Top Planview Competitors & Alternatives 2024

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Introduction - The importance of being supported by the right PMO software

According the the 2021 Strategic Roadmap for the PMO report by Gartner, 75% of PMOs will shift their focus from project execution to strategic business value realization. 

To be able to do so, PMOs need the right tool stack. 

Plainview is one of the solutions that’s been around for a while, but as you may have already discovered, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. 

Our article explores 5 project portfolio and program management tools that you may want to consider instead of Planview: Fluid, Planisware, Smartsheet, Clarity, and MS Project.

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What is Planview and its target audience

Planview is a project portfolio management (PPM) platform designed to facilitate project management, strategic planning, portfolio management, and resource allocation. 

The software is particularly popular among project and program managers and PMOs at large enterprises where they need to oversee complex projects and align them with their organization's strategic goals.

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Why search for Planview Competitors?

If you look at the Planview website, the product looks robust. 

There’s nothing wrong with its functionality, as the platform provides all the features that a PMO may need for:

• project planning and management
• financial planning and management
• analytics and reporting
• portfolio planning and prioritization
• scenario analysis and project prioritization
• resource management and capacity planning

However, if you’ve had any dealings with the platform before, you must know that it looks like something from the previous era. 

Its user interface is slow and far from intuitive, and according to users hasn’t improved much in the last 6-8 years. It comes with a steep learning curve and requires extensive user onboarding.

Moreover, the solution isn’t very reliable and forums are full of stories about hours of work lost because of the app freezing or crashing.

As a decision-maker, a modern user interface may not be the key priority. Initially. Not until you see the detrimental impact of poor usability on your teams’ productivity and morale. 

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Other areas where Planview lacks are:

• Cost - reportedly it’s not a cheap solution
• Limited customization
• Poor technical support
• Limited integrations

Top Planview competitors high-level comparison table

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Planview alternatives

Planview offers PMOs robust functionality but because of its dated user interface, it’s a bit of an acquired taste. 

Fluid - the no.1 Planview alternative

Fluid is an all-in-one project management platform that enables PMOs to oversee all aspects of the portfolio from one place and ensure their alignment with the company’s strategic goals.

Thanks to its comprehensive functionality, reliability, and excellent customer experience, it has become the PPM solution of choice for enterprise-level companies like Santander, Isuzu, or Herbalife.

User Interface

One of the key strengths of Fluid is its intuitive and user-friendly interface. This makes it easy for users with limited technical expertise to easily navigate between views and take full advantage of its powerful capabilities. 

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This is reflected in the G2 Ease of Use score of 9.5/10. 

Key Capabilities

Fluid’s key features include:

• Unified project workspace - you can manage all project work from one centralized space.
  
  
• Financials and resource management - Fluid enables the monitoring and scheduling of resources across various projects, along with the management of related costs.
  
  
• Meeting management - Fluid Meetings simplifies the process of organizing and conducting meetings. It supports asynchronous meetings and features interactive agendas where tasks and decisions can be assigned.
  
  The best part? After the meeting, summaries, and follow-up tasks are automatically distributed and allocated to relevant team members.
  
  
• Advanced reporting and analytics - the advanced reporting capabilities of Fluid enable a detailed analysis of specific project elements.
  
  It includes pre-designed report templates, personalized dashboards, and the Cortex feature which uses AI to highlight any deviations from the project's planned course, facilitating easier identification of any inconsistencies or issues.
  
  
• Risk and dependency management - Fluid enables teams to monitor risks and issues, and manage interdependencies within projects from one dashboard - Impacts. This is essential to avoid disruptions and keep your project on track.

Fluid for strategic portfolio management

Fluid has been built to enable organizations to align portfolio management with strategic business objectives. 

The performance monitoring and reporting features give teams real-time access to centralized portfolio data to eliminate blind spots and provide a single source of truth. This is essential for shared understanding and informed decision-making. 

It gets even better!

Fluid allows you to easily model different strategic scenarios and assess their potential impact on initiatives so that you can better evaluate proposed projects.

How we are built for PMOs

Fluid is designed to empower PMOs with advanced tools and AI insights and ensure the delivery of strategic value from initiatives. 

