Essential Features of Enterprise Project Management Software
Key features that an enterprise project management office (EPMO) will consider include portfolio management, resource management, work management, and advanced reporting skills. They also want the product to have solid integration tools and be able to scale across an organization. It should adhere to necessary security and compliance requirements.
- Portfolio Management and Governance: These features (dashboards, project scoring, real-time analytics, benefit-realization tracking) are important for selecting, prioritizing, funding, and monitoring a group of projects. A PMO or EPMO would use these to ensure they’re investing in the right mix of projects and can still enforce governance controls.
- Resource Management and Capacity Planning: These tools help a project manager allocate the right people and skills to the right jobs, all while balancing everyone’s workloads. Resource management helps prevent resource bottlenecks and supports cost forecasting. Features include resource pools, capacity versus demand heatmaps, what-if scenario modeling, and time tracking.
- Hybrid Project Management: This hybrid methodology uses a mix of Waterfall, Agile, Kanban, and Scrum to get projects done. Features that support a hybrid PM environment include Gantt charts, Kanban boards, centralizing reports, and workflow templates to start a project.
- Advanced Reporting and Analytics: These insights go beyond the typical KPI reports and tend to include financial metrics and predictive forecasting. The tool should allow you to create customizable dashboards that support roll-up reports. It should also be able to connect to data tools such as Power BI and Tableau. Stakeholders and executives will use this data when making decisions.
- ERP/Integrations: As much as an enterprise project management tool can do, there are still plenty of things it can’t — that’s why integrations are important. You’ll use these tools to connect to other tools already in use in the organization. You can use prebuilt connectors, bidirectional sync, or secure authentication (OAuth, SSO) for integrations.
- AI Capabilities: The level of AI functionality with EPM software can vary. AI capabilities are typically used to help enhance predictions, automate work, generate summaries, and assist with natural language queries. We’ll likely see even more functionality in the future as AI tools mature.
- Security and Compliance: These safeguards are designed to protect project and financial data and meet regulatory requirements — this is especially vital in the healthcare, finance, and government sectors. EPM security features include encryption, role-based permissions, audit logs, and compliance with key standards (such as ISO 27001) and regulations (such as the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR).
- Scalability: The product must be able to keep up as users, projects, and data volumes grow into the thousands. Look for evidence for how well a platform performs (whether it’s speed or user support) when it starts to get stretched. Look for role-based admins, archiving and bulk-operations tools, and SLA-backed uptime and performance guarantees.
- Work Management: Teams should be able to plan tasks, share files, track projects, and communicate across projects with ease. Built-in tools that help facilitate this include task boards, Gantt charts, calendars with dependencies, document sharing, in-app chat, comments, real-time notifications, and personal workload views.
Smartsheet
Smartsheet is an intelligent work management platform with a familiar interface that makes it easy to adopt across organizations. Project portfolio managers will appreciate the roll-up reports for portfolio visibility and how seamlessly it integrates across business and IT workstreams.
Smartsheet Features:
- Variety of work views, including Gantt, Grid, Timeline, Table, Card, Dashboard, and Calendar
- Reports that support portfolio roll-ups across hundreds of sheets and projects
- AI-assisted formula generation and summaries
- Automated (no-code) workflows that leverage AI
- Ability to integrate with enterprise AI tools
- Resource management for balancing workload, forecasting needs, and avoiding bottlenecks
- Control Center for portfolio governance and provisioning
- Enterprise administration controls, including SSO, audit logs, and customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK)
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Smartsheet is known for its flexibility, fast adoption, and strong collaboration features, so it’s an ideal solution for enterprise project management and portfolio management. Its spreadsheet-like interface makes it easy for business and IT teams to adopt, while premium add-ons such as the Control Center and Resource Management enable PMOs to enforce governance, manage capacity, and standardize project execution at scale. SmartHub AI orchestration automates project planning and risk identification, while native Project Manager agents handle routine tracking tasks. This enables PMO teams to focus on strategic portfolio optimization rather than status reporting.
Smartsheet was recognized as a leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant for Collaborative Work Management. By supporting integrations with Jira, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Power BI, and more, Smartsheet helps organizations connect project work to enterprise systems. Security and compliance are enterprise-ready, with SSO, audit logs, and data residency controls.
