The Market
Market Analysis
During the research phase, preliminary focus groups were conducted, as well as surveys at the National Project Management Professional Development Conference. Findings indicated that there was a significant need for a new project management software product and the added capability of the PDA link was seen as "extremely beneficial" by 79% of those surveyed.
To arrive at the number of potential buyers of project management software for PDAs, we first researched the number of PDA's currently on the market, and combined that with data on the current number of professional project managers.
As of December 2000, there had been 3.5 million PDA units sold by leading manufacturers. This number had increased from 1.3 million in the previous year. Palm( Computing is by far the industry leader with approximately 72% of all PDA sales in 2000 (Source: NPD Intellect) With an estimated 12 million PDA units in customers' hands worldwide, the base for sales of the project management software, as well as future PDA software titles is quite large.
According to the Project Management Institute (the largest of all worldwide project management associations), current membership levels are at 71,000 thousand professional project managers worldwide. In January 2001, their overall membership had increased by 28% over the previous January. Over the past six years, membership growth has averaged 33% each year. So the number of project management positions is steadily increasing.
Growth Potential
The Project Management Institute's top five industry areas include:
- Computers/Software/DP 10,091
- Information Technology 9,044
- Telecommunication 6,975
- Business Management Services 4,750
- Financial Services 3,525
Using the growth of both the industries and employment within these industries as an indicator of future project management positions, the following tables show significant opportunities for future PDAware sales.
Projections for Industry Growth for 1996-2006:
| Industry | Billions of Chained dollars (1992) | Change | Annual rate of change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 2006 | 1996 | 2006 | |
| Computer and office equipment | 158.8 | 635.6 | 476.8 | 14.9 |
| Computer and data processing services | 165.9 | 403.4 | 237.5 | 9.3 |
| Electronic components and accessories | 140.8 | 285.3 | 144.4 | 7.3 |
| Security and commodity brokers | 124.7 | 215.3 | 90.6 | 5.6 |
| Communications equipment | 63.1 | 101.0 | 37.9 | 4.8 |
The fastest growing occupations, 1998-2008
[Numbers in thousands of jobs]
| Occupation | Employment | Change | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 2008 | Number | Percent | |
| Computer engineers | 299 | 622 | 323 | 108 |
| Computer support specialists | 429 | 869 | 439 | 102 |
| Systems analysts | 4617 | 1,194 | 577 | 94 |
| Database administrators | 87 | 155 | 567 | 77 |
Computer and data processing services industry sorted by percent change in employment, 1998-2008.
| Occupation | 1998 Employment | Projected 2008 Employment | Change 1998-2008 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Percent distribution | Number | Percent distribution | Number | Percent distribution | |
| Database administrators | 19,666 | 1.23 | 66,632 | 1.92 | 46,966 | 238.8 |
| All other computer scientists | 24,029 | 1.50 | 78,871 | 2.27 | 54,841 | 228.2 |
| Computer support specialists | 112,609 | 7.04 | 362,913 | 10.45 | 250,303 | 222.3 |
| Computer engineers | 122,010 | 7.63 | 384,223 | 11.07 | 262,214 | 214.9 |
| Systems analysts | 140,816 | 8.80 | 404,991 | 11.67 | 264,175 | 187.6 |
| All other professional workers | 33,949 | 2.12 | 97,084 | 2.80 | 63,135 | 186.0 |
| All other engineers | 21,723 | 1.36 | 45,479 | 1.31 | 23,755 | 109.4 |
The computer/software/data processing industry, and the information services industries make up the two largest segments of the Project Manager database (Source: PMI Fact Sheet).
Based on the data above, the percent increase in the number of employees in the top seven positions for the computer and data processing industries is projected to be 197% from 1998-2008.
Communications equipment industry sorted by Percent change in employment, 1998-2008.
| Occupation | 1998 Employment | Projected 2008 Employment | Change 1998-2008 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Percent distribution | Number | Percent distribution | Number | Percent distribution | |
| All other computer scientists | 127 | 0.05 | 212 | 0.07 | 85 | 66.4 |
| Systems analysts | 3,596 | 1.28 | 5,966 | 1.97 | 2,370 | 665.9 |
| Computer support specialists | 3,730 | 1.32 | 5,570 | 1.84 | 1,840 | 649.3 |
| Numerical control machine tool operators and tenders, metal and plastic | 118 | 0.04 | 157 | 0.05 | 39 | 32.7 |
| Engineering, natural science, and computer and information systems managers | 3,527 | 1.25 | 4,565 | 1.51 | 1,037 | 29.4 |
| Combination machine tool setters, set-up operators, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | 212 | 0.08 | 263 | 0.09 | 50 | 23.8 |
| Computer engineers | 5,190 | 1.84 | 6,317 | 2.09 | 1,127 | 21.7 |
| Database administrators | 361 | 10.13 | 439 | 0.15 | 78 | 21.7 |
| Electrical and electronic assemblers | 43,917 | 15.60 | 53,433 | 17.68 | 79,516 | 21.7 |
| All other engineering technicians and technologists | 4,285 | 1.52 | 5,214 | 1.73 | 929 | 21.7 |
The communications equipment industry projects an average growth of 36% in the number of employees for the top 10 positions from 1998-2008.
