TOP-5 Greatest Enterprise Challenge Administration Software program in 2023

Firstly, what’s an Enterprise Project Management (EPM) system?

It is a set of tools that ensure project management and increase the efficiency of its implementation. This means that the program is based on the concepts of an automated control system.

All such systems have specific goals and objectives. Selecting suitable project management software for enterprises can be a hard task.

Why? Because it’s a lot of good-quality platforms available in the market.

Some like to keep it simple, with just a standard task and workflow system. While others add features like chatting, calendar syncing, and workflow management.

We’ll try to help you choose the right solution that skyrockets your project management efforts.

Enterprise Project Management Software Key Features

A glance at history: everything starts to be serious from the well-known Microsoft Project. The first commercial version of what was released for DOS in 1984.

Within a few years after its launch, it became the dominant PC-based project management software. It makes realistic the development of the project management software industry in the next few decades.

But why do companies of all sizes need project management tools?

Companies that handle multiple projects need to have the ability to balance and centralize the projects. Obvious.

And for this, project portfolio management is essential. Portfolio managers in large organizations spend most of their time on Project Portfolio Management (PPM) systems.

But, this tool needs consistent maintenance to remain effective and viable. But also you should consider File Sharing, Video Conferencing, Internal Messaging, Calendars, Dashboards, Mobile Access, Integrations, Security, etc.

Project Portfolio Management is the main feature of EPM software. This module helps you to schedule and allocate your company’s resources optimally to achieve financial and operational goals.

But the PPM landscape is everchanging. And according to the latest Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Project and Portfolio Management”:

• By 2023, 80% of organizations will have an enterprise project, program, or product management office (PMO) focused on integrating products and programs.
• By 2021, at least 40% of large enterprise IT organizations will have completed their implementation of a product-centric approach.
• By 2023, 65% of organizations shifted their focus closer to product-centric philosophy. That consequently changed their approaches and needs in the digital business area.
• By 2023, technology providers focused on artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and digital platforms will change the market landscape for traditional providers within the PM and PPM markets.

If earlier the question was “PM or PPM” now it’s rapidly transforming into “Portfolio or Execution Configurations.”

At the portfolio level, project portfolio management leaders are interested in aligning and prioritizing projects and programs with value markers.

Those markers can include how the pre-define strategy unravels, some key business outcomes, positive business transformations, etc.

PPM technology can support many of these interests, but sometimes it needs to be “twigged” to your business entity’s needs. Which in terms of technology means the ability to be customized.

For newbies, the question of “to PPM or not to PPM?” became just a bit more complex. But for project management veterans, who remember MS Project’s origin and its implementation power – there is no question at all.

However, for those of us, who’d realized the need for uniting all the business data in one ergonomic automated system long before yesterday, this means just a bit more options to think about. So, when approaching the PPM solution issue in your enterprise, you have two main points to consider:

• Either, you choose wisely – examine all the strengths and weaknesses of the system you’re about to adopt and find the one that suits you like a glove.
• Or find one that is designed to be easily customized to fulfill all your needs.

In case you’ve already “in the game and have chosen your champion” – looking for ways to improve your system of choice might be the only option.

After we’ve detailed the project portfolio management issues, let’s move to our Top-5 great EPR software solutions.

For people who are addicted to project management software and tools, there has never been a better time to be alive. With task management apps, bullet journals, simple lists, and Getting Things Done we have a wealth of options from which to choose.

The elegance of modern enterprise project management software is based on sheer efficiency. You can copy and paste text, easily check off completed actions, and drag and drop items into your preferred organizational structure.

Everyone has different ways of doing their work.

Every manager needs a way to hit their deadlines, track the time their employees spent working on tasks, and collaborate with their team. No matter whether it’ll be online (like Smartsheet, Trello, and similar ones), or on-premises (like MS Project Professional).

Luckily, there are hundreds of online & offline programs that do just that. Lucky for us, there are thousands of Capterra reviews, as well as helpful case studies highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of every tool there is.

We’ve decided to stop at the TOP-5 popular toolkits of our time: MS Project Online, Smartsheet, Trello, Jira, and Asana. Let’s dive in and discover the opportunities!

