Clarizen analyst-review-october-2011

Key Features: Project Management, Time Tracking, Task
Management, Project Portfolio, Budget Tracking, Project

Scheduling

Industry: Non Specific

Customers: Mid Size Businesses & Large Enterprise

Geography: US/Canada/Australia/Europe/Israel/Asia

Languages: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional),
English, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Portuguese,
Russian and Spanish

Cost: Starts at 24.95$/month – 30 Days Free Trial

Review methodology

This review constitutes an analysis based on a product demonstration and software review by qualified system software
experts at Eval‐Source. The demonstration Eval‐Source received from the vendor was based on its own custom vendor
script, designed to validate and/or disprove vendors’ claims. The script was specifically prepared to identify
functionalities and form an impartial analysis and software review for a Project Management Solution.

Business Problems Addressed

Today’s business environment has enabled companies to operate virtually. Companies are collaborating more frequently
with many different internal and external partners and as a result, diversified, cross‐functional project teams are in
greater demand than ever before. The adoption of best practices has made project management a staple operation
within companies and changed the way in which they execute initiatives. In fact, while traditional project management
still exists in IT, R&D, and software development, other organizations like marketing departments and professional
services groups are also leveraging these methodologies. This evolution has caused a significant need for project
management solutions to be intuitive and incorporate the fundamental methodologies of project management. This
evolution has generated the need for project management solutions to be intuitive enough for non‐trained project
managers, yet incorporate the broad and fundamental methodologies of project management.

The five phases of true project management are: initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing.  Organizations
that require project management solutions should always be aware of the basics of project management and how a
vendor’s solution addresses each component of the methodology. Examining what your organization requires to execute
projects and matching those needs to the appropriate software is the ideal way to find the best solution.

For highly project‐driven companies, the ability to execute can determine the success of a project. Like many other
business tasks, there is pressure on project managers to become leaner and more streamlined ‐ providing more detail,

Clarizen Product Review 01/10/2011
Produced by Eval‐Source http://www.eval-source.com and GetApp.com http://www.getapp.com

collaboration and execution for the project teams. To achieve this, project teams require more dexterous tools than
spreadsheets and light collaboration. They need project management tools that offer in‐depth collaboration, time and
budget management, resource management, change management, customizations and fulfil other project related tasks
required to complete a project on‐time and on‐budget.

Clarizen has the ability to address these requirements, combining project management and collaboration in an easy‐to‐
learn interface that will work well for many organizations – big or small. Clarizen’s approach to project management
examines the steps and components that comprise a project, and streamlines the execution in real–time, with visibility
and collaboration across an organization.  Clarizen focuses on delivery, usability, visibility, collaboration and execution.
The Clarizen tool is delivered with a pure Cloud‐based, Software as a Service model, which allows for easy adoption –
though users will have to have internet to use it.

Clarizen’s in‐depth project functionality and integrations to other software applications can simplify project
management and unify functions like CRM and accounting from different vendors through a single sign‐on interface.

Target Market

The Clarizen target markets are SMB through to enterprise. Medium to large companies are quickly adapting project
methodologies throughout their organization for different departmental needs like marketing or their services
organizations.    By providing a project management tool, organizations create a framework to follow for all company
related activities.  Clarizen can provide the project management glue to establish, execute and monitor company‐wide
initiatives.

The Clarizen project management application is not vertical specific – meaning it has wide appeal and can be inserted
into any application where a project management tool is required.  The main customer types that Clarizen targets are:
High Tech, Healthcare, Consulting, Banking, Telecom, Marketing Service Companies, IT, Research and Development and
Operations within Manufacturing.

Clarizen’s head office is located in Hod Hasharon, Israel with sales offices in San Mateo, California, United Kingdom,
France, Germany, Taiwan and Australia. The Clarizen application is available in the following languages: Chinese
(Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.


