Services Ease Project Management

Review: Hosted applications provide the tools needed to manage complex projects.

Hosted applications from AtTask and eProj-ect allow organizations to more effectively manage projects—without having to manage desktop and server applications.

Both AtTasks AtTask 4.02 and eProjects eProject PPM (Project Portfolio Management) 6, priced at $395 and $495 per user per year, respectively, were updated in September. AtTask is more of a group project and portfolio management application, with a prebuilt tool set particularly well-suited for IT management applications and professional services organizations. AtTask 4.02 is available as both a hosted service (as eWeek Labs tested it) and an on-premises application. eProject PPM 6 is a broader project and portfolio management system that is highly customizable and well-suited to large organizations with multiple projects.

During tests, both products provided the tools necessary to create and manage complex projects. We liked the simpler user interface of AtTask, which is more approachable for novice users. eProjects more complex interface is powerful, but it may be intimidating to users with less experience with project management applications.

Both services are a relative bargain compared to Microsofts enterprise project management applications: Microsoft Office Project 2003 costs $999 for a perpetual license, and Office Project Server 2003 licenses cost $1,499 each. These services also allow companies to avoid the associated IT management costs of deploying on-premises systems, although both have client-side components for synchronizing with Microsoft Office Project 2003. AtTask also offers some pricing flexibility for users who touch just a small portion of the application or who only view data.

Click here to read a review of AtTask 4.02.

Click here to read a review of eProject PPM 6.

Technical Analyst Michael Caton can be reached at michael_caton@ziffdavis.com.