EPMLive Product Review by Eval Source

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1 Features: Project Management, Gantt chart, Document Management, Project Portfolio, Time Management, Collaboration, Mobility Industry: Non Specific Customers: Small, Medium and Large Business Geography: All markets Languages: English Cost: 1 Project Free, Starts from $20 per month per user for unlimited projects, 30 Days Free Trial Review methodology This review constitutes an analysis based on a product demonstration and software review by qualified system software experts at Eval Source. The demonstration Eval Source received from the vendor was based on its own custom vendor script, designed to validate and/or disprove vendors claims. The script was specifically prepared to identify functionalities and form an impartial analysis and software review for a Project Management Solution. Business Problems Addressed Organizations looking to adopt project management software face many challenges in terms of getting work done. How they approach task completion often is one of their biggest headaches. For larger organizations, risk and ROI are more closely scrutinized and tools to calculate the risk, impacts and cost of the new initiatives rarely exist internally, creating the need to adopt a new system or software. The five phases of true project management are as follows: initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing. Organizations that require project management solutions should always be aware of the basics of project management and how a vendor s solution addresses each component of project management methodology. Examining what your organization requires in order to successfully execute projects and matching those needs to the appropriate software is the ideal way to find the best solution. A company with many departments will often create business silos within the organization. A lack of collaboration/communication with team members further disconnects departments and consequently fragments the entire organization. This lack of collaboration causes increased risk, while often remaining invisible to stakeholders and executives. The enterprise project management software market is as diverse as organizational requirements. Depending on the maturity of the organization and the complexity required, companies may have a difficult time in selecting the strategic fit for their organizational requirements. Aligning strategic initiatives to the correct software has become increasingly difficult, due to the complexities and size of organizations that project management vendors target. Collaboration is a core element of project management and different software achieve these complexities differently. Some software provides greater functionality than others in terms of workforce management, project portfolio risk, budgets and dependencies. Gantt charts, analytics, skill alignment, content management, resource availability, portfolio management, mind mapping and support of multi project management methodologies are a few areas where target size of the software is critical to organizational fit.

2 Target Market Many types of software target organizations from SMBs to enterprises with one solution. EPM Live is project management software targeted to small through enterprise sized businesses by encompassing three individual editions that cater to each organizational size and factor in their varying complexities. The three editions of ProjectEngine, WorkEngine and PortfolioEngine address small to enterprise companies accordingly. EPM Live is unique in its capacity to accommodate organizations that do not follow or understand (where this is the case the software provides the structure, methodology and best practices) true project management methodology. It provides the structure, methodology and best practices for organizations that require greater guidance, whilst allowing strict PMI (Project Management Institute) adherence for regulatory compliance for larger organizations and government services. Its ability to capture unstructured and structured data and methodologies enables EPM Live to properly address many verticals and industries including industries that require compliance and auditing, such as government services and aerospace and defense industries. EPM Live s solution is not vertical specific meaning it has wide appeal and can be inserted into any application where a project management tool is required. The main sectors are: High Tech, Healthcare, Consulting, Professional Services, Banking, Telecom, Marketing Service Companies, IT, Research and Development, Government Services, Aerospace and Defense and Operations within Manufacturing. EPM Live is a natural fit for organizations that have invested in MS technology as it is built on SharePoint. Organizations can plug this into an existing infrastructure, as there are bidirectional data interfaces for Project, MS Office, and EPM Live. This provides users with a familiar interface similar to MS Office, which increases adoption, as users are not afraid or inconvenienced by using the system. Pricing Model Three different editions of software cater to correct company size from EPM Live, they are: ProjectEngine, WorkEngine and PortfolioEngine. The progressive scalable functionality allows organizations to start off small and rapidly scale up to accommodate more users and complexities, as required. The three different editions can either be multi tenant, single tenant, or hosted entirely on site as a full on premise solution, which permits flexibility of deployments. A 30 day free trial is available and includes full functionality in all three editions, thereby allowing organizations a true software evaluation cycle, rather than an abbreviated 14 day trial that may not permit a full project lifecycle evaluation. Figure. 1 Pricing Structure for EPM Live

