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Competing Systems

During the definition phase of ]po[, 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 ]po[. 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:
  Life-cycle 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 ]po[ being a prominent exception...
  

Figure 1: Example of a matrix between sectors and functional modules (]po[):
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 Organizer
  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

	Product Name	Web/ Company	Open Source?	Web Based	Tech- nolo- gy		$/ Unlim. Users	$/ User (per-petual)	$/ User/ Month
]po[
	]project-translation[ V1.1	www.project-open.com	yes	yes	Tcl		0	0	0
	]project-advertizing[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	yes	yes	Tcl		0	0	0
	]project-consulting[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	yes	yes	Tcl		0	0	0
	]project-knowledge[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	yes	yes	Tcl		0	0	0
	]project-engineering[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	yes	yes	Tcl		0	0	0
Open-Source Project Systems
	PHP Groupware	www.phpgroupware.org	yes	yes	PHP		0	0	0
	PH-Project	www.phproject.de	yes	yes	PHP		0	0	0
	Tutos-Online	www.tutos.org	yes	yes	PHP		0	0	0
	Achievo	www.achievo.org	yes	yes	PHP
	dotProject	www.dotproject.net	yes	yes	PHP
	Mr Project	mrproject.codefactory.se	yes	no	X11/Gnome
Open-Source ERP-Systems
	Open for Business	www.ofbiz.org	yes	yes	Java		0	0	0
	Compiere	www.compiere.org	yes	yes	Java		0	0	0
Translation Industry
	LTC Organizer	www.translation.net/ltcorg.html	no	some	MS-Access		-	€ 4.000	€ 100
	Espresso	www.aquarius.net	no	yes	PHP		€ 12.500	€ 550	-
Closed-Source Systems
	MS-Project	www.microsoft.com/office/project	no	some	ASP/Win43			$300
	Dovico	www.dovico.com	no	yes	Win32
	XY Project Man	www.yzmanager.com	no	yes				$100	$10
	eProject	www.eproject.com	no	yes	Win32
	Job Pro Central	www.jobprocentral.com	no	some				€ 800
	TimeLog	www.timelog.com	no	yes
	At Task	www.attask.com	no	yes	Java
	ACE	www.ace-solution.com	no	yes	PHP		$695
	Epiware	www.epiware.com	no	yes				$60

"Classical" ERP Functionality

	Product Name	Web/ Company	Invoices & Payments	Reporting	HR & Emplo-yee Man	CRM	Inventory/ Stock	Ship-ment Track-ing	Quotation Process	e-Com-merce Shop
			ERP Modules
]po[
	]project-translation[ V1.1	www.project-open.com	yes	yes	some	some	no	no	no	yes
	]project-advertizing[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	yes	yes	some	some	no	no	no	yes
	]project-consulting[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	yes	yes	some	some	no	no	no	yes
	]project-knowledge[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	yes	yes	some	some	no	no	no	yes
	]project-engineering[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	yes	yes	some	some	no	no	no	yes
Open-Source Project Systems
	PHP Groupware	www.phpgroupware.org	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no
	PH-Project	www.phproject.de	no	no	no	some	no	no	no	no
	Tutos-Online	www.tutos.org	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no
	Achievo	www.achievo.org	no	some	no	no	no	no	no	no
	dotProject	www.dotproject.net	no	no	no	some	no	no	no	no
	Mr Project	mrproject.codefactory.se	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no
Open-Source ERP-Systems
	Open for Business	www.ofbiz.org	no	no	no	some	yes	yes	no	yes
	Compiere	www.compiere.org	yes	yes	some	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
Translation Industry
	LTC Organizer	www.translation.net/ltcorg.html	yes	some	some	no	no	no	some	no
	Espresso	www.aquarius.net	yes	no	no	no	no	no	no	no
Closed-Source Systems
	MS-Project	www.microsoft.com/office/project	no	yes	no	no	no	no	no	no
	Dovico	www.dovico.com	no	yes	no	no	no	no	no	no
	XY Project Man	www.yzmanager.com	no	yes	no	no	no	no	no	no
	eProject	www.eproject.com	no	yes	no	no	no	no	no	no
	Job Pro Central	www.jobprocentral.com	yes	yes	yes	some	yes	yes	yes	no
	TimeLog	www.timelog.com	some	some	no	no	no	no	no	no
	At Task	www.attask.com	yes	yes	some	no	no	no	no	no
	ACE	www.ace-solution.com	no	some	no	no	no	no	no	no
	Epiware	www.epiware.com	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no