Pricing Model
Clarizen Software comes in three versions: Professional, Enterprise and Unlimited.  The graphic below indicates the basal
features of the Professional, Enterprise and Unlimited editions. The free 30‐day trial includes full application
functionality and a credit card is not required to initiate sign‐up, thereby allowing organizations to fully evaluate the
capabilities of the software. All projects created during the trial will automatically transition seamlessly once the account
is converted to a paying account so no data is lost.

Figure 1.  Professional, Enterprise and Unlimited Editions

Clarizen supports three types of users: Full users, Time and Expense Users, and an Email Reporting User.. Full users have
a complete login to the Clarizen system, and can see any data that is allowed by the administrator based on configurable
permissions. A Time and Expense User costs less, but is appropriate for users who only need to access timesheets and
expense modules of a project and report their progress through email. Clarizen allows an unlimited number of free
Email Reporting Users. These users are typically contributors or resources on a project who only need to be able to
receive notification of assigned tasks and to report on the status of their progress via email – but do not need full access
to Clarizen.  See Figure 2 for Time and Material User pricing.

This feature can prove very useful for organizations that outsource to contractors or have many stakeholders that are
not directly involved in the main milestones and key deliverables, but play an important role in supporting the task
dependencies.


Figure 2 Time and Material User Pricing for Professional and Enterprise.

Total Cost of Ownership

For SaaS based applications, total cost of ownership is calculated differently from on‐premise. Our analysis has
identified 11 items that should be included when calculating the total cost of ownership (TCO) for a Cloud‐based
solution. This provides a starting point for determining the TCO over the application lifecycle and provides the basis for
the calculation of ROI. In a SaaS based offering, these items are usually included and if not, organizations should inquire
as to how they are priced in addition to the monthly subscription fee. Most of the components for a SaaS/Cloud solution
are included within the monthly subscription fee or pricing model.  This list represents the most common components
that compose a SaaS or Cloud solution.

Are these components included the SaaS subscription?

1. Hardware          Yes
2. OS Licenses   Yes
3. Database Licenses   Yes
4. Middleware Licenses   Yes
5. Software Licenses   Yes
6. Software Support Yes
7. Hardware Maintenance   Yes
8. Software Maintenance   Yes
9. IT Operations   Yes
10. Upgrades Yes
11. Training   Basic Training Included, Free Unlimited live Webinar Q&A
forums always available, additional training available


SaaS Checklist

In order to fully understand SaaS and Cloud‐based solutions, Eval‐Source has created a checklist that businesses should
apply when engaging a SaaS or Cloud vendor. The components of this checklist cover the Cloud delivery model and
provide details that may require further investigation.  This checklist serves as a starting point for SaaS/Cloud basics that
the organization should bear in mind before choosing a SaaS/Cloud solution.

1. Tenancy ‐ Multi or Single:   Multi ‐ tenant
2. Cloud Structure Public or Private:   Public – Designed specifically as a PM SaaS software
3. Subscription Terms:      Per user/ by month
4. Data Security Standards:       Y Data center is SAS70 ‐ II certified
5. Business Continuity/Data Recovery:    Y – Fully redundant failover
6. Encryption Type:      SSL
7. Version Release Schedule: 3 major releases a year, with minor weekly updates
8. Current Version Released:     5.3
9. Session Management:     Y
10. Application Level Security:      Y
11. User Limits:     No user limits
12. Data Migration Services offered:    N, though a tool is included to import project from Microsoft Project
13. Free Trials/Sandbox Testing:     Yes, there is a free 30 day unlimited usage trial
14. Application Customizable by User:   Y. Workflows, custom fields and validation rules can be configured
15. Application Customizable by Vendor: Y
16. Set Up Fee (admin fee): N
17. Charge for Additional Space:     N

Solution Analysis

Functional Areas

Clarizen is a nicely designed end‐to‐end Project Management tool with all the necessary supporting functionality that
project management requires. The functional modules of the Clarizen applications are: core project management
capabilities, resource management, task management, issue management, team collaboration, budget management,
time tracking, customization features, dashboards and reporting. The figure below highlights the key features of each of
the functional modules. See the technical analysis section of the review for the integrations to other software packages.


