As IT projects multiply and grow in complexity, keeping them on pace and on budget gets more challenging. IT pros are finding project management tools can help, but they’re not a cure-all.

In a recent survey from KPMG International, 81% of companies reported an increase in the number of new IT projects in the past 12 months, and 88% reported an increase in the complexity of projects. Total project budgets have risen in 79% of the 600 organizations KPMG polled worldwide.

Read a q&a with Martin Webb, manager of data network operations, Ministry of Labour and Citizens' Services, Province of British Columbia, Canada, who talks about his use Microsoft Project exclusively.

At the same time, companies are squandering potential benefits of their IT projects because they’re not managing projects well throughout their lifecycle, KPMG says. Nearly half of the respondents had experienced at least one project failure in the past 12 months, and 86% reported losses of up to 25% of targeted benefits across their project portfolio.

Savvy IT shops are battling these odds with project and portfolio management software that helps keep track of schedules, skills availability, budgets and milestones. Suites typically include features such as project pipeline analysis; resource management; document and contract management; planning and estimation capabilities; and workflow support and modeling. IT-focused wares are available from project management specialists such as Business Engine, Planview and Primavera Systems; platform vendors such as CA, Compuware, IBM and Microsoft; and ERP vendors such as Lawson Software, Oracle and SAP.

With project management software, “we’ve been able to plan better and forecast more effectively because we have a view of where everybody is and what projects are coming in,” says Brian Abeyta, second vice president in the IT project management office at Aflac. The Columbus, Ga., insurer has been using Primavera’s software for almost five years.

As a long time user, Alfac can reap the benefits of having its past project experiences chronicled in a central platform. “Many of our projects are similar in nature, so we’re able to go back and look at a project and identify areas that we can improve upon -- a development section or a planning piece of a project, for example,” Abeyta says. “We look at projects historically for improvement opportunities.”