News this week includes product updates from Kantata and Scoro. There is a new partnership for Crossconcept with Nessis. Smartsheet unveils some positive results, and the analysts take note. It also named a new chairman of the board. Klient revealed a list of the best PSA solutions on the Salesforce App Exchange. We have added the remaining available solutions to the list. Wrike reveals how Electrolux is using its solution. Planview also issued a huge piece of research about the emergence of Product focused organisations from project-focused ones. The research roundup will cover the Project to the Product State of Industry Report.
CrossConcept
Crossconcept has announced a partnership with Canadian-based Nessis. The Crossconcept PSA/PPM solution will be added to the Nessis MES suite of solutions that already include:
- Nessis VWI – Nessis core application combines workflow, visual training & BOM’s into custom business interfaces
- Nessis allTrac – Mobile task/request, workload management and support system
- Nessis RSM – High-end business regulatory management software. Standards control, quotations
Walter Perdigao, Co-Founder & VP of Services, CrossConcept, Inc, commented, “We are thrilled to share the exciting news of our partnership with Nessis, a highly respected firm in the industry. At CrossConcept, we take pride in our ability to assist clients across Canada, the US, South America, and the UK in reducing costs and improving margins. Collaborating with Nessis to deliver an innovative PSA/PPM solution to their already impressive suite of offerings is an excellent opportunity to extend our reach and assist clients in streamlining their project delivery. We look forward to working together and providing exceptional value to our clients through this exciting new partnership.”
Kantata
The new Kantata Community has replaced MavenExchange. It is available from the Support drop-down menu and is open to all Kantata OX (Mavenlink users). The free resource enables peer networking and sharing questions and answers. This is another step towards one Kantata from the historical Mavenlink and Kimble branding.
The latest update of Kantata OX includes the general availability of Task Tracker. It is now possible to use drag and drop to amend the hierarchy of tasks with a new indent and outdent option on the task action menu.
Kantata has provided early-release access to a new Resourcing Tab within the Project Workspace. The new design matches that of the Resource Centre and adds new functionality.
Within Timesheets, visual cues have improved; when time is unavailable, the time is shaded.
There are several improvements for administrators. The user settings for Insights allow additional customisations for number format, data format and how the left navigation menu works. The update includes the ability to add favourites to the dynamic dashboard.
Recent History and Project History are now enabled for all Enterprise and Premier accounts. Account Administrators and Project Administrators can review the last 7 days of activity made across their accounts or in their projects and see detailed information about what changed, when, and who changed it. Additionally, the Subscribed Events API is now available for all accounts. Administrators can colour code projects. Project colours can be renamed to represent project types, phases, clients, or anything you desire. The default is the colour itself. Finally, additional permissions are available for Access Groups in the Resource Management set.
Klient
Klient published a blog that lists what it views as the best PSA Software on Salesforce. The list includes:
- Klient
- Mission Control
- Replicon (which is not native to Salesforce and is called Polaris)
- FinancialForce
- Kantata, both Kantata SX (formerly Kimble Applications and native to Salesforce and Kantata OX, formerly Mavenlink and not native to Salesforce)
The solutions that Klient omitted from its top five include (in alphabetical order):
- Arrow PSA
- Cloud Coach Enterprise
- Inspire Planner (more PPM than PSA)
- Precursive PSA
- Projector PSA (not native)
Not all of the data within the blog is up to date, as it is extracted from the Appexchange. For example, Kantata (in this blog for OX and in January for OX) and Mission Control had more recent updates than in 2021.
Scoro
Scoro announced the new features now available. They include:
- Help Station serves as a dynamic one-stop shop for all support materials. It gathers knowledge-packed tours, videos and articles that teach you how to get the most value out of Scoro.
- A new project profit column within the project lists enables users to see the profitability against estimates as the Project progresses. Users can also summarize this view by the client and see profitability by the client.
- Users can see time entries in planned order when they hover over the task summary in the calendar view.
- If you change fields in recurring events, only the field is updated in each related event, not the whole event.
In the future, Scoro plans to roll out advanced triggers and actions and a full quote-to-cash flow with role prices.
Smartsheet
Smartsheet posted its Q4 and full fiscal year 2023 results. Fourth quarter total revenue grew 35% year over year to $212.3 million. FY 2023, revenues grew 39% to $766.9 million. The non-GAAP operating loss was $36.0 million, or 5% of total revenue, compared to a lose of $34.2 million, or 6% of total revenue, in fiscal 2022. It achieved a dollar-based net retention rate of 125%. The customers with ACV of $5,000 or more, grew to 18,093, an increase of 19% year over year.
Mark Mader, President and CEO of Smartsheet, commented, “Our Q4 results cap off a strong fiscal year in which we achieved the major milestone of positive free cash flow. Our largest customers continue to expand at a faster rate than our overall net dollar retention rate, a sign of the rapid return on investment they’re realizing from Smartsheet’s enterprise platform. Our strength in enterprise coupled with our proven business model, position us well to drive durable growth in the years ahead. We’re primed to seize this opportunity and remain the leader in collaborative work management, enabling customers to drive meaningful change in FY24 and beyond.”
The results defied expectations, and the share price jumped from $37.74 on March 14th to close at $46.40 at the end of the week.
Smartsheet has appointed Smartsheet Director Mike Gregoire as board chair. Effective March 9, 2023, Gregoire succeeds Geoffrey Barker, who has served as board chair since 2017 and will remain a board member.
Mark Mader, SmartSheet CEO, commented, “Mike has been a valuable member of the Smartsheet board since late 2019. His expertise in operating technology companies at scale aligns very well with our next phase of growth. In sharing experiences ranging from distribution and corporate development to customer enablement and governance, Mike has helped us develop better strategies and stronger outcomes for Smartsheet stakeholders. I look forward to working even more closely with Mike as our new board chair.
“We appreciate and thank Geoffrey for his leadership as Smartsheet board chair. His commitment to governance and execution during the company’s transition from private to public entity, and in the years that followed, strengthened our ability to deliver value to customers and shareholders.”
Wrike
Wrike revealed how Electrolux, a global appliance company based in Sweden, has chosen Wrike to increase transparency across complex projects, create a single source of truth for assets, and automate workflows that drive project progress within their packaging design department. The implementation has enabled significant improvements to their creative design process, freeing them up from emails by 50%, decreasing time spent per Project by 30%, and allowing them to create up to 10 times more assets per Project.
Ella Rudebeck, Global Packaging Manager, Electrolux, commented, “It was really hard to keep track of all the changes,” says “Team members had to look through different email chains, and, if a meeting was missed, it was difficult to understand where a decision was made. We just felt the whole process was very ineffective. We wanted to have something that was more transparent, more efficient.”
Esther Flammer, CMO of Wrike, commented, “Marketing organizations of all sizes are feeling the pressure to do more with less, and design teams are no exception,” says. “Electrolux provides a strong example of how the right software can empower the creative process and give designers back more time to focus on impactful work. By streamlining tedious, manual tasks and automating lengthy approval processes, teams have more time to think creatively about new projects and can collaborate more effectively across departments.”
PSA PPM and Work Management news from the week beginning 6th March 2023
