12d Synergy vs. Bentley ProjectWise

12d Synergy and its ability to handle all file types really suited the engineering industry.

ProjectWise is good for really large projects with many team members. I would not recommend it for small projects or those with a small team of people working on them. It is best for technical people and those who plan to use it daily. There are better FTP options out there if you just want to use them for file sharing.

• Manages multiple files in a folder, while allowing file sharing (AutoCAD, xrefs, etc.)
• Delivers HUGE (2, 3, or 5GB) files with minimal bandwidth

• It works for collaboration
• The backend is customisable to do work that other document management systems just cannot do.

• 12d Synergy could provide additional analytical reporting on user behavior and usage out of the box.
• Improved speeds when referencing shared files from other 12d model projects.

• many users cannot be in the same file at the same time
• files are not automatically freed upon closure
• copying files to another ProjectWise folder is complicated. There is an option to copy, another to copy to, etc.

The 12d Synergy team is always ensuring our issues and needs are resolved promptly. Whether it be on the forum or phone, they are kind and helpful

Hands down prefer 12d Synergy. Bentley ProjectWise is overly complex, expensive and has a very cluttered interface.

Bentley ProjectWise from a user perspective just does not stack up to even something as simple as Dropbox. ProjectWise is powerful, it is capable, it has a ton of features. The best implementation I have seen from Projectwise is where the admins unlocked everything and let the users do as they please defeating everything it stood for and using it as a big Dropbox account, though even then the user interface couldn't be improved still causing significant workflow delays. I would reluctantly leave a good company if they implement ProjectWise, I respect that it's powerful for system admins but it sucks for users. This means 2-10% of what it is used for is well designed while the other 98-90% of its functions are just bogged down by a lack of development in its user interface and I say this as someone who has periodically used it over the last 10 years and seen no effective improvement in usability. Bentley ProjectWise was one of the first I believe to do this type of system, but as is common with being the first is you don't keep up with the times and bring a lot of baggage with you.

• 12d Synergy has solved our multiple office syncing issues, adding the ability to have staff from remote offices collaborate together on projects.
• Email saving used to be a nightmare, however, staff finds 12d Synergy's email saving easy to use and are able to search for saved emails quickly.

• It has saved us time in archiving and versioning documents
• It has saved us effort in backing up files and restoring them when mistakes are made
• It has had an overall positive impact on our bottom line by helping with file sharing and collaboration