Planview PPM Pro Reviews

We use it for project portfolio management in the organization.

We are using the latest version.

We're still finalizing our implementation, but our hope is that it can prove our prioritization process and strategic decision-making.

We are expecting it to connect funding and strategic outcomes with work execution. For example, we are looking at planned cost versus actual cost holistically for our portfolio projects. That is the objective. We're at a place where we can finally start seeing that, and it's a good thing.

While we are still in the implementation process, the biggest impact has definitely been the visibility into time tracking, demand, and capacity planning.

• Time tracking
• Portfolio management reporting
• What-if analysis

These features create visibility into project planning, resource capacity, and demand planning.

The solution is reasonably flexible. We can do all sorts of customization. We can tailor it to TradeStation.

When I say the solution is moderately flexible, it's really that it takes time to configure out-of-the-box. It takes some work to implement.

Some of the visualization on the reports should be a bit more modernized. I know with the newer reporting module, this might be better. Just a bit more intuitive reporting would be great.

I would like improved integration between PPM Pro, Projectplace, and LeanKit.

It's been very stable to date.

It's definitely scalable. There are a lot of opportunities to customize. It's just how you implement it. That's why we think we have to use LeanKit, because of the agile integration, which is why we're here attending the conference.

The technical support has been good to date.

We use JIRA, but we have had some challenges with using that. That's why we had to implement Planview PPM Pro.

I have a background in implementing PPM solutions and building PMOs. The company knew that we needed a visualization tool to streamline our processes. 

The initial setup was a little complex. There is so much to customize. It'd be good to have some templates out-of-the-box.

We used a Planview consultant for the initial deployment who has been excellent.

Because we're still in the implementation phase, ROI is not at a 100 percent.

We have their Flex plan.

We did due diligence on a multitude of companies that offer solutions, then we narrowed it down to Planview and moved forward with it.

We evaluated six different firms, including CA Clarity, KeyedIn, and Microsoft Project Server. 

The Planview customer service and sales were excellent. Support was really good. We've been very happy with it to date. 

There were other solutions were a bit more cutting edge, but Plainview was more robust. We could actually build it out as we needed, e.g., the visualization, reporting, and integration.

CA Clarity has the Jaspersoft integration for reporting. Its ability to have plugins and integrate is a bit better, but we love the stability and growth potential of the Planview product.

Make sure you do good due diligence on LeanKit and the integration with JIRA. That is something that we didn't look into as much, even though it's part of our offering, and we need to understand it now better.

Projectplace is good for visualization and collaboration. It's a little tricky with how it syncs between the two. However, our plan is to have Projectplace for more of our collaboration space and PPM Pro do more of our reporting. We are looking to implement Projectplace in LinkedIn.

I would rate this solution as an eight (out of 10).

We have been using the tool for portfolio management with the resource allocation piece being a big part of it. We are using it to generate data to try and get a real-time report out of all the information needed to prepare for our quarterly reviews, etc.

It gave us a clarity of purpose. Everybody knows what they are doing and that they are all aligned:

• Managers know what employees are doing. 
• Employees know what they are doing and the managers think they should be doing. 

That is the clarity which really helps in efficiency. 

When you look at your organization, and what everybody is working on, you now know what capacity you have to take more things on.

The biggest impact was making sure that people were aligned on what they're supposed to do. This has really helped us because we're all going in the same direction and we know it.

It makes clear what people are working on. It is not just for managers but it is also for the people themselves. They are able to see and say, "I am on this project, and it's official. My manager knows it. Everybody knows it." That helps them with their motivation.

Anyone can go in and jerry-rig it. We would like the tool to be more locked down.

We found that sometimes when they have monthly rollouts that there might be some unintended consequences. However, the program is so flexible that sometimes we're not sure if the issue is because of the rollout or because we did something wrong.

It should grow with us for now.

I don't interact with the technical support of Planview that much. We have our own IT department. Usually, we interact with them first. Then, if they have issues, they contact Planview.

We were using something called PDWare. People hated it. Then, we had a team that went out and looked at the other things out there. I'm not sure of all the things that they considered but when they showed us what PPM Pro could do, it was such a big difference from what PDWare was doing, we said, "Let's give that a try."

Before we started using a tool like this to track what people are assigned to, we would have people who the managers thought should be on certain projects but they apparently had never heard of them. They didn't know they were on those projects and they would be working on some other projects that they thought they were supposed to do. The managers were like, "No, you're supposed to be on this one." So, there was a lot of miscommunication going on. 

Now, everything is clear. They can go through the tool, look at it, and go, "I'm on this one." Or, if they see something that they don't agree with, they say, "Hey, I thought you told me..." and then at least those conversations are happening and clears things up.

The setup is pretty straightforward. 

With upgrades, we have had Planview come in and talk about what they're thinking about with the new features coming in. Some of them we see that there is a use for them. Others, we are not at a stage to really see the usefulness of them.

I would rate it at about eight (out of 10) only because we've been using it for two years but there have been some growing pains as we are learning how to use it and getting the team adopted. I definitely see that adoption has happened and people like what they're seeing. However, I also see some areas where they could make it stronger.

Some of the things that we are looking at seem to be maybe in Enterprise One. So, a lot of the talks are now on Enterprise One. We are saying, "Oh wow, they are pretty similar." Then, we start to talk with people, and they're like, "Yeah, we can do this there." So, we should maybe be looking at what the differences are and what exactly they can do

We are not using Projectplace. We have been using JIRA. A lot of our technical teams is still using JIRA and most of the type of stuff is happening in JIRA, then we do a lot of the PMO stuff on PPM Pro.

