LoadSpring is a project management solution built specifically for IT teams.
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Microsoft Project
Score 7.7 out of 10
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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.
LoadSpring is great for managing licenses so that a user who hasn't been utilizing the software can be placed inactive so the license isn't being occupied. Managing services and applications is great. You can easily change access through the management portion of the service. Uptime is also very good.
Microsoft Project is the perfect platform for medium and large companies. I do not recommend this software for small businesses, because all its functions in the work plans are high cost and this would cause the small business to not perform well in the use of MS Project in the long term. It is very easy to use software, it allows adding, modifying and eliminating all kinds of assignments and tasks for all employees, it allows monitoring the progress of all projects in real time and it also shows the gaps in the planned project. It has a very good performance, it does not take up many computer resources and all the information is stored in sync with the Office 365 service. It occasionally has crashing problems, but this is something that does not affect users as much.
It is part of Office365 subscription. The look and feel is similar to other tools like excel. Helps in creating project plans, Gantt charts, work break down structures etc.
Helps in resource allocation and tracking the projects. There is an option to use it to capture timesheets too.
Helps project managers in producing weekly status reports and integrates well with other collaboration tools like Skype, sharepoint etc.
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.
LoadSpring support is very quick to respond. They have self-service for support which is great for quick fixes on the end-user side of things. They will respond with a good solution and if they need further assistance from an administrator, and they email them so they can assist the end-user with their issue.
I’m giving MS Project an 8 because in general this is a solid scheduling program. It’s definitely designed with the professional in mind, and they have done well preparing the program to integrate with their other Microsoft products. The program is a workhorse so if you have serious scheduling needs then I would highly recommend MS Project.
LoadSpring has a great up-time compared to our old hosting service. We haven't had many outages and very few issues while running our concurrent sessions. Automated license management has been great so our active licenses stay very low. I wasn't involved with the purchase and migration but I feel this was the better option.
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.
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.