Core Project Resource Management Task Management Team Collaboration
Management Features Features Features Features

Advanced Inter‐Dependencies Resource Load Simulation Actual versus Remaining Efforts Automatic Notifications
Completion Reporting
Automatic Notifications Automatic Notifications Email Traceability

Automatic Notifications
Contacts & Email Addresses
Budgeting External Resources Recurring Tasks
Discussions
Critical Path Method
Email Only Users Billable & Non Billable Work
Document Sharing
Items
Project Baseline
Inter‐Project Shortcuts
User Groups
Task Feedback
Gantt Charts
Notes

Interactive Resource Load Views
Templates
Project Hierarchy Project Templates

Resource Calendar Views Multi‐Project Management
Project Portfolio Management Project Percentage Completion
Reporting
Multi‐Project Management
Realtime Chat
Resource Details
Progress Report via Emails ‐
Real Time Team Updates
Project Indicators ProjectMail™
Role & Assignment Per Project
Delta Change Updates:
Project Roadmap Role Permissions Instant, Aggregated & In‐
Reportable & Non Reportable Context

Work Items
Project Templates

Email Discussion Generated
from Work Item
Scheduling

Task Management

Time Tracking

Personal Calendars


Budget Management Features Time Tracking Customizations

Billable and Non Billable Work Items Automatic Notifications
Custom Fields
Budgeting Calendars Business Rules

InterAct – Email automation and
Reportable & Non Reportable Work
Cost and Revenue Rates
Items commands

Timesheet Approvals
Fixed Price Rates

Timesheet Reporting
Reports and Dashboards
Job Role and Related Rates
Time Tracking

Advanced Reports Editor
Stopwatch
Expected and Actual Revenue
Built In, Best Practices Reports
Personal Calendars
Dashboard Filtering
Budgeted and Actual Costs Issue Management Features
Email Reports & Notification

Request Management Excel Reports
Financial Indicators
Bug Tracking Home Page Dashboard

Issue Tracking Change History
Expenses
Risk Analysis Burndown Chart

Idea Management
Multi‐currency

As shown, Clarizen has complete end‐to‐end functionality to manage a project from start to finish. The extent of
features offered within the software allows organizations to track of expenses, manage issues, track resolutions, create
and track milestones and monitor budget dependencies to keep projects on time.

Clarizen’s in‐depth project management functionality can be applied to every phase of a project. The project
management process contains five elements: the initiating, planning, executing process, controlling and the closing
processes.  The spectrum of features contained within the application makes it easy for organizations to execute their
projects.


Organizations with basic project management experience can take advantage of the application as it provides an easy
user interface for organizations that may not be familiar with formalized project management methods.  This framework
instantly establishes a formalized process for organizations to follow once they have defined their deliverables. The
software uses familiar windows paradigms, which should translate to less training and easier user adoption with the
enterprise.

Clarizen software includes pre‐defined project templates that can be used to kick‐start common projects, or
organizations can create their own templates for future use. A convenient feature is the milestone creation template.
For each milestone, a project plan can be created and then incorporated into the overall project. Milestones in Clarizen
are a bit unique, in that they are not just a point in time, but they are actually associated with a number of tasks and
subtasks. As tasks are completed, managers get a visual representation of each milestone, illustrating how close it is to
completion. These milestones can exist separately and can be easily updated by email. Clarizen’s collaborative platforms
allow companies to create and build their projects from the bottom up. A bottom up approach allows project resources
to allot their time to specific tasks and schedule oneself according to project priorities, rather than having a PM define
each individual task and function. The application allows the PM to see all updates, progress, edits and changes to
moving dates and targets through the collaborative project dashboard interface in real time.   For larger organizations
with formalized project management offices (PMO), certified project managers will feel comfortable in a platform that
contains advanced project management functionality including Gantt charts, risk analysis of a project, resource
scheduling and a range of collaboration tools that permit dispersed and disconnected employees and contractors to
communicate throughout the project. The flexibility of calculating and rating project risk is often a function used by
larger organizations as part of their project portfolio strategy.


