the world's most advanced project portfolio management solutions for the enterprise. Welcom translates global experience, industry knowledge, and innovative technology into software solutions that help people plan more effectively and better manage business-critical projects.

Established in 1983, Welcom has two decades of leadership and a worldwide customer base. Welcom is a privately held company that maintains its corporate headquarters in Houston, Texas, with offices in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. Its primary channels of distribution include a direct sales force and a network of resellers located around the world.

Welcom, Open Plan, and Cobra are registered trademarks of WST Corporation. WelcomPortfolio is a trademark of WST Corporation. All rights reserved. All other product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective manufacturers.

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