Microsoft Updates Project

Microsoft is readying an update to its project management application and expects to release Project 2003 along with the new version of Office due this year.

Office-Friendly

Project 2003 provides many of the features Microsoft is enhancing in Office 2003, notably groupware and collaborative functions. "We're emphasizing its integration with Office," says Melinda Curtis, a Microsoft product manager.

New wizards enable users to move among other Office applications, as well as to save Project data to Visio, Powerpoint, and Word format documents, says Ying Wang, a Microsoft representative.

In fact, Project is more tightly integrated with Microsoft's business graphics application, Visio, which is also being updated with Office 2003, Wang notes. Users can define a Project schedule through Visio's workflow chart, for example, and then move the chart into Project. This lets users work with the tools they're most comfortable with, while also making the information available to users of various other applications, she says.

Project will be available in both Standard and Professional versions, and both are considered part of the Office system. Microsoft Office Project Standard 2003 is intended as a stand-alone desktop application. Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution, designed for use in a corporate enterprise, includes Project Professional, Project Web Access, and Project Server. Microsoft will announce pricing upon the products' release in the third quarter.

Early Assessment

Project Server, in the enterprise version, links with Outlook 2003 and with Windows SharePoint Services in Windows Server 2003, says Giovanni Mezgec, group product manager for Project at Microsoft. It could also link with other IT systems, such as an enterprise resource planning (ERP).

One current user says he wonders whether the enhancements will really allow people to do more with Project.

"To me the enhancements sound more like more bells and whistles than that it will dramatically alter what we are doing," says Binu Alex, a business consultant in charge of the Project 2002 implementation at the consulting firm American Management Systems in Fairfax, Virginia.

"Although anything that makes it easier to use is good," he adds. About 120 people at AMS use Project, but the company does not use Outlook or SharePoint Services.

Timely Update

Microsoft needed to update Project, and users have been asking for enhancements, according to Melinda Ballou, a senior research analyst with Meta Group.

"I think that the momentum behind the 2002 release, demand on the part of the client base to put in additional functionality, and an increased responsiveness on the part of the Project team combine to have them come out with this release in a more timely fashion, which is a good thing for them and the clients as well," she said.

The debut of Project 2003 breaks the application's usual two-year upgrade cycle. Microsoft Project has been available as a stand-alone desktop planning tool for more than a decade. Project Server was first released in mid-2002 with Project 2002 and has attracted about 1000 customers according to Mezgec. Microsoft Project is a low-end alternative to planning products from Primavera Systems, Niku, and other vendors.

Joris Evers of the IDG News Service contributed to this report.