That said, Smartsheet isn’t as robust at advanced financial management, earned value tracking, and deep resource modeling as other offerings in this comparison. In short, Smartsheet is best suited for organizations looking for a hybrid PPM platform prioritizing adoption, portfolio visibility, and integration across diverse workstreams. Learn more about the company’s enterprise project management solutions.
Celoxis
Celoxis is an integrated project management solution known for how well it integrates with other tools and for its customization features. It has several enterprise features, including tracking requests and metrics, customizing workflows, and creating dashboards with real-time analytics.
Celoxis Features:
- Customizable portfolio dashboards that roll up and track metrics and KPIs
- Resource management and capacity planning
- Project accounting tools, such as time and expense sheets, revenue forecasting, and profit and margin tracking
- AI tool named Lex that helps with predictive scheduling, risk detection, and forecasting
- Custom workflows
- Option to simplify UI by turning some features on or off
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Celoxis offers a plethora of PPM features, including demand intake, portfolio management, resource capacity planning, financial tracking, dashboards, and AI/predictive tools. All the features are modular, so the system can be configured to match governance, reduce UI clutter, and scale reasonably well. Celoxis presents itself as a more unified, end-to-end solution that could appeal to organizations that don’t want to stitch together multiple tools.
With so many features and options for customization, adoption across an enterprise can be challenging and require more training and support up front. This is worth looking into as you’ll likely need to purchase training packages for support — the company includes only one free hour of Q&A after purchase.
Additionally, Celoxis doesn’t support priority-based scheduling or automatic resource leveling, so project managers will need to manually shift tasks. Celoxis could work for those needing a solution that supports heavy governance, high-volume portfolios, and seamless UX across all stakeholder types, but only if you’re prepared for how much work it takes to set it up correctly at the beginning.
Monday.com
Monday.com is an enterprise work management platform focused on portfolio visibility, security, AI assistance, and extensive low-code integration capabilities.
Monday.com Features:
- Cross-project dashboards, portfolio roll-ups, and risk management
- Resource management
- Security and identity features
- Governance and enterprise-level admin features
- AI automations
- Collaboration features
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Monday.com positions itself as a flexible work-management platform for large enterprises. It sports many features an EPMO might need, including visibility into portfolios, resource-capacity planning, more than 200 prebuilt integrations (Slack, Teams, Jira, DocuSign), enterprise-scale automations, AI-driven AI Blocks, and strong governance (SSO/SAML, ISO-certified security). monday.com was named a leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant for Adaptive Project Management and Reporting (APMR). The platform invests heavily in security and identity, featuring SSO/SAML, 2FA, and compliance with key ISO certifications (27001/27017/27018). It also offers 24/7 customer support.
There has been some concern on the company’s community board that certain integrations (Teams) and collaboration flows (Slack) still need attention. While the UI is straightforward and easy to use, creating complex automations and workflow might require additional training, which will cost more. Organizations must manage their automation and integration action quotas, which are metered by the plan. Enterprise plans include higher quotas for automations/integrations and are sold on annual-only contracts.
Additionally, all bundled Monday products must be on the enterprise tier. While 24/7 support is advertised, services such as premium support, implementation packages, managed services, and some integrations might cost more. The true total cost depends on usage and desired SLA level.
Microsoft Project
Microsoft has been a longtime player in project management. Microsoft Project includes all the features an enterprise might need and easily connects with other Microsoft products. The company is retiring Project Online in 2026, so you’ll want to account for what that transition will mean to your organization.
Microsoft Project Features:
- Support for Waterfall and Agile
- Portfolio planning, management, and prioritization
- Resource management with heatmaps and analytics
- Power BI reporting
- App integrations via connectors and APIs
- AI features to help you create plans, set goals, and track status
- Licensing tiers for scaling across an organization
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Microsoft Project offers enterprises many necessary project management features, including portfolio selection, resource governance, timesheets, and Power BI reporting and collaboration features through Teams/SharePoint. The company offers a selection of plans, but you’ll need the highest-tier plan if you want enterprise resource management and portfolio optimization to prioritize initiatives and balance capacity.