3 Eval Source has identified 11 areas that organizations should investigate, to check whether they are included within the monthly subscription fee. Companies should assess any extra fees that would increase the total monthly subscription rate. The following components are included in all three EPM Live editions. Total cost of Ownership Are these components included in the SaaS subscription? 1. Hardware Y 2. OS Licences Y 3. Database Licences Y 4. Middleware Licences Y 5. Software Licences Y 6. Software Support Y 7. Hardware Maintenance Y 8. Software Maintenance Y 9. IT Operations Y 10. Upgrades Y 11. Training Provided Y Solution Analysis

4 EPM Live is specifically targeted through their three editions that cater to companies ranging from SMB to Enterprise organizations: ProjectEngine, WorkEngine and PortfolioEngine. This targeted approach makes it easier for organizations to strategically select the right fit for their company and provides them with the option to seamlessly upgrade to the next level, as required. The EPM Live product suite is the ideal platform from which to accomplish work, and one that specializes in project management capabilities. The three editions progressively add functionality to address company needs and accommodate the size of organizations. ProjectEngine ProjectEngine (PE) mainly targets smaller organizations. It is a good entry level project management solution for organizations eager to venture into project management software. It provides templates, preconfigured options and best practices that are incorporated into the software so that companies can get up and running quickly. ProjectEngine provides above average project management capabilities for entry level organizations. A handy feature is the inclusion of Gantt charts from the basic version. PE contains the project management functionalities required to succeed, such as planning tools, document management, project discussions, issue management, project wiki, collaboration, mobile, offline, project reporting and integration. The functionality within the software supplies the appropriate features with which to plan, communicate and track which are imperative ingredients for project management success. The planning components enable employees to customize their workspaces, tools and resources. The communicate portion of the software facilitates collaboration between team members through tasks, project discussions and streams, project wikis and alerts and notifications. The tracking portion of the software allows for project management, task management, issue management and resource management. Instant setup options facilitate multiple and customizable views, that make creating and viewing a project workspace easier. Users can customize their views by displaying the online project planner, simple task list and MS Project. Other areas of customization include reporting, task management, planning, dashboards, collaboration and workflows, the latter of which are not typically available for software in this price range, (often workflows are not present within basic editions of software, thereby making it difficult to configure and automate repetitive tasks). Common project challenges such as collaboration, document control from multiple users, project discussions from multiple sources and project issues that are created through project collaboration are easily mitigated and managed by EPM Live. Users can access pre configured project issue reports and alerts and notifications with EPM Live PE. Connectivity issues such as not being connected to the internet are easily overcome by PE. PE s workspace can be used offline and continues working and syncing with project workspaces by accumulating all changes. When the user reconnects to the internet all changes are updated and additional project changes are added to synchronize and fully update the application. PE, WorkEngine (WE) and PortfolioEngine (PfE) are all accessible by mobile devices: users can view, update and edit any task, issues, discussions and incidents from their mobile devices. For entry level project management, the inclusion of the Gantt charts is unusual within this price range. Below is a figure of PE and its Gantt chart abilities. Figure 2. Gantt chart capabilities in ProjectEngine

5 WorkEngine WorkEngine is the next progressive edition that EPM Live offers. Its mid tier solution targets small to medium sized businesses. One of the main differences is that it enables an unlimited amount of projects, as opposed to ProjectEngine, which just allows for a single project. WE contains all the functionalities of PE and adds enterprise work and reporting, resource management, schedule management, service management (incident management, SLA management, solution, problem and change management and ITIL ready), pre built application templates and PPM management. The additional functionalities of PPM, service management and agile found in the medium tiered WE exceed that of most project management software within this price range for project management. The framework complexity of the application conveniently highlights usable portions of the application from the individual user to departments. It also incorporates the enterprise level visibility required for companies with fragmented project methodologies. The service, agile and PPM management attributes can prove useful for medium sized companies looking to implement structured procedures within IT through the ITIL capable applications with service and agile components and its project management office (PMO). The inclusion of agile and service management can benefit smaller organizations by offering structure and speedy implementation of organizational standards such as ITIL, customer service and software development. The pre built applications included within the software add instant credibility and can propel organizations in the implementation of project management software. The prebuilt applications instantly add necessary functionality without the complexities of implementing each component as a separate project or software. Organizations that need to manage their growth can schedule employees and manage workloads across the enterprise. This visibility of resource management can quickly provide views for project managers, enabling them to adapt schedules and priorities if conflicts occur. By quickly adjusting the schedules through drag and drop functionality, employees can be rescheduled, adjusted on the fly and compensate for variances.

