Meisterplan

Meisterplan is a cloud-based project portfolio management (PPM) software that allows company executives to efficiently prioritize and organize projects into portfolios to determine the best uses of their available human and capital resources. Projects are evaluated based on objectives, risks, rewards, costs, timelines, expected outcomes, and other relevant benchmarks.

The app covers processes that include PPM and analysis, resource management, finance management, alignment of strategy and business goals, visual data analysis, and centralized data management. It’s equipped with interactive and dynamic tools that enable users, regardless of their IT expertise, to visualize scenarios in real time and quickly determine the best possible project plans and portfolio mix.

What is Meisterplan?

To effectively bring a project to completion, project managers and stakeholders are expected to hurdle three significant project constraints: schedule, cost, and scope. For enterprises working with a large number of projects, it’s critical to know which to prioritize and allocate finite resources to.

Meisterplan is an easy-to-use PPM tool with highly visual features that allow portfolio managers to add new projects, assign people to them, set priorities, evaluate project dependencies, determine project and operational expenditures, align projects to organizational goals, and identify which projects are the most profitable. Various business scenarios can be visualized by adjusting project timelines, and adding or removing resources.

The Must-Have and Cut-Off lines in your dashboard enable you to differentiate between projects that need to be worked on now versus those that can wait. User credentials and access permissions can be created, such as full admin access and read-only rights. User groups can also be defined and managed.

Meisterplan Main Features

Project Portfolio Planning and Analysis

Meisterplan is a multi-user project portfolio planning and management software powered by drag-and-drop technology that makes it easy for portfolio managers to plan and staff projects, set timelines, and simulate staffing and budget changes to compare various business scenarios. Projects in the portfolio can be dragged up or down to reflect priority changes. Projects below the Cut-Off line are low-priority and can’t be assigned any resources.

The portfolio planning feature allows you to visualize the big picture and dig into the nitty-gritty in just a few clicks. Projects in a portfolio are further organized into programs, and projects and resources are broken down into several different structures, e.g., departments, locations, products, roles, and so on. Last-minute additions can easily be squeezed in, and milestones can be established at the portfolio level to mark work completions.

Resource Management

Meisterplan’s resource management feature lets you categorize your resources’ skills and competencies, departments, and locations, as well as their hourly rates, making it easy to assign tasks to them later. Removing and adding resources to projects allow you to instantly see the effects on capacity planning.

The utilization score assigned to each resource and color-coded capacity-versus-allocation charts let you spot resource bottlenecks at a glance, helping you pinpoint areas where additional internal staff, even external resources, may be necessary. Multiple calendars can also be incorporated into Meisterplan to account for holidays in various regions or countries.

Finance Management

Along with their skills, department, and location, Meisterplan keeps track of each resource’s rate per hour. This helps you stay within budget when assigning resources to projects. When creating projects, OpEx (operational expenditures), CapEx (capital expenditures), and benefit budgets are defined.

The traffic light indicators in the Financial section of the Meisterplan dashboard show if costs are over the allocated budget (red light) or within budget (green light) for a certain financial period. A green benefit light signals your actual benefit figure is on or above target, and a red light means you’re below target. The column charts display in graph form your CapEx, OpEx, and benefit targets versus actual figures.

Business Goal Alignment

Business goals can be created in Meisterplan, and projects are planned according to these goals. Goals are added or edited via the Strategy window, which can be selected from the main menu on the upper right-hand corner of the home screen. The same window shows a summary of the projects under each business goal, including the total cost, benefit, and workload.

Projects are listed on the left-hand side of the screen and can be dragged and dropped into any of the goal buckets on the right.

Reporting and Analytics

Internal standard reports can be generated via the Meisterplan report manager, which is accessed from the main menu. Standard reports include scenario comparison reports, Excel pivot reports, utilization treemaps, and others. Weblinks can be added to the report manager, so users can quickly access custom reporting pages or reporting tools that use Meisterplan data.

To use external reporting tools, e.g., to view Tableau reports in Meisterplan, data extraction must first be activated. Access permissions to reports are determined by report creators who have administrator or data manager logins.

Meisterplan Integrations

Meisterplan integrates with tools such as Microsoft Excel, Project and Project Server, as well as CA Clarity PPM, Planview, JIRA, Oracle Primavera, KPI, and Tableau. An open API is also available so businesses can integrate with other project management or portfolio solutions.

Meisterplan Pricing

Meisterplan offers subscription plans tailored to your company’s specific needs. The app can be deployed as a SaaS or on-premise solution. For more information, contact the company’s sales department.

Meisterplan Bottom Line

• Portfolio management, resource planning, and financial management in one application
• Lets portfolio managers quickly spot resource bottlenecks through color-coded charts
• Drag-and-drop functionality that allows users to visualize different project scenarios in real time
• Used as a standalone PPM tool or on top of other PPM solutions such as Microsoft Project, JIRA, Primavera, Planview, and even Microsoft Excel
• Supports the English and German languages