Deltek Project Information Management vs. Newforma Project Center

We liked the automation associated with filing e-mails. The ability to search within the body of documents within the platform was also a great feature and very powerful. Unfortunately, the program often hung up and didn't work and we were not aware that it was not functioning until several days went by. As far as the document management piece of the program, our staff found it very clumsy and burdensome. That resulted in them not using the system the way it was intended.

Incentivized

Newforma is a great tool to collaborate with large teams and between firms. It allows for great documentation of transfers, activities, and other procedural aspects of projects that require collaboration between disciplines, for example, MEP, electrical, architectural and technology. For internal use, Newforma has been great for communications tracking and archival, as well as for record-keeping of all the users in a team or number of teams. Many great options are features are unused due to a lack of training or exposure to them, for example, the graphical viewers that can preview CAD, Revit, and other formats, or the markup tool available with the desktop client.

Incentivized

• It was great for e-mail management
• It was useful for the transfer of large documents

Incentivized

• Newforma sits on top of our previous filing system (Windows Explorer). This was very important to us because we didn't have to change the project numbering system in order to fit Newforma's design. Also, if we were to decide we didn't like it, we could easily revert back to our previous methods.
• Newforma does a great job of indexing information, making searches much easier by being able to use keywords instead of knowing the exact file location. No more traversing through countless folders before finding what you need.
• Newforma keeps a read receipt for everything that you submit through it for issue tracking, and keeps an easy to read record of your workflow.

Incentivized

• It is not user friendly
• Cloud version is very unstable
• It is very expensive
• It does not integrate with Deltek Vision the way we were told it would

Incentivized

• I have found it difficult to locate audits.
• Some users have issues while uploading project data.

While I have never asked for support myself, a Newforma representative has been in the office annually to give training seminars and info sessions on how to fully use the product. I find this essential to keep the product relevant and make sure everyone knows its full capabilities and an important part of customer support.

Incentivized

When we purchased Deltek PIM we were told that it integrated well with Deltek Vision; however; once we implemented the program we found out that it was only a one-way flow of information. Also Deltek kept turning off various functionality within the program that would have allowed for better integration between the programs

Incentivized

A good competitor against other similar solutions and support is excellent.

Incentivized

• Cost prohibitive to small firms
• No flexibility for payment terms
• We were tied to a 3 year term on a program that we hated

Incentivized

• Newforma makes it easy to transfer, share, archive, and search extensive data sets in a single GUI
• For it to be effective, all users in a team must receive a basic training and use it consistently
• Adoption in the industry is good (A/E); many teams use it consistently. Learning to use it once produces time-saving in subsequent projects

Incentivized