Ferris State University Selects Innotas PPM to Streamline Its IT Project Management Processes

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Jan 9, 2012) - Innotas, a leading provider of Cloud Solutions for IT Management, announced today that Ferris State University (FSU) has implemented Innotas' Project Portfolio Management (PPM) solution to manage its IT projects. Innotas PPM has streamlined FSU's IT project request processes and achieved significant efficiencies in its IT operations, along with enabling the quickly-growing university to better prioritize IT projects and resources to align with its strategic direction. FSU has more than 15,000 students across 19 satellite locations in Michigan.

"With all our project information in one place, managers now know who's working on what in which project, enabling senior management more visibility," said Jim Cook, IT Project Manager at Ferris State University. "Additionally, it is a huge benefit to be able to produce reports on-demand for senior management about what we are working on, instead of having to go through emails to find the necessary information."

FSU's IT department is charged with supporting, developing, and managing the IT infrastructure to meet the needs of the school, faculty, and students. To meet the demanding growth of its student population and locations, FSU's IT organization of 65 full time employees juggles requests for new strategic IT projects, while maintaining ongoing IT efforts.

Prior to implementing the Innotas system, the university had not appointed a single individual in charge of all its IT projects, nor was there a single repository for all project information and details. In addition to the need for a central IT management system, FSU's IT department had no easy way to report on project costs and resources.

According to Cook, FSU selected Innotas' cloud-based solution because of its comprehensive PPM functionality, including:

• The resource management module that delivers accurate and real-time views of available resource by type and role to staff requests.
• The project workbench for managing and tracking all tasks, milestones and changes to the projects.
• The request management module for enhancing stage gate approvals and standard project requests forms were also very important features for FSU.
• The dashboards that show both summary and detail data in a visual, easy to read format were key to the FSU selection decision.

With Innotas PPM, FSU's requirements and project requests processes have improved, reducing the time it takes to gather information. The Innotas solution has also helped the IT team become more productive, allowing them to focus on project execution by reducing multiple meetings to a single monthly gathering. With improved clarity and visibility in the deployment of both resources and project roll-outs, the IT department has experienced improved communication between the IT team and the many departments and customers it serves at FSU.

"A challenge such as what Ferris State was up against is the perfect showcase for Innotas' capabilities," said Kevin Kern, President and CEO of Innotas. "We've seen firsthand that our solution has given the FSU IT department increased confidence in its budgeting and forecasting, providing specific costs and timeframes associated with each IT project. It's made their life easier, which is our overall goal."

About Innotas
Innotas, a leading provider of Cloud-based solutions for IT Management, delivers a seamless way to manage Resources, Applications, and Projects across all IT. Innotas' solutions include Project Portfolio Management (PPM), Application Portfolio Management (APM), and Innotas Integration Platform. Headquartered in San Francisco, Innotas has hundreds of customers nationwide, including Bank of the West, Tiffany & Co., Crocs, Crayola, City of Memphis, RelayHealth, and World Vision. For more information, visit www.innotas.com or contact 866-692-7362.