Certinia PS Cloud vs. Microsoft Project

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Certinia PS Cloud
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Certinia PS Cloud software is 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 the solution works natively with Force.com, it utilizes the same data for sales, services and finance on one system.N/A
Microsoft Project
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Project is a project management software. It provides core PM functionality, including agile workflow support and resource management. Project can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise.
$10
per user/per month
Pricing
Certinia PS CloudMicrosoft Project
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Project Plan 1
$10
per user/per month
Project Plan 3
$30
per user/per month
Project Plan 5
$55
per user/per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Certinia PS CloudMicrosoft Project
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Certinia PS CloudMicrosoft Project
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Certinia PS CloudMicrosoft Project
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Certinia PS Cloud
-
Ratings
Microsoft Project
8.0
107 Ratings
6% above category average
Task Management00 Ratings9.0106 Ratings
Resource Management00 Ratings6.9103 Ratings
Gantt Charts00 Ratings9.9103 Ratings
Scheduling00 Ratings9.9105 Ratings
Workflow Automation00 Ratings8.582 Ratings
Team Collaboration00 Ratings7.695 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology00 Ratings7.679 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology00 Ratings8.179 Ratings
Document Management00 Ratings7.276 Ratings
Email integration00 Ratings6.181 Ratings
Mobile Access00 Ratings7.966 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking00 Ratings8.472 Ratings
Change request and Case Management00 Ratings8.462 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management00 Ratings6.282 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
Certinia PS Cloud
-
Ratings
Microsoft Project
7.0
76 Ratings
6% below category average
Quotes/estimates00 Ratings7.053 Ratings
Invoicing00 Ratings7.044 Ratings
Project & financial reporting00 Ratings6.973 Ratings
Integration with accounting software00 Ratings6.949 Ratings
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Certinia PS CloudMicrosoft Project
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User Ratings
Certinia PS CloudMicrosoft Project
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(13 ratings)
6.6
(107 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(3 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(2 ratings)
8.0
(5 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(3 ratings)
8.2
(34 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(1 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Certinia PS CloudMicrosoft Project
Likelihood to Recommend
Certinia
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.
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Microsoft
Microsoft Project Online is suited to Turnkey Projects where more Collaboration is required in Project Progress monitoring, risk assessment and conveying, issue recording and tracking. It is less appropriate when ERP Suites other than MS Dynamics are used, i.e when Enterprises need to integrate Finance / Accounting with It and having straight project management workflow
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Pros
Certinia
  • 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!
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Microsoft
  • I love the Gantt Chart that Microsoft Project offers me, because it provides me with a view from various aspects, it provides me with exact details about the fulfillment of tasks over a period of time, it also allows me to make comparisons with the necessary data and the fulfilled data. by the employees, in order to know exactly if the project's expectations have been met.
  • I love the Gantt Chart that Microsoft Project offers me, because it provides me with a view from various aspects, it provides me with exact details about the fulfillment of tasks over a period of time, it also allows me to make comparisons with the necessary data and the fulfilled data by the employees, in order to know exactly if the project's expectations have been met.
  • The alert system for the fulfillment and delay of assignments is perfect. Microsoft Project allows me to configure the task system, I can assign the necessary tasks to fulfill the project, and the software alerts me immediately if the managers are fulfilling the assignments.
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Cons
Certinia
  • 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
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Microsoft
  • Seems overly complicated for users sometimes in using Project and its functionalities
  • Hard to share files for those folks who do not have MS Project, and then have to print out for them
  • Can be confusing since it looks and feels like MS Excel
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Likelihood to Renew
Certinia
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.
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Microsoft
I like using Microsoft Project. It simplifies building a schedule
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Usability
Certinia
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
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Microsoft
Microsoft Project was for many years the reference tool when you were talking about project management software, even if it has some gaps. However, in the last several years, other tools emerged and covered those gaps and are getting more and more users. Microsoft needs to keep up with the trends as they did with adding Project Server. However, that needs a significant rework.
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Reliability and Availability
Certinia
We have maybe had 1-2 outages over 3 years.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Performance
Certinia
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)
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Certinia
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.
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Microsoft
Microsoft in recent years has transformed itself and gives a positive feeling when one interacts with the company. The company is focusing on its customers and willing to go extra mile to make customers happy.The company continues to invest in its products and bringing new features from time to time. Overall it is a positive feeling to be associated with such an iconic company.
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In-Person Training
Certinia
It was fine.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Certinia
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.
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Microsoft
I wasn't part of it so I don't know
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Alternatives Considered
Certinia
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.
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Microsoft
While many of the above tools are extremely well-versed, Microsoft Project's largest advantage comes from it being related to the largest business productivity company in the world. Project does have its sharing limitations - but regardless, offers one of the most robust tools in the market today. Microsoft Project is built with large-scale projects in mind but is more than up to the task for smaller projects as well. However, there are options available (especially cloud-based options) that may be more fitting for higher-level projects that do not require going into the weeds.
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Return on Investment
Certinia
  • 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.
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Microsoft
  • Project saved me, as the project manager, countless hours of digging through tickets and schedules to plan everything out. It also saved me time in adjusting the project triangle as needed, since it does so much automatically.
  • It is costly, and since it requires extensive training to master, it's not just the high licensing cost that you need to take into account.
  • The reporting features - even just printing out Gantt charts - makes it far easier to communicate with stakeholders. That means less time for PMs doing all of this manually, and it means less follow-up questions and delays moving forward.
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ScreenShots