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Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor vs. Planview ProjectPlace

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor

    Score9 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    The Lightning Conductor is a content aggregation tool for Microsoft SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams. Users can build rich, modern content reports based upon SharePoint lists, SharePoint Search, Microsoft Graph or Microsoft 365 Groups. Content can be aggregated from lists and libraries, and other applications such as Planner, To Do, OneDrive, and Teams.

    $2,200

    per year per installation

    Planview ProjectPlace

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AProjectplace is a collaborative work management solution. The vendor says the product is built with teams of all sizes and complexity in mind, from virtual teams of five to entire global enterprises with tens of thousands of active users. It is also designed to incorporate waterfall and agile workflows.N/A
    Pricing
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorPlanview ProjectPlace
    Editions & Modules
    Lightning Conductor WSP
    From 1950
    per year One WFE
    Lightning Conductor Enterprise Edition
    POA
    per year Four or more WFE
    Lightning Conductor Online
    From 2200
    per year per installation
    Lightning Conductor Plus (Includes Data Viewer)
    From 2500
    per year per installation
    Lightning Conductor Online Enterprise Edition (>10,000 users)
    POA
    per year per installation
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorPlanview ProjectPlace
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPrices stated are minimum per installation for "stock" products. $2.20 per user/year on top of base price. Enterprise editions can be amended to suit business needs if deemed necessary, additional costs incurred and TBD. All packages include free technical support. Free upgrades available to latest versions of tool as they are released. (online version)—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorPlanview ProjectPlace
    Considered Both Products
    Lightning Tools
    No answer on this topic
    Planview
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Would buy again
    88 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    80 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    91 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    60 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    63 Answers
    Features
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorPlanview ProjectPlace
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor and Planview ProjectPlace
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
    8.6
    2 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Planview ProjectPlace
    7.7
    198 Ratings
    0% above category average
    Task Management8.82 Ratings8.4191 Ratings
    Search8.42 Ratings00 Ratings
    Resource Management00 Ratings6.7158 Ratings
    Gantt Charts00 Ratings7.7171 Ratings
    Scheduling00 Ratings7.7169 Ratings
    Team Collaboration00 Ratings8.7193 Ratings
    Support for Agile Methodology00 Ratings8.7151 Ratings
    Support for Waterfall Methodology00 Ratings7.8140 Ratings
    Document Management00 Ratings9.0184 Ratings
    Email integration00 Ratings6.4163 Ratings
    Mobile Access00 Ratings7.7147 Ratings
    Timesheet Tracking00 Ratings6.0129 Ratings
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    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorPlanview ProjectPlace
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    Score9.8 out of 10
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    Enterprises
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    Microsoft To Do
    Score7.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorPlanview ProjectPlace
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    8.1
    (198 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.2
    (9 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (75 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (72 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorPlanview ProjectPlace
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Lightning Tools
    Having experience of SharePoint On Premise and also SharePoint Online, there isn't an out of the box app/webpart that enables you to 'roll up content' from a variety of source's (in my case SP Lists, but there are many other data sources it works with) across site collections with an easy to use and intuitive interface which is what Lightning tools excels at.
    Read full review
    Planview
    Planview ProjectPlace is a vibrant platform that manages all activities and schedules different roles based on their urgency, importance, and requests. Further, Planview ProjectPlace outlines the need for proper documentation with the aim of accurate referencing. Tasks are credibly shared, and proper reporting is enhanced to transform firms' work environment. ; Lastly, Planview ProjectPlace brings sustainable email integration for enterprises.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Lightning Tools
    • Aggregate documents across SharePoint site & libraries
    • Filtering for owner/person responsible & due dates
    • Ease of end-user filtering on columns
    • Color-coding & other formatting
    Read full review
    Planview
    • Easy of use. Modules are well define.
    • Navigation: Users can use the tool's search functionality to find what they are looking for easily. The home page is configurable to the users' needs.
    • The knowledge center is a key function to understand the tool capabilities.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Lightning Tools
    • Mobile Friendly
    • Calendar/Gantt views
    • Complex/Custom Logic
    Read full review
    Planview
    • Under the time tracking, it would be nice to have a set template that would load each week and not have to click a button to load the previous week's template.
    • Somehow making it more intuitive.
    • Having to add in each service line and each detail that I cover for every service line each week is a bit ridiculous.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Planview
    We're committed now & have >50 users on Projectplace. All our projects are now tracked in the tool. We this investment of time & training, the cost of maintaining Projectplace is relatively low for the benefit. So we will renew, even if there are some idiosyncrasies in the tool & there are opportunities for improvement.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Planview
    Easy to use platform and provides the user with an amazing experience and straightforward tools that empower and help execute tasks with fast performances that allow quick and easy service delivery. Easy on implementation and get started immediately with enterprise-ready Planview Projectplace and start to connect with teams and departments at once.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Planview
    No downtime-issues since the implementation. It has been very stable
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Lightning Tools
    The Lightning Tools support team responds quickly, and team members are very friendly and helpful.
    Read full review
    Planview
    I haven't needed to get in touch with support because the product is quite well structured and understandable. There were no issues initially when making payments or later for monthly payments. The project manager using the software is quite skilled in the software and has not needed much help. New licenses are easy to acquire, and there is no delay in getting them. I know there are several ways of support available, so that's a plus.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Planview
    create an extensive change management process to help folks embrace the change
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Lightning Tools
    I haven't found another product to compare this one to. Only in SharePoint Online which has a similar App 'Highlight Webpart' ... it's far too complicated to set up and requires learning yet another language and exporting and importing via PowerShell to get any real results that would be useful.
    Read full review
    Planview
    [In my experience] Jira is more refined, better looking, and easier to become familiar with. Also, the massive market share of Jira helps in consultancy as you can switch between clients easily. Projectplace has many powerful tools but so does Jira, and Jira integrates with our suite of software much easier compared to Projectplace.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Planview
    It is a bit more difficult to fluently use in large scale implementations
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Lightning Tools
    • Policies easier to portray
    Read full review
    Planview
    • [We have the] ability to support remote work through projects that scale across multiple groups
    • We have large-scale quarterly projects, so the ability to save and duplicate project templates are helpful for us to keep track of tasks down to the specific card
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor Screenshots