• Project data
• Reporting: My job involves data analysis, so the reporting feature is the most valuable feature for me.

• Project data is used to make business decisions. It is used for objective analysis of project delivery, in terms of the project being on time and within the budget.
• Prior to implementing this solution, there was no centralized system for project data, either collection or reporting, in the organization.
• As the organization previously had no centralized PPM tool or a method of reporting on projects, having this data available via reporting assists in business analysis and decision making.
• This solution has provided a tool for consistent reporting and for the information from which decisions are made.

• Resource management
• Planning: My organization has to plan manually using multiple reports from Innotas. This means that planning is neither “real time” nor efficient.
• Visibility: The tool allows visibility to what resources are working on. However, there is no meaningful method for “What If” planning if the organization has more than a handful of projects and resources.

Their PPA (Predictive Portfolio Analysis) module is extremely cumbersome and does not readily offer a method to move projects in/out/delay to see the impact on role availability. There is also limited reporting on which roles are causing staffing issues. The What If Dashboard in Innotas is also EXTREMELY limited, and does not permit all projects to be included in an analysis. When we attempted to include all active projects and all upcoming projects, an error was received that our data set was too large. When we limited it to only our active projects (those currently being worked), the “too large” error was again received. If “What If” planning cannot accommodate all projects, and if Predictive Portfolio Analysis cannot offer a method to adjust schedules and see the impact, the tool is not useful for resource management.

We have had to develop our own methods for resource/portfolio planning, using information from multiple reports from Innotas joined in an external workbook. Since we have to work outside of the system (Innotas) to get all of the data we need in one place, the data must be refreshed manually, thus it is never real-time. This also means that users cannot refresh this information on their own, but must rely on specific employees to pull, compile, and analyze the data.

I have used this solution of over three years.

There were stability issues. There are monthly releases for this product. Following most releases, the system is either not available, or has major issues.

The new features in the release occasionally cause other functionality to break, making one wonder how extensively the new features were tested prior to release.

There were some scalability issues. Our organization is too large/complex to use the planning tools (Predictive Portfolio Analysis and What If workbench) with this solution.

Other than that, there were no issues with scalability on day-to-day project management and reporting.

I would give technical support a rating of 4/10.

Technical support is requested via case submission, and Innotas rarely contacts you to discuss the issue.

The first response to a case is often “standard” and indicates that they did not read the description provided, or did not understand the case.

The first response is often “clear your cache”, which any user with experience with this product always does first before submitting a case.

Cases can take months to resolve, and occasionally remain unresolved. Sometimes Innotas cannot determine the cause of an issue or provide a meaningful solution.

This is the first PPM solution used by my organization.

My organization purchases a block of 500 licenses. We have flexibility to add and remove users easily. I am not aware if there are other licensing models available with this tool.

I was not part of the decision to implement this tool, but it is my understanding that there was no evaluation of other products.

We are currently evaluating other options, as the organization has matured and we need a tool that provides resource management and planning capabilities beyond what Innotas can provide.

If you are relatively immature in your project management journey, this is a pretty good tool to start with. Your in-house administrators can do much of the customization that you want. Reporting is quite easy and straightforward with this tool.

If you are a small organization with only a few project resources and projects, this tool could likely provide you with what you need in a PPM solution.

I appreciate the project and timesheet tracking for our staff.

It has brought our organization to using one tool for requests, project management, and time-tracking.

Innotas is revamping their UI. They need to focus on their request management area. I believe it is scheduled for 2017.

We would also like to utilize their budgeting process, but they need to match how we do budgeting.

We have used it for two years.

We only encountered the usual web application anomalies and slowness at times. But this could be due to different behavior when using different web browsers, such as IE or Chrome.

We did not encounter any stability issues, as we are a fairly small shop.

I would rate technical support as very good!

We previously used various tools that didn’t map to our processes very well.

I think it is worth the price

We evaluated ServiceNow.

Do it in phases if you can.

I particularly appreciate the Timesheet and Resource Management.

It has helped to improve our resource forecast functionality and identify resource availability.

Financial management and workflow process setup could be improved.

I have used it for two years.

I did not encounter any stability issues.

I did not encounter any scalability issues.

I would give them 9 out of 10.

Initial setup was straightforward.

We previously evaluated Epic Clarity.

It’s a very intuitive product and easy to use. If you are a young and developing/maturing organization, it is a good first product to implement for a PPM solution.

This solution is cloud-based and that is most beneficial.

It allows the leadership to pull out the project status whenever they want to.

There should be another option for capacity management, besides entering of the time sheets against the tasks.

I have used this solution for one year.

I have not encountered any stability issues.

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

The technical support has been great, although sometimes responses can take up to three days.

Previously, we were using Basecamp and Microsoft Project. We needed a global solution that would meet with the leadership project reporting expectations.

The fast start process was straightforward. There were some opportunities around the unique requirements.

Make sure you understand the licensing structure, i.e., full verses T&E.

We looked at another solution namely the CA Clarity tool.

You must understand the needs of your organization and as to what you are trying to resolve with this product.

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. 

I am working with the product for two to three years. 

The product is not scalable. We have around 15-20 users for the product. 

My experience with the support is not good. 

The product's deployment is straightforward. However, the solution is very difficult to customize as per customer requirements. 

I would rate the solution a four out of ten.