project managment software

huangyhg

project managment software
our firm is looking into newforma for use as project management software....shop drawing logs, transmittal storage, email storage, client contacts etc etc.  we are about 36 employees and are strictly a structural engineering firm.  
the issue at hand is that, from what i have been told, newforma costs $10,000 initially and then a hefty chunk of change each year after. the powers-that-be, of which i am not one of them, seem to think that newforma is the way to go.  our largest client uses newforma and i have a feeling that the powers think along the lines that if it is good enough for our client then it is good enough for us.  the problem i see is the fact that with such a major capital investment there has been no searching for other programs/software that may do the same or similar functions without the large cost.  if this was a major personal purchase, would anyone just buy it without researching all options?  i think i learned this basic consumer concept when i was still in grade school.
what are some other programs that people use?  
what uses are typical for project management software?
what should we avoid?
what should we insist on?
is newforma worth the investment?
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my company uses primavera expedition.
i pretty much think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.  i have no idea how much it costs, but the ease of use is increadible.  i can look at a submittal from a project 3 years ago with just a click of the mouse.  i can see what rfi's are overdue in seconds.  
one of the project's i'm working on right now uses buzzsaw.  not nearly as good as primavera.
look into deltek.  they have different levels of software for different sizes of a/e firms.  i think this software is expensive also.
microsoft project or primavera.
i meant to state that we recently purchased deltek vision for our billing/time sheet software.  i believe the person that spearheaded that purchase (different from the other decision makers) is going to look into the pm add-on.
thanks for the information......
i agree with gumpmaster, primavera's "expedition" (it has a new name now) is the way to go.  it has everything you need for project management and it will interface with primavera's "p3" scheduling software. i think it may be less expensive than what you are looking depending on how many users to intend to purchase.
in my opinion, microsoft "project" or primavera's "p3" are scheduling software, not project management software.
i think the primavera expedition was renamed to primaver project contract.  
does primavera have a searchable database that allows you to search emails, pdfs, etc for key words?  does it have the ability to create template forms, like transmittals or faxes?
primavera lets you search anything in it's database.  if you send correspondence through primavera, then you can search the content of those emails.  you can send emails to anyone on the project list and give them a link to the item (rfi, submittal, etc...) that you want them to look at.  i don't know if it can search outlook, but i think probably not.
i think you can also search the names of attachments.  for instance, if you attach a .pdf sketch to an rfi, then the database will know the name of that .pdf.  i don't think it will search inside the attachments for content.
i'm sure there are lots of higher functions that i don't have a need to use, so maybe primavera can give you a list of capabilities.  one that i'm fond of is it's reports.  i can list what submittals i haven't completed, and which submittals the contractor is planning on submitting, but hasn't.
gumpmaster,
how do you use primavera with the contractor?  does it work on an invite basis or is it linked to their primavera software they use for scheduling?
everything is on a website and the program is website (java) based.  i think it's as easy as giving the contractor a username and password and setting their permissions.  being website based, it is accessible to anyone, anywhere.  it's really handy.
i work for a big enough company that we have an construction services manager.  she is the actual administrator for the site, so i don't know a lot of the specifics.  
you can set up the permissions so that the contractor (or other employees) only have access to certain projects.  i think a large part of the success of using a program like primavera is the protocols that you use.  it doesn't work if everybody's playing by different rules.  we typically have a project meeting with all of the players prior to construction services where we lay out the ground rules and how we expect everyone to interface.  it works pretty well.
we use deltek.