SmartPM Reviews

Improving our Scheduling Practices

Pros:

SmartPM isn't just another scheduling software; it's a game-changer. Its intuitive interface makes creating and managing schedules a breeze. Whether you're a novice or a seasoned pro, SmartPM adapts to your expertise level, ensuring a seamless experience from start to finish. One of the standout features of SmartPM is its robust scheduling engine. With advanced algorithms at its core, SmartPM optimizes schedules for maximum efficiency, taking into account various constraints and dependencies. This means fewer delays, better resource utilization, and ultimately, happier stakeholders. But SmartPM doesn't stop there. Its collaborative capabilities are second to none. Team members can easily collaborate in real-time, share updates, and communicate. SmartPM keeps everyone on the same page, every step of the way. As someone who values data-driven decision-making, I appreciate SmartPM's analytics and reporting tools. With customizable dashboards and insightful reports, I can easily track progress, identify bottlenecks, and make informed decisions to keep projects on track. This has improved our overall health of the schedules on every project we currently have.

Cons:

We use columns within Microsoft Projects to identify levels, towers, and buildings. Being able to see those within the software would be really helpful.

Streamlined Project Analytics

Comments: My colleagues at Satterfield & Pontikes and I find SmartPM to be an invaluable tool, enabling us to proactively identify key drivers at earlier stages than previously achievable. Its efficacy as a risk mitigation tool has been substantiated through practical application.

Pros:

What I liked most about SmartPM was its ability to streamline project management processes with intuitive features which has empowered efficient decision-making and facilitated successful project outcomes.

Cons:

One drawback I encountered with SmartPM pertains to the accuracy of its SPI calculation, particularly when the planned percentage completion reaches 100%. Additionally, the frequent appearance of pop-up notifications, disrupting discussions, detracts from the platform's usability. Lastly, the Gantt chart interface could benefit from refinement to match the user-friendly experience offered by Primavera's Gantt display.

Smart PM Gives Schedulers a Roadmap to Improvement

Comments: Positive. Great people to work with who are striving to improve construction scheduling.

Pros:

Identifies key areas to ensure schedules are calculating dates correctly, allows drill down to identify root causes and highlights areas of improvement.

Cons:

Some features are in concept for the enterprise client: 1. Allowing for *.xml format 2. Executive Dashboard On time % using inactive slots. 3. Connections to "Real Time" Database's. vs Imports. 3. Enterprise Pricing.

Indispensable Analytics Software for Consultants

Comments: Excellent. The product is now an integral part of the services we provide.

Pros:

The half step analysis features and the general analytics.

Cons:

The current bar chart graphics could be better quality.

Schedule Help

Pros:

This tool helped standardize our scheduling process and provides concise information for teams to have productive conversations.

Cons:

Some of the tools within SmartPM require a lot of time and attention to detail to set up and use properly.

A Corporate Scheduler's Review

Comments: My experience with the SmartPM application and the SmartPM support personnel has been outstanding.

Pros:

The quantity and quality of the analytical data provides a deep insight into the schedule status. It is very useful to be able to export schedule quality and change data to an Excel format. The reporting functions are great and continue to be improved.

Cons:

There are times when the analysis of the uploaded schedules takes longer than expected. The application runs through a web browser. Clicking the various links opens additional windows in the browser. After several minutes a user can have a dozen or so windows open. This can become confusing. Perhaps the UI could run in one window with functional back buttons.

Great Software for Project Controls and Schedule Analytics Tool

Comments: Great company to work with, wish we had starting using them a long time ago.

Pros:

Great people/company to work with, contently reaching out to ensure our success, gather feedback to improve their product and their customer support is very responsive. This tool has greatly improved our schedule quality and help identify potential delays early on so they can be mitigated.

Cons:

The project setup process requires the XER file, and you cannot upload two schedules with the same data date, however I believe they are working to resolve both issues.

SmartPM Elevates Company Schedule Performance & Health

Comments: Our SmartPM experience has been fantastic - integration, support, implementation - everything!

Pros:

SmartPM has already provided us with actionable reporting on data we currently had but not effectively digesting. The benefits were almost immediate! With SmartPM our project teams are producing hire quality schedules and the reporting is meaningful in a way that we have never seen.

