activeCollab – Enterprise Collaboration Tool Review
Posted on 20. Oct, 2009 by Abha in Reviews
activeCollab is a project management tool by A51. It’s open source version was launched in 2006 by one of the founding members of A51 (which formally came into existence in 2007). A51 was born with the objective of developing a commercial version of activeCollab and an added option of being able to install the solution at the client’s end.
activeCollab comes in 2 licensing versions, one called Small Biz ($249) and the other Corporate ($499). Both licenses have unlimited number of users and projects and are perpetual – you pay once and use for life. There are however annual support and upgradation fees. They also offer a 30 day (post purchase) refund policy. Corporate version adds some advanced tools, like better task management, a tool for collaborative writing, calendar, time tracking etc. on top of the Small Biz features.
activeCollab can be customized as per specific requirement as the full source code is provided with purchase of either license.
We found an interesting assortment of roles and permissions that could be granted to users. System rules included options like Administrator, Client Company Manager, Project Manager, Member etc. Project roles could be defined by the administrator which is great as it invests a lot of powerful options in the hands of the Project Manager / Administrator. There is also an added option of creating new system based roles.
We found the interface to be user friendly and easy to navigate. It was easy getting around and the tabbed interface made all essential elements very accessible.
Milestones, Discussions, Files, Calendar, Pages, Tickets, Time and People are the key elements associated with projects. Reminders and RSS feeds can be set for all of these.
-Milestones sync well with the inbuilt calendar and iCalendar.
-Discussions can be categorized, associated with milestones and also files can be attached to discussions.
-Mutliple files can be uploaded in one shot, tagged, categorized and linked to milestones.
-Pages are like Wiki pages and facilitate collaboration and discussions amongst team members. Definitely an essential element in any project management solution, but surprisingly missing from most!
-Tickets are essentially tasks. Time can directly be tracked on each of these and also put into relevant baskets like billable to client etc.
activeCollab is completely extensible and some of its current modules (at an added cost ) in the offering are an enhanced project planning module, Chronicle – desktop tool that can directly submit time into activCollab, Reports module, acGarage – housekeeping service etc.
But for those who can’t or don’t want to pay for the new activeCollab version, project’s last open source release, version 0.7.1. called ProjectPier.
In summary activeCollab has some very desirable features and we’d say it definitely features on the must evaluate list for anyone looking at deploying at a project management solution.
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I have used ActiveCollab for a while and i really like it.
Thanks for your comment Jimi.
I feel activeCollab has some very strong project management features, however am still evaluating their offerings on collaboration. What has your experience been on this?
we use it at our local government (800+ users) for mid to big projects, and it fits perfectly our needs! Great stuff.