Microsoft Project Server vs Planview PPM Pro comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Project Server and Planview PPM Pro based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Project Portfolio Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Project Server vs. Planview PPM Pro Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Capacity management and task baselining are the most valuable features of Microsoft Project Server.""I like the way you can build the schedule by the Don't Start Before or Don't Start After values. You can use it to build your schedule based on how you change your dates. This is how it actually builds the schedule.""The most useful feature of Microsoft Project Server is you can select a function to see the baseline.""We use Microsoft Project Server for project management.""It can scale well.""Microsoft Project Server helps organizations in collaboration.""The most valuable feature of the Microsoft Project Server is the level of detail with which I can break down a task and check the dependencies.""I like being able to manage the capacity in terms of the resources. I also like being able to share documents and information between teams. It's the best solution for collaboration."

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"Just about everything about the solution is valuable. I can't pinpoint one specific thing. The tool has helped us mature as an agency, has taught us to collect better data and the benefits of having good data.""The solution is great for viewing projects and timelines.""The status reporting is the most valuable feature as it's easy to use; it's simple for project managers to enter their information, and the reporting features are very flexible.""PPM Pro has enabled us to set up and run a project priority committee (PPC) within the organization. Without the PPM Pro tool, we wouldn't be able to have the project information, updates, and project listings in the pipeline to be able to run the meeting efficiently, give information prior to the meeting, and also run the meeting when we meet on either monthly or on a bi-monthly basis.""The most valuable feature of this solution is that my team can use one tool that's reliable, scalable, and provides the leadership team visibility to what's going on.""Daptiv is a project management tool, so it's pretty straightforward. The ability to manage projects and programs has been beneficial for us.""Time tracking, portfolio management reporting, and what-if analysis create visibility into project planning, resource capacity, and demand planning.""The solution's time-tracking abilities are one of the strong points. The only challenge is enabling it to the minute-level task. It's not at a project level but it's at an organization level. If I want it to be at a higher level as compared to some of the other projects where I want it to go to the nth level of a task for the time reporting, I cannot control it at a project level but it's controllable at an organization level. That's the only big challenge that I have."

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Cons
"When a lot of users logged onto the site, it took a big toll on the service. Therefore, there is a scalability issue.""We think that calculations are not working correctly, and there is a need to enter data a couple of times in order to give the correct calculations.""EPM 2010 UI seems a bit dated now that 2016 is available.""Work needs to be done on collaboration with SharePoint.""The deployment aspect of the product is a bit tedious.""Resource management has room for improvement because it uses a lot of resources.""It needs to be more collaborative from inside the application. It only does project scheduling for me. It would be good if it could do other things and be more collaborative, such as sharing tasks for users. It is not really incorporated into MS Office, so you can't copy-paste stuff. It is on its own, doing its own thing. It is only used for scheduling, and it doesn't work well with anything else.""The product is difficult to use for complex projects."