Cons:

The amount of data being reported can be overwhelming. The real effort in a successful rollout may be in deciding what NOT to report.

Performance Management

Pros:

SmartPM allows us to visualize the vast amounts of schedule data generated. We can easily spot schedule issues much earlier that just looking at a Gantt Chart.

Cons:

Some of the terminology used is confusing such as "Backdated Activities" "Should Start Should Finish"

Highly Recommend

Comments: The SmartPM team made setting up and implementing this platform so easy. [sensitive content hidden] are the all-star team. They are very responsive and helpful. If you get them during your trial period, you are in great hands.

Pros:

- SmartPM can take data from the schedule and makes it easier to digest - The graphs and tables allow us to get a better understanding of what is happening and is a great way to start conversations on near critical and critical tasks. - The modeling feature is a game changer. You can create scenarios that you want to look at, and it will show the outcome without changing the actual schedule document.

Cons:

- Would love to see the suggestions get implemented, or a message saying that it was received, and they are working on it or have decided not to move forward with it.

Incredible Schedule Analytics Tool

Comments: Working with the staff at Smart PM has been incredible. They have provided an amazing customer experience. They give us regular attention, are very responsive and seem genuinely interested in our questions and suggestions for improvement. Most notably Tenesha Kittrell-McGhee, [sensitive content hidden and [sensitive content hidden] have been fantastic to work with.

Pros:

Smart PM is super easy to learn and very effective when trying to communicate what is going on in the schedule. It is so quick and easy to upload your schedules into the software and within minutes have all of the metrics at your fingertips. The Windows Analysis is a game changer. What used to take me weeks or months on some projects, now takes minutes or hours. I don't want to analyze any project without Smart PM anymore.

Cons:

There are a few areas where Smart PM makes assumptions and changes dates in the schedule. I would say this is what I like the least about the program. I would rather the software tell me the assumptions it would like to make, but give me the option if I want it to make the changes so I can keep the data that I import pure. I do understand that Smart PM is working on a solution to this however, so this doesn't discourage me from using the program.

SmartPM Review

Comments: Our experience has been phenomenal. The onboarding was great, and the scheduling bootcamp training with [SENSITIVE CONTENT] was second to none. The ongoing office hours for our superintendents and continued improvement of the program are fantastic.

Pros:

Initially the quality checker was the most appealing aspect; ability for all our superintendents to run their schedule through the quality checker and see instantly where the problem areas are. This process used to take hours clicking through each activity trying to find the problems; now they get a report with one click.

Cons:

Our superintendent peer group is having more trouble grasping the finer points of the project analytics and trends; we are working on training them to understand how compression and other factors equate to the reality they are experiencing on the project.

So Smart...

Comments: I believes the use of SmartPM has enabled us to better serve our client’s needs and remain economically competitive by allowing Project Controls & Scheduling Projects to dynamically support multiple Projects remotely (thus reducing the need for full-time on-site support). In my mind, this will only become more and more valuable over-time, as the work-from-home and hybrid work models appear to be here to stay.

Pros:

SmartPM has allowed me to streamline many scheduling analyses, including quality review, critical path analysis, and feasibility assessments. The number of hours that SmartPM has saved me has allowed me to dig into more robust analyses on the schedule.

Cons:

I've absolutely loved the software so far - I've been very impressed by the number of additional functions that have been added in the last two years, including the Should-Start, Should-Finish report. Going forward, I would be interested in having more customizability into the generation of graphics and reports.

Great Product for Complex Construction Projects

Comments: This product helps our organization to see how complex projects are really tracking other than if the schedule is hitting its contractual completion dates. This product identifies compression that often results from tweaking logic during the updates to achieve the completion dates. It also identifies past delays whether they are caused by the owner or third party or self-inflicted.

Pros:

This product complements P6 where it gives the user the ability to see how the project updates compare to each other on one screen. The graphics are very good with planned vs. actual percent complete graphs. For projects with multiple interim milestones, it is particularly helpful in tracking to each milestone throughout the course of the project.

Cons:

Smart PM has so many features, that it can be overwhelming in navigating through all of its features. In Smart PM's defense, they offer great online training sessions to help new and experienced users with the navigation. However, it does require some amount of effort by the users to learn from the online training and to practice what they learn.

