Now rebranded to Kantata, Mavenlink is a venture portfolio administration (PPM) software program constructed for skilled companies organizations. It’s an influence assortment of operational administration, useful resource optimization, enterprise intelligence, integration, and workflow automation functionalities that elevates operational efficiency and optimizes assets. Nevertheless, there are a couple of caveats, akin to steep pricing, a steeper studying curve, and a poor cell app. 

Mavenlink brand logo for Crazy Egg Mavenlink review

Mavenlink In comparison with the Greatest Undertaking Portfolio Administration Software program

Mavenlink is a good selection for PPM software program, however higher options can be found, so we didn’t add the model to our record of the very best venture portfolio administration options. When evaluating choices, we extremely advocate contemplating the next Golden Eggs:

Monday.com is arguably essentially the most versatile and customizable PPM device that permits you to design workflows simply best for you and your workforce. Start a 14-day trial to experience its features

Hive severely simplifies workforce collaboration and coordination by permitting you to tag workforce members, chat, or just connect information to share—all inside a single platform. Get started for free using the 14-day trial.

Asana presents tons of user-friendly options to facilitate workforce productiveness and collaboration. Sign up now to book your 30-day free trial.

Be taught extra about our prime picks, and take a look at our information on the best project portfolio management software.

Mavenlink: The Good and the Unhealthy

Mavenlink presents a number of highly effective options that make it an appropriate selection as a PPM software program, however you additionally want to notice some essential weaknesses. Learn on as we discover each in additional element under.

What Mavenlink Is Good At

Mavenlink’s strengths as a venture portfolio administration software program embrace a set of well-rounded options aimed toward simplifying and enhancing essential venture management-related actions, akin to useful resource administration, enterprise intelligence, workforce collaboration, and accounting. One other benefit is that the corporate additionally presents a number of buyer help choices.

Nicely-Rounded Useful resource Administration: Mavenlink’s useful resource administration will be divided into 4 points: venture estimation, venture planning, venture execution, and venture optimization.

Within the first and second levels, you may draft high-level venture plans utilizing the venture templates and merge obtainable assets with lively initiatives, assigning duties to essentially the most appropriate worker and associate. The execution stage entails monitoring the useful resource schedule and adjusting venture timelines as wanted. 

Lastly, the analyzing and optimizing stage is about figuring out tendencies to precisely forecast useful resource wants. All the useful resource administration course of is designed that can assist you make knowledgeable selections whereas facilitating strategic hiring and promoting. 

Wonderful Crew Collaboration Options: With Mavenlink, workforce members can collaborate from wherever and anytime. Its dashboard retains you recent, displaying the most recent exercise feeds, lined-up duties, and time and utilization monitoring.

Customers even have an outline of workforce chats and work progress, holding them accountable for the work they settle for. The truth that you can too tag related members to a number of threads helps keep away from confusion and promote productiveness. 

A helpful contextualized collaboration function lets you document funds towards expense entries and embrace different crucial info, wish to whom they had been made. To make sure solely individuals related to the venture are concerned, you may set venture permissions, make members admins, and invite exterior friends as wanted.

Sturdy Enterprise Intelligence Capability: Mavenlink has one of the highly effective enterprise intelligence toolkits, supplying you with priceless insights into your group’s funds, initiatives, efficiency, and stories. 

The venture function is especially helpful for changing information into selections. Mavenlink Insights provides you expert-built stories that make it simpler to determine tendencies impacting enterprise outcomes and anticipate firm efficiency. Whilst you can select from the obtainable professional templates, you even have the choice to create your individual reporting template to suit your workforce’s precise wants.

Furthermore, Mavenlink’s enterprise intelligence then merges all information into report dashboards that may be custom-built.

Helpful Accounting Options: One other helpful function of Mavenlink is its capacity to hyperlink workforce bills and invoices to the suitable duties they impression in real-time. 

Timesheets and expense stories allow you to create time entries for all initiatives and expense stories. It’s also possible to use them to trace bills per venture, in addition to filter entries by class, and monitor venture receipts. 

You even have the choice to make and hyperlink invoices with activity initiatives and milestones and set the hourly expense charge and the hourly income charge for work carried out by staff, holding you on prime of venture income and margins.

Immediate and Environment friendly Buyer Service: Mavenlink presents a variety of buyer help choices, from one-on-one calls to self-help video tutorials. 

There’s a 24-hour dwell chat choice and the flexibility to submit help tickets from Mavenlink’s help portal to obtain steering by way of e mail. Mavenlink additionally presents in-software help, with hyperlinks to the Assist Heart, the Changelog, and the Weblog inside your dashboard.

