Software Helps Keep Tabs on Huge Projects

It would take reams of paper and rooms of statisticians to manually track costs for each of the 13 different defense programs under contract at Northrop Corp.’s Electronic Systems Division in Hawthorne.

Since 1983, however, Bill Ponder, manager of administrative systems at the unit, has used a computer software program to help monitor the 5,000 subcontracts and 90,000 statistical tracking categories for each of the division’s programs, which include the guidance system for the MX missile.

“It would be impossible to run the projects without the software,” Ponder said.

Easytrak, the project management software that Northrop uses, is the product of a small Newport Beach company called Digital Planners Inc. The program can be used to generate monthly cost comparisons, determine whether projects are on schedule, and to warn managers when a particular task is in danger of running over budget.

“Easytrak is no guarantee against mismanagement,” said John C. Mather, president of Digital Planners Inc. “But you cannot manage a large program without software like it today. It is a project information management system that helps people develop a solution to a problem with many parts to track.”

Project management software divides a project into different tasks and generates statistical performance reports that measure how much a given task will cost and how closely it sticks to its assigned budget and schedule. It evaluates the risks of different budget options and tells the planner the “downstream” effects that result when one task is altered.

Project management software made its first appearance in the early 1970s, when computers were first used to assist in managing large government projects. Houston-based Metier Management Systems, the largest firm in the project management industry, pioneered the field with a program called Artemis.

Mather, a native of England who came to the United States in 1977, developed his own computerized management system for a flight simulator company in the late 1970s. He started Digital Planners with $6,000 in 1982.

Digital Planners is a small, 30-employee company that sells its software primarily to the defense and aerospace industry. The company has weathered several ownership changes.

Mather sold the firm in December, 1986, to software giant Cullinet Software Inc. in Westwood, Mass. The business sagged under Cullinet’s management, and then Cullinet itself was acquired by another software vendor, Computer Associates International Inc. in Garden City, N.Y., the world’s largest software company.

Mather, who remained with the firm during the ownership changes, repurchased Digital Planners in 1988 for an undisclosed amount because he believed that the company would enjoy more success if it operated independently.

The firm lost money under Cullinet but has been profitable ever since, Mather said, though he declined to provide specific figures. The company had sales of $2.5 million for its fiscal year ended June 30, compared to $1.8 million a year earlier.

Digital Planners remains a tiny player in the $200-million-a-year business for project management software. It must compete against several much-larger firms, some of which scoff at the idea that the small Newport Beach is much of a factor in the market.

The largest rival is Metier Management Systems, a subsidiary of Locus Industries in England, which sold $85 million in project management software last year.

Robin Browne, a Metier spokesman in London, doesn’t consider Digital Planners much of a threat because Metier offers a broader selection of project management software and more customer service than the Orange County firm.

Another competitor, Project Software & Development Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., reported $30 million in software sales last year. The company’s president, Robert L. Daniels, said he is not concerned about competition from smaller competitors such as Digital Planners.

But Digital Planners’ Mather is undeterred. He notes that his company’s sales are growing 30% a year--faster than some of its rivals, although from a smaller starting point--and has recently landed some major contracts in competition with its rivals.

The company’s project management programs are being used by contractors working on such major projects as NASA’s space station, the superconducting supercollider laboratory in Texas and the cleanup of Boston Harbor.

To date, Digital Planners has sold more than 120 software packages at an average of about $250,000 each. To lessen its reliance on defense industry customers, the company is trying to diversify by selling to local and state government agencies.

Mark Infanti, a project management consultant in Garden Grove, said software such as Easytrak should be considered an early-warning tool to inform managers when a project is over budget, not a solution for project mismanagement.

“The quality of data you get back depends on what data you put in,” he said.