Planisware Reviews

My use cases involve building out a template library based on our methodology and continuing to iterate on that. We used a template, and basically, to start this out, we built out the template library based on the methodology and continued to iterate on that and reapplied the template. Templates were really nice. We defined deliverables with custom deliverable IDs built in, as well as the full workstreams, and we had a lot of customization in the columns which directly translated from the methodology.

We would apply that method based on a phase, and then continue to build that out. Each phase of the project was a multi-year project consisting of over 3,000 lines, 4,000 lines apiece. We had many contributors and nine project managers along with a program manager. We attempted to use project status reporting, KPIs, and project status reporting, but due to the scale of that project, the templates were challenging. So we did use them as backup slides for each of the workstreams.

Each workstream would have a filter for showing on the KPI and the dashboard, having a flag to show. We would snapshot those before the meeting from each of the five or seven different workstreams. We also did integration to Power BI for all of our reporting. We extensively assigned resources and capacity. We requested a workflow for task requests based on the forecast and managed the demand and capacity approvals, which went out to a SharePoint site. However, due to the size of this particular project, we ended up auto-approving everything because we had around 1,300 resources, and things were shifting rapidly.

We did not use the collaboration tools and scenario planning features directly. Instead, we did what-ifs with multiple workstreams, having five workstreams and then under each one, nine separate end-to-end workstreams. The scenario planning and what-ifs were complicated because if one end-to-end workstream made a change, it would impact the entire program. Therefore, we operated a command and control waterfall style and froze that. We pivoted those WBS items out to our Kanbans and managed synchronization between the Kanban and the start and end for the level five; I think we actually went all the way down to level seven. We managed the reconciliation of the percent complete to identify any slippage.

Planisware is a beautiful tool that is very efficient, clear, well-designed, and more robust than any I have used. I started my project management with Primavera, which was the biggest at the time, and I have worked through various tools across the globe, but Planisware is the most robust and has the best stable features that are beneficial for small and medium projects. Since I really only run large projects, it is easy for small projects, and the size of this particular project would have been nearly impossible to manage in other tools like Microsoft Project or Smartsheet or any of those others.

A powerful feature was the resourcing and resource leveling. The SPI and KPIs built in were fantastic for keeping the schedule performance identified. Furthermore, the resource capacity analysis was beneficial. We managed risk in SharePoint, identifying RAID: risks, actions, issues, decisions, and dependencies. We tracked those numbers inside of another custom flex field, where those would be reported on as well, with direct links to manage those RAID items.

The tool can be improved with integrations to Agile tools. We used Azure DevOps, which I dislike. Better integrations to JIRAs and perhaps open APIs for task management would be super beneficial. As a project management tool, it is perfect, but the ability to be agile with task management could improve it.

There is always an opportunity for more flexibility regarding integrated reporting. The project dashboard feature worked perfectly for small to small-medium projects, but on a large scale, it was not flexible enough to handle a program-level dashboard. However, that is probably a nice-to-have rather than a need-to-have. The integrations to Agile are essential; we had to do a full build to accomplish that.

Positive

Given that this company had a very large PMO operations team, they hired the implementation lead from Planisware to manage the run and enhancement requests along with operational releases on a weekly basis. It was super easy. I joined the PMO at the project's beginning and worked directly with her to implement all necessary changes for this large-scale program, and it was super easy.

I definitely believe it is worth the money to have as a tool. I thought it was necessary for any organization running real projects to have a top-level tool. In my view today, Planisware is that tool. It is primarily used for the pharma vertical and related fields, and since we were running a full ERP digital transformation project in the life sciences domain, it suited that requirement very well. I consider it top-tier for sure.

My other tool is Smartsheet, which I use for lower-level projects. It is okay, but Planisware is top tier in my perspective. I have managed a billion-dollar program, including projects for American Airlines and Adidas, and this software outperforms Microsoft Project any day.

I have no specific advice for first-timers; just no fear. Flex your innovative side and continue to iterate and innovate. Innovate or die, that is my advice. That is okay by me if you want to use my company, thinkpeople.tech. I believe you might be using my Next Trial. I prefer thinkpeople. Thinkpeople is my choice; I do project management and product management. I rate Planisware ten out of ten.