6 Cost management is a differentiator in this space as WE can track all financial aspects for projects, including resources, budget, time and all other financial variables. The reporting provided in WE shows visibility over all projects and can be monitored and rolled up through one view along with alerts. It also provides notifications to highlight where cost overruns may occur and approaching financial limits can all be monitored proactively so that changes can occur before the situation becomes critical. Reports of cost summaries and rollups are included to speed up adoption and can be easily customized, so that users do not have to build reports manually. Workflows and governance is a further differentiator within this space for medium sized project management software. Workflows can be customized to automate processes, approvals and timesheets, approve documents, generate feedback and can be created and customized to cater to organizational needs. The governance aspects ensures that organizations follow strict standards that may prove critical for companies that are heavily audited and need to be regulated, such as banking or aerospace and defense. PortfolioEngine PortfolioEngine is the final/most advanced edition of the EPM Live suite, and targets enterprise corporations. PortfolioEngine (PfE) includes all the functionalities of PE and WE editions and adds demand management, project portfolio management, financial management, resource forecasting with negotiations and what if modeling. The addition of these features coupled with features from WE makes PfE the elite category as a true end to end enterprise project management software. The what if scenario planning, financial management, risk exposure, portfolio management and demand planning instantly qualifies this as an enterprise tool that can compete with market leaders for project management software. For organizations that need to calculate project risk and exposure, PfE provides the tools to evaluate projects by portfolio, risk and enterprise level, ranging from financial aspects all the way down to the resource levels. Project Managers can use the demand management feature to assess, evaluate and prioritize work and resources, allocating them appropriately for high value initiatives. Resource, financial and time management are all intricately related within project management. By having the visibility to control all three of these factors, project managers can manage every aspect of the project from time spent by contractor, to customer billing and budgetary controls for the project. By setting alerts through the financial management component, project managers gain full visibility over all concurrent projects and notifications if projects are close to being expended or have gone over budget. Combining these functions supports executive decision making as to how to proceed. Figure 3. Illustrates the model cost functionality for tracking project costs

7 Project portfolio prioritization is a key feature for enterprise organizations that use EPM Live to differentiate and reinforce project standards. Many organizations that use project management software tend to often deploy by department. As departmental standards differ throughout the organization due to complexity and requirements, different standards are usually implemented. This feature provides key stakeholders not only with visibility into all projects, but also equips them with the intelligence and ability to enforce the correct standards by department. It can be used in conjunction with project risk portfolio prioritization, the definitive tool for approving or discontinuing a project. The portfolio management options enable users to see projects using portfolio visibility by project status, cost analyzer (measures and compares the cost of each project) and resource capacity planning. Users have the capabilities to leverage 80 preconfigured reports that can be easily configured. Users can customize their fields, reports, workflows, graphs, charts, dashboards and other elements. The pre packaged reports use industry best practices to get users moving faster. Reporting can be simplified by customizing your own reports and using those as templates that can be made available throughout the software. The reporting is real time, so stakeholders have up tothe minute knowledge of every project aspect so that right decisions can be made. Connections to Access and Excel make sharing data seamless between EPM Live and MS Office components. Figure 4. Reporting Dashboard Capabilities

8 Technical Analysis Quick Glance Specifications Web browser optimization: OS required: DB required: API s provided: Security practices include: EPM Live integrations: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome Windows Server 2005/2008 for on premise, but N/A for online SaaS due to browser based delivery SQL Server 2005/2008 for on premise, N/A for online/saas Yes Business continuity, Redundancy MS Project, MS Project Server, MS TFS, BMC/Remedy, MS Outlook, MS Excel, MS Visio, MS Access, Oracle Financials, SAP, MS CRM Eval Source has identified these key components that should be investigated when evaluating a SaaS solution. EPM Live addresses these components as such. SaaS Checklist Offering

