10 Reasons to Use Asta Powerproject for Managing Construction Projects

Asta Powerproject is an excellent option to Oracle Primavera P6 , P3, Suretrak, Microsoft Project and other project management and scheduling solutions. Asta Powerproject is a flexible, easy-to-use, affordable tool designed to support the workflow of project managers, planners, and schedulers. You can rely on Asta Powerproject to help you manage project deadlines, stay on budget, and utilize your resources more effectively. Asta Powerproject is particularly effective when you need to document events that impact the progress of your project and which could result in liquidated damages or claims/litigation.

This blog explores 10 of the many reasons that you should use Asta Powerproject to successfully manage your projects.

1. Asta Powerproject is very easy to use.

• Use construction-specific templates, which include activity codes, calendars, resources, reports etc. to efficiently setup new projects.
• Use a variety of methods to setup activities including: draw activities on the bar chart, type activities onto the table, copy/paste from Excel, task pools.
• You can perform unlimited “undos” even after a reschedule (you can’t do that in P6!).
• Assign resources, activity codes, calendars etc. easily using “Drag and Drop” (you can’t do this in P6).

2. Produce presentation quality reports.

• You can customize headers, footers, logos, legends etc.
• Focus on important information by including annotations, text, color shading, images, jpg and gif graphics.
• Use “display switches” to focus on selected aspects of the bar chart (ie. float, critical path, non-work time).
• “What you see is what you get” when printing reports.

3. Asta Powerproject facilitates more precise & accurate schedules.

• Create relationships using your preferred method: draw relationships, type directly on the activity table, use activity detail tabs, link multiple tasks automatically. You can easily draw relationships with lag.
• Avoid problems associated with using different calendars. Asta Powerproject always uses the correct calendar when linking activities with different calendars helping you to avoid inaccurate project end dates. The predecessor calendar is used for Start-Start relationships and the successor calendar is used for Finish-Finish links.
• Display total float or free float on your Gantt Chart.

4. Easily share project plans with a FREE Asta Project Viewer. You can use the viewer to view both Microsoft Project and Oracle Primavera files.

5. Asta Powerproject has very cost effective licensing options including concurrent licenses, which allow users to share licenses (ie. 10 user concurrent license could be shared among 30+ users).

6. Collect and update progress easily using a mobile device.

• Use mobile devices to quickly and easily record project progress.
• Update progress at any time, from any location.
• Improve accuracy by eliminating need to re-enter progress collected from paper notes or emails or word of mouth.
• Record actual activity dates as well as percentage of completion.
• Take project photos and record notes pertaining to specific activities.

7. Plan and manage repeated activities on one row of the schedule.

• Overlap repeated activities on the same bar of the Gantt Chart to avoid dozens of different rows when planning repeated activities enabling you to present information in a compact format using a single sheet versus multiple pages. This cannot be accomplished with Primavera P6.
• For home building projects each row can represent a home and the activities denote the different stages of construction for that home. This is particularly effective for the finishing stages of fit-out work or multi-story construction.
• Represent procurement stages for each work package on one row and link to the first construction event, unifying the procurement and construction phases and providing required dates for the design team.
• The image below depicts build stages for a home on one line.

8. Asta Powerproject can easily integrate with other software and allow you to exchange data with people working on different software.

• Easily open files from Primavera P6, P3, SureTrak, Microsoft Project.
• Save Asta Powerproject files into formats that can be opened in the above mentioned systems as well as others.
• Use templates to open files from other formats to give the user a more familiar presentation of their project plans.
• Easily integrate with estimating, accounting, ERP, and BIM tools.

9. Use Asta Powerproject BIM to link project plans to 3D models within a single application.

• Create 4D planning environment by reviewing a 3D model across time, all within one project management application.
• The combined IFC file and schedule interact smoothly and effectively, speeding up the linking process and eliminating the risk of human error.
• You can drag and drop objects between the 3D view and the Gantt Chart.
• Easily compare planned versus actual plans with full 3D visual impact.
• The image below depicts ability to view dynamic schedule updates in 3D window.

Asta Powerproject affords better protection and documentation against litigation resulting from schedule delays.

• Depict and display progress for each update cycle using a different color.
• Create an unlimited number of baselines for comparing the schedule to any previous “snapshot” or baseline version.
• Read this prior blog for details: Display Multiple Progress Periods on the Gantt Chart

Asta Powerproject is utilized by over 80,000 users globally to successfully manage both large and small projects.  Asta Powerproject is a powerful, easy to use and affordable alternative to Oracle Primavera P6, P3, SureTrak and Microsoft Project.

Projects Analytics has over 28 years of experience with Project Controls and Project Portfolio Management. We have successfully helped organizations manage their projects better, cut costs and streamline their practices.

Join us for our Webinar Series entitled “15 Reasons Why You Should Asta Powerproject”.  Click here to register for our webinar on Sept. 1, 2015.