Resource Management

Pros

I love that it's very powerful and supports custom fields. It helps us keep track of our skills database and where those skills can be used best. The analytics are very simple yet powerful, helps us identify the right data on the right time.

Cons

The UI can lag a bit, with the most recent update. It take a bit time to get used to a few workflows to do some things, such as replacing/reassigning an assignment. It has more features than we need.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Resource Management

Reasons for Switching to Resource Management

Pros

Smartsheet's resource management tool is incredibly powerful and easy to use. It allows me to quickly and easily view and manage resources across my entire project. The interface is intuitive and user-friendly, making it easy to set up and use. I'm able to customize the display to my own preferences and view all my resources in one place. It's a great tool to help me stay organized and on track.

Cons

The resource management tool in Smartsheet can be a bit slow and unresponsive at times. I've also noticed that it can be difficult to quickly and easily move resources from one project to another. Additionally, the cost for the resource management feature can be a bit steep for some people.

Pros

It lets me see my team's schedule in a way that makes it easy to see where they are and what their availability is.

Cons

Due to the fact that I have used other similar software at other companies, there are a lot of things about this software I do not like. The import is very limited. They finally added bulk project edit but still doesn't allow you to edit the important fields like resource or placeholder. We have a lot of projects and resources so the system is extremely slow, sometimes unusable. The schedules should allow you to copy and paste a project or drag and drop when there are multiple people on the same project. It doesn't show a lot of information when you hover over the scheduled task. You can't set the working time for a 40 hour week because then it won't let you schedule anyone for the non-working day like Saturday and Sunday. I could go on and on.. I have to use this software because it is what my company decided to go with, but if it were up to me I would use another product.

Pros

Setting up project details such as phases, resources, budget etc. does seem a hassle at first, but with the learning curve, it becomes substantially uncomplicated to use. It does take time for the team to get used to noting down the time spent on each project every day, but it is imperative that it is done correctly, so as to generate time and invoice reports that can assist the management to get high-level insights across the business.
In addition, 10000ft offers periodic free webinars and case studies, e.g. "Getting More Out Of 10,000ft" which cover key aspects of the software and helpful hints on how to speed up workflow etc. It is also possible to sync our work calendars to assignments and tasks, which is actually quite impressive as we can see which projects are going on, and which assignments would need our urgent attention.
The most important aspect for me as a Project Manager is that through this software I can track projects and make changes when required, schedule resources to particular tasks- both current and estimated, (through placeholder assignments), see which team member is over-booked and which one is available. It is also possible to review the actual time spent on assignments and tasks and is a powerful tool for invoicing purposes. This bit of transparency across the board is very functional particularly for the team, which can collaborate accordingly and be accountable for their bit.

Cons

There are currently no provisions for Gantt Charts and graphic representation of elements, which would have helped in better visualisation of data. Would love such an option in the future.
Secondly, I feel that the real benefit of investing in such software will come in most handy when it is implemented by the team accurately, so it is essential that they do.
It is also pricey for small businesses, wherein project based analytics are not included in the price.

Pros

Great fit for our processes:
* Bidding/planning
You can draft a project - it immediately reflected in resource allocation. Or change the resource allocation and it's reflected in the budget.

It's immediately visible if your planned allocation is over the budget - so you can cut scope or ask for increased budget.

You immediately see if you over allocated people: you can stagger projects or bring in more resources

* Tracking
The project analysis bars with incurred / forecasted vs. budgeted time & expenses are giving a fantastic one blink overview of a project's status.

User experience is one of the best among the products we reviewed. It's especially important for time entry as all people hate to do it.

Reporting is great, slice and dice as you wish and drill down even to individual time entry level

Cons

No project cost analytics - calculations/reporting are only based on billing rates. Although you might be able to use your costs instead of billing rates but then you lose some other abilities (eg. pricing)

No out of the box integration to accounting systems (we use Xero). It would be great to reconcile expenses to or from Xero. They have an API but it requires custom development to integrate.

Some minor usability improvements would help (eg. zooming in / out on resource planning, long project/phase names with people names and allocation info truncated in some zoom level, etc.). But overall still much better as most of the other tools.

A bit pricey: USD 15/user/month