Everyone has heard the phrase, “Nobody ever got fired for recommending IBM.” The principle behind the phrase is that if the company is big enough, then there is no risk in recommending a product or service from that organization. This sentence was used with the marketing campaign of ‘FUD’ or Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt which was originally invented by IBM in the 70’s to create doubt about purchasing a solution from a less well known company. It would seem to follow that there is no risk in purchasing an enterprise project management solution from Microsoft. After all they are the largest software company in the world.
We are often asked how Project Insight differs from the Microsoft solution. There is no simple, 30 second answer to that question, as every software package is unique. In fact, if we compared each web-based project software solution in depth, it would compare to the effort of writing an entire book. What’s more, this effort is a moving target, with each software development team constantly updating its solution. Rather than attempt to detail a feature by feature comparison, here we offer the reader an overview of what we view as the main differences. They include, but are not limited to:
- The differences in paradigm
- 100% web-based versus a publish model
- Intuitiveness or ease of use
- Differences in implementation and installation
- Distinctive features of Project Insight
- Customizations
- Metafuse service and responsiveness
Metafuse, Inc. is a certified partner and developer of Microsoft. Project Insight, 100% web based project management software, is also on the Microsoft Independent Software Vendor list. So the intent of this white paper is not to bash Microsoft, but rather, to establish the reasons why an organization may want to select Project Insight for their web based project management needs rather than Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (aka Project Server or EPM). Purchasing software from the world’s largest software vendor is not without its risks. There may be several reasons why another project management solution is a better fit for a project team.
Project Insight and Microsoft Enterprise Project (EPM) differ in several important ways. There are five main areas of differentiation that will be covered here: paradigm, ease of adoption and use, implementation, features, and pricing.
PARADIGM
A centralized database versus an assembled system
Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) is a system of separate software tools and products that are integrated together, not a solution that was developed from the ground up as a truly 100% web based project management system. EPM is a compilation of:
Microsoft Project Server
Project Web Access (PWA)
Microsoft Project Professional licenses
SharePoint
SQL Server, and
SharePoint Portal Server External Connector
UMT Portfolio
These products were developed for unique purposes which were, at a later date, assembled together to perform in a web based environment. The various software and hardware components must be integrated successfully.
In contrast, Project Insight was developed, from its inception, as a 100% web based project management solution. Project Insight maintains the software application binaries, project data, projects, assets, discussions, in one server-based application, making the data truly centralized.
100% web based versus a publish model
The Microsoft solution is not truly 100% web based. What is meant by this statement? EPM requires the installation of desktop licenses of Microsoft Project Professional for the creation and editing of project schedules. All major changes must take place on the desktop, not the web environment. This means that a valid license of Project Professional must be invested in and installed for each project manager on the team. Depending on the client access license pricing a company has negotiated, this can be quite costly.
Project Insight permits project managers to initiate their project schedules directly in the web environment of the software. Project Insight has three ways of creating schedules:
- Generate a new project schedule from within the web environment using the rapid task entry grid
- Create a project schedule from an existing project template that is stored for re-use within Project Insight
- Import a project schedule from Microsoft Project
