 | Aug 28 2009 |
PRLAB Why is this program $149 when it's a Beta? And how many Betas do this mob put out. Fair dinkum. Who would buy this stuff if it's not ready, which obviously it isn't?
(Version 1.6.3) | |
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 | Dec 15 2008 |
MARUKO DRINKING TEAM I love Omni. Wanted to love this, but don't. Even using the 1-day demo, I experienced myriad problems: 3 crashes, insane difficulties (and ultimately failure) to print sections of the Gantt chart without ugly flaws, one corrupted project file (probably a result of one of the crashes), and many nonfatal UI freakouts and bogosities. Also, there is a glaring design flaw: resources (people, rooms, equipment) cannot be shared among projects. This means that you either have to only use one project file (very unwieldy if you actually have a dozen real-life projects going on), or you have to guesstimate the availability of each person or resource as some smaller percentage for each project, an then hope it works out (which it does not, at all). I really hope Omni gets this in shape someday. But they have not yet, and it feels more like a pre-1.0 beta than a shipping product, when you try to actually use it to plan projects in a real business.
(Version 1.6.1) | |
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Replies:
| Dec 16 2008 |
ESPIRIDION It's interesting that you mentioned the resources issue. Back in December of 2006 I wrote that the application "has some limitations, such as sharing/managing multiple resources across various projects simultaneously." I guess that 2 years later they still have not added that functionality. I would not be surprised if that is added for version 2, along with a plethora of other requests from users, and with a significant upgrade fee.
(Version 1.6.1) | |
| Dec 12 2008 |
ESPIRIDION Two years ago I wrote some comments about OmniPlan. In two years, OmniPlan has certainly gone through various improvements. A quick guesstimate is that they've been mostly fixes, and eventually 1.5 did bring some new features: http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniplan/releasenotes/ I have a lot of respect for AMBERV, and highly recommend reading her comments below. To me they make more sense than comments such as "OmniPlan is the best PM solution for Mac" or "This program is a friggin masterpiece." Fortunately for Omni, there are people who will pay $150 for OmniPlan. I would not be surprised if version 2 comes out in 2009 with a new price and an upgrade fee for current users. I'm pretty sure that version 2 is going to be a huge improvement over version 1, which is the one I'm rating (1.6.1). My overall impressions of OmniPlan have not changed. For simple projects OmniPlan may be more than sufficient. Having said this, I've never chosen OmniPlan for any of my projects. It's evident that Omni's strength resides in superb visual design and ease of use, but for this first version Omni lacked the focus of a true Project Management company. Merlin 2 and FastTrack Schedule show a different level of maturity in that regard. (These are 2 programs that I've used more frequently, but there are at least a dozen other Project Management programs for the Mac.) It's nice to see a pretty interface, but for my needs that's not enough. Compared to other "Project Management" software I have, I would choose OmniPlan over Jumsoft's Operation, but in 2 years I have not chosen it over Merlin 2 or FastTrack Schedule. These 2 programs are more expensive than OmniPlan, and to me they've been worth it. My Omni licenses include: Out of these, now I only use OmniGraffle Pro (4) from time to time and have no plans of upgrading their software anymore. To their credit, Omni has some amazing people offering customer support. Like AMBERV, "I used to recommend them [OMNI] to everyone...Lately, I never recommend, and I haven't bought a license in years."
(Version 1.6.1) | |
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| May 9 2008 |
&&&&&&&&&&&&& how the feck did this get to version 1,5,1 already? about a fortnight ago it was still in beta. jeez! developers release new versions of their software more often than they change their underpants these days. whatever happened to taking a bit of time to bug-check before you let it out the door? that way you don't need a new release every ten minutes.
(Version 1.5.1) | |
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| Apr 11 2008 |
VINODLIVE Price is the major deterrent. Hoping for it to come down. Till then I will be contented with LiquidPlanner online.
(Version 1.5.1 rc 2) | |
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| Sep 22 2007 |
PUFFINZ As an integrated scheduler at a major Aerospace program, I found some features lacking in this product. How do you insert columns to see Start and Finish dates? How do you insert customized filters and sorts? How can float analysis be conducted in this tool? Is there a total slack/float column? Also, I have to work with my "PC" friends and need something that exports to MS Project in a workable fashion. I was working with a client in Canada and using the beta version. I was working with Concept Pro's Project, but had some problems exporting into MS Project. WHen I exported the file as an MS Project XML file, MS Project could not read the file. When I exported the file as an MPX file, then all the tasks were not set up as "as early as possible" or "early dates". Thus, changing the lags on the predessessor or successor didn't move the start and finish dates. OmniPlan needs to workout this export function. Also, I work with projects that are 1000s of tasks lines long, the predessessor for a particular task could be several hundered lines above...the OmniPlan program doesn't appear to let you enter in an activity ID or a line number as a predessessor or successor.
