Bentley ProjectWise vs. Raken

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.

Easy sub-contractor management ability, time tracking, resource planning and the easy tracking of project equipment using Raken is even enjoyable. Team coordination and project comments and recording sharing among the team members, this is a great tool for that.

Incentivized

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

• Great iPhone application - The application makes reporting and adding photos very easy.
• It's easy to navigate different days and reports. Or to find keywords or subcontractors and when they performed work.

Incentivized

• 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.

• Sometimes the app will run slow or crash on the guys in the field. It doesn't happen too often though.
• An easier way to download all project Daily Reports at one time.

Incentivized

Raken has an excellent support team. Raken are pretty prompt with getting back to you. Raken also has a convenient chat feature on their website. All their support members are friendly and are good at helping you understand and resolve your issues.

Incentivized

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.

Vista is TTI's accounting software program. It is extremely well suited for the construction projects. Team, which is similar to Raken, is more advance however the program is also more expensive.

Incentivized

• 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

• Less need to travel to each job site.
• Automated emailed reports to clients reduces the number of meetings/conversations about what is happening on the project.

Incentivized