Reporting Capabilities
One of the biggest distinguishing factors between using SharePoint as a workflow tool and adding pmPoint is the reporting capabilities. pmPoint provides a robust set of management views, giving a high-level manager a bird's eye view of the overall success or failure of a project. You can view statistics and charts in terms of:
- Projected costs vs. actual costs
- Projected time of completion and actual time of completion
- Percentage of project that is complete
- Late and on-time tasks
- Completion of tasks and total tasks by individuals
- There is also a calendar of tasks available
The best part is that these reports are highly customizable. You can choose what data to pull, what chart formats to view it in (Gantt, pie, etc.), and create custom reports that you will constantly update and that you can always revisit. So, while it will definitely take some time to get everything set up, you can create specific reports that are specific to given managers, then send out those reports via email or simply let the individual know which report to view.
Price and Requirements
pmPoint is available as both as a hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) and on-premises solution. The SaaS version, pmPoint Online, varies from $5?$24 per user per month, depending on the amount of users. The on-premises solution starts at $5,400 for 20 users, and the price per user decreases as you add more users— $17,500 for 100 users, $45,000 for 500 users, etc. Support is additional and averages about 1/5 the cost of the software.
To run pmPoint on premise, you need some version of SharePoint. It is not required, however, to run pmPoint Online.
Conclusion
Simply put, what differentiates pmPoint from other workflow tools is pmPoint's complexity and high-level management capabilities. At first glance, I did not find pmPoint easy to use—granted, I have very little experience with SharePoint, but users will definitely need time to adjust to the system. The key is obviously to keep things very simple for individuals, providing them a basic task list to work on and little else. The learning curve for the project manager will be fairly steep, and it will definitely take time to build out the reports, templates, and structure to make pmPoint streamlined and efficient.
BrightWork pmPoint 7.0
PROS: High-level, bird's eye view reporting; project sorting system allows for easy tracking of massive, long-term projects; templates allow for quick, streamlined creation of new tasks
CONS: Interface can be confusing; steep learning curve for project managers; significant prep work required to get the system to do the exact things you want it to; likely overkill for small organizations
RATING: 3.5 out of 5
PRICE: Saas solution (pmPoint Online) varies from $5–$24 per user per month, depending on amount of users. On-premises solution starts at 20 users for $5,400.
RECOMMENDATION: If you're a large company with a need for time-sensitive management of individual tasks, have a lot of tasks that are difficult to keep up with, or have few low-level managers on the front lines, pmPoint can be an invaluable tool by providing quick access to reports that tell you the status of projects in terms of time, price, individual workloads, and much more.
CONTACT: BrightWork • www.brightwork.com |
However, if you are a large organization that wants to have a well-documented workflow management system that allows a project manager to quickly gauge the success and status of long-term, high-value projects, there is great value in pmPoint. It can also be used in smaller organizations, but aside from the reporting capabilities, I don't find it to be overly superior to using SharePoint or other simple task-management programs.
To try pmPoint for yourself for free, go to www.brightwork.com/pmpoint. Or, register for a free live webcast on May 12.
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