My client uses Planisware as their primary tool for project and portfolio management, supporting both large-scale programs and short-duration projects. It enables effective resource management, scheduling, budgeting, cost tracking, and performance monitoring across all initiatives.

I appreciate Planisware for its ability to provide not only comprehensive data but also clear visual representations, which greatly enhance project insight and decision-making.

Planisware is particularly valuable for optimizing resource allocation across multiple projects. It allows us to monitor timesheet compliance, resource availability, and bandwidth utilization, especially for shared or leased resources.

We also make use of collaboration tools and scenario planning features within Planisware, though currently on a limited scale.

In my project, Planisware is integrated with our SAP ERP system through a two-way data exchange, where project data flows to SAP and cost data is synchronized back into Planisware for accurate financial tracking.

Planisware has brought significant improvements to our organization’s project and portfolio management efficiency. It provides a centralized platform where all project-related data—schedules, costs, resources, and performance metrics—are stored and visualized in real time. This has reduced manual reporting efforts and improved the accuracy and transparency of project information.

One of the key benefits has been in resource optimization. With Planisware, we can clearly see team members’ availability, workload, and timesheet compliance, which helps us allocate resources more effectively across projects and avoid both underutilization and overload.

Planisware’s integration with SAP has also streamlined our financial management processes. Data synchronization between Planisware and SAP ensures that cost tracking, budgeting, and forecasting remain consistent and up to date across systems.

Additionally, the scenario planning and what-if analysis features have helped management make more informed strategic decisions, particularly when balancing priorities across multiple portfolios.

Overall, Planisware has improved our project visibility, resource utilization, decision-making, and cost control, leading to higher efficiency and better alignment between business strategy and project execution.

Planisware provides the advantage of viewing both data and visual representations simultaneously, enabling better analysis and decision-making. It is highly effective for managing large-scale projects, as well as for tracking progress, recording project details, and reviewing forecast plans.

Our customers make extensive use of the resource management capabilities in Planisware to optimize utilization and ensure balanced workloads across projects.

We have also integrated Planisware with our SAP ERP system, establishing a two-way data and cost exchange that enhances accuracy, transparency, and consistency between project and financial data.

Planisware’s technical support process can be quite challenging, as it often takes significant time and effort to reach the right point of contact for issue resolution.

We have occasionally experienced system crashes and performance slowdowns, which can impact productivity during peak usage periods.

However, with the upcoming releases introducing interface enhancements, we expect improved usability and stability. At this stage, I don’t have any specific changes to suggest until those updates are fully rolled out.

I have been working on Planisware from the last 5 years.

My experience has been primarily with Planisware. While it is a robust and comprehensive tool, the ROI can occasionally be impacted due to our dependence on the platform’s system stability.

Planisware offers scalability, though it currently has some limitations when handling very large-scale implementations. The good part is that the team continues to enhance scalability and performance with each new version.

We did experience some system crashes earlier this year, but fortunately, most of them occurred during weekends, which minimized the impact on our users and ongoing project activities.

Planisware’s technical support process can be quite time-consuming, and it is often challenging to get timely assistance when issues arise.

When we experienced system crashes earlier this year, most incidents occurred during weekends, which fortunately minimized the impact on our users.

Positive

I have experience only with Planisware.

I used Clarity for a very short time, so I cannot provide a comprehensive comparison.

The initial setup and deployment process of Planisware is relatively straightforward and well-structured. Once the business requirements are clearly defined, the implementation team can configure the system accordingly. Overall, the process is not overly complex.

So, we implement it through a vendor Planisware itself.

We can rate them 8.5/10.

At times, I feel that the ROI is not fully optimized, as it largely depends on Planisware’s system stability and performance consistency.

I have heard that the pricing of Planisware is very costly.

I used Clarity for a very short time, so I cannot provide a comprehensive comparison.

I have heard about MS Projects frequently.

My experience is primarily with Planisware.

The reviewer gave Planisware a rating of 8 out of 10.

As an energy customer in the French energy sector, we need Planisware for project management, including the management of bills and resource personnel.

The features of Planisware that I find most useful are the ones I use all the time because whenever I have a new action, I enter it and make modifications.