Project Collaboration Functionality

	Product Name	Web/ Company	Shared Project Files	Forum & Chat	Project Calendar	Tasks Manage-ment	Incidents & Help Desk	Time Capturing	Cost Capturing
			Project Collaboration
]po[
	]project-translation[ V1.1	www.project-open.com	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
	]project-advertizing[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
	]project-consulting[V1.0	www.project-open.com	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
	]project-knowledge[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
	]project-engineering[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Open-Source Project Systems
	PHP Groupware	www.phpgroupware.org	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
	PH-Project	www.phproject.de	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
	Tutos-Online	www.tutos.org	yes	some	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
	Achievo	www.achievo.org	no	no	no	some	no	yes	no
	dotProject	www.dotproject.net	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
	Mr Project	mrproject.codefactory.se	no	no	no	no	no	no	no
Open-Source ERP-Systems
	Open for Business	www.ofbiz.org	no	no	no	yes	no	yes	no
	Compiere	www.compiere.org	no	no	no	no	no	no	yes
Translation Industry
	LTC Organizer	www.translation.net/ltcorg.html	no	no	no	yes	no	no	no
	Espresso	www.aquarius.net	no	no	no	no	no	no	no
Closed-Source Systems
	MS-Project	www.microsoft.com/office/project	yes	some	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
	Dovico	www.dovico.com	no	no	no	no	no	yes	yes
	XY Project Man	www.yzmanager.com	no	no	yes	yes	no	yes	yes
	eProject	www.eproject.com	yes	yes	yes	yes	some	yes	yes
	Job Pro Central	www.jobprocentral.com	no	no	yes	yes	no	yes	yes
	TimeLog	www.timelog.com	no	no	no	no	no	yes	yes
	At Task	www.attask.com	no	no	no	yes	some	yes	yes
	ACE	www.ace-solution.com	yes	yes	yes	yes	some	yes	no
	Epiware	www.epiware.com	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	no

Project Scheduling Functionality

	Product Name	Web/ Company	Project Scheduling	Resource Planning	Project Tracking	Project Portfolio Man.	Risk Manage-ment
			Project Scheduling
]po[
	]project-translation[ V1.1	www.project-open.com	some	some	yes	some	no
	]project-advertizing[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	some	some	yes	some	no
	]project-consulting[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	some	some	yes	some	no
	]project-knowledge[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	some	some	yes	some	no
	]project-engineering[V1.0	www.project-open.com	some	some	yes	some	no
Open-Source Project Systems
	PHP Groupware	www.phpgroupware.org	some	some	some	some	no
	PH-Project	www.phproject.de	yes	yes	yes	some	no
	Tutos-Online	www.tutos.org	some	some	yes	some	no
	Achievo	www.achievo.org	no	no	yes	no	no
	dotProject	www.dotproject.net	no	no	yes	no	no
	Mr Project	mrproject.codefactory.se	yes	some	yes	no	no
Open-Source ERP-Systems
	Open for Business	www.ofbiz.org	no	no	no	no	no
	Compiere	www.compiere.org	no	no	no	no	no
Translation Industry
	LTC Organizer	www.translation.net/ltcorg.html	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
	Espresso	www.aquarius.net	no	no	no	no	no
Closed-Source Systems
	MS-Project	www.microsoft.com/office/project	yes	yes	yes	yes	some
	Dovico	www.dovico.com	no	no	no	no	no
	XY Project Man	www.yzmanager.com	yes	no	yes	some	no
	eProject	www.eproject.com	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
	Job Pro Central	www.jobprocentral.com	some	some	yes	some	no
	TimeLog	www.timelog.com	some	no	no	no	no
	At Task	www.attask.com	some	some	yes	no	no
	ACE	www.ace-solution.com	some	no	yes	some	no
	Epiware	www.epiware.com	no	no	no	no	no

