Item: Wrike
Rating: 7
Author: Rebekah Ryan, PMP

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Wrike was utilized as a project management tool within our team. We built project timeline templates within Wrike, added resources and kept track of projects to ensure they were meeting KPI goals. Wrike project plans were shared across internal teams and externally to clients to allow visibility into proposed/tentative task durations, ownership and overall expected go live dates. Wrike allowed us to ensure accountability across teams and to the client. The timelines also ensured that our process aligned with any internal changes, while also providing leadership insights in regards to capacity planning, bandwidth and alignment to revenue goals.

Pros and Cons

Timeline creation, editing, updating.
Template creation.
Ease of use, intuitive UI.

Overall UI is not as appealing as other competitors.
Has basic functionality, but could have more advanced abilities for templates and task creation.
Export/share features are not as clean as other competitors.

Return on Investment

Allows for client visibility into project status.
Ensures projects stay on target so that we can realize contract/project revenue.
Houses project templates to increase efficiency and process improvement across teams.

Alternatives Considered

Clarizen One and Microsoft Project

I have used both Clarizen and Microsoft Project. I think that Wrike falls between these two platforms. Wrike is easily a better tool to use than MS Project, but I think it lacks some of the expanded capabilities that support PM work that Clarizen has--such as capacity planning, resource management, meeting management, overall team/project tracking. Wrike is best for basic, day-to-day management of project timelines and tasks that feed into the overall project goals of a team.

Key Insights

Do you think Wrike delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Wrike's feature set?

Yes

Did Wrike live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Wrike go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Wrike again?

Other Software Used

Planview AdaptiveWork, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Project

Likelihood to Recommend

Wrike is comparable to other project management tools I have utilized, but seems pretty basic in its functionality and UI/appearance. I'd like to see Wrike advance its usability by tackling the overall project management picture--this includes capacity planning, project revenue tracking, better views for executives (Gantt charts) and for working teams (more detailed project timeline views), along with project risk/case management. Wrike is well utilized by the basic project manager who needs to simple track projects to completion, but is not as equipped as an overall communication project management tool to ensure that the entire working team (internal and external) is on the same page and understands the project status and health.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Don't know

Implementation Issues

In-depth training
Ongoing training
Integration with other systems not existent

Users and Roles

15 - Typically Client Services that oversee project or product implementations use Write to manage day to day tasks and responsibilities. Project managers also use this tool to track project success. Lastly, management uses the compilation do work done at lower levels to build reports and dashboards that allow visibility into project timelines and overall tracking.

Support Headcount Required

I don't believe we had any direct Wrike representatives supporting our use. We did have on super admin who we were able to work with if we had issues, and initially, training was done with a Wrike resource, but I don't believe that accessibility to that person continued following training.

Business Processes Supported

General Project Management
Client project tracking
Resource tracking
Realistic timelines and durations for tasks

Innovative Uses

Bulk migration tracking
Task description tracking
Process changes

Future Planned Uses

Budget allocation
Resource constraints
Resource overallocation

Likelihood to Renew

Wrike is a good general project management product, but is also very similar to other PM products on the market today. I've cross compared a lot of PM products and used many as well, and find that although I do like Wrike's general aesthetic and intuitiveness, again, it is similar to others. Getting the reporting that most companies are looking for leaves you having to get a pretty expensive Wrike package.

Products Replaced

Yes - Before Wrike, we were using Microsoft Project, another project management tool. Wrike offers much more capabilities and customization than Microsoft Project. Microsoft Project is extremely 'standard' and has had little to no changes since it's creation. I saw iterations and changes within Wrike even during the time that I used it. Because Wrike has a much smaller user base than a product like Microsoft Project, I believe Wrike took more into account what users were looking to use it for, allowing for a better user experience.

Key Differentiators

Product Features
Product Usability

Although I was not part of the product acquisition team, we did play a part on the company's decision to keep Wrike long term. Because Wrike was easily customized and had features that we were looking for in order to appropriately manage projects, they were a good choice. Wrike's interface is very similar to many project management products, making it easy to switch to. The UI is intuitive, and again, has similar functionality to other PM tools.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I think I'd still consider Wrike in the top running of PM tools for any company to consider. Although it's not perfect, it serves well as a project management tool. It allows you to customize project plans, create templates, add and change dependencies, assign users and rules, etc. Although I have used some project management tools that seem a little more advance than Wrike, it's still in what I would consider top five. Other considerations now would be if it could interface with other systems/products like Salesforce or Outlook, whether or not other resources who are 'non-users' could have some type of visibility into the high level milestones, and whether the reporting is set up well.

Support Rating

Contacting Wrike for issues was easy. We were also trained by Wrike internal folks, so had initial contacts from that point on. Honestly, Wrike met my expectations for overall use, so I rarely had to reach out. We also had a Wrike super user who had been trained as an administrator who could assist with minor issues as well.

Wrike Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Quick Initial Response	None

Premium Support

No premium support was not purchased. I believe it was not purchased because it was not necessary. Wrike was very useable and met our needs on a regular basis. It had a lot of room for customization, so if there were issues or items that needed to be worked on--we were typically able to resolve them ourselves or figure out workarounds.

Bug Resolution

Exceptional Examples of Wrike Support

I did not have to use Wrike support for anything specific. The product itself provides exceptional options, customizations and potential for new ideas to be implemented. The features I needed for successful project management were all available to me and I could take advantage of many features that were available to make sure it met my needs as a project manager and the organizations needs for insight into projects and their outcomes.

Usability

Overall, Wrike is very easy to use. It served as our project management tool and also a way to report out on our targeted dates and milestones. On a daily basis, it was quite simple to use Wrike to update projects, adjust dates and key milestones, and share out project information to internal resources, along with external clients.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	Not well integrated

Easy Tasks

Updating project plans
Creating customized project templates
Sharing project information with internal and external resources

Difficult Tasks

Reporting functionality is lackluster
Setting up lag and slack
Portfolio capabilities

Great Basic PM tool, but leaves room for improvement

Overall Satisfaction with Wrike