(Version 1.1.2) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Nov 1 2007 |
D9 You would be well served to try Merlin. It is much more robust than OmniPlan and has a very good track record with MS Project exchanges. OmniPlan seems to fit into that low level, single project type users. Still, I wouldn't put it pass OmniGroup to make this a very strong tool by the 2nd or 3rd version; OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner are testament to that. | |
| May 31 2007 |
DRTYRELL969 This program is a friggin masterpiece. I remember the days when Windows users would stare over my shoulder at BBEdit and cry. It's not that they have stopped, but OMNIPLAN is a solid successor to this punishing OSX realization. I highly recommend this product. I've been using in production strength projects ever since I started the Demo. I proudly licensed it and will upgrade forever.
(Version 1.1.1 beta 1) | |
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| Apr 30 2007 |
After years of "futzing" with Microsoft Project and countless attempts at trying to use other Mac-only project planning software, here is finally something that works and works well. I just went through the built in help step by step while working on my first project. It wasn't long before I'd abandoned it and was well on my way with more complex things. I think I'll finally get back in control of my projects! Thanks Omni! ical, website export, tasklist integration is great! Maybe a kind person at Omni would consider adding Basecamp support for tasks and milestones someday. That would be thuper!
(Version 1.1) | |
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| Dec 13 2006 |
ESPIRIDION Without doing a thorough comparison since I dont have the time, I briefly tried this new version and like it better than the beta. Is it the best as stated below? That will depend on your particular needs. After trying to import 2 files I had, Merlin 2 would not import one and OmniPlan would not import the other. I then downloaded 2 Microsoft Project files from the web, and imported them using FastTrack Schedule 9, Merlin 2, and OmniPlan. All programs imported the files quickly and FastTrack was always the fastest. Times were approximately 8 seconds for Merlin and OmniPlan, and 3 or 4 seconds for FastTrack. FastTrack also opened a dialog box in case the user wanted more information regarding the import process. Visually the only display I did not like was OmniPlans. This was a surprise since Im a huge fan of OMNI and have Graffle Pro, Outliner Pro, and Web. OmniPlan Indicated certain violations after each import. A suggested solution was to change the scheduling for this task to As Early As Possible Looking at the problematic tasks in the other programs yielded no warning messages, and their inspectors showed that they already had the attributes set for As soon as possible. Since demos are available for these programs I would suggest the people try them for themselves. Another nice alternative that I didnt use here is iTaskX, which also has a beautiful, intuitive interface and is the cheapest of the bunch at $86 approximately. For simple projects OmniPlan may be more than sufficient. For more complex projects I would probably choose an alternative product. OmniPlanStill apparently has some limitations, such as sharing/managing multiple resources across various projects simultaneously. I did not test this, but some information may be found at the OMNI forums. I hope this helps.
(Version 1.0) | |
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| Dec 13 2006 |
MMEIKSON OmniPlan is the best PM solution for Mac. Having tried a lot of the other software, I can say this is the best balance of features and simplicity. The UI is great and the output is really nice, which helps with sharing. At $150, it's totally standard in the category. Nice work, Omni.
(Version 1.0) | |
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| Dec 13 2006 |
ESPIRIDION Im not a projects leader, but this type of software already exists for the Mac in different versions and price ranges. Ive used iTaskX, FastTrack Schedule, Merlin, and OmniPlan while in beta. Although Im a huge fan of OMNI and their products, OmniPlan has been my least favorite software of its kind. (Disclaimer: I have not tried version 1, but the previous beta). I do find it odd that 5-star reviews have appeared both here and at VersionTracker, and the reviews come from first-time posters. I will give this version a try out of curiosity, although Im very happy that I purchased Merlin 2.