9 Subscription Fee Components 1. Multi tenancy or Single tenancy: Both options are offered 2. Public or private cloud: Primarily EPM Live s own private cloud, but can be hosted on other public clouds as well. Also offer an on premise offering that customers can host on their own. 3. Subscription Terms: By transaction volume, Monthly, Yearly: Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly 4. Data center: On line 5. Data Security Standards: Sas70 1 or 2 certified, SaaS 80, IFRS, Hippa etc. Y/N: Yes, Sas70 Type 2 Certified 6. Encryption type: SSL 7. Business continuity standards: (disaster recovery capabilities) Fully redundant failover, and offsite backup and storage 8. Version release schedule: 2 major releases per year, and 6 minor updates per year 9. Current version released: Session management: Optional 11. Application level security: Yes 12. Availability/uptime: 99.9% EPM Live is built on the SharePoint platform; however, SaaS customers do not need SharePoint in order to use EPM Live. Organizations that have MS Office technology will find EPM Live easy to use without a long learning curve. EPM Live can be deployed as a SaaS or as an on premise solution. EPM Live has out of the box integrations with MS Excel, Access, Outlook and Project. Developers can access features and rapidly build solutions and add ons using familiar tools such as MS Visual Studio 2010 and MS SharePoint Designer Since EPM Live is written in.net, it provides an easy platform for customization. The use of web services and databases can easily be integrated to EPM Live through its APIs. The Office integration allows users to sync to Outlook so that all tasks, activities, and updates can be tracked without leaving their application. Exportation of data to Excel and Access allows charting and creation of users own reporting database that may also be used with MS SQL Reporting services. A connection to the MS Project Server platform leverages SharePoint familiarity for organizations to extend both Project and SharePoint functionality by adding EPM Live. EPM Live covers functionality gaps usually left in other software in the areas of workflows and process automation. Users can manage schedules from MS Project through EPM Live and can then republish them due to the bidirectional communications. Concluding Remarks EPM Live offers three editions to cater to all businesses, from individual PMs to SMBs to large enterprises. The depth of functionality is reflected in all three editions. From the PE entry level version to the enterprise level PfE, all editions of the software are adequately equipped to cater to different company sizes. Customers can quickly adopt EPM Live, thanks to the familiar Office type interface that can be customized to suit their individual needs. As EPM Live is built on the SharePoint platform, organizations can leverage their current MS investments with SharePoint, MS Project Server and existing SQL databases. Many aspects of reporting, dashboards, workflows and fields can be setup by each individual user to ease adoption. EPM Live enables organizations to quickly scale up to accommodate growing needs without losing existing work: the functionality found within its PortfolioEngine edition rivals high end project management software. For the price point, organizations should take a close look at the flexibility and functionality offered within this price range. EPM Live believes strongly in training to get customers up and running quickly. As such, they offer several levels of support for organizations. Whether your organization is independent or requires a little more training due to size, EPM Live can accommodate any organizational requirements to get started, be it integration to other systems or on premise

10 setup of the software. Their comprehensive support and training network includes forums, an online university, videos, boot camps, how to tutorials and others. Another area where EPM Live shows customer centricity is the release of the new App Marketplace. This is a community created by EPM Live that offers customers the ability to download additional solution templates, work features, integration solutions, partner add ins, customizations (especially by verticals and industries), and connectors and tips, which are available to their entire customer network. This is similar to the Force.com marketplace; however, many of the apps are free simply by being an EPM Live customer. EPM Live interacts with customers through updates, bug fixes, FAQ s and knowledgebase creation and offers customer created applications to other users. The knowledgebase is available to potential customers to review and can be used as references as organizations will post interactions and other useful information. EPM Live is one of the few software vendors that enable deployment as on premise or as a full SaaS model.. However, if your organization already has these tools, a simple bidirectional pre built connection is available to leverage the existing functionalities so organizations can steer their current MS investment. Security is not compromised in any way, as EPM Live is SaS 70 type II certified and offers full SSL encryption. Organizations that lack structure for project methodologies can adopt EPM Live and catch up quickly through existing templates, structured methodologies and best practices. This is especially useful for companies requiring stringent regulations and auditing, such as government services and aerospace and defense type industries. Where organizations deploy various methodologies throughout different departments EPM Live accommodates multiple methodologies without impeding on the departmental process. These can then be rolled up, reported on and edited from a portfolio level where project risk is involved.

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