Writes InfoWorld on Microsoft’s new release of its Project Management software:
Microsoft Project 2002 shifts the focus of its project management offering from the desktop to the enterprise and in the process steps up to meet new competitors in both project management and PSA (professional services automation).
With built-in SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and XML support, and an included .Net Enterprise Server, Microsoft is also aiming Project 2002 squarely at Web services developers in search of tools to integrate project management across applications and databases.
Hosting services for project management may gain favor as several Microsoft partners, including Business Engine and eLabor.com, gear up to deliver Project Server as an ASP offering.
Established enterprise project management vendors Primavera and Artemis recognize Microsoft Project 2002 for its strong resource management capabilities, but representatives of both companies said scalability is still lacking.
Project Management is as horizontal and as universal application an application that we will get. As part of the collaboration suite that we will need to build in the Enterprise Software category, a project/task management component is going to be very important. Everyone is part of one or more projects and is involved in multiple tasks. A project management platform integrated with the Digital Dashboard is what we need.
