Project/Resource management software

[Barfy]

Given the wealth of knowledge on this board, I was wondering if someone might be able to point me in the right direction here.

 

I currently manage a large research project portfolio which is getting more and more complicated by the day it seems! At the moment I've got nothing more than a bewildering array of spreadsheets to keep things in order, but it's becoming apparent that this just isn't cutting the mustard anymore (as well as there not being enough time to manually update everything!).

 

I've spent a fair bit of time looking on the web to see if there are any off-the-shelf packages that might be able to help, but have reached a dead end here and I guess I'm moving into the realms of bespoke software. Basically what I'm looking for is a way of tracking actual and forecast expenditure against project budgets, being able to generate reports for individual projects, research groups and overall management reports.

 

Has anyone got any pointers for a package that might exist, or where I could start looking or asking questions?

 

Cheers,

Barfy

[Mewsta]

Microsoft Project?!?

[exit2]

Apart from the obvious in MS Project

 

Project commander http://www.projectcommander.co.uk

 

WBS Chart with Project Add on http://www.criticaltools.com/wbsmain.htm

 

Project in box http://www.projectinabox.org.uk

 

all the above I use with my projects. Although to be fair if are not following prince2 guidelines the above are a bit more defined and MS Project would be better

[Barfy]

I was always under the impression that MS project (and similar packages) wasn't particularly strong on the financial side of things, so hadn't looked into them as much. I'll see if I can blag a copy for a few days to see what it can do. I'll also download demos of the packages above.

 

It's very difficult to describe what I actually need without boring everyone to tears. I guess the ideal package would have a lot of the functionality of Project with aspects of a Sage-type package with a robust database attached. Is that just wishful thinking?

[Barfy]

A colleague at another University has pointed me at something that may do the trick.

 

Thanks anyway,

Barfy