Frequently asked questions

What is Zinger?

Zinger is an AI-powered project and portfolio management platform from Zinger Portfolio Management. It unifies strategy, portfolio governance and project delivery into a single connected platform, and helps organisations align investments to strategic priorities, optimise resources and maximise the value of every initiative.

Who is Zinger for?

Leadership teams, PMOs, functional heads and project leads in organisations that need consistent, governed project delivery and a single, evidence-based view of the whole portfolio.

• Leadership: know whether the portfolio is delivering strategic value
• Departments and functions: create control, consistency and visibility across the function
• Project leads: deliver using a guided, proven approach

What does Zinger do for portfolio management?

Portfolio management chooses the work. Zinger gives you a strategic profile with alignment to plan, portfolio assessment of impact versus effort, a financial overview of spend, savings and NPV, resource loading, prioritisation and heatmaps, portfolio key performance indicators, schedule adherence at a glance, a projects pipeline including ideation management, and data analytics and reporting to programme level.

What does Zinger do for project management?

Project management delivers the work. Zinger walks every project lead through a proven, guided lifecycle — typically Initiate, Discovery, Plan, Execute and Close — with best practices and templates built in. Control, covering project governance, risk management and change control, runs across every phase. Gantt and milestone tracking, smart stage-gate approvals, change requests, time and money tracking, and report presentations auto-created from standard templates keep delivery consistent and governed.

How the guided, stage-gated lifecycle works

What modules does Zinger include?

One platform, six modules, working as one:

• Projects: a common project management approach across local and global teams, through a proven guided lifecycle
• Portfolio: a single source of truth to strategically align, prioritise and control your portfolio, and schedule projects based on real resource capacity
• People: optimise your resource pool with full visibility of project load
• Sprintz: visual boards for Scrum, Kanban and hybrid delivery, with every task interfacing with the project Gantt
• Chatterbox: an integrated chat tool that keeps everyone connected on project and inter-project activity
• Help: context-aware guidance built into the platform

Does Zinger support agile teams?

Yes. Teams run their day-to-day on Sprintz — visual Scrum, Kanban and hybrid boards — while the project plan keeps its Gantt. Move a card and the plan knows; shift the plan and the board follows. One task, two views, zero double entry.

Can we define our own project phases and stage gates?

Yes. You can define your own process. You can name the phases, Discovery is optional, and you can have multiple execution phase gates. The project charter can be prepared in Initiate or in Discovery.

Example processes with four, five and seven phases

Can Zinger be tailored to the way we work?

Yes. Project templates, stage gates and workflows can be tailored to match the way you actually work. The platform adapts to your governance model — not the other way round.

What is Zippy?

Zippy is the AI assistant built into Zinger. It drafts your project charter from a short interview and coaches your objectives towards SMART. It also checks stage-gate readiness, surfaces emerging risks across the portfolio, prioritises at-risk projects and prepares concise executive briefings.

What Zippy does, and what it will not do

Does Zippy make up numbers?

No. Financials stay in your hands. Zippy drafts words and structure, not figures it can't stand behind.

Can Zippy change a project without my approval?

No. Each proposal is accepted or rejected section by section. Zippy fills gaps — it never silently overwrites your work — and nothing happens without your approval.

What does Zinger integrate with?

Excel and CSV import and export come as standard. Two-way sync with MS Project, Jira, SAP, Oracle EBS, Xero, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, Zoho Books, SharePoint and Slack can be scoped as part of an implementation.

Is Zinger cloud-based?

Yes. Zinger is cloud-hosted software that your teams use in a web browser, in real time. There is no on-premise version to install.

Does Zinger comply with the GDPR?

Yes. Zinger is provided by Zinger Portfolio Management Ltd, an Irish company, in line with the GDPR. Our Privacy Policy sets out how personal data is processed.

What language is Zinger available in?

English.

How quickly can teams adopt Zinger?

Adoption takes days, not months. You see only what's needed at the point in the process you're at, with context-sensitive help one click away, so new team members are productive on day one — no training course required.

What support and training do you provide?

Support is available by email and help desk, by phone, and through a knowledge base. Training is provided through documentation and videos. Context-aware Help is also built into the platform: it knows which phase and screen you're on, so answers arrive in place.

How much does Zinger cost?

Zinger is priced by quote, based on what your organisation needs. Tell us about your portfolio and we will come back to you with pricing.

Is there a free trial?

Yes. Zinger is available on a 30-day free trial. Contact us to arrange it.

How do we buy Zinger?

Purchasing is easy. You receive an Order Form, which contains the specific information such as pricing and quantity, and you accept our terms and conditions, which are contained within the Master Service Agreement.

How do I see a demo?

Fill in the form on the contact page and we'll organise a free call back to answer your questions or schedule a demo at a time that suits you.

Who makes Zinger?

Zinger Portfolio Management Ltd, based in Cork, Ireland. Zinger builds practical software products for project delivery, operations and service-heavy teams; the full range is at zinger360.com.

Who are Zinger's clients?

Zinger is trusted by teams across delivery, operations and specialist manufacturing. Clients who have recommended Zinger in their own words include Abbott, Hovione, Audi - Blackwater Motors Group and Walsh Windows; their testimonials are on the home page.