Microsoft will be building out capabilities in Project Online. The company recently announced that it had acquired the rights to several apps and add-ins from two of its top Project partners, Sensei Project Solutions and Projectum ApS.
From Sensei Microsoft is taking three apps:
• Task Master, for entering timesheets and updating tasks statuses from iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices;
• Project Dashboard, an app for the iPad that helps the project manager stay updated on projects; and
• Portfolio Dashboard, an app for both iPad and Project Online, which provides reporting based on industry best practices to give the user visibility and insight into a portfolio of projects and resources.
“Sensei has been a tremendous partner to us and has fully embraced the add-in model for our Office 365 based Project and Portfolio Management solution,” said Sajan Parihar, worldwide leader of Microsoft’s Project & Portfolio management business, in a press release. “Their add-ins and apps provide great value to our joint clients, and we’re excited to bring them more broadly to organizations and users around the world.”
Kenneth Steinness, CEO of Sensei, said that the apps sold would be released under Microsoft’s branding “and we will discontinue them as Sensei apps. ” However, he added, “We do have several apps left and plenty more being developed at the moment. ”
Microsoft has also acquired Projectum’s cloud-based add-ins, Project Financials and Project Snapshot. The first allows the user to work with time-phased cost data and can be used to manage project costs, benefits and forecasts. The second lets project managers create snapshots of project-level information such as budget, actual cost, key performance indicators and more.
At this year’s worldwide partner conference, Projectum was selected as the 2015 Microsoft Project and Portfolio Management Partner of the Year, acknowledged for its excellence in innovation. Sensei won the same award in 2014.
“To a great extent, Microsoft’s success as a company depends on our ecosystem of partners, and the solutions, they bring to market, noted Marianne Steensen, managing director at Microsoft Denmark in a prepared statement. “We are excited that a Danish partner [received] such an acknowledgement globally. They help set high standards for innovation and for creating valuable solutions for our customers.”