My thoughts about SmartPM

Comments: I have had a wonderful experience using the software and I am very happy with the reporting and quality of the product. The response by the support team is amazing and very quick.

Pros:

This is a feature rich product that is easy to use. The predictive end date is my favorite feature.

Cons:

There are a few things that are a bit hard to comprehend due to their complexity. It is an analytical software after all.

Loving Smart PM

Comments: Smart PM is really helping us find and deal with the flaws in our baseline schedules and weekly updated schedules. It is saving us a lot of time by providing a cheat sheet on any issues with the schedule and points us right to the issue at hand instead of having to go dig for it.

Pros:

Smart PM really helps evaluate the health and status of your construction project. It provides critical insight on the progress of the project and allows you to look ahead into potential issues that have not even come up yet.

Cons:

Smart PM continues to update their software and each update makes it better than before. Nothing I would change at all.

SmartPM is a vital part of our businesss.

Pros:

The ability to complete a day-by-day delay analysis on multiple milestones in a single day is the most useful feature of the product for our company. We also use the schedule quality metrics very often to help our clients improve their schedules.

Cons:

I have shared my opinions with SmartPM on areas the product can be improved, and SmartPM has been really receptive and reactivated to my input.

SmartPM for the win!

Comments: SmartPM has been very supportive of helping us adopt their application. They often call to check-in and make sure we are being supported properly. We have a bi-weekly check-in call where SmartPM helps our schedulers learn the processes needed to be successful. We are grateful for this commitment. They also listen to our improvement suggestions and often make changes to the software soon after we identify an item.

Pros:

We really like the workspace feature. It allows us to see multiple visuals on one screen that help explain the project risk profile. The graphs are really well thought out.

Cons:

At times we are challenged with some of the more complex functionality with the delay analysis feature. This is not really a con because the software works and is capable of reducing a scheduler's time when analyzing a project schedule. This is more on us to learn new processes to make the most of SmartPM.

Scheduling Metrics at Your Fingertips!

Comments: Great employees and customer service.

Pros:

Having the ability to to see schedule metrics over multiple projects in one place, installation was very easy. The smartpm reports provide valuable data to aide with time impact analysis.

Cons:

The ghantt chart feature of the software was difficult to use, however smartpm has recognized this issue and is currently updating this feature.

[sensitive content hidden] in Great!

Comments: I love what it does for our company. it has made our people better schedulers. it has made making good schedules a priority.

Pros:

The dashboard is easy at a glance. you can see health, compression and the real end date in a single wiew

Cons:

each evolution gives more and more clarity to the process.

Great support, and consistency.

Comments: Overall. it's a great product, clear analysis, fast reporting, easy to customize.

Pros:

Fast in responding specific needs. Good leaners of Construction needs

Cons:

GRANT Chart. Not very dynamic, need improve on the view.

Must have software for planning and project control managers

Comments: We are able to provide competitive pricing for our delay analysis contracts due to the fact that we can analyze all project schedules in minutes for quality and also to understand at a high level which activities are driving delay and if the Contractor has been mitigating or accelerating to recover delay

Pros:

The dashboards and delay analysis capability is great to be able to see what is driving delays to a project in minutes

Cons:

The platform is updated regularly and with the suggestion box on the platform the Smartpm team are always open to ideas to improve the software

Schedule improvements

Pros:

The hands on training that is provided to help superintends develop more accurate schedules.

Cons:

It can be overwhelming at first to understand how to navigate all the functions of the system.

Great Tool

Pros:

This tool runs a number of reports and analysis that can free up the team to use the data rather than dedicating their time to generating the data. These features allow key project reports to be generated quickly after update windows, allowing project teams to quickly review and act on the data.

Cons:

The program is still in development, which leaves some important features still 'in the que' for future development. The support team is eager for these suggestions, and happy to try to find ways to overcome any current obstacles.

SmartPM Review

Pros:

I like how easy it is to use and the reports that SmartPM creates. With the reports and feedback from SmartPM, I can go back to our Project teams and work with them to improve the schedule, if needed.

Cons:

I don't have any really big cons. The few items that I did have a problem with early on were fixed by the SmartPM team.