The company plans to retire Project Online in September 2026, with Project for the Web positioned to become the new Planner. While that likely brings an updated, more modern UI, it’s important to account for what that will mean for deployment and adoption in your organization. Enterprises requiring a PPM solution that plugs directly into other Microsoft properties such as Teams/SharePoint and Power BI should be sure to account for any change-management risks that might occur with the retirement of Project Online.
Oracle Primavera P6
Oracle Primavera P6 (EPPM/Professional) is useful for planning and scheduling at an enterprise level. Project managers can prioritize, plan, manage, and execute complex projects, programs, and portfolios at scale.
Oracle Primavera P6 Features:
- Enterprise planning scheduling features
- Configure custom portfolio dashboards for KPI visibility
- Resource and capacity management
- Robust project and large-scale programming
- Cost and schedule management for cost and work breakdown structures
- Role-based functionality
- Support for integrations
- Planning and risk management
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Oracle Primavera P6 is a good choice for portfolios that skew to capital, infrastructure, and engineering programs with complex dependencies, risk, and resource constraints. PMOs will appreciate that it includes enterprise planning and scheduling, portfolio dashboards, resource optimization, risk registers, and robust reporting. There are Team Member channels for collecting key information from the field, such as time and status, as well as APIs for integrating with enterprise resource planning systems, IT service management systems, and analytics tools. For organizations that must defend schedules under audit, run delay analyses, and coordinate megaprojects across contractors and regions, P6’s rigor and its Primavera Analytics option offer tangible advantages.
You’ll likely want to evaluate the same features that make P6 powerful to see how long it will take to implement Primavera 6 and integrate it with existing business systems. Additional P6 needs Primavera Gateway for cross-product or ERP links, which adds to the total cost. Be sure to consider total cost in terms of time to implement and licensing fees, as costs could quickly add up at the enterprise level. P6 is a good choice for those who rely on schedule integrity, portfolio control, and auditability, and who don’t mind the added investment in training, admin time, and licensing fees.
Planview
Planview is a project portfolio management and strategic portfolio management tool that provides robust financial tracking tools, but advanced features come with a bit of a learning curve. This product can help organizations with complex IT/PMO governance and ERP alignment.
Planview Features:
- Strategic portfolio management and scenario planning
- Project portfolio management tools for tracking, financials, risks, and progress across projects
- Resource and capacity planning to manage assignments, assess resource availability, and track utilization
- Lean portfolio management that supports Agile and Waterfall methods in one portfolio
- Ability to connect CapEx/OpEx funding to project and portfolio outcomes
- Analytics, dashboards, and reporting with Power BI integration
- Integrations with ERP, DevOps, and enterprise systems
- AI-powered assistant
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Planview is a mature, enterprise-grade portfolio project management platform that offers strategic clarity, robust financial tracking, and high configurability. It’s well suited for organizations with complex portfolios, shifting priorities, and a need for governance and scenario planning across many projects and resource demands. Planview was recognized as a leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant for Strategic Portfolio Management. The tool is capable of supporting top-down oversight and bottom-up execution.
However, adopting Planview is not without cost or challenges with resource management, particularly scheduling and tracking progress. Support also follows a tiered structure — premium or dedicated 24/7 support levels carry additional fees or require certain subscriptions. If your organization prioritizes speed to adoption or needs a very lean UX, Planview might impose higher upfront overhead in training and change management than lighter alternatives. Be sure to carefully evaluate the cost of modules, support, and user licensing that your organization will require.
ProofHub
ProofHub is a solid centralized project management tool with prominent proofing and file review features. However, it lacks enterprise-grade features that an EPMO might require, such as robust resource management or deep portfolio management.
ProofHub Features:
- Multiple views, including Table, Board, Gantt, and Calendar
- Ability to create custom workflows
- Robust proof and approval tools
- Timesheets and reports
- Audit trail for project tracking
- Project, resource, workload, and custom reports
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ProofHub prioritizes collaborative work management, simplifies communication, and provides basic project visibility across teams. Those who focus on workflows to support creative, marketing, or design work will appreciate the robust proofing features. It supports many top project management features, such as task tracking, multiple views (Gantt, board, calendar), time logging, reviews/annotations, forms, and templates.
