Construction and Infrastructure development projects are highly structured co-ordinated activities. Whether the project consists of building a multi-lane highway, a bridge, a metro line, a heavy industry complex, or a housing colony for a company, each project has many dynamic aspects and activities that must be precisely coordinated. Just like any other project, construction / infrastructure project management also has several phases. From designing to planning to scheduling to the implementation itself, each phase is an intricate set of activities of a more complex challenging process that is mission based. Activities are focussed on managing resources over the life cycle of the project using various tools and methodologies to monitor and control cost, time, teams, activities, quality and other aspects.

Infrastructure and construction companies require a comprehensive Project Management Software tool to handle all their activities. Cloud based project management software specifically becomes a good option for such companies as the software applications need to be accessed from multiple locations by multiple teams performing a variety of activities and tasks.

Assume you are the Chief IT Consultant to a large company that handles large scale construction and infrastructure development projects. Your company employs a strong workforce of around 20,000 (and rapidly growing) personnel working in teams across various projects and various aspects of project activities working out of offices and at the site. A good percentage of employees are contracted or daily wage workers. Your company now plans to implement a Cloud based Project Management Software to meet the overall requirements of managing projects.

Search the web and identify at least 3 Cloud based Project Management Software / Solutions that meet the requirements of the infrastructure company. (Kindly note that the requirements are specific for Construction / Infrastructure project management and not IT Project management). Study the features of each of the software products. Tabulate your study in a feature comparative chart and evaluate your recommendation of the software product. Ensure you have selected at least 10 core features / parameters for comparison. Indicate any unique features of the product that may be of interest to the organizations activity. For each of the feature mentioned, assign a score out of 10 (0 = lowest, 10 = highest) based on your evaluation of the features significance and implementation. Core features that are common across all products (these are called baseline features) will get an average score (say 4), unless they also offer an enhanced advantage. Exclusive features that are USPs of the product which are aligned with your companys requirements will get an elevated score. You can mention these exclusive features as items a1 a3 as shown in table below. Summarise your recommendation with a quick analysis at the end.