The project roadmaps feature, coupled with the customizable project dashboard, allow all project stakeholders to see
the status of the project and the completion progress of each task as well as the overall project completion rate. The
dashboards can also be defined to identify potential scheduling and resource conflicts.

Larger organizations can use Clarizen to track their portfolio of projects over their many divisions. Accountabilities are
defined and can be tracked if they go awry by the Project Manager and the necessary adjustments can be made
accordingly.  Project Managers can schedule the amount of time each resource is available for the project and designate
the correct time for that one engagement, while balancing employees’ time across other corporate initiatives.

As many Project Managers know, communication and people management are important skills for successful projects.
Clarizen integrates convenient features such as calendaring, resource scheduling, the ability to email a user or group
directly from Clarizen, , integrated timesheet reporting and approval processes, document sharing, inter project
shortcuts, and request and issue management, all of which facilitate and streamline the collaboration collaborative
elements of a project.

Clarizen allows project managers to track expenses by time and materials, or based on configurable hourly rates, and
easily associate these costs with the appropriate project. Non‐billable hours can also be tracked, so project managers
can get a true picture of the actual time required for a project, and the true cost to the organization. The Clarizen
reports and dashboards are fully customizable by user and offer user‐configurable workflows and approval processes so
that the key stakeholders can be notified of any status project status changes – which occur in real‐time.  The depth of
the dashboards can also track a change history to individual tasks or milestones within the entire lifecycle of the project.


Larger organizations that use Clarizen project management software have found diverse uses for some of the features
within the software. An example of this is bug tracking, which many customers use for internal application
development.  Other organizations use Clarizen to handle issue and resolution management for helpdesk and support
activities.  The capacity to access, metatag, store, retrieve and consume data from one system that can be associated
with a specific project, can greatly simplify customer service and make an organization more efficient.

A differentiator in this category is the project baseline capabilities.  This feature allows you to compare a snapshot of
your initial project plan, and then identify divergence.  It may be measured by tasks, milestones and/or timelines and
compared with the original project plan. If adjustments are necessary, you can drag and drop the object and quickly
readjust the timelines to accommodate delays or unforeseen project hiccups.


Technical Specifications

Quick Glance Specifications

Web browser optimization: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer
OS required: N/A due to SaaS model browser based delivery
DB required:   N/A due to SaaS model browser based delivery
API’s provided:          Yes
Security practices include:   Business continuity, Redundancy

It is not uncommon for an organization to have several technologies for different applications.  For Project Management
software Clarizen is capable of integrating with common Cloud based solutions to simplify an organization’s IT strategy.
Clarizen has developed integrations to Salesforce.com, Intacct, MS Excel, MS Project, Zendesk, GoogleDocs, iCal, MS
Outlook and Lotus Notes. Organizations that already use Microsoft can leverage their existing data through Outlook,
Project and Excel and directly load their data through CSV files directly into the application.

Users can create projects and issues from within Salesforce.com without leaving their CRM application. The Clarizen
Today project window allows users to access and view work items, while a double click opens the Clarizen application
directly to the project. By linking the Salesforce.com account with Clarizen allows organizations to offer real‐time
project status updates when both the CRM and PM applications are combined.  The combination of features available
from both applications can easily satisfy many small and medium business requirements.

The seamless integration between Intacct and Clarizen facilitates a full project‐to‐cash billing cycle. This ensures that all
project related work is properly captured and revenue can be tracked efficiently, which provides a true project cost and
full visibility. Once a Clarizen widget is created from Zendesk, users can automatically create Issues within Clarizen
directly from their Zendesk account.

