Fund the right capex, staff it, and keep control after approval
PPM Express brings capital projects, product programs and plant improvements into one portfolio above the Microsoft, Jira and PLM tools your teams already run — ranked on one model, planned against the engineers who deliver them, tracked live against budget, and governed gate by gate.
Many priorities. One budget. The same engineers under all of it.
Plant expansions, equipment upgrades, new product programs, automation, compliance work and a long list of improvements all compete for one capital budget. McKinsey found the average capital project runs about 60 percent over schedule and more than 70 percent over budget — and most of that is decided at approval, not on site.
Priorities set by volume, not value
Business cases arrive in different formats from different plants, so the ranking goes to whoever argues hardest.
Funded isn't the same as staffed
The same controls engineers, process specialists and program managers sit under half the approved list. The conflict appears after dates are promised.
After approval, visibility and control fade
Budgets, forecasts and progress are rebuilt in spreadsheets for every review, and nobody can say later why a project was funded, deferred or stopped.
Three steps, from competing requests to a capital plan you can deliver and defend
Rank every request on one model
Capex, product programs and improvements scored on weighted strategic and risk factors with published value ranges, so a score means the same thing at every plant. Compare funding scenarios on the Pareto frontier and publish one.
Plan against the people who deliver it
Demand by role against real capacity, in hours or % FTE, across every site — before dates and budgets are committed.
Keep financials, progress and decisions live
Budget, forecast, actuals and benefits for every project; status read from MS Project, Planner, Jira, Azure DevOps and Smartsheet; stage-gates with named approvers and a baselined record of every decision.
Capital decisions with delivery, cost and control on one screen
Priorities you can defend
One scoring model across plants, product lines and programs, with funding scenarios compared before anything is approved.
Scarce engineers used where they matter most
Conflicts over controls, process and program engineers surface while the plan is still a draft, not after dates are promised.
Live financial planning
Budget, forecast and benefits tracked from approval onward, not rebuilt in a spreadsheet for each capital review.
The portfolio layer, not another PLM
Teamcenter and Windchill keep product data and change control. PPM Express shows what the change load does to the roadmap.
Works with the tools teams already run
Two-way Jira and Azure DevOps; MS Project Desktop, Planner, Project for the Web and Smartsheet connectors.
Every engineer, plant lead and finance partner in
Unlimited users, so visibility is never rationed to the PMO.
Scoring models in use are protected
A model already ranking live programs has to be cloned before it can be changed.
Movement in the numbers is surfaced, never silent
If budgets or dates change after you built the analysis, you are shown exactly what changed and asked whether to take it.
Progress visibility without the reporting cycle
The portfolio reads status from the tools teams already use, with 200+ Power BI reports ready for the capital review and the board.
Rank the capital plan, then keep control of it all year
The question is rarely whether a plant expansion, an equipment upgrade or a new product program matters. It is which combination fits the capital budget and the engineering bench — and whether you can still see cost, progress and decisions once the money is released.
Three methods, not one
A weighted scoring model, MoSCoW with columns that total budget and benefits, or a quick ICE score. Use the one the capital round deserves — or run two and see where they disagree.
Value defined explicitly
Weighted strategic and risk factors, each with a published value range, so a 3 means the same thing to every plant manager who enters one.
The genuine trade-off frontier
Pareto optimization shows the options where you can't improve strategic value, benefits, risk or cost without giving something up, so leadership chooses a point on the frontier instead of arguing toward a number.
A capacity reality check
Every plan is tested against people's free capacity: what is left after the commitments they already carry. Over-allocation is flagged before the plant commits to a date.
Budget, forecast and benefits, live
Numbers are baselined at approval and tracked against actuals, so post-completion reviews start from what was promised, not from memory.
Governance that holds all year
Stage-gates with named approvers, protected scoring models and a full decision history for internal audit and the board.
Security & Trust
Enterprise-grade Security. Without the enterprise runaround.
Enterprise-grade security is built into our platform. We offer US and EU data residency, full GDPR compliance, and custom DPAs to meet strict regulatory requirements.
Need app availability in your region/country to meet data residency requirements? We can provide.
