Excellent Portfolio/Project Management Tool
What do you like best?
I like the flexibility and completeness of the custom fields very much. These fields allow the project manager to have all the data he needs.
I also enjoy the reports. They are very interactive, and I can get the information I need very fast, especially when we use a table with all the content seen on the graph on the same page.
Another strong point is the risks module, which is "ready to use" but, with some customization, it can be a very powerful tool to manage risks of the projects inside Clarizen (at project, program and portfolio level).
What do you dislike?
It may not be a very intuitive tool at first glance, especially for people who are used to work with more simple tools. However, once you understand how it works and how the different modules relate to each other it gets pretty easy.
Another thing that I did not like very much at the beginning was that it is not possible to see the summary of the tasks at the project level, it is necessary to go to the project details in order to see them. In any case, it is not a problem, I already got used to it.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
If you are looking for a tool to manage projects, portfolio with a high level of detail and completeness, I absolutely recommend Clarizen. It already comes with a lot of features by default, but some configuration is needed in order to increase the user experience. That being said, I believeo it is important to have some support when starting to use it.
What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
With Clarizen I am managing projects, portfolios and the risks related to them. I use different reports to keep track of the projects (due dates, budget, costs and revenue.
I also use Clarizen Timesheet in order to keep track of all my activities in the different projects that I am involved in. Together with the team we analyse how much time we have spent in each project, how our workload is, and the impacts on the project's costs.
Thanks to Clarizen it is possible to have a complete overview of the portfolio and keep track of the teams activity. Moreover, it is possible to take necessary actions to avoid potential problems in the project.
