My organisation does not allow customization of Project Power Apps

Copper Contributor
Dear Community,

My team started to use Microsoft Project for the Web this January. My IT department allowed to customize some fields in Project Power Apps so we can collect appropriate data relating to our projects. It is also easier to report via power BI. 11 months later, IT realized that this customization was done in the global environment and now they would like to reverse all customization as other teams are also using this application. This means that my team would lose critical information on 90+ projects and we have to store info related to projects in an excel file. As a solution, IT offered to create a new environment where we could keep our 7-8 necessary custom fields. However, this would cost us double price compared to what we pay now for project 3 licenses as well as a great sum of money to kick off the building of the environment and additional monthly updates. Interestingly all the Microsoft videos are telling about the possibility of customization however it seems that for big organisations like mine teams need to pay hidden costs if they would like to use this tool effectively.

Does anyone have the same experience? If yes, do you have a solution customizing your project (custom fields) and avoiding crazy fees?

With many thanks!

Fanni

2 Replies
fannispagetti --

Dumb question: How come others in your organization cannot simply use the Project for the Web instance that you have been using? Is there a way that you can customize the fields you created so that they would have relevant data to others in your organization? I would certainly NOT ask you to move things to another instance and double your costs, as that is sheer craziness. I think you would be better off trying to figure out how to allow everyone to use your existing Project for the Web instance.

Also, not to rub salt into an already tender wound, but if you were using Project Online instead of Project for the Web, you could use the Project Departments field to display your custom fields in your own projects, and to hide them from everyone else's projects. Just a thought. Hope this helps.
Thanks a lot Dale, this is super helpful & food for thought!!
Regarding your question, we did not opt for Project Online because its too 'complicated' to use - we rather went with a more user friendly, simple and modern version - as well as it's the future of project management. Also, we kept in mind that Project Online will be out phased and we had hopes for cool developments that will allow some wiggle room for us! Thanks again for your help!
Cheers,
FS