Rest of the series: Project Planning, Simplicity

We know how Deskera lets you work on Microsoft Project files on the web. But that’s not all, Deskera offers much more than just Microsoft Project on the web.

In this part of the series, we compare the Collaboration Capabilities of Microsoft Project and Deskera Project Management Software.

Using Microsoft Project for Collaboration

Let’s take the case of John and Richard who are in-charge of end-to-end Project Management including planning all the project activities and Work Breakdown Structure for their biggest client so far.

John’s boss gifted him a copy of Microsoft Project last Christmas (for the extravagant sum of $1000) and he gets going on the project plan immediately.

• He gets a draft ready and wants Richard to take a look at it.
• Richard unfortunately does not have Microsoft Project installed on his PC.
• He tries using a free .mpp Viewer and e-mails out the changes required to John
• John updates the file and resends it for review each time. Way too cumbersome.

So finally Richard gets his boss to spend another $1000 for his own copy of Microsoft Project and suddenly feels all important and in control. So John and Richard start ‘collaborating’, sending each other new versions of the plan by e-mail till the file name reads something like this: Project-plan-(1)(150508)(1.6)final3.mpp

• They are still working on different versions
• More time is spent updating the changes rather than getting any real work done.
• No single version of the file for the team to work on.

The only way to get that done is to spend another $5000 odd for a copy of Microsoft Office Project Server. So after a lot of money and time spent for installation, configuration and training, they can atleast work on the ’same’ file.

But it’s still not Real-time. The copy they are working on is as of last ‘checkout’ date, but they trudge along…

How do they discuss and collaborate on the project plan?

• They send out numerous emails to each other and the rest of the team.
• Using various online chat and Instant Messaging applications such as Yahoo, MSN, Skype, etc.
• Numerous phone calls and brainstorming sessions

Unfortunately all this communication history was either never tracked or lost in heaps of other Minutes-of-Meeting documents.

And they haven’t even started working on the project yet… Just the project plan so far.

What if they switch from Microsoft Project to Deskera instead?

• John uploads his existing Microsoft Project plans to start working on them immediately.
• Richard and the rest of team see the changes being made in real-time and update the Project Plan and Gantt Chart themselves. No additional software required, saving time and money.

• All team members access the project status from any computer running any operating system
• This leads to dramatically lower costs than buying Microsoft Project for each team member.
• John and Richard communicate real-time using the inbuilt chat functionality, or send messages to each other.
• Dedicated project discussion forums are used for gathering feedback, resolving issues and holding all other team discussions.
• Using the dedicated calendars, they setup meetings and events for all project members.
• All communication history is available whenever they need it, even for the new members who would join later.

Collaboration tools including Messages, Discussion Forums, To-Dos and Calendars are leveraged for getting the actual project work done.

And all this at negligible cost compared to Microsoft Project.

So why not sign up for Deskera? Let us know what you think.

Zoli Erdos, of the highly respected Enterprise Irregulars, echoes our sentiments on Project Management 2.0 at CloudAve.

In the 90’s I worked on a number of fairly large scale SAP Projects in a variety of roles, including Project Manager, and supervisor of several other projects.  The standard tool was Microsoft Project.  It was used for:

• Planning a Project (initial Scoping)
• Selling it
• Periodic reporting to Steering Committee during the actual projects

What’s missing from the above?   Well, how about using it to help the actual daily work of project team members?

Project  team members did not even have access to MS Project, it only existed in a few copies on the PM and Team Lead’s computers.  Information-flow was one-way: feed the beast to be able to occasionally print charts that look impressive (scary) enough that Steering Committee members won’t question it.

Ok, I am admittedly sarcastic, but the point is:  PM 1.0 was all about planning, reporting and it served Management but did not help actual Project Execution.

My expectation of PM 2.0 would be that it helps all team members involved who can share information, collaborate on it and actually get clues from the system on where they are, where they should be, what their next step is, instead of just feeding the beast.

And that’s exactly what we are trying to do at Deskera. Oh & if you already use Microsoft Project, Deskera is just for you. Deskera lets you work on Microsoft Project files on the web. Really. 

Give it a go by signing up for free.

First off - Deskera makes a fabulous Web Based Microsoft Project Viewer. If you happen to use Microsoft Project, you would know how painful it is to use it in a collaborative (read: ease of use for teams of 2 people or more) way. Hence, Deskera. 

Besides being a fabulous Web Based Microsoft Project Viewer, Deskera also makes a good Project Management System. Today’s project management software can be broken down into two categories:

1) Project Planning Software – Microsoft Project, OpenWorkbench, etc.

No doubt, Microsoft Project is a really powerful project planning tool , but 80% of the users use only 20% of its numerous features. It also happens to be too expensive for most SMEs, and in this age, the fact that it is desktop based means it’s not really great for collaboration.

2) Project Execution Software– Basecamp, Central Desktop, Liquid Planner, Zoho Projects, etc.

Web-based project execution software works when it comes to light-weight collaboration. It facilitates quick and efficient management of tasks and to-dos.

But unfortunately, projects are not only about remembering the milk. What’s lacking is the ability to plan your projects, define dependencies and analyze project performance. No system can generate reports for data it doesn’t have.

Deskera - 100% Project Management, 0% Compromise.

With Deskera, we have tried to tightly integrate the best of Enterprise 1.0 Project Planning and Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration tools. We believe Deskera is a complete solution with powerful project planning capabilities, collaboration tools to get the work done and continuous project and resource performance appraisal.

Project planning

• Import/export existing plans from Microsoft Project
• Create tasks, define dependencies
• Allocate resources based on costs and availability
• Intuitive and interactive real-time Gantt Charts

Collaboration

• Social Networking
• Discussion Forums
• Project Calendars and To-Dos
• Messaging and Chat

Performance Reporting

• A powerful, yet intuitive, dashboard
• At a glance project ‘health’ charts
• In-depth custom Project Status reports - resource, time and cost.
• Export reports to multiple formats

We thrive on customer feedback and are offering Deskera completely FREE for a limited time. These customers can continue to use Deskera free of cost even after we introduce a paid-for version. Sign up here