Microsoft Dynamics SL vs. Planview PPM Pro vs. Viewpoint Spectrum

For a small to mid-size business, MS Dynamics SL is effective. We are capable of managing our finances with a very low risk of error. We have worked with MS Dynamics for almost 15 years and have more than doubled the size of our business in that time with very few issues from the program. We have exponentially increased our revenue and reporting demands and have found SL to be very dependable and stable. The program does have the occasional glitch and those are sometimes outside of the realm of expertise of our IT department. SL support is excellent, but their timeliness is not as urgent as ours.

Incentivized

PPMPro is well suited for tracking new product introduction projects, as well as process changes. It serves to reliably track ongoing action items, issues, resource allocations for projects. Areas where PPMPro is less appropriate for use: Project to project dependencies, automating action item notifications on multiple platforms, integrations of PPMPro into other platforms PMO typically uses (like MS Projects, Teams, ppt, etc)

The Installation team is amazing. They provide clear guidance at the beginning of the process regarding what is expected and what needs to be done. The implementation manager follows up monthly with you to make sure you are on track and if you need additional help. They are very helpful and responsive in resolving issues.

Incentivized

• Provides flexibility for complex project based cost accounting
• Strong and flexible allocation processer for cost allocations, markups, and pricing
• A "Flexible Billing" module under the project controller series that allows for multiple billing formats ranging from fixed price schedule of values, T&M or Cost Plus, and scheduled billing.
• Flexible reporting with options using Crystal Reports, SSRS, a Quick Query tool, and ability to tie into MS Office tools such as MS Access and MS Excel
• Tight integration with Financials, but also the ability to integrate with modules such as Sales Order, Inventory, and Field Service
• Customization abilities ranging from a VBA (visual basic for application) foundation to allow customizing existing forms to the ability to use the SDK (Software Development Kit) to build more complex customizations that integrate with Dynamics SL.

Incentivized

• New request workflow/kanban board helps visualize where new requests are in the process of the quote to cash/request to completion
• The time tracking tool is tied directly to project tasks for seamless integration of time tracking, estimates, and actuals
• The reporting capabilities and ease of use has allowed us visibility to data that we never had before
• The tool is easily configurable by Administrators. We can add fields, change reports, add new dashboards within hours vs. days of trying to track things manually

Incentivized

• Job Costing - Viewpoint Spectrum handles job costing per project, per work order, per site, and gives us an up to date analysis of the project.
• HR - helps to keep all of the training certifications and HR incidents in a consistent and manageable order for all Managers to use.

Incentivized

• Reporting in the Project module is lacking functionality. I understand that most companies have specific needs when it comes to tracking project information but the standard reports are not good.
• I would recommend a product like Management Reporter that is for Projects only. Project Reporter should allow users to pull in all Project related data into reports.
• Fixing suspended batches. Obviously all of us users have experienced this mess. SL knows what needs to be corrected and there could be some step by step fixes in a separate repair module to do the steps we do in Query Analyzer.

Incentivized

• The base API is not a REST based interface and is difficult to use for integration with other systems in the enterprise.
• The UI for the maintenance of the task schedule for projects can be a bit cumbersome , although the spreadsheet style editor helps somewhat. The Gantt view is not interactive.
• The workflow engine is designed only for initial project intake, and does not allow for an integration of the work flow with the project from start to end, so it can't be used for routing artifacts like change requests, ancillary project approvals, etc.

Incentivized

• Support isn't readily available. You can submit a ticket and wait days before it's picked up. Even critical issues (system outages) can wait an hour or two before someone responds.
• Large companies will feel limited. This product wasn't designed to handle large amounts of data, and performance seems to slow when there are more than 80 concurrent users.
• The new developments are limited. HR Management is less robust than a third-party product specializing in HR Management. Viewpoint Analytics is nowhere near as robust as Power BI or Tableau.

Incentivized

Unfortunately, Dynamics' lack of ability to smoothly integrate with our CRM system is causing us to look at other solutions. The efficiencies that we gain by using Dynamics for our day to day accounting are lost in the constant headaches of getting sales quotes to import properly into the system for invoicing. Another major issue for us has been budgeting and reporting. We currently do all of our budgeting and board reporting in Excel, which is too time consuming and inefficient, especially when a system as robust as Dynamics should easily be able to handle this relatively simple task.

Incentivized

Because I never evaluated other tools, I would be open to considering others. Given our establishment with Innotas and the value it has provided us, separating from it would cause some organizational discomfort. However, if a tool existed with a more intuitive interface for manipulating the data and factors of projects and resources, I would be very interested.

Incentivized

The product is working for us and the cost to implement a new system does not warrant the expense.

Incentivized

I rate it a 10 because we have removed the fields we don't need so users can really crank the data into the system. The software was designed for the professional services firm in mind but does a tremendous job for construction firms and "blended" companies that are both distribution firms but project centric as well. Perhaps they drop ship inventory to a project where their employees or subs need to work on a project for example.

