Projector's cloud-based Professional Services Automation (PSA) software helps project-based services organizations track time and expenses, invoice clients, schedule resources, and manage projects. Its three modules span a more comprehensive set of uses than typical project management software. The Accounting module helps the user track time and expenses and manage invoices and billing. Also it syncs with the company's accounting systems as a sub-ledger. The Resource Scheduling module matches…
$15
per user
WinZip
Score 9.9 out of 10
N/A
WinZip is a utility for file management, compression, encryption, and backup. With banking-level security, it keeps files safe while optimizing storage space both locally and in the cloud. It also offers robust sharing options, automated backups, and PDF and image management capabilities to fuel workflows beyond compression.
We think Projector PSA is a great tool to track and manage people in a professional service environment like management consulting. This system is easy to set up, easy to understand and should easily suit the needs of smaller and medium sized firms. It may be less appropriate for firms that rely very heavily on project management through another system (like MS Project) or firms that rely very heavily on a sales pipeline tracking system. While still very much possible to use, you would (I believe) have to do some re-keying between systems
The standard suite will work for most users, but you have to upgrade to the pro suite or the unlimited suite in order to get the cloud sharing for multiple accounts. So, if you are looking at just sending documents from one user to another user, the standard version will work, but if you are trying to use it as a calibration software, you will need to upgrade all users to the more expensive version to unlock those features.
Projector is a very well designed tool for project management. It has allowed us to eliminate a number of auxiliary tools for project timelines and WBS for the vast majority of our projects.
Time and expense entry is intuitive and quick for our staff.
Our forecasting and resource management capability has improved greatly with Projector and allows us to grow our team efficiently with minimal additional administrative burden.
Reporting is extremely robust. It does require some time to really get a handle on the full functionality of the reporting tool, but once you do, you can get almost any kind of report you want out of the system!
As was previously mentioned one of the greatest strengths of the program is the versatility of using across multiple platforms or being able to open the corresponding zip files on multiple platforms without having to install additional software.
Another strength it has in the the graphical user interface (GUI). It is, and always has been, one of the better ones in the industry, as compared to other compression software.
Release management process needs to be improved. Currently no facility is provided to test the impact of new releases in a sand-box. This introduces business risk if there are interfaces into Projector PSA as part of it's use in the business.
When the dashboard comes up, it is not always intuitive as to the location of where files are going when unzipping; you have to click on the file to have the dialog come up.
Password-protection usage is complex.
Fewer icons as the number of them can be confusing.
We have been using this tool for a year now and find our use of it continually evolves and broadens. We are also very excited about the overhaul that's under way and feel many of the improvements being put in place will help make us that much more effective and efficient. The Projector team is also very responsive and collaborative in terms of user feedback and improvement suggestions, which helps us know they will work hard to help us get what we need out of the tool.
Because it is very easy to use, also have been using the product for ages not only within the company but personally, it's just very convenient to have in any system, it does not slow down my computer, it only takes a few minutes to set up and it's just compatible with almost any system
Its very easy to use! Not a lot of complicated mumbo jumbo, you can easily teach anyone how to use it. It's overall usability is high because nowadays, beside using the cloud, having a backup locally stored is also good and when backing up really large files, this can help save up space by being able to compress the files
Listen, nobody can get a perfect 10 (just ask your boss at review time, you can't say you are a 10 because then you'd have nothing to strive for!). WinZip's Support team knows their product, which is a fantastic thing to hear, unlike when you call giant companies (Microsoft, Vipre, and Norton) and their turnaround in their support center is so disgusting that their Support team only knows how to read off of a script
We did pursue Quick Arrow another tool that was similar. We found that be in inflexible in use. Projector allows a lot of flexibility in setup. Our organization has very specific business processes and we were able to set up Projector to work with those processes. Several other systems we tried were not as flexible in allowing set up to our needs.
7Zip is a freeware file compression software that does a lot of the same core functions as WinZip but lacks the cloud functions of WinZip. If you need to share extremely large encrypted zip files and don't mind paying, WinZip is a very powerful software and will get the job done.
Even in the small time that I stayed to see Projector PSA reporting I saw ROI projections become more realistic. There was real data to analyze that proved we were spending way too much and charging way too less on some projects.
Although employees were not used at entering their hours, this single reporting improved operations management and validated employees concerns that more people were needed to manage workload
Project proposals were more realistic because they were driven by real data.
Decision making overall for the department became more efficient and effective
