Bentley ProjectWise vs. Newforma Project Center

If you need something more than just a file server, my advice: try it, if you like it use it, if you find it is slowing you down try ANY of the many other products out there.

It is capable, it is highly developed, it is better than a file server, but it is not streamlined and is in need of a major overhaul for an acceptable 21st century user experience. I personally have threatened to quit my job if we changed from our current document management system to ProjectWise, this is not because ProjectWise is not a good product, it is because I just want to be able to do my job without wasting time fighting the system.

Newforma is extremely well suited for archiving emails. The Outlook add in even has the option to "send and file in project", so you can archive it to a specific project as it is being sent, making it so you will never have to go back and file emails after the fact. Also, the markup tool is extremely useful and all of our users like it much better than Adobe Acrobat.

Incentivized

• It works for collaboration
• The backend is customisable to do work that other document management systems just cannot do.

• Construction administration.
• Document filing.

Incentivized

• many users cannot be in the same file at the same time
• files are not automatically freed upon closure
• copying files to another ProjectWise folder is complicated. There is an option to copy, another to copy to, etc.

• This was primarily an email archiving solution, but we're pushing forward with trying to integrate it with more of our business solutions to make it part of a suite of packages.

Incentivized

While I have never asked for support myself, a Newforma representative has been in the office annually to give training seminars and info sessions on how to fully use the product. I find this essential to keep the product relevant and make sure everyone knows its full capabilities and an important part of customer support.

Incentivized

I think ProjectWise is better for technical users than Dropbox, one drive, or SharePoint. It is less intuitive than any of the others though. It is better for restoring files and creating an audit trail than any of the other programs. It is better for sharing large files in a short period of time than SharePoint or one drive. It is also better for larger teams and larger projects than SharePoint or Dropbox.

Newforma provides many tools for organizing and archiving project information of various formats. Its ability to search communications is often used by our team. The desktop application is great for internal organization and the web interface provides the basic tools for collaboration and project management between teams of collaborating organizations. This is beneficial to the A/E and construction industries for document control.

Incentivized

• It has saved us time in archiving and versioning documents
• It has saved us effort in backing up files and restoring them when mistakes are made
• It has had an overall positive impact on our bottom line by helping with file sharing and collaboration

• ROI has not been evaluated yet, but I assume it will be positive.