Microsoft recently announced its Project Server 2010 Web...once again reverting back to the ‘project server' family name after trying and failing to re-name the solution "Microsoft Enterprise Project Management 2007." Everyone still called it Project Server, so I guess they learned the hard way not to buck the trend.
What was once labeled:
-Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 and
-Microsoft Office Portfolio Server 2007 (the part of the program they purchased from UMT)
Has now been re-named as one solution:
-Project Server 2010
The project management and portfolio management are considered one solution, but are really, behind the scenes, two products created by two distinct companies with two different philosophies, development teams, etc.
The re-naming is an attempt to veil the complexity of getting the parts and pieces working together. Unless you are going with a hosted version of the solution, then you are looking at getting all the parts and pieces mentioned in my earlier post (Part 1 - Stuff You Need to Buy) and integrating them all.
For instance, if you want this solution to behave like a web-based solution, then you must get the PWA or web access module, as opposed to having one solution that was designed from the ‘get go' to be web-based.
We all know that integrations of any sort take time and money. Even those Microsoft partners that get ‘free' solutions from Microsoft still have to invest time and opportunity cost = money to get the solution up and running.
I've heard nightmare stories from my own customer base that once tried to use the MS project solution (in various forms, editions, names). One problem is that you have MS Project Professional on the client side for scheduling. The scheduling portion may be separated or checked out from the server side. These two parts can result in issues for teams.
For example, one software security company asked a local MS partner to set up their MS Project Server. They got it installed and the security software company was up and running. Then about a year later, something went awry. The resource management functionality was loading the work from MS Project Professional desktop to the server side each time a project manager checked out the schedule and re-published it to the server. The result was a doubling and tripling of the workload that resources seemed to have.
The big issue was that they could not rely on their resource workload numbers, and thus did not know if they could take on more work or not.
Naturally, the company called their local MS partner back. The partner came in and tried to fix the issue, but was ultimately befuddled as to why the resource management features were acting the way they were. The end result was that they all threw up their hands and called it a day. This is how Project Insight benefitted from the opportunity.
Project Insight as one database, not a mélange of parts and pieces allows you to load your resources in one time, add projects and tasks and then view the total workload from one report. Resource managers and/or project managers may balance the workload from that same view.
Even Gartner admits that "Service/support [for the MS solution] is provided solely through partnerships for implementing EPM." (Gartner: ID Number G00151228) While there are several VARs (value added resellers) of Microsoft accounting solutions in every city of the world, one is hard pressed to find more than five nationwide that claim to know anything about the project management market segment and suite of products. Chances are you'll find a VAR that knows software, but not project management. That means, you might get the solution up and running, but may not have a true implementation partner.
This is why solutions like Project Insight and others will always have opportunity. If you want to have a successful project management software implementation, then select a vendor that is more like your partner. One that knows its software solution AND project and portfolio management.
Cynthia West
Vice President, Project Insight