05 May 2010

Microsoft gains project management market share

Microsoft increased its share of the project and portfolio management market in 2009, according to figures from Gartner.

While there is no runaway leader in the sector, with Microsoft taking the second-largest share at 15.3 per cent in 2009, the five main vendors together now constitute the majority of revenues.

Microsoft itself added modestly to its market share over the year, up slightly from 15.2 per cent in 2008 during a period when spending as a whole declined by 1.5 per cent.

However, on a wider scale investment into project and portfolio management software took the top five vendors to a share of 58 per cent of revenues, up from 43 per cent in 2008.

Laurie Wurster, research director at Gartner, explains that economic turbulence had led to lower spending in 2008 and that some uncertainty persisted into early 2009.

One platform that enables collaboration on projects is Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, which enables files to be edited by different users worldwide, as well as offering compliance and protection capabilities to help manage risk.