Services, nec industry sorted by percent change in employment, 1998-2008
| Occupation | 1998 Employment | Projected 2008 Employment | Change 1998-2008 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Percent distribution | Number | Percent distribution | Number | Percent distribution | |
| All other computer scientists | 60 | 0.11 | 124 | 0.18 | 64 | 107.1 |
| Systems analysts | 130 | 0.25 | 268 | 0.39 | 138 | 106.5 |
| Computer support specialists | 738 | 1.42 | 1,371 | 2.00 | 633 | 85.8 |
| Engineering, natural science, and computer and information systems managers | 599 | 1.15 | 964 | 1.41 | 365 | 61.0 |
| Management analysts | 595 | 1.14 | 942 | 1.38 | 348 | 58.5 |
| Computer engineers | 182 | 0.35 | 275 | 0.40 | 393 | 51.5 |
| Database administrators | 124 | 0.24 | 187 | 0.27 | 64 | 51.4 |
| Electrical and electronics engineers | 101 | 0.19 | 149 | 0.22 | 47 | 46.6 |
| All other engineers | 525 | 1.01 | 768 | 1.12 | 243 | 46.3 |
| All other teachers and instructors | 181 | 0.35 | 260 | 0.38 | 79 | 43.8 |
The business services industry is projected to be the fastest growing sector of the services industry, and expects an average growth of 3.6% annually according to the BLS Monthly Labor Review from November 1997.
Overall service industry growth is projected to be 66% in the number of employees for the top 10 positions from 1998-2008.
Banking and closely related functions, nec industry sorted by Percent change in employment, 1998-2008
| Occupation | 1998 Employment | Projected 2008 Employment | Change 1998-2008 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Percent distribution | Number | Percent distribution | Number | Percent distribution | |
| All other computer scientists | 268 | 0.19 | 521 | 0.31 | 253 | 94.6 |
| Systems analysts | 1,390 | 1.01 | 2,697 | 1.61 | 1,307 | 94.0 |
| Computer support specialists | 1,678 | 1.22 | 2,931 | 1.74 | 1,252 | 74.6 |
| Brokerage clerks | 3,606 | 2.62 | 5,597 | 3.33 | 1,991 | 55.2 |
| Engineering, natural science, and computer and information systems managers | 1,613 | 1.17 | 2,441 | 1.45 | 828 | 51.3 |
| Management analysts | 1,549 | 1.13 | 2,307 | 1.37 | 758 | 48.9 |
| Legal secretaries | 74 | 0.05 | 110 | 0.07 | 35 | 47.7 |
| Computer engineers | 309 | 0.22 | 440 | 0.26 | 131 | 42.3 |
| Database administrators | 228 | 0.17 | 324 | 0.19 | 96 | 42.3 |
| Adjustment clerks | 2,428 | 1.77 | 3,441 | 2.05 | 1,013 | 41.7 |
The banking and finance industry projects an average growth of 59% in the number of employees for the top 10 positions from 1998-2008.
Based on these numbers, the projected percent increase in employment positions within the top 5 industries from which the highest number of project management positions come, averages 90% growth from 1998-2008.
Other PDA Project Management Usage
While professional project managers will be the initial primary market for the product, PDAware will also target small business managers and executives who are usually involved in project management as part of their jobs.
Market Segmentation
PDAware is taking a three-phase approach to market segmentation, initially targeting the high-end computing/software/data processing and information services industries as phase one. Once these markets have been penetrated, PDAware will move on to the telecommunications industry, and finally into finance and business services industries. This approach will allow our limited sales force and marketing dollars to more closely target their efforts.
Strengths
PDAware has three significant strengths:
- The wireless PDA interface - No other product offers this interface.
- Specialty versions for five major project management markets - Only one other competing product offers specific versions for different industries.
- Customization by user - Three of the competing products offer a limited type of customization, but not with the capabilities of PDAware.