ProofHub’s flat-fee licensing model encourages broad use without per-user premium charges. It’s a good choice for organizations with moderate complexity that need unified task management and collaboration with creative review features.
However, ProofHub is not engineered for large-scale, enterprise-grade PPM environments. It doesn’t feature advanced portfolio modeling, deep resource optimization, financial forecasting, and robust reporting. For PMOs that need to manage hundreds of projects, integrate tightly with ERP or DevOps systems, enforce governance at scale, or demand advanced analytics and resource modeling, ProofHub is unlikely to get the job done on its own.
Workfront
Adobe’s Workfront is a centralized work management solution that helps teams plan, track, and manage complex projects and portfolios across an organization with an eye toward marketing teams.
Workfront Features:
- Resource forecasting, allocation, and management
- Ability to build automated workflows from scratch or via templates that incorporate dependencies, approval chains, and permissions
- Workfront Fusion for integrating with other business tools, and Data Connect to connect to BI tools
- Customizable dashboard created using report widgets
- Integrations with other Adobe products and to most business applications
- Option to build operational graphs when planning marketing campaigns
- Filter timeline and calendar views for dynamic views of multiple campaigns
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Workfront is a strong candidate if you’re looking for a solution that centralizes work and offers enterprise-grade automation, and your company handles a lot of marketing campaigns. Workfront works for many types of projects, but some of the workflows are geared toward marketing. Its feature set covers intake, resource management, automation, dashboards, and strategic planning via Workfront Planning, which is an additional module. For a PMO or EPMO that needs to enforce governance across creative, marketing, or IT functions and orchestrate work across silos, Workfront is a solid solution that integrates well with Adobe’s brand and ecosystem.
However, Workfront will take some time to set up and customize, which should be considered when calculating the true cost of ownership. Additionally, you’ll need to plan for your admin roster to identify who can submit tickets for support. There are strict requirements when it comes to setting up budgeting in the Resource Planner to ensure numbers roll up.
Like other products in this comparison, licensing costs for advanced features or modules (such as Planning or advanced automation) can add up quickly. Workfront is a solid option for companies already entrenched in the Adobe ecosystem of products and are in need of a scalable enterprise product that promotes work collaboration across teams.
In short, Smartsheet is best suited for organizations looking for a hybrid PPM platform prioritizing adoption, portfolio visibility, and integration across diverse workstreams. Learn more about the company’s enterprise project management solutions.
Wrike
Wrike offers users multiple views (Gantt, Kanban, dashboards, and calendars) that help teams work the way they want, and it integrates well with CRM, ERP, IT, BI and analytics, collaboration, and security apps. It’s a good option for those needing strong analytics and a modern UI.
Wrike Features:
- Standardized processes and workflows with Blueprints
- Resource and capacity planning
- Multiple views, including Gantt, board, calendar, table/grid, and dashboard
- Integrates with enterprise systems
- AI-powered workflows
- Create dashboards for visualizing real-time data
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Wrike project management software offers flexibility, collaboration, and enterprise integrations. The company’s Work Intelligence layer adds predictive risk, AI-assisted descriptions, and smart automation, so PMOs will have greater visibility into their projects. For enterprises, it scales with admin controls, security features, and more than 400 integrations (Salesforce, Power BI, Teams, Adobe, Jira) that make connecting into your existing stack a straightforward experience. Wrike gives users visibility across departments, allows centralized work, and provides portfolio oversight without forcing everyone into rigid workflows.
On the other hand, onboarding new users can take time, and costs can rise quickly when you add premium features or scale license. Wrike features a patented email integration solution that you can use to create tasks and folders, set due dates, and update task status. However, some might find it a little challenging, depending on their setup and permission. Wrike is well-suited for those looking for PPM features that aren’t overly complicated to adopt. If your PMO requires deep financial governance or complex capacity modeling, Wrike might not be the right fit.
