Project Online is gone. Your portfolio still has to run somewhere.
A fixed-fee Platform Migration Assessment that scores your estate, recommends the destination that fits how you actually run, and prices the move before you commit.
We build and run production portfolios on Planner Premium, Smartsheet and ClickUp. That is why we can recommend one of them rather than sell you the only one we know.
Use Cases
Application Development & Integration
| Destination | When it is right | What we deliver | When we would not recommend it |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Mid-complexity PMOs already deep in Microsoft 365, needing Goals, Sprints, baselines, dependencies and Gantt, with budget for the Copilot licenses the Planner Agent requires. | Migration, configuration, Planner Agent enablement, and Power Platform extension where Planner stops short of your process. | When the portfolio itself is the workload: complex cross-organization dependencies, shared resource pools, or external reporting in a format an owner specifies. |
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Portfolio-heavy, cross-functional or construction PMOs with complex dependencies, resource management, external collaboration and provisioning at scale. | Migration, Portfolios configuration, and Smart Agents configured and governed rather than simply switched on. | When the portfolio is large but structurally simple and the team already lives in Microsoft 365. You would buy capability you never use and rebuild integrations you already had. |
 |
Teams whose real problem is task throughput inside a function rather than portfolio governance across programs. | Migration, workspace and workflow configuration, and adoption support for the teams doing the work. | When governance, baselines and portfolio roll-up to executives or owners are the actual requirement. |
If the real requirement turns out to be timesheets, resource scheduling, project accounting or billing, that is Dynamics 365 Project Operations territory rather than portfolio management. We will tell you so and route you to a partner who does it properly.
Not sure which column you are in?
Five deliverables in about a month. $5,000, fixed.
Estate analysis and complexity scoring.
What you are actually running: projects, schedules, custom fields, resource records, integrations and the governance built around them.
Destination recommendation with written rationale.
Not a preference. The reasoning, the estate evidence behind it, and the options we considered and rejected.
Licensing and cost model at your real seat count.
Platform licenses, Copilot and assistant licenses where required, metered capability, and the recurring figure at full headcount.
Migration plan and risk register.
Sequence, dependencies, cutover approach, and risks named with owners rather than listed generically.
Fixed-price migration proposal.
With change management scoped in at 12% to 18% and a managed-services option priced from the start, not raised after go-live.
Adoption measured at ninety days, not assumed
Smartsheet for Project & Portfolio Management
We wouldn’t have gotten to where we are today without Optimum. Optimum spent time with us to gain a good understanding of our processes and where our bottlenecks were.
Smartsheet Project and Resource Management
The team and communication – they were by far the best vendors that we work with and ultimately did great work for us.
Application Development for Real Estate
Optimum has become part of our team and the collaboration with them has been fantastic. It was the combination of skills and how they communicated that ensured the success of our software development project.
Four lines decide what a migration costs.
Most budgets contain one.
Moving the data is usually the smallest line. The larger figures sit in licensing at full seat count, including the Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses the Planner Agent requires; in the extension work your process needs because no platform ships your governance model; and in the change program that decides whether anyone uses the result. The assessment prices all four before you choose a destination.
For Texas agencies: Planner Premium and Power Platform work is available under our DIR Microsoft Services MSA, and COTS destinations under our DIR COTS resale vehicle. The assessment is a procurement-safe first step under a contract you already hold.
Book a 30-minute Platform Fit Review
Questions and answers
What is a Platform Migration Assessment?
A fixed-fee engagement that analyzes your PMO estate, scores its complexity, recommends a destination with written rationale, models licensing and total cost, and produces a migration plan and risk register. It runs about a month and costs $5,000, fixed.
What replaced Project Online?
Microsoft positions Planner Premium as the successor. It suits many mid-complexity PMOs already inside Microsoft 365, but Microsoft has stated it is not matching the feature depth of specialized portfolio platforms, so portfolio-heavy estates often land better on Smartsheet.
Does Planner Premium require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license?
The Planner Agent does. It is a separate per-seat cost that should be modeled at full headcount before a destination is chosen.
How do you stay neutral if you are both a Microsoft and a Smartsheet partner?
We deliver production work on every destination we can recommend, so no single outcome is better for our practice. A meaningful share of our assessments recommend the smaller engagement for us, and the rationale is written down so you can challenge it.
Can we buy the assessment under a contract vehicle?
Yes. Planner Premium and Power Platform work is available under our DIR Microsoft Services MSA, and COTS destinations under our DIR COTS resale vehicle. Texas agencies can proceed without a new procurement.
What happens in the fit review?
Thirty minutes with a consultant who has run these migrations. You describe the estate and the constraints; we tell you which two destinations are genuinely in play and what the assessment would need to resolve. There is no deck.
What happens after the assessment?
You own the deliverables regardless of what you decide next. If you proceed, the fixed-price migration proposal includes change management at 12% to 18% and a managed-services option priced from the start.