Projity announced this week the beta release of OpenProj, an open source, on-demand project management application that the San Mateo, Calif.-based SaaS vendor says is a “complete replacement” of Microsoft Project and a perfect fit for SMBs.  

According to Projity CEO Marc O’Brien, OpenProj has a similar user interface and virtually identical functionality as Microsoft Project. The two applications are also interoperable, meaning OpenProj can open all native Microsoft Project files, and vice versa. 

As an open source application, OpenProj is downloadable over the Internet for free, compared with Microsoft Project’s licensing fee of $1,000. Making the switch to OpenProj from Project, therefore, costs nothing, O’Brien said.  

Still, can an open source application ever truly replace a long-entrenched Microsoft offering like Project? The odds are slim, to say the least. 

But O’Brien has high hopes for OpenProj. He believes SMBs will be attracted to OpenProj not just by its nonexistent price, but also by its compatibility across multiple platforms — Linux, Unix, Mac and Windows –- and its accessibility from any PC with an Internet connection. 

In addition, O’Brien said Microsoft’s market positioning of Project makes it vulnerable. 

“It’s interesting because Microsoft Project is part of the Office family of products, but it’s not bundled in any of their suites,” O’Brien points out. “We think that gives us an opening.” 

OpenProj is currently available in French, English and Spanish versions, but in a sign of Projity’s lofty worldwide ambitions, other foreign language versions, including Mongolian and Tibetan, are in the works, O’Brien said.   

Since its announcement at LinuxWorld in San Francisco on Tuesday, where he said it received a standing ovation, OpenProj is getting a “couple thousands downloads a day,” according to O’Brien. Ultimately, “We’re expecting between 7 and 11 million users very quickly,” O’Brien said. Lofty ambitions indeed. 

In a narrow sense, it is probably accurate to say that OpenProj can “replace” Project on any given PC or in any given SMB: It looks and sounds the same as Project and can perform all the same functions. But it is unlikely OpenProj will ever “replace” Project in the overall project management marketplace. With over 28 million registered users worldwide, Microsoft Project seems to have its heels dug in too deep for that.