Best Enterprise Project Management Software
Vendor | Portfolio Management & Governance | Resource Planning | Hybrid PM | Reporting & Analytics | Integrations | AI | Security | Work Management | Analyst Notice |
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| Smartsheet | Program / portfolio roll-ups, Control Center governance | Resource Mgmt add-on (role, capacity, time tracking) | Grid, Gantt, Kanban; integrations with Jira | Dashboards, portfolio summaries, Power BI | Connectors for Jira, Salesforce, MS Teams; ERP via API / iPaaS | Emerging AI, intelligent work | SOC2, GDPR, SAML SSO | Strong adoption by business users; flexible, intuitive UI | G2 Leader; consistent PPM recognition |
| Planview | Deep portfolio governance, scenario modeling | Heatmaps, capacity, demand balancing | Waterfall + Agile (Jira, ADO sync) | Advanced analytics, BI warehouse | SAP, Oracle, Workday, ServiceNow | AI-powered analytics for risk, capacity | SOC2, ISO, GDPR; fine-grained controls | Balanced: PMO rigor + Agile delivery | Gartner & Forrester SPM Leader |
| Wrike | Portfolio dashboards, approvals | Workload & capacity views, resource bookings | Waterfall + Agile board | Custom dashboards, BI integrations | APIs, connectors to Salesforce, Jira; ERP via iPaaS | AI work intelligence, automation, smart search, risk prediction | SOC2, HIPAA, GDPR; SSO / SAML | Intuitive UX, strong collab; better for business than heavy IT PMOs | G2 Leader in CWM |
| Celoxis | Project / portfolio hierarchy, approvals | Capacity and demand charts | Hybrid PM features (Gantt + Agile boards) | EVM, financial & project analytics | Out-of-box connectors limited; APIs for ERP | Smart scheduling, resource planning | SSO, role-based security | Lower adoption curve; strong value for price | G2 High Performer |
| Oracle Primavera P6 | Rigorous portfolio governance | Strong capacity/resource leveling | Primarily Waterfall; Agile only via add-ons | Advanced earned value, risk analytics | Native Oracle ERP, SAP | Limited AI | FedRAMP, SOC, ISO; high compliance | Steep UX; built for schedulers/PMOs, less for casual users | Long-standing Gartner Leader (SPM, EPPM) |
| Adobe Workfront | Strong governance, approval flows | Basic capacity; not as deep as Planview | Agile boards + Waterfall | Dashboards, Fusion integrations to BI | Connectors for Adobe, Jira, ServiceNow; ERP via Fusion | Brand compliance, content review and image analysis | SOC2, GDPR; enterprise-grade | Strong in marketing / creative; lighter for IT PMOs | Forrester Wave recognition (CWM) |
| Microsoft Project | Portfolio Center, approvals | Resource pool, capacity planning | Waterfall & Agile (when paired with DevOps) | Power BI, advanced reporting | Deep ERP / MS ecosystem | AI emerging via Copilot | Enterprise-grade security, compliance | Familiar UI, but adoption varies; UX dated vs. modern tools | Nothing recent for Microsoft Project |
| ProofHub | Limited portfolio functionality | Basic workload only | Kanban, Gantt, Agile workflows | Standard reports (not enterprise-grade) | Limited integrations (no native ERP) | None significant | SSL, basic SSO | Easy UX, SMB-friendly | G2 niche category |
| Monday.com | Portfolio dashboards, approval workflows | Basic capacity tracking | Boards for Agile, Gantt for Waterfall | Dashboards, BI connectors | APIs, Workato / Zapier ERP connectors | AI assistant (summaries, formula help) | SOC2, ISO, HIPAA; enterprise security | Intuitive UI; high adoption across business teams | Gartner APMR Leader (2024, 2025) |
How to Choose the Best Enterprise Project Management Software
To pick the best enterprise project management software, you’ll need to create an evaluation framework that includes input from stakeholders and people who will use the tool. Define what you’ll test. Compile a list of questions for vendors and teammates. Use a weighted scorecard to keep track of how well each product works for your company.
Define Evaluation Framework
Start by aligning the department’s needs with company priorities, and document your top five to seven business goals. This can include portfolio visibility, resource capacity planning, and risk/compliance tracking.
Rank your list in order of importance and impact.
Add a list of regulatory or security constraints that can block the project, such as data residency, single sign-on, or audit trails.
