Kantata

Maximizing Operational Efficiency.

Comments: Project planning is great and business intelligence in a single platform is tremendously powerful. It has allowed me to have a clearer view of how resources are allocated and how projects are performing in real time.

Pros:

I like the ability to access detailed financial data and time tracking in the same system helps tremendously with project planning and budgeting.

Cons:

While customer support is helpful there have been occasions where responses to specific queries have taken longer than desired or when system updates have introduced changes that require an adjustment period.

Easy to use and implement.

Comments: Overall it has been a positive addition to the business.

Pros:

Ease of use and implementation. Knowledgebase is extensive.

Cons:

Some basic features lack customisation and could use with better enhancements.

OK for the basics, advanced functionality is either missing or not well implemented

Comments: Implementation was not very well executed. We basically had to figure it out on our own. THe "integrations" through thier integration tool are very poorly built and the tool is terrible. It gets the basics right but more advanced features like the Insights reporting add on are poorly executed.

Pros:

Ease of use, Reporting, Project Financials

Cons:

M Bridge integration platform is a complete failure. Its terrible. Training during implementation was not good. We've learned more on our own in a few classes. Time entry is weak and poorly designed. Lacks subprojects. User permissions are all or nothing in most cases.

Alternatives Considered: monday.com, Hive, Wrike and Asana

Reasons for Choosing Kantata: Workfront was too dificult to use, our clients could not or would not engage with us using it. THe functionality was there, but the interface was very poor.

Switched From: Adobe Workfront

Reasons for Switching to Kantata: Simple workflows, reporting and ease of use.

Great System with Some Room for Improvement

Pros:

The project tracking, in terms of the timesheet collection and revenue management this works great for our business and is absolutely essential.

Cons:

From an overall user perspective, the system can be quite clunky to use without adequate training which has caused some hiccups.

Professional Services - Product with great potential

Comments: Really happy with the product and continuing to learn more each day

Pros:

User friendly and insights configuration

Cons:

Reports not able to update in real time. Takes 30-40min to refresh data

Great platform for project management!

Comments: The tool has been great, we never have any downtime, clients love it, and it helps us keep multiple projects on track. Customer support and our CSM have been responsive and helpful!

Pros:

Great tool for maintaining client communications and managing timelines effectively!

Cons:

It would be great for the Project Plan to have more configurations options and editing capabilities like in Excel.

Kantana

Comments: My overall experience has been pleasant using Kantana. I continue to use their product today.

Pros:

The features I like and use the most on Kantana are the project planning features. It is reliable and well put together.

Cons:

I don't think there is anything about Kantana that I don't like. It is put together well and reliable.

Comprehensive solution for time tracking

Pros:

The time tracking and resource allocation features are very well integrated into the system (and with other systems like Jira). This has become our main view of anything to do with scheduling and timesheet management.

Cons:

To be fair, this is not about Kantata but the integration. While well done, Kantata replicates all comments from Jira and that leads to duplicate comments and notifications. It is more of an annoyance rather than a real problem.

Simplified Project Management United and Effective.

Comments: I like the time tracking functionality has made billing to clients more accurate and transparent which has led to better trust and relationships.

Pros:

I really like the ability to unify all phases of a project from planning and time tracking to team collaboration and finances in one tool is extremely valuable.

Cons:

What I might like less about the platform is if at some point I find its learning curve relatively a bit complicated especially for new users who may not be familiar with integrated project management systems.

The complete solution for efficient project management.

Comments: I love it a lot, from creating and assigning tasks to tracking the time spent on each activity and managing resources, I can have a more complete view of my projects in real time.

Pros:

It is very good and I no longer have the need to jump between different tools or documents to be able to have a clearer view of the status and progress of my projects.

Cons:

Well, the platform allows me customization to a certain extent, there may be limitations in terms of completely adapting to the more specific needs of certain organizations.

Powerful tool that needs minor improvements to be a powerhouse

Pros:

Scheduling, capaccity, status tracking, project health tracking, budget, etc all in one place. Tons of data available and a pretty robust API to expand on the capability.