The most important feature of Planisware is when you begin a task, you can make modifications, delete tasks, or add new ones. I work with Planisware all day long because I have many IT infrastructure projects.

I utilize Planisware's resource management feature. The tools are already optimized, and I don't have anything more to optimize for Planisware since it's a SaaS solution, which is better.

The tools communicate with other tools, making it effective, and when we have a new resource, we can add it and send it to the resource management team, who can view it in Planisware.

Scenario planning in Planisware is good for detailed planning, but the design planning tool needs optimization. The positive impact I have seen from working with Planisware is due to its efficacy and speed; it has very few updates and is easy to use.

I do not have experience with Planisware's advanced reporting capabilities as we use other tools.

In my opinion, Planisware could be improved, particularly in the reporting area.

The reports should be improved because all companies now need reporting, and with tools such as Grafana or Tableau, Planisware needs to add interfaces for data lakes since all companies require this.

I have been working with Planisware for five years.

I participated in the initial setup and deployment of Planisware, helping my ex-team with the installation process.

The installation was straightforward because Planisware is a SaaS solution requiring just the binaries and the license.

Regarding stability, Planisware has been very stable for me, allowing me to control the tool, and if there are any problems, I can contact support, but I have not encountered any issues.

The scalability of Planisware is good, as when you want to implement changes, you need to manage the process with your collaborators, which can be challenging for older staff, but it is not complicated to install.

Before using Planisware, I used a local solution, MS Project, which was very complicated and outdated.

I decided to switch to Planisware because the previous solution became old and was not modern enough.

I participated in the initial setup and deployment of Planisware, helping my ex-team with the installation process.

Before choosing Planisware, we evaluated other options, but the manual solutions were not automated and wasted a lot of time, so Planisware is better for productivity.

Planisware is already integrated with other tools in our infrastructure.

I am satisfied with this integration because it connects with Azure, Microsoft Azure, and with Active Directory, allowing us to share templates and integrate them in real time with Planisware and other tools.

I assess Planisware's ability to integrate seamlessly with my existing enterprise systems as positive because I have worked for this energy company for seven years, and I know they continue to use it.

I do not use Planisware's collaboration tools.

I do not know the cost of Planisware or how much my company pays for the product.

On a scale of 1-10, I rate Planisware an 8.

I work for an oil and extraction company, and previously I've worked with pharma and automobile industries as well. Planisware is primarily used for planning, scheduling, resourcing, and budgeting. In addition to that, Planisware also has the flexibility to do work management execution and agile modules. It is an all-rounder. Though it is a complex tool and the customizations are limited, it is one of the best tools available in the market for project portfolio and program management.

The features of Planisware that I have found most valuable are project management and resource management.

Project management in Planisware has the ability to create projects and then track them by creating events, schedules, and tasks. You can assign resources, create budgets, baseline the cost amount, track how much you have incurred, and how much you have planned—essentially, you can manage it all the way to closure. It includes a complete project life cycle.

The resource management feature in Planisware has helped me and my customers optimize the allocation of resources across various projects because it has the supply and demand concept. Project managers can raise the demand through the plan generation for their project or task. When it gets published, there will be a resource manager for each group or pillar who reviews the raised demand. They can look into the available resource pool and then provide the supply accordingly.

One drawback with Planisware is that it doesn't have good features for test management or agile; it lacks many concepts in agile such as retrospective, velocity planning, and backlog view. Some features are still missing because they have introduced these agile modules only in version seven and are still improving that product, so I see a good roadmap on those modules from Planisware's end.

I find Planisware's collaboration tools to be good but not great as they still have certain restrictions. It can interact with Jira, it can interact with ADO, and you can have APIs created to interact with your internal HR systems or other systems for data flow. However, the error messages or fail scenarios don't provide good visibility of what is happening, why errors occur, or why something is not working.

Regarding scenario planning, I haven't explored much on that side. We have the strategic module, strategic planning module, but we haven't explored much on the other side, so I don't have much experience or exposure to scenario planning.

For application availability or issues with downtime, if you are on SaaS, you don't need to worry about it; the application is stable, and they take care of everything, including performance and downtime. When you are on-premise, you might see some issues because the team may not know what went in and why it's working, requiring time to investigate the issues.

