The scheduler you choose will depend on the kind of work you do, the number of projects you need to track, and other software you might want to integrate with your scheduler. I’ve tried to organize the products in order from most advanced to most basic, but keep in mind that even basic schedulers may have advanced project management capability. And be aware that including a product here is by no means a “recommendation”: You’ll still need to do your homework, try out demo and evaluation versions, and determine how any of these products might fit into your overall business plan. Contact information and prices are current as of March 2004.
SureTrak Project Manager 3.0
Primavera Systems Inc.
610.667.8600
$499 for single-user license
Feature for feature, SureTrak Project Manager 3.0 is similar to Microsoft Project, minus the Web-based collaboration tools. It’s nowhere near as user friendly, though, and of all the products reviewed here, SureTrak requires the most project scheduling experience to use effectively.
That’s not surprising, because SureTrak is the little brother of Primavera Project Planner (P3), which is the gold standard for scheduling big commercial construction projects like roads and bridges.
In fact, SureTrak can be set up to share P3 project files, ideal for contractors and subcontractors who might have one foot in the commercial construction world.
For remodelers and home builders, SureTrak 3.0 has a few interesting features. Every license includes a copy of Project KickStart, a third-party wizard that walks users through the steps of setting up a project schedule. Project KickStart can integrate with ACT! or other contact managers to pull in resources without having to retype.
SureTrak also makes use of Fragnets, predefined snippets of a schedule that include activities and the relationships between them, which you can save and reuse over and over. Progress Spotlight is a one-click interface enhancement that highlights a range of dates in order to examine activities and resources.
Like MS Project, SureTrak can save views as Web pages and has the capability to e-mail schedules and reports directly to project participants.
Microsoft Project Standard 2002
strong>Microsoft Corporation
425.882.8080
$599 for Project Standard single user
According to Microsoft, 75% of all project managers using software use Microsoft Project. It’s estimated that there are five million users worldwide, making Project the de facto standard that all other scheduling software can be measured against. It has every feature discussed here, as well as dozens more that you’ll probably never need to use.
Despite the power of Project, Microsoft has made user friendliness a priority, and the latest version is loaded with interactive help and task wizards that let even scheduling novices accomplish advanced scheduling chores. If you haven’t looked at Project for a few years, I guarantee you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how feature-rich and easy to use it has become. Project ships with some generic residential construction templates, or you can import third-party templates such as those available from 9dots software ( www.9dots.com).
Project integrates easily with the rest of Microsoft Office. Contacts (resources) can be fed from Outlook, Access, or Excel. Tasks can originate in Outlook or Excel and be distributed via Outlook e-mail. Word can be used to tag notes and do mail merges. If you’re using ACT! or any other contact management software that can hook to Outlook, you can use those contact address books as well.
One thing that distinguishes Project from the competition is its use of “resource pooling”; it maintains a common database of all your resources — subs, suppliers, equipment, employees — across multiple jobs. Resource pooling makes it easy to spot the over-committed drywaller or backhoe. Project is also strong in the project-tracking department. You can create a project baseline when you first set up a job, then compare your progress to that baseline as you go along.
In recent years, Microsoft has morphed Project from strictly a project management tool into a project collaboration tool, allowing project teams to work together in real time using the Internet. Of course, to use that feature you’ll need a copy of Microsoft Project Server ($1,499 for five users) and a full-time connection to the Internet. If you don’t want to set up your own Project server, you can rent space on someone else’s. MSProjecthosting.com ( www.msprojecthosting.com) offers service for $50 a month plus $20 a month per user who connects to the account. If you don’t need a fully interactive collaboration site, you can share Project data by publishing static data (a snapshot in time) to any Web server with Microsoft Office extensions installed, or you can save list views in Excel or Access.
One thing missing from MS Project is support for handheld devices. Project 2000 (but not 2002) can be synchronized with PalmOS PDAs using a third-party solution called Project@Hand ( www.natara.com), but surprisingly, there is no native support at all for Microsoft’s Pocket PC platform. According to the company, Microsoft has made the decision to instead pursue tablet PCs for its mobile users of Project. (Note: For this article, we reviewed Project 2002; by the time you read this, Project 2003 will be available.)
FastTrack Schedule 8.0
AEC Software Inc.
800.346.9413
$299 (PalmOS add $99)
At $299, FastTrack is only a few bucks more than basic schedulers, but it has big-league features on par with Microsoft Project and SureTrak. What’s more, it’s one of the easiest schedulers to use and the only product with full support for the Macintosh platform. For another $99, you can add a PalmOS version for your PDA, which will synchronize with the desktop version or work as a stand-alone.
FastTrack has three basic views: Calendar, Schedule, and Resource. The Schedule view has both a task list and a Gantt chart. If you don’t like the existing views, no problem: A distinguishing feature of this scheduler is its fully customizable interface. You can add and move columns, rows, and other elements to create and save an endless variety of views. FastTrack has Excel-like calculating capability to define and track budgets. Resources are fully definable, and each can be controlled with its own calendar.
FastTrack can schedule and analyze resources across multiple projects. Groups of tasks can be rolled up into milestones on the schedule or saved as “FastSteps” to be reused over and over.
FastSteps is a built-in scripting capability that allows you to automate repetitive scheduling tasks or reports by grouping together a series of commands. For example, a FastStep could be created to generate and print a report of all unfinished activities every time you update a schedule.
Finally, if you’re migrating from whiteboards, you’ll appreciate the “wall chart” printing feature that will tile your schedule on standard-size paper.