Cons:

It is slow and seems clunky at times. Viewing master planner is the biggest place I notice this.

Mavenlink is a useful tool

Comments: Good

Pros:

Customization of task lists, project fields, etc.

Cons:

Gantt Schedule (hard to display), Reporting (albeit powerful, application for creating reports is not user-friendly in the slightest)

Alternatives Considered: Asana

Reasons for Choosing Kantata: More functionality

Switched From: WorkflowMax

Reasons for Switching to Kantata: Program/portfolio management capabilities. Scalability

A revolutionary solution to maximize efficiency in project management

Comments: One of the things that has impressed me the most is the amount of features and tools it offers. From resource management and project planning, to reporting and integration with other tools, this platform has exceeded all my expectations.

Pros:

What I liked the most is its ability to optimize resources and increase the operational performance of my organization. I greatly appreciate the business intelligence and analytics features it offers. It allows me to have a complete picture of my projects, visualize the progress in real time and make informed decisions to improve efficiency.

Cons:

What I liked least is its initial learning curve to get the most out of all its functions and features. While the platform is incredibly powerful, it can be overwhelming for those with no prior experience managing projects or using similar software.

The definitive tool to manage projects and maximize results.

Comments: It has been great I have experienced a significant improvement in my ability to plan, execute and control my projects efficiently.

Pros:

I love how it combines all the necessary tools in one place, which improves efficiency and communication across the team.

Cons:

I have occasionally experienced some occasional technical difficulties, such as errors loading large files or slow system response at times of high demand.

Great user-friendly product

Comments: It helps keep track of a project's status and time spent on specific tasks.

Pros:

The clear and intuitive project and task trackers.

Cons:

The amount of billable vs non-billable hours is not clearly defined.

Easy to use tool for streamlining your Agency

Comments: Since we are a growing agency with multiple project and hundreds of resources, it is easy to use Kantata for resource planning, allocation, and following that allocation during execution. We can aim for higher resource utilization with this.

Pros:

Single Dashboard to review all submitted, resubmitted and pending timesheets which makes weekly timesheet review a simple task. It is much better than Tempo timesheets that I have used in past.

Cons:

Nothing in particular but more filter and sorting options on project page would have been more helpful as it takes a while to find what you are looking for in it's current view.

Very powerful PSA tool

Comments: Kantata has given our company the visibility it needed into revenue forecasting and allocation of our consultant resources.

Pros:

The integration of full-featured resource management, project management and financial forecasting. Tight integration with Salesforce CRM.

Cons:

The product is very complex and requires a steep learning curve. Certain features are very difficult to use.

Needs Improvements But Works Well for Viewing Burn Rates

Comments: In the beginning, Kantata really helped us have a better view of project health, but as we have grown and clearly defined processes, etc. Kantata has not grown with us. It looks and feels dated.

Pros:

The best thing about Kantata is the ability to see project burn rates at a glance. The time-tracking system is a huge part of that being accurate as well. There are multiple options for our team to track their time so that we can see project burn rates.

Cons:

There are several things that haven't been improved at all in the 6+ years that we've used this software. For example, basic things like not being able to customize your task statuses (or at least new options being added), being able to mark a task as complete even when none of the checklist items have been checked off, and not getting a notification when a due date is coming up to remind a team member of a deadline before it is missed, etc. The mobile version is pretty much useless which is sad now that the working world is mostly remote.

The Ultimate Services & Operations Management Software

Comments: The only way to describe this would be "It has been and still is fun to work with". It's a great piece of software, and once you get used to its logic you will be able to do great things - and by great things I mean measure exactly how much you sell your services for and how much resources you are actually using.
This, plus see employee performance, project performance, you can create custom fields to cover for any special requirement.