(Version 1.0) | |
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| Dec 13 2006 |
SAXON As a projects leader, I was expecting this software for a long time. And I can say that it's really a great one, easier than Microsoft project, and compatible with it (and not so expensive). Plannification is really easy with Omniplan, and the interface is great, like every other omnigroup's software. A VERY good solution gantt on a mac. | |
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| Jul 28 2006 |
HENRIKTEKNIK What are the collaboration abilities of OmniPlan? I'm curious to know if there are any means of syncing (as in 2-way management of) a mutual project, with co-workers spread across the globe.
(Version 1.0b4) | |
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| Jul 28 2006 |
CHRIS REED Upon downloading this appeared to me to be a significant development of OmniOutliner by enabling projects planned through outlining, with tasks and actions etc, to become assignable to a calendar and turn a list into a plan. This is just what I needed. 'Project Management Made Painless' sounded great. Upon use however, my lack of knowledge of project planning with Gantt charts and terms like 'completion percentages', 'resource levelling' and 'baseline scheduling' suggested to me it is not really 'project management made painless'. Omniplan presented a steep learning curve for me. I found it not as flexible, intuitive and capable of visually organising information as Omnioutliner. It tended to want me to do plan projects the way the app wanted. For example, if i moved a task from one date to another it automagically changed the time allocated. It can only manage my project according to certain time constraints. These seem suited to a standard business model. I was half expecting a talking paperclip to appear. Maybe it could do what i wanted but the 'mini-manual' did not help me much and seemed more like a 15 page feature promoting commercial. It also crashed/froze several times and lost my edits. Sadly it lost my interest too. Nice app with many features, but for me, as a sole trader and freelance arts and media worker with irregular hours and lots of irons in fires, surely the target market for mac, I was disappointed. This app will be of more use to a small company with a small number of employees and an office or workshop and regular work patterns. I think the price reflects this. A mac app in a suit !
(Version 1.0b4) | |
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| Dec 13 2006 |
FRANK44 So Chris, you admit you don't know much about project planning, but bravely rate the software anyhow. How can you rate software when you have very little idea of what it's designed to do? Did it occur to you that the 2.5 rating you gave OmniPlan could better be applied to your intelligence?
(Version 1.0) | |
| Jul 27 2006 |
ARCHMISSION I find everyones arguement concerning price a little disheartening. Amazon Price for MS Project is "Used from $175", new $509.99, List $599.99. AEC Fast Track Schedule 9, New $349, upgrade, $149. Merlin New $185 (w/ exchange rate). I own a copy of AEC and was going to upgrade, but I always did not like the interface and the graphics were not any better than MS Project. With Omniplan coming out with this software, I am willing to pay the cost of my upgrade and even look at buying a bundle if they do that with Omni Outliner and Omni Grapple. The first thing I tried when downloading this was taking a semi-complicated MS Project File and open it. Not one problem opening it and saving it. Good Work Omni and I understand that it is a Beta.
(Version 1.0 beta 3) | |
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| Jul 27 2006 |
D9 I can initially understand the price criticism of early posts but when you look at the entire picture, I think you'll see OmniPlan is quite reasonably priced. Sure, Microsoft has more overhead and thus charges more, but that certainly seems like no reason to pay more. In contrast, it would then reason to say that OmniGroup has to use more development hours to produce OmniPlan because of the fewer resources; for me, that's a more justifiable reason to pay. Still, in the end, it's about how much you need and how much you can pay for a project mgt. solution. If you look at other Mac alternatives, such as FastTrack, ConceptDraw Project or Merlin, you see them priced in the same range, if not more. Those budget-conscience solutions like iTaskX, xTime or the precursor to OmniPlan, PMX are all good but limited alternatives in case of features and compatibility. Of course, you could always get Parallels and install of copy of Microsoft Project if you really needed that kind of solution. I find OmniPlan, initially, to be a fine project mgt. solution. It's interface is the common excellent OmniGroup GUI and the features taken from PMX offer many needed features such as resource leveling and automated scheduling. That said, it's *definitely* a beta. It has stability issues as well as import/export/save problems. But the framework is there for a great piece of Mac software and I think the price is on target.