Over the years, Planisware has evolved significantly. When I started, the Planisware application was V5, and the application would take restart timings of three to four hours. If you needed to do some development, it would take one to one and a half hours just to open the tool. Now they have improved substantially in terms of performance and loading time; it has this intranet web tool concept, so it is not a pro concept anymore. They have made significant improvements, but still, there is a long way to go in terms of their flexibility, adaptability, and usability.

To a certain extent, Planisware is scalable because you can only use the modules that you have in the system. You cannot introduce a new module without Planisware support; it has to be done by their product team.

The scalability rating depends on what kind of scalability we are looking for. If you are looking for improving features, I would rate it 6.5 out of 10. If you're hoping to introduce something new in the tool that doesn't exist, such as a new kind of module, then I don't think that will happen without consultation with the Planisware team and understanding their roadmap.

If I have to rate customer service and technical support for Planisware, I would give it a five out of 10 because they only provide support via the ODD, which is the standard ticket mechanism, mainly through emails; there is no on-call support provided.

Positive

I have worked with different customers and have seen integrations flowing with internal systems either through CSV format, or through database to database interactions. The most advanced is through REST API connectors, which allow you to interact with different enterprise systems seamlessly.

We have this module called Planisware Explorer, PEX reports, and you can build queries and create dashboards and reports to fetch data. It's good, but it's not as advanced as the other BI tools such as Power BI or Tableau. If you need some information, it's good, handy, and you can have live information or on-demand information. However, with the PEX, you have a drawback: if you create on a class, you cannot bring much information from other sections or modules. You have to create reports in each module. When it comes to Power BI, you can export data through ETL or the Power BI box feature and create a very good visually appealing report with more advanced filters, conditions, and schedules.

I do think it is value for money.

Planisware is very costly. I can comment that it's expensive, and even the consultants from Planisware charge a very high rate for their time. Generally speaking, they are expensive.

I believe that before any organization makes an agreement with Planisware, someone who knows the tool should be in the team, on the technical side or the development team. The problem I see with most organizations is that they don't have a Planisware expert; they communicate based on recommendations and go ahead without fully understanding the tool. If you have someone in your organization who understands Planisware well, they can talk to Planisware on behalf of your organization and understand what is needed. That would be helpful for every organization. I've worked for five organizations now, and in two or three of them, I joined after the initial phase only to discover that there was no one knowledgeable present. Overall, I would rate Planisware 8 out of 10.

I used Planisware to maintain my projects, specifically for the enterprise application project. All my projects were there, and my team members were logging their time. We mainly use it to track their timing against each project. Apart from projects, we also have some admin work that can also be tracked over there. If someone is on leave, that also needs to be mentioned so that we can see how many hours they are working per week.

If I assign any work in Planisware, the people are able to log their time against it. We have not given much access to the people in Planisware apart from logging their timing.

The benefit was that people were able to track their time in Planisware. People were able to see how much time they are putting effort into each and every project and where they are more into meetings. Apart from that, I didn't see much benefit out of it.

I appreciated the way the project has been managed in Planisware, though the communication is missing. If I compare Planisware with Asana, I appreciate the templates in Planisware. It has brief information about the project, and assigning that project is also good. But internal chatting and internal assigning work was not seen in Planisware, which I could see in Asana more.

I appreciated the dashboard in Planisware that I used to maintain, but it can be more organized. Though I can maintain the dashboard, I would prefer a more personalized view; if it is my project, I should see only my project dashboard, which was missing. I was getting many notifications which were also there. I am unsure whether it is me who does not know how to organize my dashboard or if it's common for everyone.

I utilized the resource management feature in Planisware, and it was good. When I used to take out the entire month Excel sheet of resource management timekeeping, what they entered and what we receive in an Excel sheet has a conflict. I have raised this concern. When we take out an entire month PDF, it shows different information. I don't know how this error was occurring.

I have been working with Planisware for one and a half years.

We just used Planisware for a year, and if we would have used it for a longer period, we would have integrated it with our Jira or with ServiceNow. But as we are going to use ServiceNow and Asana, we didn't integrate with anyone.