Pros:

- Integrations and API - An excellent Salesforce bridge is available and can be fully customised (if you know Java!). You also get other connectors for Jira, Slack, and an API that allows you to do virtually anything. - Integrated GoodData reporting - If you are technical enough you can improve your workflows by adding custom fields and creating custom metrics. I used this solution to monitor the performances of the entire Professional Services team at Emarsys. - The software itself is essentially like Microsoft Project but online and with conversations & invoices generation - you can manage anything from a very small and basic project to a massive 2 years project thanks to the versatile task management interface. GANTT charts are available and, of course, if you know how to use GoodData you can dig even further into the project reports. - Resourcing wise it has a Master Planning tool which looks a bit like Resource Guru but completely integrated with the software, so you are really buying the full package with Mavenlink.

Cons:

I believe the biggest flaw in Mavenlink is the absence of a "real" administrator. Essentially, you can be an admin but if a project is set to "Invitation only" you cannot join it unless someone invites you. So being a Mavenlink admin is not like being a Jira admin where you can do anything you want, you are more of a "open projects administrator". The workaround is to have an integration user creating the projects and a good integration with your CRM that allows you to update fields that would be otherwise not accessible. Mind that you can still remove the integration user from the project, and at that point the only way to re-enter the project is to ask the project lead to invite you. This should clear any security concerns, if your projects require extreme privacy.

Room for improvement

Comments: Mavenlink feels a bit clunky to me with lots of room for improvement in overall UI design and user experience.

Pros:

Creating task lists is easy in Mavenlink. Once the list is created, you can move the items around to rearrange the order or turn some of them into sub-tasks.

Cons:

The expense report tool doesn't work for our organization because Mavenlink only calculates expenses in a single currency. Our company has employees all over the world and we travel to clients in many countries. Therefore, having the ability to convert currencies is key for our group. I would also like the ability to copy a timesheet completely from one week to another (both the billing categories and the time spent on projects).

Great Resource management tool

Comments: We are optimizing the resource allocation analyzing all the project our team is working on.

Pros:

Great to comprehend how the staff is actually allocated. We are optimizing the resource allocation.

Cons:

the learning phase is quite long, but when you understand it it's fine.

Increased capabilities for our company as a whole

Comments: I really like both the time tracking and invoicing modules. I find them to be pretty flexible and easy to use. Some other areas require more manual work than I'd like, but overall, we are happy with Mavenlink and can live with the things we don't like.

Pros:

I like the ease of updating time tracking and making changes after the fact. I like the ability to quickly see project run rate and status. Our last CRM had very limited skills and resourcing capabilities, and so this was both one of the big reasons why we switched to ML and one of the best things about the product.

Cons:

I don't like the limitations on setting boundaries on projects. Mavenlink requires much more manual work than our last CRM in the invoicing and expense categories. There are some things that just don't make sense to me, like having the ability to mark expenses as paid. We've had to create a tracking system outside of ML in order to deal with expenses. I also don't like that administrators can't update/edit expenses.

Best Project Management System

Comments: Overall, it has allowed for our organization to be much more collaborative and detailed in our work.

Pros:

The features that I find the most helpful are the ones that allow us to track the tasks and expenses of projects for our clients.

Cons:

Sometimes the support can be slow when technical issues occur.

Efficient and easy to use project, timesheet and allocation management tool

Comments: The overall experience of using mavenlink has been outstanding. Timesheet and project management has never been easier. The resource and allocation management are charm and a time-saver.

Pros:

* Resource Allocation features * Billing/non-billing time tracking and monitoring * Timesheet management features * Workflow management * Report and Analytics features * Customer support

Cons:

Not much of a con, but ease of use is something that could be improved. In our organization also, we give a small session to any new mavenlink user before onboarding them on the software

Difficult to reconcile with our accounting software - rounding issues

Pros:

Easy for resources to book time against multiple different projects - good data contained in time entry exports (granular, gives lots of information that I can pivot off of to provide different views to the end customer)

Cons:

Mavenlink rounds time entries billed at an odd number (such as $171.77/hr) that are logged in half-hour or quarter-hour increments differently than Sage IntACCT - this makes reconciliations arduous when it's time to invoice the customer.

Alternatives Considered: ERP Cloud