If I were free to make my choice I would do what you suggest. To have Spider Project as an option is for the benefit of all. It is against free enterprise spirit for our Government agencies to specify Primavera Products, even as a reference it should be only by performance specs.
Too much control of the industry by single software I don’t like it. I would like to be free to pickup Spider Project if this is my wish. And the list goes on, but may be too distracting from the main theme to list them here. A hundred Owners, a hundred possible software for the Contractor to use, sorry to me this is non-sense. Some specs tell the Contractor which software to use, the Owner want to use his own software for purposes of claim negotiation and will not allow the Contractor to select the tool of his choosing, the party responsible to generate an implement the schedule. With regard to the many functions the problem is with how specs constraint the other party, namely the Contractor. I agree the functionality is of primordial importance and then reporting can be taken into consideration. What about when your software does not keep peace with the competition upgrades? Is Spider Project compatible with P6.2 web version? By the way exporting usually is a pain on the behind. because their Product Fail to produce the same result.Įxporting does not necessarily yield the same results otherwise the programs would be equivalent, no difference at all, just cosmetics. (Give too much away for Spider Project marketing manager)īTW one important qualifier need to be met as well which is "Similar Result if not better” That why MSP fail. If that happen, P3 or P6 will soon be dead. Correct, that is why they have to offer this training to existing user in order to gain market share. Planning does have the Intellectual Property bit (Brain Power) that is make planner unique skill set. You may argue that there is a different between word processing software and planning software. The market power is there already there for P3/P6, for any other product to break that cycle, you need free training and free product (or at least low cost) AND these training need to offer to all the existing P3/P6 users Which one you will get an application for the job.
The create this massive supply (People who know how to use it) in the market, the WS and WP no longer an unique skill, and that is the turning point, since you can hire someone easily with the similar result, which one you prefer, the low risk option of course.Īs for planning software go it is the same, try to put an AD for a experienced PP or Spider Project planner compare to a P6/P3 planner. MS make their product so easy to learn and so cheap to learn, simple everyone can use it. Who change it, the market I guess but you may ask HOW. The world had change, why, market power for similar result. It is the prefer "NOT Perfect" word processing tool (back in the 80s) Take this an example, "WordPerfect" or "WordStar" I forgot already, use to be the must known skill for a office staff its hard to learn all the different key stroke. The decision of who chose what product is all about market power. This is a interesting discussion and complex one too. The market for advanced software is limited but most interesting. For them it is easy and safe to suggest something that is used by their neughbors. Easy to Use and Easy to Learn is for mass market, for drawers, and large corporations where the decisions are made not by Planners and Managers but by IT managers who want to make their work easier. If new features are attractive to business owners and top managers then some of them will try and will get competitive advantages in their business.
If the software suggests the same features it has no chances to be accepted. In this case you will not try to save money on training your planners. You will get better schedules, you will be able better simulate real resource performance, to optimize and better control project costs, etc. If you use the software to optimize project (program, portfolio) performance then having better tool will help to save a fortune. Any experienced planner will learn the new software in a month or even faster if to use the same planning approaches.
I mean that if you "draw" the schedules then it does not matter much what "planning software" to use. If to use the new planning software the same way as the previous one then you will gain a little from moving from one package to another.