Next, identify key stakeholders, and require each group to submit a list of three to five must-have features and two to three deal-breakers. Here’s an example of who you might contact and what they care about:
- Executive Sponsors: They care about governance, ROI, and reporting.
- PMO/EPMO Leaders: They’re concerned with portfolio visibility and process standardization.
- Functional Managers: They care about resource allocation, approvals, and workflows.
- Project Managers and Field Teams: These groups care about usability, scheduling, integrations, and the quality of the software’s mobile app.
Establish Evaluation Criteria and Test Scenarios
You’ll want to test the features you care about during a product evaluation, and be sure to include what the stakeholders care about. Create some real test scenarios. For example, try to create a new portfolio, submit a project request, route it for approval, assign resources, track progress, adjust the schedule, and run the executive dashboard.
Prepare some benchmarks — for example, how many steps does it take to complete a step or typical workflow? What was the system response time? How did your team like using the tool?
Also, look at some of these technical functional criteria:
- Scalability (can it support thousands of users and projects?)
- Integration breadth (ERP, HRIS, CRM, reporting tools)
- Resource and capacity planning at enterprise scale
- Portfolio governance workflows (intake, approvals, funding)
- Security, compliance, and role-based permissions
- Performance and data latency under heavy use
- Advanced analytics, AI, and reporting
Questions to Ask Vendors
Prepare a list of questions for your vendors. Their answers will tell you a lot about what you want and don’t want. Here’s a list of possible questions by category:
Product and Roadmap
- How does your product handle enterprise-level portfolio governance and cross-project dependencies?
- What’s the roadmap for AI, predictive analytics, or resource forecasting over the next 12–18 months?
- How do you support hybrid project management (Agile plus Waterfall)?
- How do you handle bulk project creation, templates, and configuration at scale?
Implementation and Integration
- What is a typical implementation timeline for companies of our size and complexity?
- Are there prebuilt connectors and APIs for ERP, HR, or BI tools?
- How are updates and patches handled, and what downtime should we expect?
Security and Compliance
- What certifications does the software have (SOC 2, ISO 27001, FedRAMP, etc.)?
- What data residency options and backup/recovery SLAs are available?
Support and Pricing
- What are the tiers of customer support (hours, channels, dedicated account rep, cost)?
- What training resources are provided (onsite, virtual, admin training)?
- What’s the cost for premium integrations, SSO, and custom reporting?
Questions to Ask Your Internal Team
Getting buy-in from the people who will use the tool is critical to success and adoption. A product that doesn’t do what your team needs — or does it poorly — is a waste of time and money. Get some guidance on their needs by asking some of these questions:
- Which legacy workflows or reports absolutely cannot be disrupted?
- Which integrations are “must have on day one” and which are “nice to have later”?
- What data migration challenges do we foresee (archived projects, historical financials)?
- What user experience requirements could drive adoption or resistance (e.g., mobile-first needs for field staff)?
- How will we measure project success post-deployment (KPIs, ROI)?
Suggested Evaluation Steps and Timeline
Once you’re armed with the necessary information about what the stakeholders require and what your team wants, take the product for a test spin, and fill out your weighted criteria scorecard. Compare results and prepare an executive-level decision brief.
Stay on top of every task, deadline, and deliverable.
Smartsheet gives your team the structure and flexibility to move faster, together.
Enterprise Project Management FAQs
Enterprise project management software is software that large organizations use to coordinate, manage, and run multiple projects. It provides a holistic view of multiple projects across a company.
Traditional project management software is used to manage one project at a time. Multiple teams can use it to run individual projects. Enterprise project management software looks at all of an organization’s projects at once. It is scalable and has more features, including resource management. It also provides deeper analytics.
Necessary features to consider for EPM software include collaboration, advanced reporting tools, and portfolio management. The software should also include resource and capacity management and work management, and it should support the other products used in the organization.
Security controls should integrate with the company’s overall security architecture and meet any necessary compliance measures. It should support role-based admin, multifactor authentication, and single sign-on. Project data protection features should include data encryption, secure file sharing and storage, backup and recovery, and IP whitelisting.
Disclaimer: The information found in this comparison article is sourced from vendor websites, community boards, and some third-party user reviews. AI tools were used to help conduct research.