CMiC Project Management is a construction project collaboration and management solution. It centralizes project-related communications and documents onto one platform, and connects the job site with the back-end office.
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FinancialForce PSA
Score 8.3 out of 10
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FinancialForce Professional Services Automation software is also a cloud-based services solution that is built on the Force.com platform. It allows companies to manage professional resources, customers, projects and financials in one integrated services management application. Because PSA works natively with Force.com, it utilizes the same data for sales, services and finance on one system.
The platform is well suited for tracking project financials. The direct tie between the project budgets and costs on the accounting side makes this platform extremely valuable as we have real time cost data to make decisions from.
The platform is great in that it integrates the majority of our major processes. We can track a pursuit in Opportunity Management and push that information directly to a project. We hire people through the system and they are available to input on a project. We track time and pay people through CMiC and even manage our equipment fleet. This one platform satisfies a lot of our business needs, which makes our technology stack a bit easier to manage.
The platform as it stands today is not well suited for mobile consumption. We have users not use the mobile platform due to issues with losing data when not in wifi and issues with not understanding how to use the system.
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.
The user interface is similar to that of other project management software applications so folks in our company that had previously used other applications have been able to switch over fairly easily.
I really like the software and it was much less expensive than other applications.
I like the mobile application so that our superintendents can view the documentation on their phones.
I really like the punch list capability mobile field, however, we have a hard time getting our superintendents to use it for some reason.
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
Entering a code of the vendor instead of the company name while recording an invoice takes time and seems counter intuitive
Editing an invoice created through Image Management on the AP side is limited to description and address field. When changing the rest (invoice# or a date or an amount) - the whole trace of who entered/submitted/approved disappears. The way it works now is: deleting an invoice from the batch, locating it through Registry/invoice search, unsubmitting it, making changes, submitting, adding back to batch - time consuming
In Multiple distribution pop up window, when entering a new invoice, I'd make the field "Company" to be autofilled once "Job" is entered. It takes time to memorize what job number belongs to what company.
There is only web version available and it is limited compare to a desktop client. For instance I can only make one change at a time and save it. Multiple changes don't get saved in one click
This is a platform that would continue to be in the best interest for our company. I just hope that CMiC support removes the gaps between the enhancements that they create to better the system to what they currently have
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.
I believe it isn't easy to use and is unintuitive. Undecipherable error messages appear throughout the application without indicating what is wrong or how to correct it, in my experience. The terminology on the screens is specific to Canada, which adds to the confusion.
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
Sometimes since this is a cloud based product the system can become slow but we haven’t had any issues of availability without CMiC first letting us know it would be down
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)
The support team [has] been in touch with our deployment team and has given them effective guidance up to completion. It has helped us in [the] best methods of resource allocation and secure record-keeping process. We have tracked all our billing information and made the right payments with documentation and avoided [unnecessary losses]. [The] support team has [to] lead our teams to the right channels and empowering our team with the right skills for maximum production.
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.
The training was on system functions and not really how best to use it for our business. It would have been nice to be provided recommendations for use rather than just a blank slate of functionality.
Lots of confusion between sales and implementation regarding what was included and not included...the security encountered a "bug" and made it extremely difficult to set up roles and individual responsibilities
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.
CMiC Construction Platform is the best price point in the market. Others are revenue-based billings, and the annual fees reflect as such. CMiC Construction Platform support staff is generally amazing and offers real-time support on critical issues. The imaging and workflow functions are real-time savers. CMiC Construction Platform is generally a smaller and in touch organization that treats your team like their own and stays with you after the purchase.
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.
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.