CMS/Portal & Nonfunctional

	Product Name	Web/ Company	Content Manage-ment	Search Engine	Per-mission System	Multi-lingual
			Portal & CM		Non-Func.
]po[
	]project-translation[ V1.1	www.project-open.com	some	yes	yes	no
	]project-advertizing[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	some	yes	yes	no
	]project-consulting[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	some	yes	yes	no
	]project-knowledge[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	some	yes	yes	no
	]project-engineering[ V1.0	www.project-open.com	some	yes	yes	no
Open-Source Project Systems
	PHP Groupware	www.phpgroupware.org	yes	yes	some	yes
	PH-Project	www.phproject.de	no	yes	some	yes
	Tutos-Online	www.tutos.org	no	no	some	yes
	Achievo	www.achievo.org	no	no	some	yes
	dotProject	www.dotproject.net	no	no	some	yes
	Mr Project	mrproject.codefactory.se	no	no	no	yes?
Open-Source ERP-Systems
	Open for Business	www.ofbiz.org	yes	no	yes	yes
	Compiere	www.compiere.org	no	no	yes	yes
Translation Industry
	LTC Organizer	www.translation.net/ltcorg.html	no	no	some	no
	Espresso	www.aquarius.net	no	no	some	no
Closed-Source Systems
	MS-Project	www.microsoft.com/office/project	no	no	yes	yes
	Dovico	www.dovico.com	no	no	no	yes
	XY Project Man	www.yzmanager.com	no	no	yes	no
	eProject	www.eproject.com	no	no	yes	yes
	Job Pro Central	www.jobprocentral.com	no	no	yes	yes
	TimeLog	www.timelog.com	no	no	some	yes?
	At Task	www.attask.com	no	no	no	yes?
	ACE	www.ace-solution.com	no	no	some	yes?
	Epiware	www.epiware.com	no	no	no	yes?

Market Focus

Product Name

Web/ Company

Target Orga-nization Size

Adver-tizing

Strategic Consulting

IT-Consulting

Internal IT Depart-ments

Internal Eng. Dept.

Eng. Office

Trans-lation /Locali-zation

]po[

]project-translation[ V1.1

www.project-open.com

med

yes

]project-advertizing[ V1.0

www.project-open.com

med

yes

]project-consulting[ V1.0

www.project-open.com

med

yes

yes

yes

]project-knowledge[ V1.0

www.project-open.com

med

yes

]project-engineering[ V1.0

www.project-open.com

med

yes

Open-Source Project Systems

PHP Groupware

www.phpgroupware.org

med

yes

yes

some

PH-Project

www.phproject.de

med

yes

yes

some

Tutos-Online

www.tutos.org

small

yes

yes

Achievo

www.achievo.org

small

yes

yes

dotProject

www.dotproject.net

small

yes

Mr Project

mrproject.codefactory.se

-

Open-Source ERP-Systems

Open for Business

www.ofbiz.org

med

Compiere

www.compiere.org

small

Translation Industry

LTC Organizer

www.translation.net/ltcorg.html

med

yes

Espresso

www.aquarius.net

small

yes

Closed-Source Systems

MS-Project

www.microsoft.com/office/project

med

some

some

some

some

some

some

Dovico

www.dovico.com

yes

yes

yes

yes

XY Project Man

www.yzmanager.com

small

yes

yes

some

eProject

www.eproject.com

medium

yes

yes

yes

Job Pro Central

www.jobprocentral.com

some

TimeLog

www.timelog.com

medium

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

At Task

www.attask.com

medium

some

some

yes

yes

yes

some

ACE

www.ace-solution.com

small

yes

yes

Epiware

www.epiware.com

small

yes

yes

You can checkout related systems at KwMap.

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