Planning and scheduling: reunited.
NetPoint's visual and intuitive interface appeals to all levels of scheduling experience
I'm a new or intermediate scheduler
NetPoint’s unique interface is intuitive to learn and simple to use, making it easy to start creating project schedules. Within minutes, activities, events, and their relationships can be added to the canvas, and it’s all done graphically. Beneath the hood, a powerful scheduling algorithm, known as GPM, automatically controls the behavior of these planning objects as they are placed and adjusted. The resulting plan is easy to understand, and it communicates important information to other stakeholders more effectively than a task list or bar chart.
View sample NetPoint schedules.
I'm an experienced CPM scheduler
Schedules are created to serve as communication tools and to allow projects to be managed proactively. But scheduling is an ineffective process when only the scheduler can comprehend the result. NetPoint transforms scheduling into an engaging and interactive, planning-centric experience. The resulting plan is a unique visual tool that can be understood by the entire project team, regardless of their level of expertise. In addition, NetPoint can toggle between CPM and GPM modes, so the transition is easy for experienced CPM schedulers.
Compare versions of NetPoint. View sample NetPoint schedules.
Discover NetPoint's Features
Superior Graphical Interface
Draw and link activities and their relationships graphically, without forcing them to correspond to rows in a spreadsheet. By placing activities on the same grid line, their relationships become even clearer to understand. The result is a visually attractive network diagram that can be created in minutes and is easy to adjust. It’s never been easier to engage project stakeholders, including non-schedulers, in the planning process.
Image: activities placed side-by-side on the same horizontal gridline. Showing: start dates, finish dates, durations.
Image: non-critical activities faded. Highlighted in blue: link gaps & total floats.
Critical Path Analysis
Identify which activities are driving a schedule and how they’re affecting a project’s completion. By highlighting critical paths and monitoring total floats, possible delays can be identified before they happen. With NetPoint’s approach to network diagramming, critical paths can be tracked graphically as they form. The result is a more informed project team that can identify and focus on the most important activities in the schedule.
PolyTime™: Variable Time Units
With PolyTime™, choose from a wide range of time units depending on the project. In the construction industry, activities can be based on hours for time-sensitive turnarounds. In the operating room, procedures can be scheduled in 15-minute intervals. Or, simply use PolyTime to show the most appropriate level of detail: months for summaries or preliminary planning, and days once planning progresses. Whatever the project may be, PolyTime provides unprecedented flexibility when planning and scheduling.
Image: two activities with the same duration assigned different calendars yielding different finish dates.
Multi-calendar Schedules
Assign different calendars within the same plan, depending on specific activity requirements or unpredictable external factors. By creating custom holidays or accounting for adverse weather, activity durations can be ranged more accurately. With NetPoint’s approach to network diagramming, it’s easy to visualize non-working days graphically. The result is a more realistic schedule.
Visual Resource Modeling
Model cost, materials, equipment, and labor requirements visually and intuitively. By plotting consumption graphs and cumulative curves directly underneath activities on the network, resource-leveling becomes interactive and engaging. Adjust relational logic, re-plan activity dates, and optimize assignment rates while seeing the impact on resource levels instantly. The result is a clear illustration of resource requirements and a better understanding of schedule priorities.
Image: resource histograms and cumulative consumption curves plotted beneath the activities.
Image: completed activity left of the data date and in-progress activity crossing the data date. Highlighted in blue: link gaps, total floats, & forensic total float.
Schedule Updating
Update activities as a project progresses and identify those that fall behind schedule. Entering actual dates and durations is done just like drawing activities or leveling resources - graphically on the canvas. With GPM® under the hood, you can maintain float attributes left of the data date for retrospective schedule analysis. Using targets to compare updates, team members can learn from delays and be better prepared for future projects.
Graphical Path Method (GPM®)
GPM emphasizes interactive and collaborative project planning by abandoning sequential, black-box calculations and introducing new networking concepts with a mathematical basis for relational logic. GPM allows planned-dates scheduling, executes real-time calculations, and preserves float attributes left of the data date. These and several other innovations are what make GPM a dynamic alternative to the critical path method and what transform NetPoint into more than just a drawing application.
Image: ext. Mason Walls shown in between early dates and late dates without a constraint. Highlighted in blue: link gaps, total floats, & drift and float.
List of Additional Features↑
Getting Started
- Up to 2,500 activities
- Unlimited undo
- Graphical Path Method
Setting up a Schedule
- Toggle CPM and GPM modes
- Variable time units*
- Weather modeling
- Custom non-working days
- Multi-calendar schedules
Building a Schedule
- Multiple activities per line
- Activity codes
- Visual resource modeling
- Real-time logic
- Summary/hammock activities
- Milestones & benchmarks
Optimizing a Schedule
- Constraint flags
- Activity Filters
Updating a Schedule
- Data dates
- Target comparisons
- Forensic float
- As-built critical path
Inputs & Outputs
- Import/export with MS Excel
- Import/export with MS Project*
- Import/export with Primavera P6*
* Denotes features available only in NetPoint Premier
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Maintenance
Receive personal customer support and all commercial software releases, including bug fixes and feature updates.
Training
One to three-day educational seminars that introduce NetPoint, GPM, how to facilitate collaborative planning sessions, and more. Customized training programs are available.
NetPoint Pricing
Please contact us for a personalized quote.