Project Viewers - a powerful and cost effective way to view project plans created in Microsoft Project®e

Most people and companies are unaware that a viewer for Microsoft Project® files (.mpp) exists. This question and answer section is designed to provide the reader with an understanding that viewers do exist in the marketplace, why a person or company would want to use one and the reasons why a person or company would want to use Seavus Project Viewer.

What is a viewer of Microsoft Project® Plans?
A project viewer is a low cost, lightweight software tool that allows users to view (read) project plans originally created in Microsoft Project®. Viewers are able to read and print project plans, but are not capable of changing or altering them in any way.

Why use a project viewer?
There are two primary reasons why a person or company would want to use a project viewer.

The first reason is to reduce unnecessary project management costs and the second reason is to more effectively control the ability for individuals and groups to make changes to project plans.

Our research shows the following results:
Our average customer installation has about 10% of their users who generate Project Plans, about 50-60% who need to update these plans with their work progress and another 30-40% who only need access to the files for viewing purposes.

By providing users who only need to read project plans with a viewer, companies are able to save significant costs over purchasing a full copy of Microsoft Project® standard. Additionally, companies are able to more effectively control the ability for these users to update or change these project plans when they are not authorized to do so.

There are several viewers in the marketplace and we recommend that companies carefully evaluate these viewers to determine their suitability for use within the organization. As you would expect, not all viewers are the same.

Here are some tips for evaluating viewers:

Determine your project environment - identify whether or not you will have users of a viewer
interacting with users of Microsoft Project®. If you will have this interaction and collaboration on projects, consider a viewer that has the same functionality as Microsoft Project® so your 'viewer users' will not be put into a situation where that cannot see the same views as your Microsoft Project® 'users'.

Also determine if you will be giving a viewer to former Microsoft Project® users, if a viewer will be given to new users or if you will give to some of both. If you will be giving a viewer to former Microsoft Project® users, they will be comfortable with the product's 'look & feel' and functionality and you should consider giving them a viewer which contains as much functionality as Microsoft Project® otherwise you might have upset users on your hands.

Test the compatibility limits in viewers - compare the functionality of each viewer to Microsoft Project® and see what features are missing and if your users can live without them. One way to do this is to select a small group (2-4 people) of current Microsoft Project® users and give them a viewer to try for a few days so you can get their feedback/acceptance.

As mentioned earlier, not all viewers look the same, nor do they have the same features, nor do they work the same way. We periodically purchase all viewers in the marketplace and we assign one of our technicians to thoroughly go through each feature and each screen of each of these viewers and compare them to Microsoft Project® in terms of viewing and printing capabilities. The final result of this testing is a Benchmark Analysis. This benchmark analysis is available as a service to companies at no charge.