Keep your mind organized and focused on Microsoft Project Online

In the beginning, there is Microsoft Project Online, probably the most well-known and widely used project management software. It’s listed on Capterra in the TOP-20 most popular project management software.

MS Project Online is a modern, swift, and lightweight descendant of Microsoft Project, which was exciting in the early days.

As the way of managing and running projects has evolved so too has the software, leading to new cloud-based, highly sophisticated, integrated alternatives MS Project Online became that alternative – the first of its kind.

Managers who are using Microsoft Project Online have the flexibility to manage their projects anytime, anywhere there is an internet connection on a laptop, tablet, or mobile.

MS Project Online is the industry standard for many project managers who like its ability to work with SharePoint.

Strengths:

1. It is a flexible app for project portfolio management (PPM) and tasks, offered through Office 365.
2. Microsoft is strengthening its messaging to customers and its partner network to reduce complexity and confusion on how to implement and leverage its PPM technologies. This includes helping customers easily understand how to combine and configure the various Microsoft PPM components to meet specific PPM and business needs.
3. Microsoft Project Online allows users to evaluate the impact of unplanned work on portfolios of programs and projects. Users can capture and track formal project or work change requests, and assess the impact of these changes on work, durations, costs, and resources.
4. MS Project Online integrates with different Microsoft, such as Microsoft Flow, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Planner, and Microsoft Project for the web and leverages these components in a modern way.
5. Microsoft Project Online users (as a part of a subscription) also have Project Service access.

These customers should refrain from overly customizing (rather than configuring) their use of Project Online until the two offerings are combined into one platform and unified UX.

Weaknesses:

1. Rigid learning curve: Some thought it lacks the intuitive approach of the ‘newer’ software. It can be far more complicated for most teams. It is an investment in training and resources to fully leverage the software.
2. Lack of Customization options: Software is quite difficult to customize. However, to remedy the situation, you can use FluentPro’s “Quickstart Project Online Implementation Solution”
3. Microsoft offers many PPM-enabling products and options for its customers, especially project managers who want to successfully manage and report on their projects. However, continued customer feedback indicates that Microsoft must improve its products based on customers’ feedback.
4. Project Online offers strong capabilities for named resource management at the detailed project and execution levels.

However, dynamic resource management at the portfolio level, with the ability to create multiple scenarios and assess potential positive or negative impacts, would be a welcome addition that could expose macrolevel budget and schedule risks.

Microsoft tools pricing policy

If we’re speaking about Microsoft Project Management system pricing policy it’s important to admit, that Microsoft provided user-bases licenses.

There are three product plans:

• Project Plan 1 – providing you quick ability to administer and control all your projects with ease all in one web browser window for $10.00 per user/month,
• Project Plan 3 – for $30.00 per user/month you and your team can plan, implement, and assess your projects, by using well-known scheduling tools. This plan provides you with the web browser version or an additional desktop client (don’t confuse it with MS Project Standard or Professional – this price plan has its desktop client).
• Project Plan 5 is the fullest plan from MS Project Online. For $50.00 per user/month, you can gather and optimize your project portfolio to prioritize initiatives, also within the web and/or desktop clients at the same time.

Also, Microsoft provides an opportunity to use on-premises solutions like MS Project Professional and Standard for $679.99 and $1,129.99 accordingly.

Smartsheet provides permanent scaling up to enterprise-level programs

In the last few years, the popularity of Smartsheet seems to have dropped from being fourth in the Capterra TOP-20 most popular project management software in November 2013 to ninth in September 2017; and in 2022 it`s in 13^th place (sorted by Most Reviews).

Smartsheet is a web-based project management tool and, although available for Windows, it is compatible with mobile. 

Smartsheet is used throughout organizations to trace and handle numerous varieties of work for groups giant and small and consists of instruments for workforce activity administration, crowdsourcing, and even gross sales pipeline monitoring. 

The duty administration and gross sales pipeline monitoring instruments are a transparent winner, nonetheless, the steadiness of the software program could also be letting it down.

