A well rounded, full featured, SaaS Project Management tool.
January 07, 2014
A well rounded, full featured, SaaS Project Management tool.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Professional Edition
Overall Satisfaction
- Clarizen provides a best of breed out of the box solution to project management. This is a fantastic tool for new companies or those looking to start fresh with a new approach. Clarizen will redefine the way you schedule projects if used correctly.
- Clarizen provides easy insight into resource utilization and can adapt to a company's preferred methodology. It offers work forward and backward scheduling, and allows the user to define how projects are completed, via total effort or time spent. Time spent can be represented in monetary values to help track the expenditures of a project in line with each task. Time and effort are recorded by time sheets, which end users fill out. Both Effort and Time can be tracked separately, meaning that efficiency can be measured. Further more, when scheduling, estimated time can be used to plan, but once completed an actual time spent is recorded to measure the difference between the time estimated for a task and the actual time required. This is particularly useful with templates.
- Clarizen offers the ability to create templates of projects. Depending on the preferred methodology, these can be scheduled backwards or forwards from the desired start/finish date. Calrizen does an excellent job of updating due dates and project completeness, as well as providing alerts for when a project falls behind schedule.
- Workflows are simple to setup, even for a more novice user. This makes easy to reduce required user input, curb the chances of error and perform custom calculations. Custom fields can also be added, and if matched correctly with fields created in other CRM platforms such as Salesforce, it is possible to have the two sync and share information. Having easy and reliable Salesforce integration was a must.
- Unless already using a typical textbook project management process, don't expect it to align with existing methodologies. Some customization can be made, but expect to change your processes to more closely match the tool's. This isn't a bad thing, it just requires change.
- Like very other tool out there, this depends on user input. If users do not embrace Clarizen and use it regularly, all of these features will be rendered useless, as the information being tracked will not be up to date. Projects will fall behind, estimates will be wrong. Find a way to tie user's utilization of the tool (include accuracy) to their job. It needs to be required if the tools is to be effective.
- With regards to Salesforce syncing, Clarizen does not sync to near as granular of a level as implied on Clarizen's website. Furthermore much of the information can only be synced one way, from Clarizen to Salesforce. Projects can be initiated and created through Salesforce, but must be managed via Clarizen's website. If using a separate CRM tool such as Salesforce, this requires users to log into and use two tools separately, which can make things difficult.
- The user interface, while robust can be, at times, overwhelming. Using custom views can help stem the overload.
- Allowed for a significant increase into the life cycle of projects and the time each task that comprised them took to complete.
- Positively improved reputation with larger clients who used similar tools to manage projects.
- Increased employee efficiency when used correctly. Project Managers were able to schedule projects faster using templates and manage them easier with reporting.
- Cost was easily justified in the time saved by end users once correctly set up.
Evaluation and Selection
Yes - We replaced a custom object created within our CRM system, Salesforce. Clarizen allowed significantly more functionality than our modest attempt at creating a project management tool within the confines of Salesforce, which required users to manually enter each task for the project. Clarizen, aside from tracking resource allocation which greatly assisted in scheduling, also allowed project managers access to templates which sped up project and task creation.
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
Integration with Salesforce.
Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
No - In general our company does not require premium support because it consists of several highly skilled individuals. Exceptions are made when the system is highly critical for day to day operations. Clarizen, while critical, did not seem to generate any support request beyond basic inquiries into functionality.
Yes - Yes, it was resolved in the next update.