Major Differences between Project Server and Project Proffessional

Question

Hi,
We are planning to use MS Project with SharePoint. In the initial research i came to know that we will need MS Project Professional to syn task lists on SharePoint. We are looking at a solution where all the Project Leaders (Across the world) can update
their project statuses online using SharePoint (right now this is being done manually).
I then came to know that we can access MS Project on SharePoint using MS Project Server. I am now not able to decide on which one to choose. So I want to know the major differences between MS Project server
and MS Project professional. Which one would full fill my requirements. I cannot limit my requirements to only updates. but also would want to add some extra features like Site Mail box and Project Issues log, so that my Project Management is more effective
and is better.
Please answer at earliest
Regards
Srikar Gundabathula 

Answer 1

Srikar --
Microsoft Project Server 2013 is an enterprise project management (EPM) application in which all data is stored in a SQL Server database.  This EPM software application allows organizations to manage dozens, hundreds, or thousands of projects and
to manage dozens, hundreds, or thousands of resources as well.  To use Project Server 2013, your PMs would each need a copy of Microsoft Project Professional 2013 and would use this software to plan their projects and to save and publish the projects
to Project Server.  Your team members and executives would use their Internet Explorer to access the web-based user interface to Project Server 2013 called Project Web App, or PWA for short.
In PWA, your team members can use either The Timesheet page or the Tasks page to report progress on their task assignments.  In PWA, your PMs would be able to see the updates from their team members and be able to approve those updates.  Once
approved, the task updates are applied to the appropriate project so that the PM does NOT have to retype the updates.  For executives, PWA offers the Project Center page which shows the portfolio of published projects in Project Server, where they can
see the current status of each project.
Beyond this, Project Server also includes a Business Intelligence Center where your Project Server administrator can create very customized reports for various audiences.  In brief, there is a LOT of power in Project Server 2013.  If you think
you might want to use it, you have two options:  (1) Buy the software, install it yourself, set it up yourself, and maintain it yourself, or (2) contract with Microsoft to use Project Online, which is a hosted version of Project Server 2013 that is maintained
by Microsoft in the cloud.
You can learn even more about Project Server 2013 at the following link:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/project-portfolio-management-for-the-enterprise-project-server-FX103802061.aspx
Hope this helps.
Dale A. Howard [MVP]