PSA or PPM: the two acronyms cross in tenders, but they do not name the same tool. A PSA (professional services automation) answers a services company that wants to know whether its engagements are profitable. A PPM (project portfolio management) answers an organization that wants to know whether it is running the right projects, with the right resources. This guide explains what sets them apart, gives examples, and shows what neither one is built for: the client and the teams.
PSA software is designed for organizations that sell time and expertise: consulting, IT services companies, integrators, agencies, engineering firms. It follows the path from the engagement sold to the invoice: who is assigned, how much time was spent, what is billable, what margin is left.
Resource management and utilization rate, time and expense entry, fixed-price or time-and-materials projects, invoicing, revenue forecasts and margin per engagement. The main user is the operations director, the staffing manager or the finance department.
To compare these tools feature by feature, see the comparison of PSA software.
PPM software looks at all of an organization's projects as a portfolio of investments. It helps choose which to launch, split budgets and capacity, and follow the whole from the executive team or the PMO.
Demand intake and prioritization, portfolio scenarios, advanced planning, capacity management, budgets and forecasts, consolidated reporting. The main user is the PMO, the transformation office or the executive team.
The detail of these tools is in the comparison of PPM software.
The boundaries are not watertight, but the starting question remains different.
| Dimension | PSA | PPM | pylotik |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central question | Am I profitable on my services? | Am I running the right projects, with which resources? | Are we keeping our commitments, with what margin and which team? |
| Main user | Operations director, staffing, finance | PMO, executive team, transformation | Operations management, project managers, managers, and the client |
| Horizon | The current engagement and the next weeks of staffing | The budget year and the multi-year roadmap | The team's week, the contract's month, the committees' quarter |
| Object steered | Engagements, time, assignments, invoices | Portfolio, programs, investments, capacity | Contracts, projects, maintenance, portfolio, teams |
| Place of the client | The one who is invoiced | Often internal: a business unit or a department | A stakeholder: follows, approves or rejects, with free access |
| Finance | Margin, invoicing, recognized revenue | Budgets, forecasts, expected costs and benefits | Ordered, invoiced, paid, balance due, cost and margin at completion; invoices issued by the ERP |
| Type of organization | Services company, IT services company, consultancy, agency | Large organization with a PMO | Any organization that runs projects with human time committed (industry, construction, engineering, digital, public service), for an external or internal client |
The PSA looks at utilization and the invoice; the PPM looks at the portfolio. Two subjects remain on the sidelines. The client, first: the profitability of a commitment is lost in the relationship (a scope that slips, dates that move, approvals that come late), and a project or a maintenance contract is steered by two parties. The team, next: workload, wear, departures.
With no tool made for this, the steering is rebuilt on the side: a spreadsheet for the balance due, a slide deck for the committee, a chain of e-mails to get minutes approved. What is missing is a reference dataset shared by the supplier, the client and the team.
That is what pylotik. does. It covers workload plan, time, contracts and margin, as well as portfolio steering and arbitration: priorities, milestones, committees, decisions. It does not issue invoices: it connects to the ERP, through a connector built to your needs, to send it the invoicing orders. It adds the client and the management of teams. It was built during turnarounds and restructurings of service and project centers, where margin was decided as much at the client as inside the team. But where a PSA targets services companies, pylotik is for any organization that runs projects: industry, construction, engineering, digital, administration, public service. The client gets free access, without seeing margins, workload or HR data. The principle is detailed in operational commitment management.
Workload plan, weekly time entry, fixed-price or time-and-materials contracts, ordered, invoiced, paid, balance due, cost and margin at completion. pylotik does not issue invoices: it connects to the ERP, through a connector built to your needs, to send it the invoicing orders. No accounting, no CRM. See project financial tracking and team steering.
Portfolio steering and arbitration: workload, priorities, milestones, committees, decisions, with a Gantt-type schedule, linked projects and dependencies between projects and milestones that are watched, without automatic recalculation of dates. See multi-project steering.
The client, with a free client portal and committees and approved minutes. The management of teams: reviews, weekly report, leave, feedback whose author chooses the recipient, without rating anyone. Maintenance contract management and, as a complement, with the Interventions module of the Business tier, planning and acceptance of interventions.
No invoice issuing, no accounting, no public API or SSO, no incident ticketing or SLA management (see project ticketing or ITSM): it connects to project ticketing tools such as Jira and to the ERP, through an optional connector. Prices are public, on the pricing page.
When a PSA or a PPM remains preferable. A PSA, when the invoice must be issued in the same tool with no ERP alongside, when accounting and multi-entity revenue recognition are at the heart of the need, or when the organization is standardized on a specific ecosystem (Salesforce, for Certinia). A PPM, for an R&D pipeline in Stage-Gate, or when a PPM suite is already deployed group-wide.
For a fuller grid, see the guide to choosing operational steering software.
A PSA helps a services company stay profitable on its engagements; a PPM helps an organization choose and fund the right projects. The first looks at margin, the second at the portfolio.
An IT services company sells time to clients: its profitability falls on the PSA side more than the PPM side. But it is also decided at the client and inside the teams. pylotik covers staffing, time, contracts and margin, adds these two dimensions and sends invoicing orders to the ERP, for an IT services company as in industry or construction.
Some vendors cover both: Timetta presents itself as a PSA and a PPM, Planview brings together a PPM and a PSA, ChangePoint, in one suite. Then check whether the two uses live in the same product or in separate products.
pylotik is operational commitment management software: workload, time, contracts and margin like a PSA, portfolio, priorities and committees like a PPM. It does not issue invoices: it connects to the ERP, through a connector built to your needs, to send it the invoicing orders. It adds the client, free access included, and the management of teams.
Yes. An organization that has already deployed a PPM suite group-wide can keep it for arbitration, and entrust pylotik with steering with each client and each team. Connectors, which are optional, are built to your needs.
Page checked on . Sources: the sources page.
A demonstration on a data set that is already filled in: a contract, its project, its committee and its team, seen by the supplier and by the client.