Team:
We're on version 15.x and I'm looking to discover third party tools which can be used to track time "easily" (with modern interface which appeals to the end user) and import them into CA-PPM projects and products/applications/other objects using an interface.
Do any of you have any recommendations or experience in exploring third party tools for time entry? Some thing that looks like a slick excel-like app which end users input time without having to bother with CA-PPM.
The context and background to this are:
1. The timesheet module is still not configurable in CA-PPM (like changing column headers, adding dependent lookup lists for uservalue1 and uservalue2 and perhaps uservalue3.
2. The UI has been getting a lot of flak - from my timesheets portlet in home page, they go to fill time, return takes them to the timesheets page and not back to home page portlet where they started
3. Resource Managers don't prefer to review timesheets using the timesheet review portlet and approve it one by one - they do want to investigate each timesheet - but they want to be able to approve in bulk with the help of analytics - like graphical histogram views showing time spread like on a bloomberg terminal (I hear this a lot) and then a magical button to approve and reject - we can develop a custom solution but it does not come OOTB
4. We're an investment research and indexing firm and many of our business users abhor the idea of tracking time - naturally, the current UI is not helpful as it has been deemed cumbersome.
5. License cost has been high and management is questioning the cost basis given that more than 2K users use the tool to book just time and other basic utilities - CA has strict rules on basic user versus full function user and any microscopic overreach flips a basic user into a full function user.
6. In general, our end users want simplicity and agility - some want it to look and act like Facebook or JIRA, where making an update takes fewer clicks and little effort.
To mitigate all this - I have come up with this magical idea to invest in a modern time tracking tool which can act as the FRONT and CA-PPM sitting behind it sending info in and out via web services. We want to get rid of all the time entry folks - return CA-PPM usage to project managers, financial managers and resource managers only - which will bring our active user base to less than 500, compared to the nearly 2500 now. Less cost footprint, high user happiness of not coming to CA-PPM to input time.
Please let me know if anyone has explored the tool in this venture. Tasktop comes to mind and before knocking on their door, I'd like to seek your input from the broad PPM community.
Worst case scenario, we want to develop an in-house sharepoint input app but I want to avoid that to take advantage of a tool which processes time entry in terms of new age UI.
Thanks!! Hoping to hear your thoughts.