Microsoft Project vs Planview PPM Pro comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

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

Find out in this report how the two Project Management Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Project 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
"The most valuable features of Microsoft Project are you can create critical paths pretty easily, and you can import from an Excel spreadsheet to your task list as you create it during your working sessions with your team.""The tool has a simple and excellent approach.""It is very stable. I haven't had any kind of issues with it. It is also very scalable.""One of the best features is that it is easy to use.""Microsoft Project integrates well with the Microsoft Office family of applications. It has plugins that interact with it and you can use it with Microsoft Teams. We can use plugins to communicate with JIRA, Projectplace, and Planview. It's not widely used in the company, of course, but it's something that can interact with the official tools that we have.""Microsoft Project is one of the only solutions you can use in just about any industry. It's difficult to do that with most other project management tools. There is a lot of flexibility within the product assets. Most sectors can utilize Microsoft Project successfully because it doesn't have any generic adapters.""It's a scalable product, especially the online version.""The user interface is very clean."

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"You can easily align strategic management and the portfolios within your organization. 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.""It has a nice dashboard view, so you can analyze the progress on a project from a single place. It provides a nice graphical representation of all the project management with visualizations of Gantt chart and customized reports. You can easily track all your progress on project tasks and flag any issues.""It is certainly the resource management feature that is most valuable for us. It is the supply and demand. Like most companies, one of the hardest nuts to crack is understanding where your people are and getting them to do the right thing at the right time. So, certainly, out of all the functionality, this has been the saving grace for us because it now provides us with the insight to do future planning and stop taking on more work than we are physically capable of doing as a company.""We use PPM Pro with Projectplace. It is absolutely 100 percent fantastic. Now, we can give people that more collaborative, comfortable look and feel with a Kanban board view. We give them a smart app that goes along with it, essentially not having to worry about using rigid project management. They are very complementary towards each other: PPM Pro and Projectplace. What one is not so strong in, the other one has strengths in it. It is fantastic.""I've worked at many different companies, and the customer service and the support from Daptiv are unlike anything I've encountered before. They far excel any other company I've worked with. I always say to people that Daptiv is like a sub-department in your company. You don't realize they're a vendor. It feels like you're working with somebody who is part of your own company.""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.""In my current company, it provides a quicker ramp up to understand what it can do for people by taking away all their barriers to entry: time, managing resources, and linking projects.""PPM Pro has improved my organization through standardization. The big thing for us is that we came from a very immature state of play. Everyone had their own risk and issue management capabilities and their own different impacts for risks. We've been able to standardize that within the program delivery arena. That for us has been a major thing. We're all speaking the same language about the same things and using the same metrics in order to capture statuses."

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Cons
"They should assist with tedious tasks.""The licensing cost is expensive and has room for improvement.""We'd like to be able to see different timelines as a part of one task.""I would like to see both Time and Team based options improved.""Could be more user-friendly, and forecasting could be better.""It needs to be more comprehensive.""Planview FLEX licensing gives us a central repository where all the projects are stored so you can check the finances, resources, etc. It's quite useful to have everything connected. We don't have that for Microsoft Project. It's disconnected. The reporting capabilities could also be better, especially with finance and resources. Everybody complains about reports. That's why we need another tool.""I find that MS Project has limited control in comparison to other solutions in the same sphere."

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"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.""The calculated field area needs improvement. There are a lot of formulas and functions available to make a calculated field, but it is still not comprehensive. We process the data to represent it through a report or dashboard. Due to the current constraints, for complex calculations, we do the data processing outside PPM Pro.""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.""Integrations need improvement. We have the ability now with the FLEX licensing to take advantage of the different applications. But if you want them integrated there's a really large cost associated with that. The integration should be included in the cost per license. We shouldn't have to pay these really high fees to get the systems to talk together.""Integrating with other tools should be easier and more straightforward.""We don't use their existing dashboard functionality. Hopefully, with the new reporting release that is coming out in November, we will be able to evaluate as to how we can leverage that. What I hear, "Everyone has either a Tableau or something else because Planview doesn't provide a dashboard." We should not need to use another tool. Planview has the data, so it should be able to give us what we want. This would also reduce costs since we are paying licenses for those tools too.""One thing in particular I'd suggest is that we used the fast track service to implement PPM Pro. While it had a lot of value to it, people may be expecting a different experience. An experience where maybe an entourage of consultants come onsite to help you do the implementation, as opposed to working over the phone with just one resource. This might be an option to offer later down the road where there are complex implementations.""PPM Pro requires a great deal of internet bandwidth because it's a cloud-based solution. This can present a problem if a team member is working in a remote area where they can't access high-speed internet or experience outages. They may face challenges logging in or updating tasks. If the internet connection is inadequate, it may not sync with the solution."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "I am not involved with this."
  • "I do not have personal experience with pricing or licensing of this product."
  • "You do not have to invest much in terms of configuring this solution to suit your needs."
  • "It gets expensive when having to add all of the plugins and everything that you need."
  • "It probably was $30 per license on a monthly basis. There is no additional fee."
  • "I do not remember the exact cost we paid but usually, they charge per user per month."
  • "Its price could be reduced a little."
  • "It was a three-year license deal that was reconciled on a quarterly basis. It is a reasonably priced product, and I consider that we got good value for money."
  • More Microsoft Project 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:Hi @Eire Zimmermann,  I helped an organization evaluate both MS-Project and Smartsheet when they were conducting their PM tool RFP. The short of it is this, MS Project is not caught up with the… more »
    Top Answer:The most valuable feature of Microsoft Project is status reporting.
    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
    10,002
    Comparisons
    3,879
    Reviews
    46
    Average Words per Review
    407
    Rating
    7.9
    12th
    Views
    2,162
    Comparisons
    1,028
    Reviews
    6
    Average Words per Review
    851
    Rating
    7.8
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Project Pro, MS Project
    Innotas
    Learn More
    Overview

    Microsoft Project helps you get started quickly and execute projects with ease. Built-in templates and familiar scheduling tools help project managers and teams stay productive.

    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
    Aston Martin, ABANCA, Airbus Group, Capita, Cardiff University, City of Saskatoon, Intel, Pegasus Airlines, South Australia Power Network (SAPN), Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing
    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
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Government13%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization58%
    Computer Software Company5%
    Government4%
    Manufacturing Company4%
    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 Business39%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise45%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business10%
    Midsize Enterprise62%
    Large Enterprise28%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business11%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise69%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise72%
    Buyer's Guide
    Microsoft Project vs. Planview PPM Pro
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Project vs. Planview PPM Pro and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Microsoft Project is ranked 2nd in Project Management Software with 74 reviews while Planview PPM Pro is ranked 12th in Project Management Software with 34 reviews. Microsoft Project is rated 8.0, while Planview PPM Pro is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Microsoft Project writes "A stable solution that very accurately runs 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 is most compared with Asana, Jira, Microsoft Project Server, Smartsheet and Wrike, whereas Planview PPM Pro is most compared with Planview AdaptiveWork, ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management, Planview Portfolios, Planisware and Smartsheet. See our Microsoft Project vs. Planview PPM Pro report.

    See our list of best Project Management Software vendors.

    We monitor all Project Management Software 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.