Avolution ABACUS vs. Microsoft Project Server

Well suited scenarios include IT portfolio management, project portfolio management, enterprise architecture planning, modeling of business capabilities, using standard frameworks that ship out of the box such as TOGAF, and integration with SharePoint. Less appropriate scenarios would be detailed data modeling and using the tool expecting to get model drive code execution.

Incentivized

Microsoft Project Server I believe is best for any organization from small to large. As I mentioned, it is a little pricey so I would do research into alternative software and depending on your needs maybe look at all options, competing software. This is a tool with a learning curve and some may not be able to easily navigate this software. There isn't really great training, resources available for this tool however there are some free YouTube tutorial videos. This is great for cross company, department project management, sharing, managing of projects and timelines.

Incentivized

• Modelling the Enterprise through the creation of catalogues and matrices of Enterprise information
• Creation of views to supports strategy execution and decision making
• Central storage of Enterprise information
• Management of a agreed meta model

Incentivized

• Project planning: tasks assignments, resources allocation, progress and cost tracking. The Server version is the natural extension of the Microsoft Project standalone.
• Provides one place to manage all projects, accessible by everyone in the team. This opens the plan updates to team members as well(on their tasks), as opposed to being done only by the project manager.
• Reporting and visualization - resources utilization, timeline etc
• The integration with the Microsoft Project standalone: if you don't like the web version, you can download the latest and work locally. When done just sync it back to the server.

Incentivized

• More standard connectors for integration with other modeling tools could be beneficial for companies having legacy tools/fragmented toolsets.
• Better automated diagramming features would be useful.

Incentivized

• Resource loading and leveling extremely complicated within the tool
• Software makes incorrect assumptions and changes without user knowledge
• Inconsistencies within the tool make it hard to predict & troubleshoot

Incentivized

We don't have to worry about maintenance, upgrades, or compatibility issues. All the capabilities we need are there, and are easily customizable.

Highly knowledgable team and fast response times

Incentivized

Per Microsoft, Project Online provides more value long-term by reducing infrastructure cost and increase feature release cycle time

- Microsoft tools are manual and data is not centralized

- ARIS is not as flexible as Avolution

- LeanIX is close, but lacks business content/accelerators that Avolution provides

- LeanIX is in the cloud and multi-user

Incentivized

One of the key advantages of Microsoft Project Server (MSPS) is its ecosystem. It gels very well with SharePoint, Office, Office 365. The support from Microsoft is also a key driver and they are very experienced and many ways to resolve issues. Also, Microsoft has bridged the gap of cloud offering from other competitors by providing Project Online. It is an offering through Office 365 which is very lean and low maintenance.

Incentivized

• Positive - time to value for EA activities
• Positive - robust decision making

Incentivized

• We've been able to reduce the number of staff in our PMO by utilising the Project Server data in Power BI, reducing the need for manual reporting.
• Being able to forecast utilization in the product allows us to accurately estimate resource needs to ensure optimum staff levels.

Incentivized