Certinia PS Cloud vs. Hive

PSA is great at capturing all the data you would need to accurately track and report on consulting projects. It captures project financials, calculates projected GM%, and (among others) allows for hourly tracking of employees, which breaks it up between billable and non-billable for utilization tracking to accurately understand costs. However, the user interface is tough to learn, and the stability of the data reporting functions is questionable. This tool would be great for smaller consulting shops that fit the standard contracting mold. If your business is fairly straightforward without a lot of shades of gray, you shouldn't have much trouble with the tool. However, if your business practices have a lot of exceptions based on clients, then you'll have a tall administrative task on your hands.

Incentivized

Hive is a powerful tool for data analysis and management that is well-suited for a wide range of scenarios. Here are some specific examples of scenarios where Hive might be particularly well-suited: Data warehousing: Hive is often used as a data warehousing platform, allowing users to store and analyze large amounts of structured and semi-structured data. It is especially good at handling data that is too large to be stored and analyzed on a single machine, and supports a wide variety of data formats. Batch processing: Hive is designed for batch processing of large datasets, making it well-suited for tasks such as data ETL (extract, transform, load), data cleansing, and data aggregation.Simple queries on large datasets: Hive is optimized for simple queries on large datasets, making it a good choice for tasks such as data exploration and summary statistics. Data transformation: Hive allows users to perform data transformations and manipulations using custom scripts written in Java, Python, or other programming languages. This can be useful for tasks such as data cleansing, data aggregation, and data transformation. On the other hand, here are some specific examples of scenarios where Hive might be less appropriate: Real-time queries: Hive is a batch-oriented system, which means that it is designed to process large amounts of data in a batch mode rather than in real-time. While it is possible to use Hive for real-time queries, it may not be the most efficient choice for this type of workload. Complex queries: Hive is optimized for simple queries on large datasets, but may struggle with more complex queries or queries that require multiple joins or subqueries.Very large datasets: While Hive is designed to scale horizontally and can handle large amounts of data, it may not scale as well as some other tools for very large datasets or complex workloads.

Incentivized

• The biggest strength of FinancialForce PSA is that it's built upon the force.com platform, which means it is very easily customizable to our business needs.
• Projects are easily created, as well as milestones and assignments.
• "Actuals" (dollars and hours) are calculated automatically, and are easily reported on.
• Resources are easily managed by using the Resource Planner
• FinancialForce PSA support is outstanding!

• Simplicity, it offers a clean environment without risking the outcome. An example of this are the timesheets that allow a fast way to keep track of progress
• Interaction, the different options make it faster and easier to interact and collaborate in the development of a product. An example of this would be Hive Notes for meetings
• The different visualisations it offers allow to explore the best ways to affront your projects. I really like the Gantt mappings view to understand who can be contacted at each point

Incentivized

• The product is still maturing as a full featured PSA tool. The feature roadmap is compelling but is still being built out.
• Tool is ideal for managing a services business. It is not yet a project manager tool.
• Limited reporting
• Maturing change order process
• Limited integration to back-end financial systems beyond Financial Force Financials. We use Netsuite.
• The underlying SalesForce UI is constrained and can be keystroke intensive at times
• Limited archiving of historical data

• Organizing tasks by assignees could be better. It's a little cumbersome to check off each person you want. Can you group these?
• I don't really use any view besides task view. Is there something better I could be using?
• It would be nice if attachments showed up in a nicer format, maybe with a preview?

Incentivized

There is another PSA software program that we have been looking into (DreamFactory) that could potentially replace FinancialForce PSA in our organization. Like FinancialForce PSA, it is cloud based on the force.com platform. Licensing is slightly less than FinancialForce PSA, and the Resource Management tool is far superior to FinancialForce PSA. With that said, our renewal falls in Q4 2014 and I don't foresee us implementing a new system this fiscal year.

It is maturing and does what it does well although it is not fully complete.

Integration to SF is great.

Gives great visibility to incoming services projects and allows the staffing process to start on pipeline deals.

There are certain processes that take more click-throughs then needed so there are refinement opportunities around the UI.

The resource management screen and project status views have really matured since our original purchase, and while not perfect, allow business leaders to do their jobs.

Configurations vs. customizations. We seem to have to bring in an Apex developer to do a customization for changes I would think could be configuration settings

We have maybe had 1-2 outages over 3 years.

Most of the time it is fine. There are peak periods of usage where performance noticably slows down (i.e., Monday mornings when time is due and many reports are being run)

Every time I submit a new help request, whether it's an actual help request or just a question about FinancialForce PSA, I always feel that I'm receiving world class support. The support we receive from FinancialForce PSA is always very detailed and professional. There are some requests that take longer than other for the initial response, which is why I did not give a full 10.

Our CSR is easily accessible and they have support built into the app itself. They also have a pretty robust support site. We also took advantage of the free trial and learned so much by putting Hive through the paces and figuring out the best way to mold it to our needs.

Incentivized

It was fine.

Appirio did a good job, however, the user team didn’t know enough to make all the right configuration/customization choices. The team focused too much on replicating existing processes vs. reengineering them. In hindsight we should have had deep dive reviews at key milestones and enforced more focus on how the software would operate. We didn’t have access to true best practices expertise. In hindsight, a consultant from the outside would have been helpful to drive this.

FF PSA is a robust Project Management solution that can be configured to fits any size business. We have tried several other applications and PSA so far has met and exceeded our needs. We run our day to day operations on Salesforce so having a solution that is native was a must have. PSA met that requirement and much more.

Incentivized

Hive is a bit different than Jira and Monday, which I used mostly. Overall does a great job managing project and helps with team communication. Removes dependency of asking team members for updates by going to conference rooms. With Hive, the team updates the status, and we can easily track it.

Incentivized

• FinancialForce PSA has helped us improve our data tracking and allows us to get more granular about our financial information and performance.
• PSA has given more tools and reports to individual contributors to take greater ownership over their own data, and has increased accountability across the organization.
• PSA has added a fairly hefty administrative burden to individuals, project managers, and our financial team.

Incentivized

• Workflow Management will help you better move your projects along which saves time and money.
• Time tracking will allow you to better manage the hours and keep your contractors accountable.
• Overall visibility of projects allow you to keep your margins down and combat "bleeding" and hidden costs or surprises.

Incentivized