How exactly?

As a unified platform for managing project and portfolio information, Fluid enables efficient governance and standards. 

For example, as mentioned, Fluid offers comprehensive resource management to help PMOs align resources with strategic objectives and provide clear visibility on resource expenditure. 

Finally, the software facilitates effective stakeholder management, ensuring transparency in decision-making, and simplifies project intake processes to prioritize projects that align with business objectives.

Security

Fluid offers a range of security features to ensure data protection and compliance:

• Audit logs 
• Multi-level permissions
• Private boards and meetings
• Compliance with ISO-27001 and SOC 2
• Enterprise security options (Enterprise Single Sign-On (SSO) with SAML 2.0, SCIM identity synchronization, customizable release procedures for enhanced security).

Support

When it comes to customer support, Fluid sets the bar high. Don’t believe us? G2 reviewers rate it at 9.8/10, while the average score for similar tools is only 8.4.

All Fluid users have access to:

• Dedicated Customer Success Managers
• Extensive Knowledge Base
• Real-Time Live Chat Support 
• Customized Training

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Planisware

Planisware is an enterprise project portfolio management software that facilitates strategic planning, product development, and resource management.

Its notable customers include Philips, Ford, Airbus, and Pfizer.

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User Interface 

The Planisware interface looks a bit old-school, just like Planviews’. 

Reviewers describe it as clunky and not very intuitive, and it’s reflected in the 6.5/10 Ease of Use score (it gets 6.5/10 for Ease of Setup too).  

Key Capabilities

Planisware offers a range of features that you might expect to see in a comprehensive PPM platform.

These include:

Resource planning - thanks to the Resource Bottleneck and Supply vs. Demand vs. Capacity views, PMOs can easily identify under and over-utilized resources to ensure their optimal allocation across all portfolio projects.

Project scheduling and roadmapping - the tool allows you to create roadmaps, Gantt charts, PERT diagrams, and WBS charts, and supports Earned Value Management. 

Project proposal evaluation - thanks to Scenario Comparison, you can assess business cases to identify the right mix of project initiatives; this allows you to create portfolios that deliver the maximum value with the budget and resources available.

Finance planning - Planisware allows organizations to create business plans and portfolio budgets and oversee their ongoing utilization for more accurate estimates.

BI and analytics - the tool enables PMOs to track all project metrics in real-time from custom dashboards.‍

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Security

Planisware doesn’t provide any details about its security on its website. However, given it’s an enterprise-level solution, we may expect the standard features like multi-level permissions, encryption, or SSO. 

Support

Customers can access help via:

• Resource center with product documentation, articles, and videos.
• Customer Community
• Training courses (Engage modules)
• Customer Portal
  
  

How adequate is this? G2 reviewers rate the quality of support at 7.0/10, which is on par with Clarity and MS Project but lower than Planview.

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Smartsheet

Smartsheet is a cloud-based platform designed for work management and collaboration. 

User interface

Smartsheet has an interface similar to traditional spreadsheets, which makes it familiar and easy to use for those accustomed to programs like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. 

Overall, Smartsheet is one of the easier-to-use tools in the roundup, with a G2 rating of 8.4/10.

Key Capabilities

Project management and task tracking - users can create, assign, and track tasks and projects. This includes setting deadlines, updating statuses, and monitoring progress. It supports different project management methodologies including traditional, Agile, and hybrid approaches.

Portfolio management - thanks to the Control Center, customers can standardize and manage their project processes and resources from one place.

Collaboration tools - Smartsheet enables team collaboration by allowing users to share sheets, view updates in real-time, and communicate through comments and attachments. It integrates with various communication tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack.

Resource Management - it includes tools for managing resources, tracking time spent on tasks, and workload balancing among team members.

Multiple views - the Grid view isn’t the only one Smartsheet offers. There are also Gantt charts, Kanban board, and Calendar views as well customizable dashboards with the key metrics in real-time.

Integrations - Smartsheet integrates with various other platforms like Google Workspace, Microsoft Office 365, or Salesforce, and you can create custom API integrations for seamless data transfer and workflow integration.