    Screenshot of MODERN SHAREPOINT LIST ROLLUP
The Lightning Conductor is a SharePoint Content Aggregator that can be configured quickly by business users. The Lightning Conductor can be used to aggregate content from SharePoint Lists such as Tasks, Document Libraries, Contact Lists, and Custom Lists making it easy to view content in one place even if it is distributed across many sites and site collections. Key data can be highlighted using conditional formatting and data-bars as shown. Content from Search and Microsoft Graph can also be aggregated with the Lightning Conductor.Screenshot of CONTENT AGGREGATION WITHIN MICROSOFT TEAMS
The Lightning Conductor Web Part can be used within Microsoft SharePoint or Microsoft Teams. Even if content is stored within SharePoint sites, it is useful to have aggregated Documents, Tasks, Announcements, Calendars or Custom Lists from multiple sites displayed in a single handy view in Microsoft Teams. The Lightning Conductor can be added as a Teams Tab in any Microsoft Teams Channel.Screenshot of BUILDING REPORTS ON MICROSOFT GRAPH
The Lightning Conductor can be used (without code) to aggregate content from Microsoft Graph as well as Search and SharePoint Lists. This example displays Microsoft Planner Plans and Microsoft Planner Tasks where users can Add new Tasks, Assign Users to Planner Tasks, Delete Tasks, and Complete Tasks. The same can be performed on Microsoft To Do items and displayed within Modern SharePoint pages or Microsoft Teams Tabs. The Lighting Conductor can also contain multiple views of content, making it ideal to display all of your tasks from SharePoint Task lists, Microsoft To Do and Microsoft Planner in a single web part or Teams Tab.

*Microsoft Graph Reports are only available for SharePoint Online and not SharePoint 2019.Screenshot of BUILDING REPORTS ON MICROSOFT 365 GROUPS
Powered by Microsoft Graph, the Microsoft 365 Group Rollup Provider enables users to aggregate content by browsing and selecting Microsoft 365 Groups. Within Microsoft 365 Groups, you’ll be able to select entities such as Drive Items, Owners, Members, Planner Plans, Planner Tasks, Events, Posts,  Sites, Lists, and Calendars.

*Microsoft Graph Reports are only available for SharePoint Online and not SharePoint 2019.Screenshot of AGGREGATING USING SEARCH
When performance is critical, search can be used for rollups. The Lightning Conductor offers three data source configurations to get to content. Object Model (Real Time Aggregation from SharePoint Lists), Microsoft Graph (Aggregation from Graph Entities such as Planner, OneDrive, Outlook), and Search. The Search Data Source enables the aggregation of content from large SharePoint lists and libraries when performance is critical. Thousands of documents can be displayed in under a second using Search.Screenshot of HIGHLIGHTING KEY BUSINESS DATA WITHIN VIEWS
End users and Site Owners can highlight the data that is important to them, the data that they need to prioritize. Using conditional formatting, data bars, and icons, conditions can be configured to highlight the data that is most important. Icons and Data Bars can be any color or size desired. Examples include highlighting High Priority tasks, Showing data bars for the completion progress of Tasks, or indicating which tasks are assigned to any particular user.

    Planview ProjectPlace Screenshots

    Screenshot of Collaborative Workstream: Streamlined interaction between activities, boards and cards. Users can plan and follow up in the Gantt while their teams execute and collaborate for optimum productivity on the Kanban boards.Screenshot of Document Management: This helps to ensure changes to documents are visible in real-time. Version control ensures that team members see the latest document versions with access to document history.Screenshot of Gantt Charts: These support planning and visualizing every step of enterprise work and projects with Projectplace Gantt Charts. Track progress to make sure you'll meet your deadlines and know when things are not happening on time.Screenshot of Kanban Boards: This enables teams to execute and collaborate for optimum productivity, and includes activity notifications, messaging and visualizations of progress of day-to-day tasks.Screenshot of Workload View: A visualization of the workload of members in all workspaces, used to determine whether a team member is overloaded with work, or has room to do more.Screenshot of Workspace Overview: This offers an overview of all work and tasks that have been assigned across all workspaces. Personal tasks can be added that help offer a more complete picture of what's left to do.