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"I would like to schedule reports. I would like to be able to schedule a report and every Monday it sends that report to these people. That circumvents having to give them a license. It's just a way of saying "Okay, this is what's going on this week," and it just happens. I don't have to worry about it.""It takes more time than it should to create a new project because we can't bulk edit things very easily. That is definitely an area that has room for improvement.""This solution does not work well as a task management system because it is very difficult to expand beyond just the basic tasks, and this would be a worthwhile area for improvement.""From a usability standpoint, the part where there are people on the tasks section on a team is a little challenging. Then for some reason, the in-demand reports are embedded in the resource section and to run them is just completely different and separate from the reports entity which is a lot.""Training documentation improvement is required because there are some high-level words in that material, terms that a non-technical person is unable to understand.""We found that sometimes when they have monthly rollouts that there might be some unintended consequences.""There should be the ability to store historical functions, but this is not just for this tool. It is applicable to many tools. It would be great if we were able to store specific historical data, such as risk management.""Reporting and dashboards need improvement. They've got the new beta coming out now and I've been playing around with that in our sandbox environment."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "I think they need more flexibility with licensing, because there are preconceived ideas that don't allow as much flexibility with the various licenses."
  • "The licensing was procured before my involvement."
  • "It has features that cannot be bought by other rivals, so cost does not matter."
  • "It is on the expensive side."
  • "There is a licensing cost."
  • "There is an annual license required for this solution."
  • "I cannot comment on the price as I was not responsible for purchasing the solution."
  • "I'm not quite sure about the licensing costs. We're probably paying somewhere in the neighborhood of about 80,000 to 90,000 a year for our current on-prem because we handle our own licensing. As far as Project Online is concerned, we're still trying to get a good handle on that. It looks like it is going to be in a neighborhood of about 120,000 to 150,000 a year, but we're getting a lot more capability out of it."
  • More Microsoft Project Server Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The cost was in line."
  • "$6 million has been the return on investment so far, and that was because of work intake. Now that we are scrutinizing the work intake and asking questions like, "Is there an alternative to your $10 million project?" We had one project come in for $10 million, scrutinize it through our gate review process, and wound up with the alternative, which was $3.8 million. So, a $6 million savings."
  • "We have their Flex plan."
  • "Because we have PPM Pro with Project place, we transitioned to the Flex model."
  • "A collaboration of all their tools truly gets the biggest bang for the buck."
  • "Bulk volume discounts are a little better. Right now we have to buy in lots of 20 at $200 a license. That's a little steep. For example, with Service Now, I pay $48 a seat for a license."
  • "Pricing was fair and I thought it was comparable to the other ones that we looked at. Other than ServiceNow, it was the most expensive, but we knew we were going to get a lot of value for that, so we went with it. We paid $40,000 for the implementation and for the workshops."
  • "The pricing for me is more about understanding your own needs in the company because it is one license for one person model. So, you have to really understand how many licenses you need and what may be the influx of your staff. The good thing about Daptiv is that we just need a quick telephone call to our customer success manager if we want to increase our licensing. It takes a day or two to do. So, we can upscale very quickly. We've never downscaled, but I'm guessing if we had to, we'd have to wait till the contract completes or renegotiate a different licensing cost. So, you definitely need to understand what different types of licenses provide from a functionality point of view, and then order 10% more than you need based on the influx of staff in the company. There are costs in addition to the standard licensing fees. We have the report functionality for which we pay separately for 10 hours per month."
  • More Planview PPM Pro Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that the tool's reporting is very good.
    Top Answer:The product's UI is not very user-friendly. From an improvement perspective, I want the tool to offer a user-friendly UI. Microsoft should attempt to match the capabilities offered by the other… more »
    Top Answer:The product's deployment is straightforward.
    Top Answer:Licensing costs are competitive enough. The price is reasonable given that the solution is geared towards large companies.
    Top Answer:The product feels like a toy. The tool needs to improve its roadmap. It needs to improve things on a project management level which includes communication as well.
    Ranking
    Views
    2,330
    Comparisons
    1,140
    Reviews
    24
    Average Words per Review
    330
    Rating
    7.5
    Views
    2,507
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    1,194
    Reviews
    6
    Average Words per Review
    851
    Rating
    7.8
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    MS Project Server
    Innotas
    Learn More
    Overview
    Microsoft Project Server 2013 is a flexible on-premises solution for project portfolio management (PPM) and everyday work. Team members, project participants, and business decision makers can get started, prioritize project portfolio investments and deliver the intended business value from virtually anywhere. Requires SharePoint 2013, sold separately.

    Planview PPM Pro centralizes the management of resources and projects while facilitating governance and providing visibility for improved decision making. Planview PPM Pro provides the ability to collect, prioritize, and execute projects so that PMOs can focus their resources on the work that delivers the most value. 

    Planview PPM Pro helps businesses get out of managing projects in complex spreadsheets or tools so they can gain visibility into all work and resources. For informed decision making, use Planview PPM pro to streamline project efforts into a single source of truth. The solution gives businesses the ability to align their centralized project portfolio to achieve business outcomes through financials, projects, and resources. 