I have not had any stability issues, downtimes, or crashes with Planisware. If there was downtime, we received information in advance for that.

Planisware was scalable when we needed to add additional resources to scale it up or out.

I had frequent back and forth communication with the technical support of Planisware. I would rate the tech support of Planisware a seven on a scale of one to 10.

I give it a seven because the support was good, but there's more space for collaboration that we can do internally through Planisware, which was not the case. We had to go to the teams and talk to the technical people after assigning the work in Planisware.

I used Jira before choosing Asana. I prefer Jira for Agile projects, Asana for more interactive collaboration with different team members, and for waterfall projects, I prefer Planisware.

In the implementation of Planisware, I was involved in collecting the data and feeding that data into Planisware, but not about the cost.

The initial setup of Planisware was challenging, but it was eye-opening and good to collect the data because I was collecting the data, comparing the data, separating the data of OPEX and CapEx projects, and then determining who the sponsor was. There are many columns that we need to fill for Planisware which we didn't do for Asana.

The deployment of Planisware was done with external involvement, but I was not directly communicating with them because the PMOs were the ones who were talking and taking the data. The internal PMOs of the company were talking to us.

I am not currently working with Planisware because my company has recently changed from Planisware to Asana. It has been just two months since I stopped using Planisware because our contract ended with them. They were not interested in extending, perhaps due to cost issues or unresolved concerns.

I found Planisware really effective, and I appreciate it. I don't see any features that need to be enhanced. I had limited access, so I might not be aware of all features.

In Asana, we have limited licenses, so I am still not using complete features. The main difference between Planisware and Asana is mainly where we assign the work, and after assigning the work, we can chat. That is one thing which I really appreciate in Asana, which is not there in Planisware.

I believe I had limited access in Planisware; many features were not explored because I had limited options to choose. There must be additional features that I didn't use.

It all depends upon the requirement of an individual organization. Depending upon the requirement, they can definitely select Planisware if it is more about project handling and time tracking for resources.

It's a good product. I would rate Planisware seven out of ten.

Primarily, Planisware is used for project, program, and portfolio management purposes. Projects can be scheduled, and budgeting, tracking, resource management, efforts, forecast, and scheduling can be executed using the Planisware application.

It offers capabilities to manage the complete project life cycle.

Planisware has introduced Agile concepts, making it capable of Agile management similar to Jira and other Agile tools. Users can create Apex Arts, and they can plan their features, stories, PBIs, etc.

The UI and UX of Planisware are not that advanced, similar to SAP. Additionally, there are some bugs and open ends in the system, and it's an expensive tool.

I have been working with Planisware for around 13 years.

For stability, if it is on-premise, I would rate it seven out of ten. If it is a SaaS platform, I would rate it nine since Planisware ensures the application is up and running.

Since it's a COTS product, if it is on-premise, we can customize it to a greater extent according to our needs. There are technical limitations when it's a SaaS platform, and the scalability rating would be six out of ten.

The response time is faster from the US team, yet it is not as fast as Microsoft.

Neutral

I have been using Spotfire in my previous organizations.

For the initial setup, I would recommend including project, program, portfolio, and resource management modules together.

Planisware is an expensive tool, and the licenses are also costly.

If you are planning to introduce Planisware to your organization, you should go with some of the essential modules in the first phase itself.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

We actually use it for project planning and estimating the cost for the projects, in resource management, and as a timecard application. Users can log their time using the timesheet.

It has an inbuilt BI tool, which can be compared to Power BI or Tableau. We don't need to export Planisware data to an external application, and we don't need to create any reports. We can use the in-house tool. I really like it.

I haven't had the time to work with any other TPM tools, so I can't compare it to other tools just yet.

I have been in this field for four years.

Finding a tool without having any hiccups is a bit difficult. I have experienced some issues, and that’s okay. It tends to be stable when the server's processing power and memory are adequate.

The scalability depends on the scenario. As a PBM tool, the users are limited to product planners, so there are no stability issues. However, if it is used as a timecard application by more than 5,000 users, it may experience stability issues. It's worth noting that now it's available as a SaaS application, which has improved its stability.

