What is Clarity by Broadcom used for?
With built-in capabilities for portfolio, program, and project management, Clarity PPM is a classic project and portfolio management solution. Their strong time tracking and financial features are leading reasons many organizations still rely on Clarity for their PPM. That deep expertise, however, cuts both ways as Clarity by Broadcom is as often not selected as a PPM due to an outdated interface and overly complex design.
Today’s modern PMOs require a solution that enables quick adoption by project managers who may or may not be professionally trained, and delivers straightforward data and reporting to executives and stakeholders without a lot of complexity
What are the advantages of using Clarity by Broadcom?
What are the advantages of using Clarity by Broadcom?
Clarity by Broadcom portfolio management features remain relevant for large enterprises that require a range of functionalities and seek a tool familiar to them.
Many organizations still rely on Clarity because of its strong financial planning and time-entry functionality.
- Deep functionality: Thanks to decades of development, Clarity by Broadcom has modules that cover nearly every aspect of traditional project and portfolio management.
- Has a strong project and portfolio data hierarchy to support real PPM use cases.
- As one of the oldest names in PPM, Clarity by Broadcom has a proven track record of aiding large, global organizations with complex hierarchies.
- Many organizations still rely on Clarity by Broadcom because of its strong financial planning and time-entry functionality.
What are some of the disadvantages of using Clarity by Broadcom?
Clarity’s weaknesses are precisely why so many organizations are moving away from it:
- PMO leaders may feel that their needs are secondary, given the size of the platform.
- An outdated design interface feels clunky and unintuitive, requiring too many clicks for simple tasks.
- Customization of any functionality is labor-intensive.
- Licensing and maintenance fees have steadily increased, however functionality and usability updates have not kept pace.
- Following an acquisition by Broadcom, many support teams were offshored, leading to slower response times and an overall decline in customer support.
- Moving to Broadcom’s new SaaS-based version often requires a costly overhaul with heavy customizations. Many organizations avoid upgrading altogether.
- Many users find Clarity complex and frustrating to use. That means the platform is often reduced to time-tracking functions only, and it’s not delivering on its promise of portfolio management.
- PMO leaders may feel that their needs are secondary, given the size of the platform.
What are users saying?
“It does what is advertised.” “Very good for assignment, time tracking, and reporting. However, sometimes not all needed information can be summed up in one screen…” “Frequent changes to the UI often leave users dumbstruck, thinking where to click for the correct action.” (Gartner Peer Insights)
Who is Clarity by Broadcom best for, and when to choose it?: Clarity PPM vs Prism PPM
Clarity is best for very large, highly mature enterprise PMOs that tend to manage complex projects and that are willing to trade usability for breadth and scale of certain functionality. Clarity PPM works for organizations that already have a well-established PMO, are not worried about user adoption, and are not overly reliant on customer or technical support.
Choose Clarity if your organization is already deeply invested in Broadcom systems, has the resources to manage a complex migration and complex implementations, and is willing to forgo user adoption in favor of its legacy breadth of features.
For PMOs early in their maturity but looking to grow and scale their operations, Prism PPM is a better choice than Clarity PPM. Prism PPM delivers a modern, intuitive, and cost-effective platform purpose-built for PPM, making it easy for trained and nascent project managers, executives, and collaborators to adopt without the bloat of a monolithic legacy system. Prism PMM regularly releases enhanced and new functionality, keeping ahead of the needs of emerging PMOs. And, Prism PPM’s tailored implementations and trained support staff partner with customers, alleviating the need to add staff to the PMO and take on additional technical burdens.
The Verdict
For mature PMOs working within the Broadcom ecosystem, Clarity PPM may be an excellent choice, especially if low user adoption isn’t an issue and the ability to self-support for technical issues is present. For low-enterprise PMOs who need to grow and mature their operations, work in hybrid project management environments, and/or want support from trained PMPs for implementation and training, Prism PPM is the right choice.