    Planview PPM Pro Features

    Planview PPM Pro has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Portfolio planning: Select the right projects that bring the most value to the business.
    • Reporting and dashboards: For better decisions, measure, manage, track, and report on all work. 
    • Manage demands and plan resource capacity: Evaluate and make trade-off decisions based on available resources. Manage work requests in one place.
    • Manage resources: Ensure resources are working on the most important projects and understand resource capacity to appropriately staff those projects.
    • Manage portfolios and financial planning: Manage tasks and resources, project schedules, and the financials to deliver on time and on budget.
    • Scoring: Gather scores from across the organization throughout the project lifecycle to prioritize the highest value work and requests.
    • Planview FLEX: Use Lean-Agile and collaborative tools to help teams deliver their best work.
    • Centralized portfolio: Get visibility into all work, streamlining projects into a single source of truth. This establishes governance and improves overall delivery.
    • Predictive portfolio analysis: Identify the optimal mix of projects to predict, plan, and re-plan a balanced portfolio of resources and projects. Optimize delivery, increase agility, and save time and money.
    • Top-down portfolio planning: Create as many portfolios as needed to drive business alignment. Organize projects in portfolios, or contribute varying amounts across multiple portfolios.

    Planview PPM Pro Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing Planview PPM Pro. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Ability to prioritize project portfolios with top-down planning.
    • Increased confidence in knowing what resources are working on what projects. You can proactively allocate resources and improve delivery across your entire project portfolio. 
    • Deliver on time and on budget to focus on your highest impact work. Align your projects with your goals.
    • Dashboards and reporting visibility give you power to accelerate PPM time-to-value for the business.
    • Ability to empower teams with FLEX because today’s enterprise is embracing a combination of work approaches to increase the success rate of strategic delivery.
    • Integrate your core applications seamlessly.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Planview PPM Pro stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Some of these include its exceptional customer service, its easy customization, and its real-time dashboards. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:

    Jai A., IT Project Manager at Orange Business Services, notes, “For every project, we have to establish timelines, set deadlines, and estimate the completion date of a particular task. PPM Pro notifies us if we are approaching the deadlines, and we can customize this to give notice two or three days in advance.”

    Prateek A., a Manager at NISG, writes, “It helps you visualize all your strategic plans and the KPIs. It provides that information on a unified dashboard, in which you can track all your resources and the portfolios. It helps senior stakeholders and executives with clear reporting about project intake and demands, in real time."

    Sample Customers
    Magnachip, Gwinnett County Schools, CLEAResult, Medbit Oy, Intelbras S.A., ETS, CORE Construction, Keller Foundations
    The Weather Channel, corcs, Crayola, Scan Health Plan, Vermont, Bank of the West, North West Company, University of Southern Mississippi, Jeffries, Purdue University, Chesterfield County Virginia, City of Memphis
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company21%
    Manufacturing Company15%
    Comms Service Provider13%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company14%
    Government12%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Manufacturing Company15%
    Government12%
    Healthcare Company12%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Healthcare Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business33%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise48%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise68%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business11%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise69%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise72%
    Buyer's Guide
    Microsoft Project Server vs. Planview PPM Pro
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Project Server vs. Planview PPM Pro and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Microsoft Project Server is ranked 6th in Project Portfolio Management with 55 reviews while Planview PPM Pro is ranked 5th in Project Portfolio Management with 34 reviews. Microsoft Project Server is rated 7.8, while Planview PPM Pro is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Microsoft Project Server writes "Provides holistic reporting and allows us to keep track of what's going on with projects". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Planview PPM Pro writes "Notifications of approaching project deadlines help us plan and also avoid delays". Microsoft Project Server is most compared with Microsoft Project, ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management, Planisware, Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management and JIRA Portfolio, whereas Planview PPM Pro is most compared with Planview AdaptiveWork, ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management, Planview Portfolios, Planisware and Microsoft Project. See our Microsoft Project Server vs. Planview PPM Pro report.

    See our list of best Project Portfolio Management vendors and best Project Management Software vendors.

    We monitor all Project Portfolio Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.