Security

All paid Smartsheet plans offer User Management. The Enterprise plan gives you access to such features as SSO/SAML, advanced access controls, Customer Manager Encryption Key (CMEK), to name a few.

Support

Enterprise customers receive access to the Standard Support plan and can purchase additional levels as an add-on: Professional Support, TAM, and TAM Enhanced. 

All of them include 24/7 global access by phone and online. The TAM plans also offer a dedicated customer success manager. Users on the other plans have to pay for these additionally, but get free access to:

• Learning center with free tutorials, recorded webinars, and eLearning resources
• Knowledge base 
• Solution center with templates
• Community support

G2 reviewers seem to be satisfied with the quality of support, giving it the score of 8.4/10.

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Clarity

Broadcom's Clarity is a comprehensive software tool designed for ‘value stream management’, ‘strategic portfolio management’, and ‘digital product management’.

It is particularly suited for large organizations whose PMOs require a comprehensive solution for managing complex projects and portfolios across various departments and teams. 

User interface

Clarity features an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. 

Thanks to the user-friendly menu on the left-hand side, navigating through the various features and screens is quick and straightforward. 

The tool offers dashboards that allow users to see key metrics and project statuses at a glance and which can be customized with widgets. 

How easy to use is it? It gets 6.9/10 from G2 reviewers.

Key Capabilities

Portfolio management - the software provides tools for managing a portfolio of projects, allowing decision-makers to prioritize investments and align them with the strategic goals of the organization.

Resource management - Clarity offers such resource management capabilities as resource allocation, demand planning, and tracking of time and expenses against projects.

Financial management - it includes financial management tools that help in budgeting, forecasting, and tracking the financial performance of projects and portfolios.

Collaboration and workflow - the platform supports team collaboration, with features for communication, document sharing, and workflow automation to streamline project processes.

Business Intelligence - the investment planning solution comes with its own data warehouse and open BI connections for easy data visualization and in-depth analysis.

Security

Comes with robust security features to protect sensitive organizational data. 

This includes architectural security measures (encryption, load balancers, firewalls, etc), as well as application security and user management features (data segregation, MFA, authorization) and data management (like backups). 

Support

Clarity customers can access help via:

• Online community
• Knowledge base 
• Blogs & webcasts
• Support via chatbot, live chat, phone
  
  

G2 reviewers rate the quality of support at 7.0/10

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MS Project

Microsoft Project is a project management software designed to assist project managers in developing plans, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, managing budgets, and analyzing workloads.

User interface

MS Project features an intuitive and user-friendly interface, and reviewers find it fairly easy to use (7.3/10 on G2). 

Key Capabilities

Portfolio management - users can manage multiple projects simultaneously, linking related projects to view the big picture and ensuring resources are allocated efficiently across projects. The tool allows you to model various scenarios and their impact on value realization.

Task scheduling and management - MS Project allows users to create schedules for their projects, with tasks that can be linked to form dependencies. 

Gantt Charts - one of the most recognizable features of MS Project is its Gantt chart view, which provides a visual timeline for project tasks, showing their duration, sequencing, and dependencies. This is in addition to the grid and the Kanban board views.

Resource management - the software includes capabilities for assigning resources (like staff, equipment, and materials) to tasks, and for managing resource availability and workload.

Project tracking and reporting - MS Project enables tracking of project, program, and portfolio progress with pre-built reports. It also offers Earned Value Management for quantitative comparison of the completed vs planned work.

Security

MS Project users benefit from all the security features of Microsoft 365. These include MFA, customizable security, and project user roles to manage access to data at different levels, 

Support

As a Microsoft Project user, you can access support via email. 

As in other tools, there’s a vast library with support resources, technical docs, instructional videos, and FAQs. 

You also have access to the official Microsoft community, where you can seek guidance and exchange tips. 

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Conclusion

While Plainview offers PMOs robust project and portfolio management features, its user interface and unreliability let it down. If you’re looking for a PPM solution, it’s worth considering one of the alternatives. 

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As our guide provides only general information, head over to the product websites. Whenever possible, use the free trials and of course get the demos.

Talking of demos… you can watch Fluid’s demo here.

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