Workfront! It's like MS Project only way better at EVERYTHING and I love it.
January 27, 2017
Workfront! It's like MS Project only way better at EVERYTHING and I love it.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Workfront
Workfront is used primarily by our professional services department to schedule consultants who work directly with our customers. It provides a platform for assigning, logging, and billing tasks all in one place.
- Centralize projects in one solution
- Deliver client-facing services
Pros
- Calendar views for scheduling: As a resource manager, I need to be able to see a calendar view of the consultants we deploy to provide services. The various calendar views Workfront offers are extremely helpful and increase efficiency.
- Timesheet system that links task time and billing: Consultants are able to log time to tasks using the timesheet function, and customers can be billed directly from the application rather than having to log in to a separate accounting program.
- Audit trail: One of the most frustrating aspects of resource management is not knowing when resources have been unassigned or reassigned by another manager. I LOVE the audit trail feature in Workfront, because I can see who changed a particular task due date or assigned a different resource. We are working towards using only Workfront to communicate about projects for this very reason--too much gets lost in email.
- Update feature: I like the ability to leave project- or task-related information that's visible to anyone with access to the project. So many times, I can find information already in the project updates rather than having to email various individuals to find out what's what.
Cons
- Workfront training is hit or miss. I've taken webinars where it seemed like the instructor was rushing through material "so we can get out of here early." I've taken the resource management webinar twice and still have had to figure out how to the various features can help my specific situation on my own.
- Workfront support could be better: I try to provide information that I know I'll be asked for in my initial request for help only to get a reply requesting that same information. I've also explained the various solutions I've tried that have failed and received replies suggesting I try these same solutions. It's frustrating and wastes time.
- Certain accounting features: We have some tasks that must be "billed" even though they have no dollar amount attached to them. It's frustrating to have to assign $.01 in revenue to a task in order to be able to have it show up on a billing record.
- I think our billable employees are better and more efficiently utilized.
- I think billing can be done in a more timely manner that in a two-system approach (like I've used at other companies).
- I think there has been some frustration about the lack of success in using the Outlook integration feature which turns off some of our consultants to using it.
I didn't select Workfront (it was in place when I came to work at this position), but I much prefer it to MSProject because it gives a much wider view of all resource and how they are being utilized. The calendar function alone makes it far superior to Project.
I'm not sure if this includes training webinars and/or support, but those are the only services I used and I found them--at best--lackluster. Some of the webinars seemed rushed and there was a lot of focus on "wrapping up early," like that was preferable to being able to ask questions and explore features in-depth and get the most out of the time I invested in the training. The support I received seemed not to consider the comments I left in my support requests and wasted a lot of time asking for information I'd already provided up front.
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