Omni Group - OmniPlan

OmniPlan 4

Intelligent flowchart

A good flowchart helps you understand the project details and makes it easier to get everything done on time. The schedule shows which requirements must be fulfilled, when they can or must be fulfilled and who is responsible for them. Tasks can be given a variety of conditions, e.g. 'as soon as possible', 'by a certain date', 'as resources allow'. Once you have finalised your project's schedule, you can set a baseline with start and end dates, durations and work/cost estimates that will serve as a reference to the actual progress of the project.

Efficient resource management

Resource management makes it easy for you to identify bottlenecks, track budgets and distribute workload fairly and efficiently. Resources include staff, materials, equipment and groups. Costs can be allocated to each resource by time or by wear and tear. The availability of resources can be controlled with the help of a calendar. A workload can be assigned to each resource. For example, you can assign a 75 per cent workload to an employee who can only devote three-quarters of his working time to your project. OmniPlan's built-in resource levelling automatically distributes the workload between resources so that overloads are avoided.

Visual timelines

The timeline view (Gantt chart, Gantt plan) of your project displays all activities in a calendar. Time durations are displayed as a diagram according to days, weeks, months, quarters or years. Likewise, the start and end points of tasks, dependencies, resources and resource utilisation per task are displayed on a timeline.

You can visually edit tasks and set dependencies (e.g. that a certain task cannot be tackled until another is completed). The graphical display allows you to quickly assess project status and anticipate deadlines.

Functions

• Follow-up - One click is all it takes to provide a general update on project progress.
• Keyboard support - Full keyboard support won't just speed up your workflow on the Mac. Work on the iPad too with full hardware keyboard shortcut support.
• Filtering options - Detailed filtering options allow you to focus on individual tasks. Focus on resource scheduling, high priority tasks, specific time periods and more.
• Conflict resolution - If overlaps or conflicts occur in your planning, OmniPlan highlights them and offers possible solutions.
• Optimisation - OmniPlan can automatically optimise your resources and tasks across the entire project, helping to complete projects on time.
• Task Splitting - Make the use of all resources more efficient by allowing OmniPlan to split tasks for project optimisation.
• Critical Paths - Highlight important tasks to identify critical areas that have a direct impact on project completion.
• Export - Make your projects available in various formats: plain text, iCal data, images and many more.
• Create baselines - Create baselines to compare the actual progress of your project against planning assumptions.
• Network Diagrams - A new graphical approach to show the relationships in your projects.