Project management comes to the Internet - Microsoft's Microsoft Project, Primavera's Primavera Project Planner and Webster, Netmosphere's ActionPlan, project management applications - Product Information

Software Magazine, April, 1997 by George Lawton

Project management applications have typically been restricted to one enterprise, or small groups of partners willing to integrate their networks and applications together. A number of companies have now developed or enhanced products that allow companies to use the Internet for managing projects.

Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash., has enabled its software to convert data into HTML documents that can be stored on the Internet for all to see. Other compa-nies like Primavera Systems Inc., Bala Cynwyd, Pa., and Netmosphere, San Mateo, Calif., offer more sophisticated products that let users search for information, and make changes via a Web page.

Last February, Microsoft added Internet support to Microsoft Project via a free add-on called the HTML Converter, which translates project management data, including graphical charts, into HTML files. However, it does little to manage the data stored on the Web server and changes must be made manually to keep the Web server in sync. Microsoft Group Product Manager Jennifer Cioffi points out that Microsoft Project data can be published to a database, which could in turn be used to feed and receive information from a Web server. This approach requires a database server, however, and someone with the time to integrate them.

Primavera's most recent release of its core product, Primavera Project Planner (P3), includes a Web Wizard, which allows users to send an image of their project management database to the Internet. Unlike Microsoft Project, P3 can maintain the structure of the project management database, insert links between related pages and update the material without having to regenerate the whole Web site. Primavera recently developed Webster, a Web gateway to a P3 project database, which enables a company to make its entire P3 planning application available to authorized users via the Internet. It also lets end users make changes on the Web page that can be automatically reflected into the P3 database. Although Webster can send project management data to the Web, it still relies on Microsoft ActiveX functionality and only works with Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. Primavera is experimenting with Netscape Navigator, but users would still need an ActiveX plug-in. Allen Beebe, Primavera's P3 product manager, says Java would have provided better cross-platform support, but many of the controls and buttons would have to be created from scratch and the demand for Java is still unclear.

For its part, Netmosphere is now shipping its Java-based project management application, ActionPlan, which allows project members to view and make changes to a project management database using any Java-compatible browser. ActionPlan can be integrated with Marimba's Java push technology, allowing users to set up a Marimba Java application tuner on their desktop that automatically receives the latest project updates without having to download anything from the Internet.