Need recomendations

B

Bjurran

Hello everyone!
From reading different threads here, I found some answers that tells me that
I'm not in a really good position right now...
I was recently employed as an IT manager at a small company where they use
ms project mainly for gantt chart time planning for many different projects.
They have used project 2k before, and have that installed on some machines
today. Many of our contractors and customers still use the 2k version to
create these and mail them to us every week. (they don't need anything else,
so why upgrade?)
The problem is, someone previously employed at our company decided that it
would be a great idea to install project server 2k3 on the server. They never
upgraded the clients, so they where still running 2k on the client, and
almost never used the server part of it. The only project 2k3 that was
installed was on the server, so only the administrator could add new
projects, and the others had to use the web based thingy... That caused the
users to still work in their own files, as they had no access to the server
from project.
Now, we have expanded a whole lot, and it's up to me to decide what system
to use. Preferably, I'd like to be able to use any version of project to
update the files. I don't see how this could be much diff between the
versions, as mainly the only part we use is the Gantt Chart. Is it possible
to work with this with different versions of project? We WILL need to send
files to other companies using older versions. (try to convince someone to
upgrade 300+ installations just because their subcontractor ask them to)

As I see it, for us being a small company, the investment in project server
2k3 was nothing but a waste of money. As far as I can see, no one sells 2k3
versions any more, so we'd have to upgrade all of our systems to 2k7,
including the server. (Never going to happen as it's too expensive!)

So please tell me, how do I get our project server 2k3 to work with 2k, 2k3
and 2k7 files? And how do I make sure that nomatter what verison the file is
saved in, people will still be able to use it in their installed version. If
it's not possible, well, then you just lost some of us...

Looking at the costs for this software, you just can't expect that people
will upgrade everytime you decide to earn more money by releasing another non
compatible version. That's just sick!
 
J

James Fraser

So please tell me, how do I get our project server 2k3 to work with 2k, 2k3
and 2k7 files? And how do I make sure that nomatter what verison the file is
saved in, people will still be able to use it in their installed version. If
it's not possible, well, then you just lost some of us...

Project Server 2003 will work with Project Professional 2003 and to
some degree with Project Professional 2002. It will not work with any
other versions of Project. I know that's not the answer you want, but
nothing short of a massive development project will change this fact.

Yes, implementing Project Server 2003 without upgrading the clients to
2003 was not what I would call a wise deployment of resources. (heavy
sarcasm intended.)

If you want to use server you will have to upgrade the clients to
Project Pro 2003. Those clients can save versions of projects as
Project 2000 files.
Looking at the costs for this software, you just can't expect that people
will upgrade everytime you decide to earn more money by releasing another non
compatible version. That's just sick!

Please realize that most of the people participating in this
newsgroup / discussion group are _not_ representatives of Microsoft
(including myself.) Also, many of us are partners or customers of
Microsoft that really believe Project Server has a lot to offer, in
either 2003 or 2007 flavors. For many companies, small and large, an
implementation of Project Server can pay for itself quickly enough. Of
course, this may not be the case for your company.


James Fraser
 
G

Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]

Bjurran:

Small company? How small? In my opinion, the entry level for Project Server
is for companies that have annual project portfolios ranging from 2.5 to 5
million dollars or Euros. At these levels, incremental performance
improvements can easily justify the investment.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
For Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
For Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com
 

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