The GoogleApps integration extends the existing collaborative project management application and adds greater
functionality. The GoogleDocs document management makes it easy to collaborate on projects by using real‐time
updates through Clarizen.  All document types can be searched and shared using the Clarizen global functionality from
within the Google account. This functionality can be administrated down to individual user permissions to edit the
documents for Clarizen project functions.

iCal will provide visibility for work items directly in Outlook or similar calendar.  It offers views of tasks, milestones and
projects and enables individuals and work teams to subscribe to specific calendar feeds and share their calendars for
project resource scheduling.  By following the built‐in wizard, users can link to Outlook to leverage its calendar sharing
capabilities.

The SaaS design of the application allows organizations to get up and running without much set‐up and data
preparation. Thanks to the SaaS architecture, the responsiveness of the application reacts as if it were an on‐premise
system.


Conclusion
Clarizen is one of the few applications designed specifically for a SaaS delivery model.  Many of Clarizen’s competitors
offer hybrid or offline versions that need to be regularly updated or are adopted from offline tools. The SaaS
architecture facilitates consistently fast response times, requires little IT intervention, and ensures users always have the
latest functionality.

The differentiators of Clarizen include:

• Usability: Clarizen has a clean, intuitive graphic interface and common sense approach to project management
that works for experienced PMs as well as the rest of their organizations.
• Flexibility: Clarizen dashboards, reports and business rules are highly customizable, allowing organization to
tailor the system to meet their specific requirements.
• Real‐time visibility: Managers can see what their teams are working on, and have a clear view of a project from
minute to minute. This gives organizations a unique ability to act on real data, making adjustments as needed to
ensure projects come in on time and within budget. ,
• Built‐in collaboration:  Clarizen works the way teams want to work today – leveraging email, chat, attachments,
and other Web 2.0 capabilities that can help organizations get work done more quickly.

One Solution:  Clarizen’s broad functionality might help your organization simplify – consolidating multiple tools into one
environment, at a very competitive price.

WHAT’S MISSING:

We believe Clarizen can continue to invest in third‐party integrations (and the company indicates this is happening) that
will make it even more relevant as an enterprise‐level solution. Though fairly obvious, if your organization is remote and
doesn’t have easy or regular access to the internet, a SaaS‐based solution will not be optimal for you.


About GetApp.com
http://www.getapp.com

GetApp.com is a business software app store for buyers of enterprise applications. It offers a simple way for buyers to compare and evaluate
applications and a low cost channel for providers to be found online. Software buyers come to GetApp.com for the convenience of researching
enterprise applications in one place. Application providers come to GetApp.com to reach out to a worldwide audience of active buyers, receive
qualified traffic to their website and sales leads relevant to their target markets. GetApp.com also operates AppDoubler, a software partner
network dedicated to Cloud applications, where vendors offer affiliate opportunities to re‐selling partners. Please visit www.getapp.com
and www.appdoubler.com for more information.

About Eval‐Source
http://www.eval‐source.com

Eval‐Source is a consulting firm that provides enterprise software selection and strategic consulting services that help organizations to achieve
success in their IT initiatives. Our Tru‐Eval selection system allows organizations to avoid IT failure, receive more ROI in technology spend, reduce
project life‐cycle lengths and provide accurate results in order to make the best decision for their company.   Our strategic consulting practice
encompasses cloud computing services, cloud evaluation services and business process optimization.  Whether you have an existing system that
is not performing up to par or need advice on a cloud computing strategy and technology direction, Eval‐source can provide the necessary guidance
for your IT initiatives.  Our leading‐edge selection and business process optimization services and consulting services make your life easier when it
comes to acquiring enterprise software and achieving greater technological success, realizing ROI and lowering IT failure rates all from impartial
third party analysts.


Clarizen analyst-review-october-2011

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