We are researching these three software packages and want any feedback on the reporting capabilities, ease of use, acceptance by project managers and cost to purchase and implement.

Thanks

Stan

We use Viewpoint and are very happy with it.  Our purchase decision was driven by Project Management (PM) functionality.  That is excellent, especially its tight integration between PM with the Job Cost and the Accounting modules.  The next version 6.4 (due out Sept 2011) makes PM even easier to navigate and cross over to related items on a "desktop" without having to exit a screen and enter its related screens - really nicely done - intuitive - much easier to learn and navigate.  Viewpoint's feature of choosing either a traditional screen entry and display versus a grid entry and display is phenomenal.  In grid mode the software acts much like an Excel spreadsheet in its appearance, sorting, filtering, searching, exporting capabilities, etc.  And you can tab back and forth between the 2 different methods seamlessly.  The design also lets the user choose which works best for him, and this might be different from screen to screen.There are a lot of customizing features built-in into Viewpoint that do not result in needing to program custom software, such as unlimited user defined fields and definitions, the ability to control defaulting values, Crystal report modifications, and more.  Thus there is virtually no need to customize the software beyond these built-in tools.  This make applying upgrades and enhancements very easy.We also use HCSS Heavy Bid for Estimating.  Heavy Bid data flows nicely into Viewpoint.  The combination is excellent with excellent integration.HCSS provides the best support in the software industry.  Viewpoint is not as good as HCSS, but Viewpoint support is good.  Critical problems such as a payroll issue are responded to quickly, others marked as non-critical receive callbacks usually within hours.  Viewpoint's consultants are very knowledgeable about the product and the construction industry.  We have used a combination of their consulting services and in-house resources to implement, taking more of a train the (in-house) trainer approach.Viewpoint keeps up with and uses state of the art technologies and techniques in their software.  I like that its database is SQL.  All of their forms and reports are easily modified using Crystal Reports or Word.  Integration with email, MS Office, Adobe, scanning, etc. is excellent.I would highly recommend Viewpoint without reservation. 

If you are looking for a very inexpensive solution Computerease deserves a look.  However, Computerease is not as robust as Viewpoint in many areas.  Computerease Project Management does not come close to Viewpoint.  But if your decision driver is not the Project Management functionality, and you want to go the economy route Computerease may be your ticket.  Viewpoint is not inexpensive; I believe it tends to fall within the mid-range in construction software cost, certainly not nearly as expensive as many others.  We believe it was great bang for the buck and a real value given its functionality.

Stan,

We are a Viewpoint user as well and we are very happy with the system. We went live about a year and a half ago and used VP staff for the implimentation. While it was not cheap it was worth the cost since we did not have the staff to dedicate to doing it ourselves. They were very knowledgable and made it pretty easy on us. VP continues to improve the product and add additional features every year. Just today we learned that Microsoft is dropping support for its Management Reporter software (financial statements) in a few years so VP is releasing their own financial statement software this fall. If you have any specific questions feel free to contact me at brianc@mandsinc.com.

Brian Cresap

Stan, Viewpoint is an excellent package, and I agree with the comment given below regarding Viewpoint's significant advantages, especially when it comes to customizing reports. 

The user interface is very 'friendly" and with good training and strict enforcement of a "no excel" policy, my PMs have quickly learned to apprreciate the power and efficency of a fully-integrated software package.

You do need to buy a third-party software for financial statements, I think VP suggests Microsoft Management Reporter, which is cheap and easy to use.

 Viewpoint's cost was very comparable to Timberline and Dexter & Cheney, which we also looked at.  Implamentation was something we decided to largely do in-house rather than spend a lot of money on Viewpoint's in-house consultants or third-party companies (mostly ex- VP people) which saved us money and forced us to learn the software quickly and at a very fundamental level.

I'd also point out that VP's support department is very good.

Stan,

Review the post that I've linked below.  http://cfma.org/forums/softwarehardware/looking-new-software-all-accounting-and-job-costing-including-aia.  We use Viewpoint, we are on the small end of their user base.  Reporting capabilities are unlimited if you have someone that can learn crystal reports.  They have many out-of-the-box reports, but I've learned crystal on the fly to be able to produce the custom reports we need.  I am very satisfied with the ease of use.  Viewpoint strives to keep up with the current technology, so sometimes the updates have bugs, but I think that the number is acceptable.  I would rather have them focus on moving the software forward than perfecting an outdated system.  They also work hard to fix any bugs and will install temporary patches on affected systems.  Cost to purchase is dependent on the number of licenses.  Our implementation cost was roughly the same as purchase cost.

Another big consideration is the level of support.  I called support, for a operations software package we use, regarding a question yesterday.  I think I was off the phone less than a minute later with the solution.  We also have a estimating software package we use that the support is minimal.  Viewpoint's support is somewhere in-between, overall I've been satisfied with their level of support. 

Kevin