Microsoft 365 and Okta SSO ensure secure identity management, while centralized user management, advanced permissions, detailed audit logs, and strict data isolation protect sensitive enterprise data.
Bring your security reviewers to the same call.
Book Enterprise Demo
How an 8-plant manufacturer runs NPD, capex and plant work in one portfolio
A 5,000-employee manufacturer scored NPD, capital projects and plant improvement on one model against the same shared engineers.
Innovation Management
Capture new project request, streamline evaluation and prioritization
What-If Scenario Planning
Structured Approach for prioritizing and aligning portfolios with strategic priorities and resource constraints
Frequently asked questions
Manufacturing portfolio management, answered.
Does PPM Express replace Teamcenter or Windchill?
No. PLM keeps product data, BOMs and engineering change control. PPM Express sits above it and answers the portfolio questions: which programs get funded, in what order, and whether the engineering bench can carry them. It can show the capacity impact of change load; it does not run ECO workflow.
Our software and controls teams work in Jira. Our plant teams use MS Project. Can they stay there?
Yes. Jira and Azure DevOps sync two-way; MS Project Desktop publishes through the Project Publisher add-in; Planner, Project for the Web and Smartsheet connect directly. Teams keep their tools; the portfolio reads from them.
How do we re-plan when priorities change mid-year?
Build competing scenarios against one funding ceiling, compare them on strategic value, benefits, risk and cost, and check each against engineering capacity. Publish the chosen one and its numbers are baselined, with the decision history kept for the next review.
How do we keep control of capex after it's approved?
Budget, forecast and benefits are baselined at approval and tracked live. Gates carry named approvers and every decision is recorded, so post-completion reviews start from what was promised, not from memory.
Can we run stage-gates and evidence gate sign-off?
Yes. Projects run a configurable process of phases and stages with gates between them, and you choose which gates require approval. Named approvers review in the Approval Center and approve or reject with comments, and every approver has to sign off before a project advances. The decision history is retained.
How do we stop NPD programs that aren't going anywhere?
Make stopping a gate outcome rather than a failure. When a program is scored on the same model as everything else and checked against the same engineers, the cost of keeping it alive is visible — and the capacity it releases goes straight back into the scenario for work that is moving.
Can gate approvals be routed through our existing workflow system?
They can. Alongside standard approvals handled inside PPM Express, there is an API-based option built for organizations already running an external approval or workflow platform. PPM Express sends the approval request out to your system, and your system calls back to approve or reject the stage transition.
How do we see engineer utilization across plants?
Each person's capacity comes from their work week and calendar exceptions, and allocation shows against it in hours, percent or FTE, filterable by role or skill across every site, with overallocation flagged. Capital plans usually break on a specific group of engineers rather than on budget, and that shows up as soon as the plans sit in one view.
Our schedules are maintained in Microsoft Project Desktop. Can we keep using it?
Yes. Project Online and Project for the Web connect directly, and for the Microsoft Project Desktop client there's PPM Express Project Publisher, an add-in your planners use to publish schedules up from inside Project. Desktop 2016, 2019 and 2021 are supported. Plans come across up to 2,000 tasks and ten levels of hierarchy.
Internal audit asks how a capital decision was reached. What can we produce?
The model that was applied, the factor weights in force at the time, the scenarios compared, the one selected, and the numbers as they stood at that moment. Because a model scoring live work has to be cloned before it can be altered, the basis of a past decision can't be edited after the fact.
What about divisions with defense or export-controlled programs?
PPM Express does not offer a GCC High environment and is not positioned for ITAR or CUI data. Commercial divisions can run the full portfolio; for defense work, keep controlled technical data out and track only non-controlled program metadata, or keep those programs out of scope.
What data residency and security controls apply?
You get data residency in the US or the EU, strict tenant isolation, encryption in transit and at rest, and detailed audit logs covering the portfolio of record. Microsoft 365 (Entra ID) and Okta SSO handle identity with your conditional access policies. The platform runs in Azure data centers accredited to SOC 1, SOC 2 and ISO 27001; PPM Express does not yet hold its own SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certificate.
Fund the right capex, staff it, and keep control after approval
General questions: sales@ppm.express · +1 855 358-3688