Announcing the Release of SharePoint Project Management Central – A Comprehensive Solution for Project Management with SharePoint

UPDATE (11.12.2009): SharePoint Project Management Central R1.5 is now available, featuring resource management, MS Office Project integration and more.  Full details on the latest release are available on our storefront.

Last month we provided you with a sneak preview of SharePoint Project Management Central™, a major new product release here at Bamboo.  Every team across Bamboo has been hard at work putting the finishing touches on version 1.0 of "PM Central", and today we are proud to announce the official launch of this important new product.

PM Central™ is truly unlike anything you have seen from Bamboo before.  Over the past few years we have largely focused our efforts on building Web Parts for SharePoint.  Our primary mission has been to deliver discreet units of functionality that either fill critical feature gaps or extend the "out-of-the-box" capabilities of the SharePoint platform.  With these products, we've enabled customers to enhance their SharePoint deployments and deliver against key functional requirements.  With PM Central, we've taken a giant leap forward, integrating all of these units of functionality in a complete application, a turnkey solution for project management.  PM Central is the first in a new line of full featured applications from Bamboo, all built on SharePoint.

As we set about building a solution for project management, we started with a philosophy and a set of principles rooted in years of experience providing supporting technologies to organizations using SharePoint for project management.  We also looked closely at our own internal use of SharePoint for project management, borrowing liberally from the sites and systems we use to manage our own projects.  Based on this experience, we built PM Central with emphasis on the following values:

• Simplicity & Ease of Use - We recognize that project management is a distributed function in most organizations. Although we have included the robust task management and scheduling capabilities that a certified PMP would expect and demand, we committed ourselves to deploying these features in a manner that would be friendly and intuitive to virtually anyone.



•  Affordability - Current economic realities aside, we felt passionately that many existing project management solutions are simply too expensive. We wanted to create a product that put high-end functionality within the reach of almost any organization, large or small. In this spirit, there are no per user fees for PM Central. Furthermore, the application has been developed to provide the same level of functionality with Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) as with Microsoft Office SharePoint Services (MOSS). Additionally, for a limited time, PM Central is available at a discounted introductory price.  Please refer to the PM Central Product Information Page or contact the Bamboo Sales team via e-mail or toll free at (877)226-2662 for details on pricing.

•  Flexibility & Extensibility - Although there are many commonalities, we have observed that almost every organization brings a unique approach to project management. Whether teams are using an agile methodology like SCRUM or a more traditional approach to project management, PM Central can be easily adapted to fit the preferred work style of your organization. PM Central offers a wide range of settings and configuration options to make customization simple. Branding and design may also be applied to fully personalize PM Central and make this application look like just another feature of your SharePoint portal. There are no limits to the advanced customizations that are possible. Additionally, every component of PM Central may be used across your SharePoint environment to provide unprecedented extensibility.



• Automated Communications - One of the perennial challenges faced by project managers is the enormous amount of communication required to keep projects on track. In addition to team updates regarding deliverables and dependencies, project managers are frequently responsible for providing regular updates to management and project stakeholders. PM Central's real-time dashboard provides an automated display of the health, status and risk of all projects, eliminating much of the need for redundant status reports. PM Central also includes Bamboo's Alert Plus, providing greatly enhanced capabilities over SharePoint's "out-of-the-box" alerts, facilitating improved team communications.

With today's release, PM Central is now available for purchase at a discounted introductory price.  You may also download PM Central for a free 30-day evaluation.

The PM Central application will now become the centerpiece of Bamboo's Project Management Suite.  Existing subscribers to the Project Management Suite or the Bamboo Ultimate Suite will receive PM Central automatically at no additional cost.  Notifications of this new addition to our suites have already been sent via e-mail.  If you have questions about this upgrade, please contact the Bamboo Sales team by e-mail or toll-free at (877)226-2662.

We have assembled quite a few additional exhibits to help you learn more about PM Central.  Please see the following references for more details about features, pricing and availability:

• Video Overview: Introducing SharePoint Project Management Central
• Product Specifications: SharePoint Project Management Central
• Webinar Registration: Sign Up for a Live Demo of PM Central
• Online Documentation: Find answers to your questions in our Application Notes
• Forums:  Post a Question About PM Central