(Version 1.0 beta 2) | |
| [ 2 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Jul 27 2006 |
AMBERV I think you would be surprised at just how inefficient Microsoft is. I have read quite a bit about their development process, based on ex-employees from developer to vice president in ranking, and they have so much red tape that it takes ages to do the most simple of tasks. Many things that should be done to be more efficient, never do get done for fear of upsetting the status quo. This is part of what I was factoring in to the price of development for a Microsoft product. I'm not sure it would be fair to say that a small company cannot work as fast as MS. It would not surprise me at all if a 50 developer team at MS took as long to code OmniPlan as the few Omni has. Paying 50 people (and paying them rather well, it should be remembered), for the same duration is going to make a more expensive product. Secondly, the "everyone else is doing it" argument is kind of tired. This statement only becomes relevant when the degree of program complexity becomes such that cheap development on a reasonable time-scale becomes impossible. High-end video editing software, for instance, is incredibly complicated. As a result, there are no (good) open-source equivalents, and pretty much every decent non-linear editor out there costs more than a computer. Another example is highly specialised software. Programs which keep track of the seating reservations on commercial airplanes, for instance. OmniPlan is nothing out of the ordinary. Project planning is a nearly universal need. The basic implementation and concept are fairly simple -- this isn't arctic weather system modelling or high-end speech recognition. R&D is thus very low, the need for a team of doctorate level scientists is non-existent, it could be sold to tens of thousands, not 15 institutions. Granted, it is not priced in that league, but it is priced far and above what it needs to be. They are going to find themselves running into the Ulysses barrier with their products, I think. Everyone will want them, but few will be able to justify the cost. It is a pity, as I state before. They make some of the best stuff out there for certain applications, but that in itself does not justify price bloat unless you are just a greedy capitalist. When I heard they might be working on a GTD implementation, I was pretty excited, but this release has brought me back down to earth. I'll be shocked if they charge any less than $40 for it, and less surprised at anything less than $50.
(Version 1.0 beta 3) | |
| Jul 28 2006 |
D9 Well, I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in between. I cannot doubt that there is extraordinary inefficiencies at Microsoft, but make no mistake 50 developers can nonetheless code much faster than 5 on sheer logistics. It's fallacy to think otherwise. I, too, have worked 10+ years in development shops of 10-25 developers. In the end, there are so many other cost factors such as marketing, licensing, support, legal, etc. that any large-scale software solution requires. Sure, a small one-man development has little overhead, but so does the expected sales goals. For a firm like OmniGroup, the target numbers are much greater and thus so the capital resources required. I doubt anyone on these boards can properly and accurately state what OmniGroup's costs are so it's a bit of a dead-end argument (definitely one I will not pursue beyond this post). In the end, it's as I stated, it all depends on what you need and can afford for a Mac project mgt solution. I *really* think OmniPlan will fit in that "sweet spot" of price/performance, much like their other excellent products, OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner.
(Version 1.0b4) | |
| Jul 27 2006 |
AMBERV Omni used to be pretty neat when they made powerful software for affordable prices. A clean, simple outliner for the price of a CD. A clean, simple diagram designer for the price of a DVD. I guess it all went to their head, though. They've started charging ludicrious prices. The prices creep up every year it seems, and with hardly any basis in reality. It reminds me a lot of Second Life, where designers will just slap some arbitrary price tag on their product. There is no cost of fabrication, no supply concerns, no inventory. A sale is simply a small change in a database somewhere. Accordingly, some designers charge a few bucks (in equivalent), where others get their ego involved and charge ten or twenty dollars for a pseudo dress in a pseudo world. Now, I know the software world is different. They have mouths to feed, and servers to run. There are costs. But it seems a little "off" to me, in basis with what much surely be reality. Unless they moved into some swank, expensive San Fran office and hired a few extra employees, why the massive boost in sales price? Anyway, I'm not really reviewing this product, which is why I have not tagged this as a review. It is just a comment on Omni, and what I feel is a sad trend in the company. I used to recommend them to everyone, and hold licenses to everything they made. Lately, I never recommend, and I haven't bought a license in years. When you get down to it. $150 is something Microsoft would charge for this. I have a hard time believing that Omni's operating expenses are even remotely in the same league as a software division at Microsoft. And you know that Microsoft is jacking up prices to make a profit -- what does that tell you about a small operation with a fraction of Microsoft's overhead?
(Version 1.0 beta 2) | |
| [ 4 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
 | Jul 27 2006 |
KEN AT OMNI I understand that you feel the product costs more than you would want to pay, but I'm a bit puzzled by your assertion that $150 is what Microsoft would charge--when, actually, Microsoft charges $599 (four times as much) for Microsoft Project Standard, and $999 for Microsoft Project Professional.