Strengths:

1. One profit that another activity administration companies don’t supply is which you could in Smartsheet assign a task to a number of folks, group a venture of many steps, and assign every step to a unique particular person.
2. It’s additionally very simple to establish the duties assigned to a specific particular person or duties for a full venture – it’s simple to kind and filter to view solely the data you want.

Weaknesses:

1. One of many greatest issues is its stability. Mondays appear to be the worst – the service runs sluggish, and generally you’ll be able to’t even log in, after all. Mondays are the day when everybody must entry essentially the most, to remind them what initiatives are on the prime of the record for the week.
2. It’s additionally acquired a excessive studying curve.

Smartsheet can give you all one of the best venture alternatives inside three product plans: Professional, Enterprise, and Enterprise (customizable). The Smartsheet pricing coverage is easy to make use of and perceive – the primary two plans are versatile based on your small business wants and targets:

• Professional is the selection for these, who wish to assess the Smartsheet performance and evaluate it with different choices. For $9.00 per person month-to-month you’ll be able to acquire nice alternatives like limitless sheets and customers, Gantt, Grid, Card, Calendar Views and Dashboards, Studies, and Kinds.
• Enterprise is the way in which to make use of all Smartsheet’s prospects – for $25.00 per person month-to-month you add distinctive options to already present Professional choices like 1 TB attachment storage and limitless automation.

Additionally, there’s a Smartsheet Advance, which extends the complete potential of the platform with premium capabilities for venture, program, and course of administration at scale.

Jira Software program helps you be agile all the way in which

Jira is familiarly customary nowadays at any software program improvement firm. That is essentially the most highly effective and versatile venture administration device, however there’s a studying curve when it comes to setting the workflows up. It has an intensive function set, and customizations are infinite.

You may combine all the pieces into it – Confluence, Bitbucket & Project management. That said, it requires significant administration effort to use.

Strengths:

1. Because so many people use Jira, lots of vendors from the Atlassian marketplace make sure that their products interface with Jira as well.
2. Create custom workflows of any size that match the exact way your teams build, test, and release software.
3. Create a personalized view of Jira Software. Share dashboards to track project status, create custom reports, and monitor team wallboards.

Weaknesses:

1. When there are a lot of individual subtasks that are linked to the master task, the workflow can become difficult to follow.
2. Jira Software is a complex program that comes with a bit of a learning curve for most.

The great difference that Jira pricing has is a free plan (for 10 users). In this project plan, you already have Unlimited project boards to coordinate your projects and be successful in them.

Also, there are Standard (from $7.75 per user monthly), Premium (from $15.25 per user monthly), and Enterprise (flexible pricing plan) pricing options, varying one from another by functionality and features provided, so every PMO can choose the right version.

For teams that require a self-managed solution, Jira Software can become the on-premises solution (for USD 42,000 for 500 users and a 30-day free trial).

Trello connects all project management components in one place

Trello is another popular software tool by Atlassian for office collaboration. It’s an efficient one too as it makes use of the Kanban paradigm.

It was popularized by Toyota back in the 1980s for the supply chain management.

All projects within Trello represent as “kanban boards” or “trelloboards”. It contains lists and cards that allow you to drag and drop and progress from one task to the next, mirroring the flow of a feature from idea to execution.

Customers can then assign one another to playing cards that include their duties or initiatives, and transfer these playing cards, replace them, and even use them for communication a few particular activity.

Playing cards maintain feedback, attachments, checklists, and even due dates that sync robotically with the calendar. It’s fairly easy, but it surely positive has gotten loads of firms to modify over to Trello. 

Strengths:

1. The straightforward-to-navigate boards make it really feel such as you at all times have all the pieces you want sitting proper in entrance of you.
2. Invite outdoors members, create closed boards, or add public boards.
3. This “horizontal” device is multipurpose, that means you’ll be able to deal with all the pieces with it.
4. You may set all of your duties with a due date, and as soon as set all duties, sync them together with your calendar for every board.
5. Seamless Integration: Paying customers can combine with Slack, GitHub, and Salesforce.
6. Straightforward to make use of and arrange lists and playing cards.
7. Offers an easy-to-follow view of venture progress to all events concerned.

