Microsoft Project Server End of Life Support
Target Audience: Project/Portfolio/Program Managers, Head of PMO & IT Managers.
Microsoft launched (new) Project for the web, around 4 years ago, October 2019. At the same time, announced that all future investments will be made in the new Project for the web and created a compelling offering extending it to the Dataverse / Power Platform Solution. It was also highlighted that no new investments were to be made in the current version/s of Project Server and Project Online. More info on this can be found here: Project for the web and Project Online - Microsoft Support. This meant no new feature enhancements, but product support would be provided if the solution / platform version did not reach Mainstream or Extended End of Life Date, indicated below:
Microsoft Project Server Mainstream & Extended Support Dates
Customers who do not migrate to the newer options will face increased risks of security breaches, data loss, compatibility issues, and performance degradation.
Despite solution advancements and several updates, recent customer engagements have highlighted that older and unsupported versions of Project Server 2013 / 2016 are still being used and customers have not considered any migration or upgrade options to more recent innovative cloud platforms.
Customers working in the project offices are using advanced terminologies such as 'automation', 'digitization', 'transformation', 'strategy execution', 'prioritization', and 'AI' (yes, we now have AI capabilities available in modern project solutions) from an endless list of requirements but they are still using:
- archaic and manual based Excel & PowerPoint applications which provide none of these modern functionalities and hamper productivity, project collaboration and execution, or
- organizations are using the older versions of Project Professional (Desktop) & Project Server, where applications are nearing or have reached End of Life Support, or lack of a configured solution which does not align to any of the current business requirements.
Through enquiry with customers, migrations / upgrades were not considered due to the following, but not limited to:
- lack of investment / a significant investment previously made in deploying such a solution and having to not utilize it to its full capability,
- absence of customized, role-based training aligned to the configuration,
- no change management to drive positive user adoption,
- waiting till the very end of product support (or beyond) to then plan the migration which adds additional complexity having to migrate from a non-supported environment.
Are customers not interested to initiate a project solution upgrade/migration, or fear to request for additional budget for future planning from business executives?
Is it not a priority to have advanced, mature project solutions to help enhance productivity, project execution and have access to AI, Strategy Management, Prioritization capabilities, etc.?
It would be great to hear if you as a customer / organization have had similar experiences with Enterprise Project Solutions, what were these issues? how did you work around the problems? Were you successful? Where is help needed?