(Version 1.0 beta 3) | |
| Jul 27 2006 |
AMBERV I hadn't mean to imply that they were price equivalent. I am talking more of price ranges and how they effect the type of people who can afford them. For the non-business user who would need something along the lines of MS Standard, $150 would be too expensive to justify the cost, and thus anything higher than that is also too expensive, and just how much more expensive becomes irrelevant if you cannot afford the entire range. Whether Photoshop were $250 or $700 does not really matter to the hobbiest photography who wants to do a little re-touching. Both are prohibitively priced for someone who does not make money using it. Does that make more sense? Apps that are generally targeted at businesses are jacked up because businesses will pay that price -- when there are individuals out there who could actually use these feature-sets, but never justify paying what a business would pay to use it. It would be nice if you had "personal" license or something that was priced more like your non-"pro" products.
(Version 1.0 beta 3) | |
| Jul 27 2006 |
KEN AT OMNI Thanks for your reply, I think I understand where you're coming from. I'll try to explain our perspective on this a little better: We're trying to build a very easy-to-use and affordable solution for project management professionals who are scheduling large projects which involve scheduling lots of tasks across a number of people and tools. This is a very complicated task, and the tools which do this well tend to cost a lot of money and be difficult to use. My hope is that we've built something which is much easier to use as well as costing much less. Are you really in the market for something which manages large projects, using Gantt charts to schedule tasks optimally across multiple staff members, each of which have their own work schedule? If what you're really looking for is a personal productivity tool which will help you manage your own workload, then I think you'll be much happier with the next product in our pipeline (and its pricing!). In any case, thanks again for your reply, and for taking the time to consider our application (even if it doesn't really meet your needs).
(Version 1.0b4) | |
| Aug 1 2006 |
AMBERV While I am only one person, I have dozens of projects which range from complex to insanely complex. Tracking them from the ground up has always been a nightmare for me, where most of the project has to be contained somewhere in my brain due to lacking good software for tracking it. I understand that while many of these apps are targetting at the types of things you listed, that does not mean they can be abused into a system completely orthogonal to what they are meant to do. It might seem a little weird to do things that way, but when your alternative is to just track it in your brain, or force your concepts into an unreasonably restrictive software package, it gets tough. So something like this with more variables and data-types coming in at different data vectors -- I can see a lot of room for implementation. Anyway. I've heard rumours of your next project! Indeed I do wait anxiously for it. I already have a fairly powerful system built using Tinderbox, so that is what I will be comparing your software against once it debuts. Given Omni's belief in AppleScript, I have no doubt that while yours may not be as "flexible" as Tinderbox, it will certainly be extensible, which is important in the area of project tracking, where each person has individual needs. Thanks for the response. I understand where you are coming from. You charge what the market will pay, why not. Fancy restaurants get away with charging high prices dollars for bottled water, because their clientelle will pay for it.
(Version 1.0b4) | |
| Jul 27 2006 |
ORION MK. V Nice beta app, and OmniGroup does good stuff, but overpriced. It'd be nice to see an affordable project management app.
(Version 1.0 beta 2) | |
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| Jul 27 2006 |
JOHN F. I know some other project managers are equally priced high, but I hoped that OmniGroup would introduce a more affordable one. The app looks good, and if you do spent the money, maybe you'll say it was worth it. But after having spent the same kind of money on OmniGraffle Pro, and a fair amount on OmniOutliner Pro (which remains the most affordable Omni app) some people would probably say: Thanks, but no thanks. I need a project manager, but this simply is not within my budget.
(Version 1.0 beta 2) | |
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| Jul 26 2006 |
GAZMAN Looked good - until I went to their website and saw that the final version will have a price tag of $149.95!!! Whoah!
(Version 1.0 beta 2) | |
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| Jul 26 2006 |
PIXELJUNKEY This looks to be an extremely useful compliment to OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner. Same unified interface, same clean overall look. Have to read up on how to use it but it's sure to be a winner, based on whose writing it.
(Version 1.0 beta 2) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
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| Jul 26 2006 |
D9 FYI... OmniPlan is a joint project from the developer of PMX, JTechSoftworks. PMX was a great entry-level project mgt solution, rich in OS X usability and features while easy to use and integrate. JTech has now ceased it's active development of PMX to allow it to advance with OmniPlan. So I agree w/ your assertion. Combining a great, early solution like PMX with the skill, detail and resourcese of OmniGroup bodes very good for OmniPlan, and more importantly for Mac users needing a great project management solution. | |
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