If your PMO still runs on Microsoft Project Online or legacy EPM components, the clock is now officially ticking. Microsoft has confirmed that Project Online will retire on 30 September 2026, with new sales for Project Online-only SKUs ending on 1 October 2025. At the same time, Project for the web and its Teams apps are being retired in August 2025 and folded into the new Microsoft Planner experience.

For project‑intensive organizations, this is not just a product change—it is a strategic decision point. Do you downgrade to lighter work‑management tools, or move to a modern project portfolio management (PPM) platform designed for governance, scale, and real-time control?

PlusInfosys, together with PMPeople, offers a clear answer for PMOs, CIOs, and business leaders who need more than task boards and basic timelines.

The Microsoft EPM Shift

Microsoft’s roadmap is now centered on Planner (basic and premium) plus complementary services like Loop, Project Operations, and Azure DevOps. Project for the web is being absorbed into Planner Premium, and Project Online is on a fixed retirement date with no read‑only mode and no data access after shutdown.

This new stack is excellent for team‑level collaboration and lightweight project tracking, but even Microsoft and partner ecosystem articles acknowledge that Planner and related tools are not a like‑for‑like replacement for Project Online’s advanced portfolio, resource, and reporting capabilities.

Why Standing Still Is Risky

For organizations that have invested years into Project Online and Microsoft EPM:

  • Hard stop on service: After 30 September 2026, Project Online will no longer be available, and you cannot access your projects or data within the service.
  • Short planning window: End of sale in October 2025 means roughly a one‑year window to select, test, and fully migrate to a new platform before the shutdown.
  • Aging architecture: Project Online’s SharePoint‑based architecture is cited by Microsoft as a constraint for delivering modern, AI‑powered features and real‑time collaboration.

PMOs with hundreds of active projects, complex workflows, and critical historical data cannot leave this decision to the last minute.

What Serious PMOs Still Need

While Planner and basic project tools cover tasks, many of —EPC and infrastructure owners, professional services firms, engineering and IT services, and enterprise PMOs—require capabilities that go far beyond boards and simple Gantt charts:

  • Portfolio‑level governance and prioritization across dozens or hundreds of projects
  • Resource capacity planning and utilization across business units
  • Cost, benefit, and P&L control at project and portfolio level
  • Standardized, auditable status reporting for sponsors, regulators, and external partners
  • Cross‑organization collaboration (owners, EPCs, PMCs, vendors) with one version of the truth
  • Support for predictive, agile, and hybrid delivery methods in the same portfolio

This is exactly the gap where a modern, governance‑centric PPM platform like PMPeople is a better fit than simply “moving everything to Planner”.

PMPeople: Governance-First PPM for the Project Economy

PMPeople is a project, program, and portfolio management platform designed around roles, governance, and real‑time insight—not just task execution. It delivers a modern alternative to traditional tools like Microsoft Project and Primavera by focusing on collaboration, data‑driven decisions, and digital trust.

Key capabilities relevant for organizations moving off Microsoft EPM include:

  • Role‑based UX for 12 project roles
    Each stakeholder—Sponsor, PMO, Portfolio Manager, Program Manager, Project Manager, Functional Manager, Team Member, and others—gets a dedicated interface that surfaces only what matters to them, minimizing training and adoption friction.
  • Real‑time portfolio governance
    Live dashboards give CIOs, PMOs, and executives cross‑portfolio visibility into cost, schedule, risk, and benefit realization, with drill‑down from portfolio to program, project, and work package.
  • AI‑driven forecasting
    Predictive analytics highlight schedule slips and budget overruns early, enabling proactive decisions instead of reactive firefighting.
  • Blockchain‑secured reporting
    Status reports and payment events are stored with tamper‑evident records, providing a verifiable audit trail for sponsors, regulators, and cross‑organizational partners.
  • Processless onboarding
    PMPeople is intentionally “process‑less”: it embeds professional standards (PMBOK, PRINCE2, PM²) without forcing heavy upfront configuration or long training cycles.
  • End‑to‑end lifecycle coverage
    From project intake and prioritization to execution, benefit tracking, and closing, PMPeople centralizes charters, milestones, work packages, risks, resources, timesheets, expenses, and financial events.

In short, PMPeople gives you the governance and visibility that Project Online delivered—plus AI, blockchain trust, and multi‑organization collaboration that Project Online’s legacy architecture could not easily support.

Why PlusInfosys Is the Right Partner

PlusInfosys is not just an implementation partner; it has been a core technology partner behind PMPeople itself. In a published case study, PlusInfosys describes how it helped design and build PMPeople as a cloud‑based, multi‑role collaboration platform aligned with PMBOK, PRINCE2, and other standards.

The engagement focused on:

  • Creating a unified platform that supports 12 distinct stakeholder roles—from requesters to PMOs—across web and mobile interfaces
  • Ensuring standards compliance with major project management frameworks while keeping the UX simple and scalable
  • Delivering capabilities like multi‑role collaboration, blockchain‑enabled portfolio management, and comprehensive project analytics in a SaaS architecture

This means PlusInfosys combines two critical strengths for Microsoft EPM customers:

  1. Deep product knowledge of PMPeople’s architecture and roadmap
  2. Hands‑on experience building enterprise‑grade, role‑centric PPM solutions at scale

For Indian enterprises—especially in infrastructure, EPC, and services—this combination is ideal for a low‑risk, high‑impact migration away from Project Online.

Migration Paths from Microsoft EPM to PMPeople

Every environment is different, but a typical path for organizations moving from Project Online / Project Server to PMPeople can follow these stages, aligned with Microsoft’s announced dates:

  1. Assessment and roadmap
    • Inventory existing Project Online / EPM usage (projects, portfolios, custom fields, workflows, reports).
    • Identify dependencies on SharePoint workflows, Power BI reports, Excel‑based reporting, and integrations.
  2. Target design with coexistence
    • Define how portfolios, programs, and roles will map into PMPeople’s role‑based model.
    • Plan a coexistence phase where Project Online remains live while PMPeople progressively takes over governance and reporting.
  3. Data and process migration
    • Move master data (projects, portfolios, structures, baselines) into PMPeople.
    • Recreate or improve key reports and dashboards using PMPeople’s live portfolio views and, where needed, BI tools.
  4. Change management and enablement
    • Onboard PMO, portfolio managers, and sponsors first, then project managers and team members—leveraging PMPeople’s low‑training UX.
    • Use PMPeople’s role‑based dashboards and AI insights to replace manual reporting cycles.
  5. Retirement and optimization
    • Decommission Project Online before its September 2026 retirement, ensuring all critical historical data and reporting needs are covered in PMPeople.
    • Iterate governance, KPIs, and automation once the new platform is stable.

PlusInfosys can support each phase with assessment workshops, migration tooling, integrations with Microsoft 365 (Teams, Planner, Power BI), and ongoing optimization tuned to your sector.

What This Means for Your PMO

The retirement of Microsoft Project Online and the consolidation of Project for the web into Planner mark a clear pivot toward lighter, collaboration‑first work management. For many teams, that will be enough. But if your organization runs capital‑intensive projects, complex programs, or multi‑vendor delivery models, you cannot afford to lose enterprise‑grade PPM and governance.

PMPeople, delivered and implemented by PlusInfosys, gives you a modern, AI‑driven, and governance‑first alternative that aligns with global standards, supports multi‑role collaboration, and is built for cross‑organization transparency.

If you want to explore a concrete roadmap for replacing Microsoft EPM / Project Online in your environment, PlusInfosys can help you evaluate your current landscape, design your PMPeople target state, and plan a smooth migration before the 2026 deadline.