For functional support, it can be managed from our end, however, if there's something related to the core functions of Planisware, we need to contact them. Their support is good, though they may take some time to respond.

Neutral

I don't have any specific details, however, it might be expensive.

I found Planisware to be a value-for-money product.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

The use cases for the Planisware solution were described.

The Planisware resource management feature is utilized in the organization. The collaboration tools and scenario planning features are also implemented. Planisware's advanced reporting capabilities help the organization track project performance and align initiatives with organizational goals.

There were suggestions for improvements and enhancements in Planisware.

Information about involvement in the initial setup and deployment process of Planisware was discussed.

Information regarding downtimes, crashes, and stability issues with Planisware was discussed.

Planisware is implemented across multiple locations without any scalability issues or limitations.

The technical support of Planisware was rated and questions were escalated to them.

Positive

The Return on Investment will be clearer for the decision-making personnel.

Information about pricing, setup cost, and licensing cost of Planisware was requested.

Other options and solutions on the market apart from Planisware for PPM were evaluated.

The review suggests keeping an eye on the user experience and reporting features. The reviewer works as a Planisware developer at SLB company. The overall rating given to Planisware is 7 out of 10.

We use the solution for portfolio programs and project management. We are now improvising on intake and ideation.

We are on a journey of rolling out the Planisware tool for our entire organization. For now, it will be too early for us to call it a victory and say that a particular feature is prominent in Planisware.

Overall, our company has all disintegrated systems, and with Planisware, we are getting a very integrated view of my portfolio reporting, cost and load, and everything else. That is definitely an advantage of the Planisware PPM software we are using.

The solution's user experience and user interface need improvement because they are not that great and intuitive. They are too dependent on scaled agile for their Agile and Epic road map module. Organizations that do not follow a scaled agile framework might follow something different, like a scrum of scrums. There is still scope for improvement in this area for the solution.

I have been using Planisware version 7.1 for six to seven months as an end user.

There are some bugs in the solution, but they are not those critical ones, or they are not the showstopper ones.

I don't see any challenges with the scalability of Planisware. I haven't seen scalability as an issue with Planisware during the six to seven months of the rollout we have done. Currently, around 5,000 users are using Planisware in our organization.

If you really know Planisware, they have a lot of dependency on their professional services team. There is always a dependency factor with Planisware professional services. You cannot be in a self-sufficient mode with Planisware. That's how their business model is.

Neutral

We started with the SaaS version. So for the initial setup, none of my team members had to invest a lot of effort because we are not using an on-premises version.

We introduced Planisware because we wanted to have everything consolidated. Getting into something else when Planisware is already in the house doesn't make sense. The only element which Planisware misses out on is it does not have its own CI/CD kind of setup.

If I have a set of teams doing a custom app development and their source code repository, and they need a source code repository, then Planisware is not the tool. Work management can be done in Planisware, but the source code management and the CI/CD pipelines cannot be set up in Planisware.

Planisware is a SaaS product.

Overall, I rate Planisware a seven out of ten.

Since I'm completely technical, the primary use case of Planisware for my clients has been project management, time management, portfolio management, and reporting.

Planisware offers integration with multiple tools and provides a good level of customization. However, a noted advantage for some users is the user interface, although I personally do not find it very user-friendly. Additionally, its ability to scale easily is valuable.

The biggest con for Planisware is that if you are not a Planisware partner, you don't have access to their functions, making it difficult for beginners and new team members. There's also a concern with the on-premises version related to server boot-up times, which can be lengthy.

I have been using it for more than six or seven years, being in the PPM domain for more than 13 years.

There are stability issues with the on-premises version, especially with server boot-up times taking up to seven hours. However, the SaaS version is rated higher for its reliability, as it is managed by Planisware partners.

Scalability is straightforward in terms of adding more servers and nodes for additional users, but it might be costly when hardware and cost increases are considered.

Deployment and initial setup are straightforward for experienced users, however, new users might find it challenging.

In-house setups can be expensive, especially when handling large user bases and reporting needs.

Comparisons were made to IBM, Microsoft, and OpenText.

The solution is recommended if the environment is expected to expand significantly, but different options should be considered for initially massive user bases.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.