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Microsoft Project Server

Score7.6 out of 10

51 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Microsoft Project Server?

Microsoft Project Server is a project portfolio management option.

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Reviews

What users are saying about Microsoft Project Server.
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The right choice for online project management is Microsoft Project Server

Incentivized
Cristian BodnarasecView profile
Senior Software Development Manager in Information Technology at eSilicon (501-1000 employees employees)

Pros

  • Project planning: tasks assignments, resources allocation, progress and cost tracking. The Server version is the natural extension of the Microsoft Project standalone.
  • Provides one place to manage all projects, accessible by everyone in the team. This opens the plan updates to team members as well(on their tasks), as opposed to being done only by the project manager.
  • Reporting and visualization - resources utilization, timeline etc
  • The integration with the Microsoft Project standalone: if you don't like the web version, you can download the latest and work locally. When done just sync it back to the server.

Cons

  • In many cases the server or cloud version of any tool will have some limitations compared to the standalone version. It is the same here, however the existing integration between the two will help you work locally and upload changes to the server if you don't feel comfortable working on the web version.
  • The learning curve for both Microsoft Project and the server version tends to be steep for some users
  • Needs an Outlook integration
  • The cost for implementation and licensing needs improvement, it can be very expensive for some smaller companies.

Return on Investment

  • It helped reducing the cost with managing the projects by reducing the time spent by project managers tracking everything offline and in different ways(i.e. Excel)
  • It reduced the time for reaching the milestones in the projects. Having the visibility into the up-to-date status of the project will enable the project manager taking the right actions and decisions at the right time.
  • Resource sharing across projects helped keeping the people 100% utilized.

Alternatives Considered

Basecamp

Great tool for project planning and management!

Incentivized
Verified User
Professional (11-50 employees employees)

Pros

  • Interactive gantt charts, you are able to customize, great for project management, planning. The diagram designs tool allows you to track progress.
  • Integrated project management tool, keep track of timelines, projects, share with others and track progress and easy way to manage projects
  • Streamlined project planning, sharing tools, ability to place files in shared drive.
  • Very attractive, user friendly software
  • Array of features from progress monitoring, risk issues, integration with SharePoint

Cons

  • So many tools, users could be overwhelmed and you need to be familiar with tools and it takes a while to adapt to the software. You may even need to be a semi experienced project manager to use the tools. There is a learning curve.
  • Sometimes custom fields are not able to be shared, integrated with SharePoint files
  • Expensive software for some businesses
  • Customer support is not always available
  • Limit to available licenses, may be an issue for organizations who require multiple users at a time

Return on Investment

  • Time management, it has allowed us to complete and execute projects a lot quicker time within the department.
  • Easily able to share projects, keep track of timelines
  • Ability to assign projects to others and keep track of progress.
  • Allows us to quickly work on projects easily as a team

Alternatives Considered

Basecamp

Other Software Used

Basecamp

All you need to run your professional services!

Incentivized
David LeanView profile
Project Management Officer and Resource Manager in Professional Services at CPS (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

  • Ability to update project plans on the move in any location. Plans can even be updated offline and saved back to the server when the connection is reestablished.
  • Visibility of resource assignments across the company allows us to plan project start dates easily and effectively.
  • Being a Microsoft product, it is intuitive to administer and easy to configure to our individual requirements.

Cons

  • As with all software, Project Server is not without its bugs although generally, it is a very stable platform.
  • The GUI does need updating to a more modern look to bring it in line with the rest of the O365 suite.

Return on Investment

  • We've been able to reduce the number of staff in our PMO by utilising the Project Server data in Power BI, reducing the need for manual reporting.
  • Being able to forecast utilization in the product allows us to accurately estimate resource needs to ensure optimum staff levels.

Alternatives Considered

None

Other Software Used

Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, MS SharePoint

One of the best PM software products

Incentivized
Kristin PageView profile
Senior Recruiter in Professional Services at Valeo Resources (11-50 employees employees)

Pros

  • Really helps with budget allocation.
  • Really helpful with assigning tasks and milestones.
  • Using the data we are able to publish reports affectively and in a timely manner.

Cons

  • Sometimes runs slower than I would like it too. Slow uploads as well.
  • Limited risk management and decision tools.

Return on Investment

  • It is pricey but for now I believe it is having a positive impact on our ROI and over company.

Other Software Used

Active Collab, Zoho Projects, Basecamp

Getting better with Microsoft Project Sever

Incentivized
Ved MishraView profile
SharePoint/MS Project Server Engineer in Information Technology at Merck (10,001+ employees employees)

Pros

  • Project schedule is one of the key features we use. Project professional can be used to do bulk task updates, manage resources, find critical paths of project tasks very easily.
  • A lot of extension capabilities are available when it comes to reporting. You can create SSRS reports or integrate with SQL database in the back-end to create OLAP cubes for Power Pivot and other BI reports
  • Workflows and Project Detail Pages (PDP) are very easy to configure. You can also control which field(s) to display on a particular phase or PDP.

Cons

  • There is no cost structure available out of the box other than resource driven scheduling
  • Performance (page load time in general) can be improved
  • There is no program level construct. Program/portfolio is just a group of projects underneath

Return on Investment

  • Better project management and schedule tracking which in turn improved employee's efficiency.
  • Licensing aspect is complex. Issues with onboarding new users to system from licensing perspective.
  • Positively, financial review process can be tailor-made which may not require further customization of the tool.

Other Software Used

MS SharePoint, SAP CRM, Microsoft BI