Weaknesses:

1. Whereas objects could be organized into particular duties and playing cards, as soon as aboard collects many playing cards, the board can simply get crowded and cluttered.
2. Sadly, Trello doesn’t have native time-tracking capabilities both.
3. There’s no approach so as to add a venture overview or any sub-task performance.
4. Print and export performance isn’t nice on the free model, you’ll be able to solely export to JSON format, the printer prints all the pieces in a single record, and the utilized labels don’t output.

Trello is a versatile answer after we’re talking about pricing coverage. There can be found 4 completely different paid plans:

• Free.
• Commonplace ($6.00 per person/month).
• Premium ($12.50 per person/month).
• Enterprise (versatile one, however not lower than 50 customers).

Additionally, Trello gives customers with always-free product plans with primary, however ample performance.

Asana contributes to making sure groups’ alignment and driving income

Asana is a web-based software program device for workforce collaboration. Its primary profit is that it permits customers to handle duties or initiatives on-line with out having to make use of e mail. Asana offers every workforce a workspace, and inside that workspace are particular duties.

Below every activity, customers and workforce members can observe the initiatives they should in order that if something adjustments, followers of that particular venture get updates or adjustments despatched to them robotically.

Duties monitoring is applied marvelously there. The flexibility to enter and modify duties on the pace of thought can assist you to get ideas down earlier than focus is misplaced. Asana additionally permits firms to make use of the product at an enterprise scale.

Strengths:

1. Between workspaces, initiatives, sections, duties, and subtasks group is a breeze.
2. Simply set recurring duties for issues that have to be accomplished greater than as soon as.
3. Cuts down on the variety of emails and messages wanted to debate venture or activity particulars.
4. A straightforward-to-access calendar synced with your entire duties, so that you by no means lose monitor of what must be performed.

Weaknesses:

1. Sadly, you can not assign a number of folks to the identical activity with Asana.
2. With so many duties and paperwork in the identical place generally the UI can get a bit sluggish.
3. Because the program is closely text-based, it’s simple to interrupt construction, take away a activity, or change its naming.
4. There is no such thing as a strategy to monitor time with Asana, sadly.

Asana’s pricing coverage is as versatile because the product itself. As a person you’ll be able to select from:

• Free ($0.00 per person, as much as 15 customers)
• Premium ($13.49 per person month-to-month)
• Enterprise ($30.49 per person month-to-month)
• Enterprise (particular person.

If you wish to take into account the Enterprise stage – be at liberty to contact Asana’s gross sales buddies. They can assist you combine Challenge administration into your organization’s day-to-day schedule.

How you can Select Proper Enterprise Challenge Administration Resolution for You?

The best is all a few matter of labor kind and private choice. You could do a little bit of analysis and discover out what would be the greatest match.

Get to know every product with a free trial (aside from MS Challenge Commonplace or Skilled). Prime venture administration software program suppliers supply a free trial or demo of their product to allow customers to check out the options freed from price and make a comparability of various instruments.

This may provide help to to gauge how helpful the net product could be in your firm.

Why you must select an Enterprise Challenge Administration Software program

All these programs have their strengths and flaws, and it is likely to be tough to choose. Particularly when you want the device to suit the necessities of various groups who usually handle initiatives in a different way.

Right here we assume the important thing benefits of EPM instruments:

With PPM Specific, it’s doable to begin with a number of programs, for instance:

• Jira – for technical groups
• Asana – for Advertising and Gross sales
• Microsoft Challenge On-line – for large-scale engineering initiatives, and so forth.

And even when you’re utilizing MS Challenge on-premises model you’ll be able to join it to PPM Specific to acquire the Project Portfolio Management in your company.

You just need to install the PPM Express Project Publisher and connect it to PPM Express.

From this moment, you can import and open mpp files from MS Project and publish projects right to existing PPM Express projects or even create new projects in PPM Express (with all you need – tasks, milestones, and resources).

So, you don’t need to convert mpp to excel to connect all the information within one window.

PPM Express takes a critical project and portfolio data from the systems of record and provides unified management functionality and reporting so that executives can see the “big picture” without having to micromanage teams.