Project Management is one of the top priorities for many organizations and the need for a tool that is powerful, easy to support, reliable and always available is equally as important. That’s where Office 365 Project Online comes in. The Microsoft® Office 365 Project Online suite of tools and services bring together a powerful stack of business collaboration capabilities to deliver a complete and flexible project and portfolio management (PPM) solution. Microsoft PPM allows organizations to align resources and investments with strategic priorities, capture all types of work, and surface performance indicators by using powerful reports and dashboards available all the time from multiple devices.

With the advent of Office 365 Project Online, organizations from almost any industry and any size can take advantage of the powerful tools that make up the Microsoft Project & Portfolio Management (PPM) suite of tools and services.

Having deployed these solutions for hundreds of organizations for the past ten plus years there are many reasons to look at Project Online, I’m listing 15 of them here:

1. 24/7 Availability- Built on the Office 365 Framework, Project Online is always available to the project team to either check the status of a project, update an assignment, address an issue or check on a status report. Microsoft’s state of the art Data-centers guarantees up time and availability. Project Managers can also work on projects “off-line” so access to important project information is always at their fingertips.Up to Date Product Version

2. Up to Date Product Version- Built on the cloud means the latest versions and patches are tested and applied, so you always have the latest and most up to date features and functionality. This also frees up your administrators to work on other tasks like integration and tailoring of the solution.

3. 24/7 Support- Microsoft has built a reputation on supporting its customers and Office 365 Project Online is no exception and with guaranteed uptime, you can’t go wrong. When you match this our enterprise support agreements (ESA)’s all of your questions and issues are addressed.

4. Low Cost- The cost to implement is dramatically reduced with Office 365 Project Online due to the shift to a user-based subscription model that allows you to add-users when needed. The days of investing into expensive hardware and software are gone which allows a very low cost of entry in these tools and services.

5. Features match Maturity- Each organization can approach Project Online a unique way and enable features and functionality in alignment with their current maturity level. Basically, the tool is designed to grow with you as your Project Management Office grows and matures. Features are enabled as you and your team mature.

6. Project Scheduling engine- Built on the industry standard Project Professional desktop application, Project Online leverages the power of the Microsoft Project scheduling engine as the central tool for managing projects. Project Online was technically built around Microsoft Project.

7. Real time Data-Analysis- Data is everywhere and always available for analysis. Data is being updated in real-time as new information is being updated so you always know you have the latest information to analyze and review. There are hundreds of fields at the project, resource and task level and opportunities for you to create your own to work with.

8. Deep Dashboards and Reporting- When combined with applications and services such as Microsoft Excel and Power BI Pro you get multiple pre-built and easy to tailor Dashboard and Visual reports. These reports and dashboards are easily accessible and can be communicated in many formats, with the required frequency and information.

9. Office 365 Suite Integration- So many different tools to extend and integrate with Project Online including SharePoint Online, Office, Planner, Teams, OneDrive, Skype, Visio and many others. All of these tools can add value and efficiencies to your goals and objectives.

10. Built on SharePoint- Built on SharePoint, means Project Online takes advantage of all the capabilities that come with it. Whether its site management, workflows, meta-data content management or enterprise reporting, SharePoint helps to bring it all together.

11. Open Integration- The need to integrate with 3rd party systems and applications is a common requirement and Project Online is built around the capability to share and communicate with these environments.

12. Compliant- Compliance could be a deal breaker and Project Online complies with multiple industry-specific standards, including ISO 27001, HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA), EU Model Clauses and FISMA.

13. User Management and AD synch- Users and resources are easily added, secured and managed with sophisticated permission models and enhanced Active Directory synchronization. Project Online’s permission model allows for very granular permission management to the right users see the right information and you know your sensitive information is secure.

14. Complete PPM Solution Built on a Microsoft’s Enterprise Framework- Project Online is built on Project Server which has a long history of providing organizations with full Project Portfolio and Project Management capabilities. With complete project and resource request management, project and portfolio what-if scenarios and project selection workflows. Project Server has a rich history and community base that has been adding new features and capabilities for almost 20 years. In other words, this is not a new tool.

15. External Sharing with SharePoint Sites and OneDrive- Getting project information to external users and organizations is a critical component to the Office 365 Project Online solution. SharePoint Online and OneDrive make it easy to get the right information to users outside your internal Office 365 userbase. This allows you to exchange information with vendors, contractors and partners while keeping everything in synch and out of your “in boxes”.

Take a look, make some comparisons and make sure it fits in with your short and long term PM goals and objectives.