Incentivized

PPM Pro has very effective process capabilities around Project, Demand, and Resource Management as well as Reporting/Dashboards. Very stable platform, never any downtime. We now also have PPM Pro Sandbox which we have leveraged for any new major developments such as Request Management.

Incentivized

There's a little bit of a learning curve, but once you've been working in the system for a while, it becomes second nature. I would say that out of all of the other software that I've personally used, Spectrum has been the easiest one to pick up and learn quickly

Incentivized

We have had only one unplanned outage for 2 hours in the last 30 months. We shut down for 30 min to 1 hour once a month, but that is for Microsoft OS updates to the servers. Being a 24/7 world wide operation, the reliability is really important. We do get an 8 hour window on the weekend that we can be down for a short period to install Microsoft Dynamics SL updates, but we do not have many of those. On our last version upgrade, we shut the users out at 9:30 am and were fully operational in less than 6 hours. The upgrade was New SQL server, New SL server and 2 new Citrix servers.

Incentivized

Innotas is very rarely down if at all.

I've never seen Spectrum down

No issues with overall response time and performance. There have been some occasions where a Report could take few minutes to render but this is vary rare. No integration issues...

Incentivized

For the most part the product is very reliable. Since we are hosted we sometimes have connectivity issues but I would say that is more our ISP than Spectrum.

Incentivized

Support is only used when needed, so unfortunately ,they get all the odd issues. It's a difficult business, but Microsoft and our firm do a great job of meeting customer needs. We get routine feedback that our support services are very good.

Incentivized

Their ability to assist and answer questions when needed is incredible. They create innovative ways to share information and help customers trouble shoot. I didn't give it a ten because I believe they could do a better job of personally reaching out to customers and providing improvement guidance based on where the customer is at and their needs at the time

The support has recently changed. Last year, you could call in and get an immediate response. Now that doesn't seem possible unless you have an urgent situation with access to the software, payroll or payables. I have found that using chat or e-mail works nicely for the most part, but sometimes I feel it would be easier if someone from support would jump on our site and take a first-hand look rather than going back and forth

Incentivized

Tim Srjezter was an excellent trainer.

Our trainer was excellent and navigated the time zone differences expertly. She gave us test assignments to complete and was available for questions at any time.

Incentivized

Just to let it take its course. The implementation for me once I became a part of my former organization was pretty seamless. Just get to know the basics and call the support team to ask questions if you need help on an issue, should they arise. They are ready, willing, and able to help!

Incentivized

It's been since 2009. A lot has changed. We have not grown as much as we could have because of executive backing.

Incentivized

My only insight would be to take time in your implementation and training process; ours was six weeks from start to finish.

Incentivized

Of the comparable mid-range ERP systems, Dynamics SL competes at the lower end based on price, but also above the high-end based on flexibility, data, and reporting. Being able to stay with the same core accounting from a $100 million dollar company to a $3 billion dollar company shows the range of capabilities.

Incentivized

Microsoft Project does not integrate the data or provide meaningful dashboards. We needed a tool that could manage a portfolio of projects versus just a single project view. In addition we needed a tool to track financials and internal effort all integrated into one product. Planview PPM Pro addressed all of our needs

I have previously used Sage Masterbuilder, another construction industry software. This has been a number of years ago. The company I am working for already had Spectrum and have been using it for as long as it has been around when it was known as Forefront. Based on conversations I've had with the personnel that were here at the time of purchase, Spectrum clicked off all the boxes they were looking for.

Incentivized

I have no issues with current licensing and renewal terms...

Incentivized

Since the backbone of the database is MS SQLServer, the database can be easily scaled.

Incentivized

We have always used PPM Pro across multiple Business Units and Business Functions and have never encountered any scalability issues. PPM Pro offers flexibility in how the various Entities are configured across the Enterprise

Incentivized

You can grant user specific access which is nice. Project managers do not need all the same modules as Accounting. But Accounting does need access to PM modules as well

Very effective and flexible - we obtained a pool of consulting hours that we can use at any time over 12 month period. Consulting topics can vary as we explore new functionalities in PPM Pro. Very easy to schedule ad-hoc time with PPM Pro consultant

Incentivized

• More time is spent on manipulating reports which can and should be automated.
• Lack of electronic invoicing process and other green technology features creates more cost on printing and storage costs.
• The lack of a user friendly interface requires more training and a bigger learning curve for staff.

Incentivized

• Planview PPM directs all the resources in the right channel, hence, credible performance.
• Planview PPM initiates proper time, and resource tracking and hence is friendly for company functions.
• Planview PPM is competent in managing diverse projects, and this offers highly sustainable business continuity.

Incentivized

• [In my opinion,] it takes at LEAST twice as long to do our jobs now.
• [I feel like] we are paranoid about something not being printed correctly because of [what I believe are] buggy text fields.
• [In my experience,] we still have to refer to a physical file cabinet with paper, even though a main point of switching was to go paperless.
• [In our experience,] screens can now be "locked", so we can't see something if our coworker is also looking at it.
• [I believe that] the financial hit our company took from this switch was astronomical. [In my opinion:] Beware!