Microsoft's Enterprise Project suite isn't just for the enterprise

Keeping track of a project -- any project -- can be an overwhelming task, especially if you're dealing with multiple teams, various funding expenditures, and the ever-popular string of setbacks and delays that haunt projects

Microsoft has continued to roll out products to help take control of projects। In addition to unleashing the latest project flavor last year, Redmond ripped Project Server in two, creating Project Server 2007 and Project Portfolio Server 2007. Each offers complementary and useful features to help users organize and control the flow of a project.

Both servers (with their client counterparts) are part of what Microsoft calls the Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) solution, which has been designed to help "you gain visibility, insight, and control across your project, program, and application portfolios"

Project Server 2007 allows you to access and manage a project through different methods: Among them, there's Project Professional, the client application sold separately or as part of Office 2007, as well as Project Web Access, which allows users to connect to Project Server from a Web browser

With Project Server, users can track project planning through the approval process। The activity plan can show users where a project stands at any given moment. Through the Resource Center, you can get quick reports as to where resources are allocated. Moreover, you can analyze timesheet management, as well as cross-project dependencies, on a project-by-project basis, allowing for more efficient use of time and money. In terms of security, admins can establish permission settings for users, allowing them access only to the resources they need to see and work with.

Project Portfolio Server 2007 lets you go one step further in creating an entire portfolio of projects or sub-projects। The server analyzes work flows and displays them graphically so you can see ways to optimize the project plan and execution. Through the Dashboard Module, you can see and track multiple portfolio scorecards for managing and tracking active portfolios. You can use the Optimizer Module to put your project portfolios through various what-if scenarios; you can also build out informational charts about your portfolio as it currently exists.

But this really becomes interesting when you compare Microsoft's EPM solutions to the project management products on the market -- and there are plenty of out there. On the upscale side, we have Oracle Fusion, and IBM Rational as well as Niku from Computer अस्सोसिअतेस

But Microsoft is also seeing competition for the smaller project management market from companies such as Clarizen and LiquidPlanner

How can Microsoft respond in the mini-market of project management when its offerings of Project Professional, Project Server, and Project Portfolio Server all seem so gi-normous to the average user?

The project servers allow for Project Web Access and therefore also allow for hosted solutions through a cornucopia of different vendors. So, the high-end features of an EPM solution don't necessarily require in-house servers or the administrative skill necessary to handle the dedicated hardware and software that come with such high-end project management solutions

Does this mean Microsoft Project is for everyone? Not quite। Many will argue that aside from the cost for infrastructure (which would be removed somewhat by the hosted solution path), there is still a valid reason to consider other solutions due to the unnecessary complexity of Project and concerns that it actually doesn't handle projections reasonably.

What solutions are you currently working with to handle project management?

source=http://weblog.infoworld.com/