Planview ChangePoint vs. Replicon Polaris PSA

Changepoint is well-suited for consulting firms and other companies that charge clients for their time and have a need for significant project-management capabilities along with reporting and invoicing. It is not well-suited for companies that want a more basic solution to time reporting and expense reimbursement. The key questions to ask during the selection process revolve around this basic question: how are you going to use this software? Though it has a lot of functionality, the learning curve is steep and basic functionality is not as easy as one would expect.

Really do your homework so make sure this is the right product for your company needs.

Incentivized

• There are lots of reporting options. Once you figure out how to work the parameters of a report, the system is able to provide detailed and accurate compilations of data. There are also many custom reports than can be setup, as well. In my experience, we have told Changepoint PSA administrators what kind of report we were needed and they set it up for us, available in a 'custom reports' folder.
• You can have several things open at once -- 'portals'. These are up at the top of the screen, much like how Google Chrome has tabs at the top. This is useful.

• Timesheets are pretty straightforward, you just have to choose a client/project/task that you worked on (in that order), and put the hours for each day. You can then specify if it is billable or not and that’s it, you can submit.
• Time off are also very efficient, as you can select your days off from your calendar, and choose if it is a paid time off, sick leave, or other type of leave. By selecting a range of days, it automatically subtracts weekends, bank holidays, and gives you the remaining days off that you have (and if it is possible to request paid time off for example). The calendar view is very good.
• Expenses management are very efficient, you just have to describe what you spent and select on what project or client, then put the incurred amount and upload scans of your receipts. It also handles different currencies which is good for international companies, and you can keep track of the approval status, to know when you are going to be reimbursed without asking the finance team.

Incentivized

• The site could become slow with high volumes of traffic. This may have been due to the way that our infrastructure was setup.
• Analytic reporting was not available in the version that we used. We created external reports to slice and dice the data and view it as the business demanded.

• Rejected timesheets are sometimes harder to update and send back.

Incentivized

Sometimes the decision to renew boils down to an old adage "if it isn't broken don't fix it". Previous to moving to Changepoint, it was obvious that we needed a better project management tool. Projects we completed on time but the time zone difference between the teams and several iterations of back and forth caused a number of communication issues with projects. The difference is night and day.

It could be more intuitive and user friendly.

The system predates me as I was not working for the company when the solution was chosen - I understand this may have been an 'overpromise, underdeliver' scenario. However, we are now moving towards replacing it with Supportworks - and having seen Supportworks in action I genuinely cannot wait to switch from Changepoint and move on...

Incentivized

We used to track time on JIRA on the tickets. This was good enough for time tracking, but didn't integrate efficiently with accounting software, so accountants had to replicate manually the data from JIRA to their software in order to bill clients. Using Replicon made things much easier for them.

Incentivized

• Our ability to maintain a global IS Scorecard helped us to maintain a focus on completing projects on time and within budget.
• Having a single instance of Changepoint with projects aligned to specific portfolios helps senior management to maintain a focus on the investment of IS resources. It is foundational to our governance processes.

• Improved ability to track employee hours and time off.
• Improved ability to track and check employee expenses.
• Iimproved ability to assign resources to projects.