Competing Systems
During the definition phase of ]project-open[, our team has closely
analyzed the market for "project management related applications"
and the available systems. In this page we want to publish our findings,
with the intention to facilitate your the (very time consuming)
job of selecting the right apliction for your business.
However, we want to stress that we (the authors) are not neutral
with our valuations, because we have a commercial interest to promote
our application. We have tried to be as neutral as possible, but
there will always be a bias.
Also please note that the valuation and comments on this page represent
the current state of our analysis. The presented facts may be incomplete,
wrong or misleading. If you should disagree with our valuation,
or if you would like to add something, please don't hesitate to
contact us. We will take your
comment into consideration and adapt our contents accordingly.
Project Management Related Applications
... is the type of applications we were looking at when developing
]project-open[. The manager of a Venture Capital firm in Hamburg said:
"There are zillions of project management applications around,
one for each niche [...].
So we have tried to classify our "competition" into several
types, according to the functionality they provide. We have found
the following prototypical types of systems:
- Classical ERP systems
that also provide some support for project management
- Internet Collaboration Systems (eRooms)
allow for cross-organizational project collaboration
- Timesheet Management Systems,
dealing with cost and time accounting
- Project Management Systems
with a focus on project scheduling, Gantt charts etc.
- Intranet, Extranet and Portal Systems
with the focus on content management and allow for improved collaboration
between departments or facilities in a distributed company
- Online Community Systems
with the focus on interaction and knowledge management
However, we have found very few systems that could clearly be classified
into a single category. Most systems combine features from several
types. To deal with this situation we have defined a number of "functional
modules", for example: Timesheet management, travel cost capturing,
etc. that a particular system may cover or not. We have defined
"basic coverage", "standard coverage" and "extensive
coverage", according to the (relative) degree of coverage in
each module. However, these valuations are difficult to make (and
imposible to defend..), so we would invite you to take a closer
look yourself.
Functional Modules
This section gives you an idea about the different modules that
are listed in our comparation table below. We have limited ourselves
to modules relevant to "small and medium project oriented organizations",
because otherwise we would end up with a compelete catalog of ERP
functions, which is not feasible. Please contact
us if you feel that we are missing an important functional module.
"Classical" ERP Modules
- Invoices & Payments:
Issue invoices based on an invoicing model and a price list. Printing
or transmission of invoices to the customers. Follow-up of payments,
reminders of outstanding payments
- Accounting:
Assets, liabilities, costs (with clasifications), general Ledger,
...
- Reporting:
Financial ratios, revenues & profitability by project, customer,
market, ...
- HR / Employee Management
Salaries, legal & tax, performance evaluations, recruiting,
...
- Customer Management / CRM
Presales management, campaign management, customer interaction
tracking (web site integration), customer profitability, ...
Project Collaboration (eRooms)
These are modules for project participants who have to collaborate
on a single project, being spread geographically or in different
organizations
- Shared Project Files:
Allows project member from several organization to share project
documentation etc., typically to deal with security restriction
of corporate intranets.
- Discussion Forums, Chat
- Time & Cost Capturing:
Capturing and classification project related efforts and costs
- Project Calendar:
Shared project calender with meetings, deadlines etc.
- Discussion Forums:
Communication means for geographically distributed projects teams,
track-record of communication
- Task & Incident Management:
Distribution of tasks and incidents within a distributed team,
workflow, tracking of task/indident completion
Project Management
These tools are for project managers or senior management, who
are planning projects.
- Project Scheduling (Gantt charts, etc.)
Classical Gantt charts, dependencies, ...
- Resource Planning:
Association of resources with tasks for a single project.
- Project Tracking:
Comparison between the timeline and work done
- Project Portfolio Management
Tracking of the project sales process, probabilities of potential
projects, enterprise-wide project resource planning
Intranet, Extranet, Portals & Online Communities
- Corporate Content Management:
Lifecycle management for documents, publication workflow, access
rights management
- Publication of enterprise databases etc.
- Integration with other applications
Framework for integration with other applications, typically based
on a shared authentication mechanism (Single Sign-on)
Generic & Specific Applications
During our study we have found three different types of applications:
- Generic Applications
These application address "horizontal" generic necessities,
without entering into sector specific business processes. Examples
include MS-Project (project scheduling), Grove (file sharing)
and content management systems. These applications have mostly
a "tool" character, specializing on a single task or
a small set of tasks.
- Sector Specific Applications
These applications address the "vertical" necessities
of a specific industry sector and claim to provide a "solutions"
for these companies. Examples include the BMC products for the
IT sector, Espressor for Translation etc. These applications have
a "ERP" character, claiming to take control of the entire
company.
- Generic Applications With Sector Specific Configurations
Some applications allow for sector specific configurations or
sector specific extensions, providing for both horizonal and vertial
components. All large general purpose ERP systems (SAP, Oracle,
GD Edwards, People Soft, ...) can be found in this group. However,
there are few project-ERP systems of this type, with ]project-open[
being a prominent exception...
Figure 1: Example of a matrix between sectors and functional modules
(]project-open[):
There are "horizonal" modules shared across sectors
while "vertical" modules (BOMs & Version Man., Workflow
and Freelance Man.) provide solutions for specific sectors.
Applications
IT Sector Specific
- PHPGroupware
An open source collaboration application with a large installed
base. Contains several modules specifically for IT organizations.
- PHProject
Similar to PHPGroupware, but more focused on project scheduling.
- Tutos-Online
Another PHP project collaboration tool, available in many languages.
- dotProject
Another simple to use PHP project management system.
Translation Sector Specific
- LTC Organiser
Integrated project managagement and execution solution for the
translation industry.
- Expresso
Internet application for the management of small translation agencies.
Includes a tight integration with the Aquarius freelancer marketplace.
Project Management
- MS-Project
The default project scheduling solution today. The enterprise
extensions allow integration with out look and web management
(intranets and Virtual Private Networks only).
- Dovico Track-IT Suite
Timesheet management system for IT organizations with extensive
reporting.
- eProject Enterprise
Online project tracking & timesheet system with a large number
of features.
- Yellow Zone Project Manager
+ Time Card
Easy to use timesheet management project tracking system.
- Business Management Central
Touches on projects, but focuses on specific tasks in the management
of large corporations IT departments.
- Job Pro Central
Integrated organization of project oriented organizations, including
purchase, sales and HR management.
- Timelog
Easy to use timesheet and expense management system.
- At Task
Task-centered project collaboration tool, including billing and
profitability reporting.
- Mr Project
An open-source project scheduler for Linux/Gnome.
Open-Source Web ERP Systems
- Open for Business
Internet eBusiness shopping system, extended towards fulfilment
and delivery tracking.
- Compiere
Small general purpose ERP system
General Information and Costs
"Classical" ERP Functionality
Project Collaboration Functionality
Project Scheduling Functionality
CMS/Portal & Nonfunctional
Market Focus
You can checkout related systems at KwMap.
|
Linux
Thank you for visting us
Community