Notice that Mavenlink additionally has its personal Coaching Heart, the place you’ll find paid on-line programs instructing you how you can finest use the venture portfolio administration software program and study key venture administration fundamentals.

The place Mavenlink Is Missing

Contemplating Mavenlink’s steep paid plans, the truth that the device isn’t very intuitive and user-friendly can sting a bit. Be ready to cope with performance points, an outdated person interface, and unforgiving Gantt charts. Imprecise pricing and a restricted app are different disappointing options.

Advanced and Buggy Performance: Consumer-friendliness is crucial for any venture portfolio administration software program. Sadly, Mavenlink is stricken by a couple of performance points, which is an enormous cause the device didn’t make it on our prime suggestions record. 

For starters, the person interface is gradual and clunky and doesn’t present an important visible view. It is a big drawback, as its rivals, like Monday.com and Asana, have a few of the most tasty person interfaces and dashboards.

Then there’s additionally the tendency of bugs and crashes. One person reported the person interface considerably slows down after they increase 30-50 duties. 

Whereas the superior options are a bonus, they’ve a number of associated complexities that require workforce members to place in effort and time to grasp how you can use the software program to its full potential. This implies it’s a must to put together your workforce for the steep studying curve.

Lack of Pricing Transparency: Mavenlink hasn’t revealed pricing info on its web site, so you could take a couple of additional steps to find out its pricing and subscription plans. 

This entails getting into your small business particulars and sharing contact info. Mavenlink executives will then ship you a {custom} quote primarily based in your solutions. Whereas there’s nothing incorrect with this strategy, you can not make a fast or easy pricing/function comparability between Mavenlink and different main venture portfolio administration instruments.

Rigid Gantt Charts: Gantt charts are helpful for monitoring the quantity of labor carried out inside a selected timeframe or milestone, making them a helpful device to visualise venture progress and timeline. 

Whereas we like how one can drag and drop duties onto a timeline and create activity dependencies, the charts nonetheless want numerous work. You can not “undo” adjustments, because it’s web-based, plus they load slowly for bigger venture plans. Gantt charts additionally don’t work on the cell app.

Restricted Cellular App: Mavenlink presents customers an HTML5 cell app, however its functionalities are severely restricted in comparison with the software program‘s desktop model. You may solely do the fundamentals, akin to creating initiatives, enhancing activity particulars, and setting deadlines.

Mavenlink Choices and Pricing

Mavenlink presents a variety of specialised options designed to simplify venture portfolio administration. A few of these embrace:

Useful resource Administration

Mavenlink presents superior useful resource administration capabilities to offer you a clearer perspective for each venture. 

It enables you to handle all information from a centralized place, serving to maximize shopper outcomes, enabling real-time responsiveness, and growing forecast accuracy. Mavenlink additionally gives optimized useful resource suggestions, permitting you to fulfill demand and provide change extra successfully.

Example of Mavenlink resource management dashboard

Lastly, top-notch analytics show you how to consider a number of initiatives concurrently and determine best-fit matches for smarter staffing.

Monetary Administration 

Mavenlink‘s subsequent providing is a monetary administration software program device that will increase accuracy and boosts profitability.

Example of Mavenlink financial management dashboard showing margin countdown

Use the software program to get real-time visibility into the present forecast and income recognition and develop lifelike budgets and achievable margins. It’s also possible to monitor time, bills, and prices throughout initiatives and outline project-based time and expense parameters to regulate errors and rejections.

Undertaking Administration

Utilizing Mavenlink’s venture administration resolution, you may guarantee your initiatives keep on schedule, on funds, and on monitor.

Example of Mavenlink project management dashboard showing project by status

Verify activity or deliverable standing, and achieve real-time insights utilizing Gantt charts. It’s also possible to automate guide processes and leverage reusable templates and workflows to work smarter and save money and time.

Integrations with best-in-class apps additional assist empower your workforce whereas extending the worth of your present tech stack.

Mavenlink in Abstract

Mavenlink (now Kantata) is a well-featured venture portfolio administration resolution that gives top-notch useful resource administration, workforce collaboration, and enterprise intelligence functionalities—all packed into one scalable skilled companies automation software program. Nevertheless, it nonetheless has sure disadvantages within the type of an advanced and gradual device that make different choices preferable. As an illustration, you’ll discover our Golden Eggs, Monday.com, Hive, and Asana, work significantly better whereas providing comparable function units that makes workflows extra fluid.


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