Project-Open: An Open-source Enterprise Project Management Solution

Project-Open or ]project-open[ is a free open source Enterprise Project Management solution. It's designed and developed by a Frank Bragmann who studied business management and complex project management.

The project has been around for long time and it is widely used by hundreds or enterprises around the world in different sectors.

Project-Open has a lot of features in the form of modules, which give you the ability to customize the system by choosing the modules that you need only, and doesn't force you to install the whole system. You can add modules later as your business grows. It also has a comprehensive online Documentation.

Project-Open is not an ERP, It's an EPM (Enterprise Project Management)

The Difference between ERP (Enterprise Resources Management) and EPM (Enterprise Project Management) may seem shallow for small firms or small department requirement, but it's really big difference for experienced managers in large and medium scale enterprises.

While  RP solutions focus on providing effective tools to manage the company resources which include projects, tasks, time, stocks, and more, EPM (Enterprise Project Management) solutions tend to specialize in managing the project's workflow, and providing several methods and tools to make it suitable with different types of projects.

Our solution here: Project-Open has many features and tools to do so with ease. As an example Project-Open is highly configurable during the setup to give the end-users (Managers & Executives) the right tools for flexible workflow management that fits their projects shape and the right tools to get the things done.

Why enterprises should consider using Project-Open?

Aside from its well developed and presented enterprise features, Project-Open is the best open-source solution for enterprises that offers transparency, consultation, community-powered solution and developers support, here is why we believe it should be considered as top choice for EPM (Enterprise Projects Management)

Key factors:

• Open source
• Cost-effective
• Powerful tools for projects, ideas, tasks, team and workflow management
• Highly customizable
• Enterprise support
• Regularly updated and hot-fixes
• Pre-sale and post sale consultation
• Enterprise-grade security (Security by design)
• Multiple support parties to choose from
• Supports unlimited projects and users
• Rich documentation
• Developer friendly with a powerful REST-API
• Multiple users levels and highly configurable permission manager
• Enterprise support
• Battle-tested with many enterprise environments around the world

Project-Open Features

]project-open[  has a huge list of features ranging from finance management, CRM, Human Resource, and many more. Some of these features are:

• Human Resources Management
• ITSM Bug Tracker
• Gantt Editor
• Mail Import
• Reporting Dashboard
• Risk Management
• Timesheet Management
• CSV, OTRS, and JIRA import
• OpenACS API Browser & Bug Tracker
• Petri-Net Workflow Integration
• Multi-lingual support (Project-Open is translated by its active worldwide community to many languages)

]project-open[ Screenshots

This is the Homepage Screen

The Projects Screen contains Projects List, Projects List Profit & Loss, Milestones List, Programs List, Projects Dashboard, RAG Traffic Light Report, Project Phases & Risks.

New Project Screen gives you the ability to choose the Project type either Classic/Gantt Project, Agile Project (kanban - SCRUM), or Mixed Methodology Project.

Tickets Screen contains New Ticket, Tickets List, and Tickets Dashboard.

Timesheet Screen.

Reporting Screen.

Project-Open Editions

Project-Open has two editions: a community edition that is has all the features working where there is no lock-down or timeout, and an enterprise edition that contain extra features that required by large scale enterprises like:
• Active Directory Sync.
• Single sign-on option
• Audit package which allows every manager to review who edit/ modify anything on the project and track everything. That features is required for finance, legal and medical projects management.

Project-Open for Healthcare Sector

Project-Open has been used by several medical research enterprises around the world, As we (medevel.com) talked with the founder of Project-Open, he stated that there are many medical and healthcare enterprises that use Project-Open and consulted him and his team over the years. We have a list of the companies, which seems to be a big achievement or a victory for such open-source project.

The need for open-source EPM solutions for healthcare sector is growing especially as many project managers start to realize that they require more enterprise and workflow-oriented tools more than static resources/ tasks management tools which we commonly see in other project management solutions and often in ERP solutions.

Consultation and support

Project-Open is provided and managed by Project Open Business Solutions S.L. which is based in Barcelona, Spain and is run under German management. The company offers also Professional, and Enterprise editions with more features than the community edition. It offers training, support, hosting services, and many more.

There are several technical and development partners for Project-Open that provide support, installation, consultation and training services. Which is beneficial for enterprise client as they can find related service providers easy or choose a regional service provider.

Try Project-Open!

We have put a quick post for whom are interested to give Project-Open a try,  you can check it here.

Conclusion

Aside from the classic old-school user-interface for Project-Open ]project-open[ , It works well on tablets, and can be the back-end of a powerful desktop and mobile apps.

Project-Open Community Edition has a lot of flexibility and is more than suitable for small, and medium-sized organizations. If you have larger organization, you may consider the Enterprise Edition, which has more features and modules.

Is is a good choice for software development, healthcare sector, strategic consulting and legal firms. It's also a very good choice for companies that works in multiple sector and/or managers who requires different project management styles.