Weaknesses
A potential weakness for the PDA product is the current limitation of the wireless PDA hardware. Although this technology is spreading quickly and will improve significantly within the next 9-12 months, it could slow down the initial perceived value of the PDAware product. The number of wireless PDA products currently on the market is limited to approximately 15% of all units out there, but is expected to grow and be the majority within the next 3 years.
In the meantime, the PDAware product does not require wireless technology to be an effective and efficient tool, it will simply require coordinating the data manually via the PDA's PC linkup device if the user does not have a wireless enabled PDA.
Target Audience
According to the Project Management Institute, the profile of those working in project management is as follows:
| Sex: | 75% male, 25% female; |
| Education: | 90% have college or graduate degrees; |
| Age: | 40% are 41-50 years of age 30% are between the ages of 31 and 40 |
| Certified: | 85% plan to obtain or already have their PMP(r) credential |
According to PDA manufactures their typical user is:
| Sex: | 65% male, 35% female |
| Educations: | 75% have college or graduate degrees |
| Age: | 21-48 |
| PDA Usage: | 90% use their PDA for business |
Competition
There are six similar project management applications available in the market. The leader is Primaproj, closely followed by Microbuilt Project, and Arteproj. Below is a table that lists competing products with a breakdown of the features most requested by project managers. While most of them have the essential software components necessary for project management, none offer connectivity to a PDA. There are also some shareware PDA project management software applications available, but these are very limited and do not offer the feature sets required by the majority of project managers.
| Competitor | Customizable | Targeted to an Industry |
PDA link? |
|---|---|---|---|
| PrimaProj | X | ||
| Artiproj | |||
| Microbuilt Project | X | ||
| TrackOut | X | X | |
| Ever Plan | |||
| WebGroove Project | X | ||
| PDAware PMS | X | X | X |
Competing Software Products
PRIMAProj offers an interactive view of activities and relationships, a graphical interface, colored bands to organize data by activity code, resource, cost accounts, etc. It lets you define interrelated projects and project groups. Multiproject control allows users to roll up information to analyze and report on project progress. It offers scheduling and resource leveling options, and user-definable options. It shows the effect of progress on remaining work, and has multi-user capabilities, and customizable reports.
MICROBuilt Project is a Windows-based collaboration tool, allowing two-way communication between everyone involved in a project and as well as data access to anyone via the Internet.
Arteproj puts project planning, cost control, resource tracking, and project analysis into a single program. It uses a role-based approach to software design and implementation. It uses Windows-based interfaces, and offers separate role-based applications for project planning, resource and activity tracking, project cost control, and executive analysis and reporting. This allows for feedback on how schedule and personnel changes will impact productivity downstream-including deadlines, activity resourcing, and project costs.
Ever Plan includes interactive views, a project interface paradigm for management of projects, resource pools, codes, reports, etc. It offers hierarchical structures, inter-project relationships, cross-project resource analysis, and security. Ever Plan Professional is a multi-user application. If offers graphical manipulation on screen, so users can customize most views and reports. There is a full range of interactive, customizable, graphical project views - tables, bar charts, linked bar charts, flow charts, hierarchy diagrams, cost curves, etc. Data can be stored and processed on any size or type of server and accessed from PC clients. Data can be stored in Open Plan compatible Dbase files or in ODBC compliant databases such as Oracle and Sybase.
Track-Out monitors timesheets, invoices and expenses for employees, teams, and departments based on time, costs, projects and tasks. Track-Out prepares 65 customizable time and cost reports & graphs by individual, team, project, activity and more. Reports or graphs can be exported or sent by e-mail. Track-Out can create invoices, expense reports or track billing and receivables. Employees can use timesheet entry tools to record and submit their time and expenses. Track-Out gives employees feedback on their targets vs productivity .
WebGroove Project provides interactive views of activities and relationships, a graphical interface, colored bands to organize data by activity code, resource, cost accounts, etc. It lets you define interrelated projects and project groups. Multiproject control allows users to roll up information to analyze and report on project progress. It offers scheduling and resource leveling options, and user-definable options. It shows the effect of progress on remaining work, and has multi-user capabilities, and customizable reports.
WebGroove Project/Net is Internet/Intranet server-based and is designed to work with WebGrooveProject. It uses the Internet/Intranet to process and route project information and return project status information in a series of home pages for staff, managers, executives, and each person involved in a project. Pages containing project status can be viewed using a browser and progress can be entered on forms accessed from personal project home pages.
Competing PDA Software
PalmProject tracks project time and includes cost accounting software. No desktop software is included, information is exported to Excel and Access.
