REDWOOD CITY, Calif., April 1, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- Serena Software today achieved the first milestone of its on demand strategy by delivering one of its key offerings, Serena(R) Mariner(R) 2008, via Software as a Service (SaaS). Available now, the new SaaS version of Mariner gives business and IT managers the most functional on demand Project Portfolio Management (PPM) tool with no infrastructure to manage, no software to install, and simple subscription pricing.

"The success of any department is hinged upon a manager's ability to understand where resources are going, make decisions quickly, and show value to the business," said Rene Bonvanie, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, partner programs, and online services at Serena. "The SaaS version of Mariner will allow our customers to start using the software right away -- eliminating installation, hardware issues, and the cost of having to maintain the software -- to achieve a faster path to value."

Named a Leader in Project Portfolio Management (PPM) tools by Forrester(1), Serena Mariner helps organizations more effectively plan, manage, and deliver a greater return on business activities by bringing total visibility into projects, people, and costs. Unlike ad hoc approaches and products that only give partial visibility, Mariner delivers total visibility and a straightforward, flexible approach. It provides improved alignment with business priorities, powerful dashboard reporting for real-time monitoring and issue resolution, and robust resource management to help balance demand and supply for projects. Customers also experience fast time to value by matching their organization's PPM maturity with Mariner's functionality through solution accelerators, free assessment and training, and Quick Start service offerings.

"We looked at the competitors and chose Mariner for its intuitive nature, full functionality and better vision," said Cortney Edwards, PMO Support Engineer at PHNS, which provides information technology services for hospitals, healthcare providers and businesses. "Mariner will help us better manage our demand flow, provide more detail around rank and prioritization, and a central repository improving standardization in decision making. The on demand version is ideal as it allows us to adopt Mariner fast, with lower cost and less risk."

A Trio of SaaS Solutions

Serena Mariner is the first of three on demand offerings that the company plans to make available in 2008, with Serena Business Mashups and a full suite of Agile Lifecycle Management tools on deck later this year.

Transparent Pricing

Customers will be able to try Mariner On Demand for free for 30 days and can purchase a subscription on Serena's web site. Introductory pricing of 50% off for the first six months makes Mariner On Demand available for as little as $18 per user per month (based on workgroup). Pricing is available in three currencies depending on country of purchase, with list prices shown below. Details about the Introductory Discount pricing are available on the Mariner web site. The table below shows pricing per user for group, team, workgroup and departmental implementations.

    Subscription
     Plan           Group    Team     Workgroup    Department    Division

    Included
     Users          5-24     25-49    50 - 99      100 - 199       200+

    USD Pricing     $45       $41       $36           $33       Call Serena

    GBP Pricing      23        21        18            17
                   pounds    pounds    pounds        pounds     Call Serena

    Euro Pricing     31        28        25            23
                    euros     euros     euros         euros     Call Serena


    For more information on Serena Mariner, visit
http://www.serena.com/products/mariner.

About Serena Software, Inc.

Serena Software, Inc. provides services to make Enterprises and the business people within them more productive. More than 15,000 organizations around the world, including 96 of the Fortune 100, rely on Serena solutions delivered either on premise or on demand, to provide visibility and efficiency to the application development process. The company provides software services such as Serena Mariner (Project Portfolio Management), Serena Business Mashups, and Serena(R) Dimensions(R) (Change & Requirements Management), and will be providing Agile Lifecycle Management tools in the near future. Serena is headquartered in Redwood City, California, and has offices throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific. For more information on Serena solutions and services, visit http://www.serena.com.

Serena, Mariner and Dimensions are registered trademarks of Serena Software, Inc. All other product or company names may be trademarks of their respective owners, and their use is intended for identification purposes only and not in association with or as sponsorship or endorsement by such owners. Copyright (C) 2008 Serena Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

(1) The Forrester Wave(TM): Project Portfolio Management Tools, Q4 2007.