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DeskAway – Enterprise Collaboration tool review

Posted on 04. Dec, 2009 by Abha in Reviews

Synage is an Indian web company founded in 2007 that delivers software as a service (SaaS) solutions to the global market. DeskAway,  a web-based on-demand project management  and collaboration tool  is their flagship product.

DeskAway offers varied pricing and plan options ranging from a free version (3 Projects and 5 users) to a fully packed version at $99 per month (unlimited projects and users, 25 GM storage, detailed reports, SSL security, backup, E-mail integration and more). All plans offer user rights options – you can see only what you are authorized to see.

We found the interface easy to use, clean and inviting. It was easy to get started without really digging deep into the How To tutorial /video and it was nice to see how tips and tutorials were generously placed on various pages but with the option of closing them all in one go in case you felt confident of finding your way around independently.

Always feel that a tabbed view makes an app largely clutter free and easy to navigate and at the same time allows a lot of features to be packaged in well. DeskAway scores high marks on this account and makes good use of a tabbed UI and frames.

Here’s a list of some of the interesting features:

-          Dashboard – Overall view of activity on all your projects. List of past and current tasks and also a list of tasks shared via E-mail. The right frame prominently displays the overdue tasks and milestones

-          Projects – Listing of projects and also a project calendar view. Tasks can be quickly added and updated from this view itself. All resources related to the task like milestones, files , timesheets etc. are directly accessible. Quickies and personal notes can also be added to any project. One can also view Work Reports that gives an overview on the state of completion of all projects and associated tasks/milestones. This report can be generated for specified time periods and projects as well.

-          Calendar – A monthly view on activities/tasks/milestones scheduled for each day of the month. This view however is rather basic and not very appealing. Tasks and personal notes can directly be added from the view as well.

-          Blogs – New blog posts can be created and shared with teams using this tool. One can also subscribe to RSS feeds here.

-          Search – one of the most useful features. Searches through all or selected sections. We however found the search to be rather slow! Also the search successfully located a file only when words used in the description tag were used and not when the actual filename (these were not specified in the description tag)… found that disappointing.

-          Reports – give a graphic view of the status on all projects. Interesting and useful feature

-          Status – Just like in Facebook you can update your current status on DeskAway. This helps your colleagues to know what you are working on

One suggestion for future roll outs of the product would be to incorporate wikis and truly make teams collaborative.

All in all we’d say these are a great set of well laid out project management tools. Great functionality and very useful reporting formats. DeskAway has come up with a good basket of offerings within 2 years of its inception at an enticing price point and is poised to take on established players like Basecamp, Zoho and others.

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.

Huddle – Enterprise Collaboration Tool Review

Posted on 08. Oct, 2009 by Abha in Reviews

Ninian Solutions is UK based company in action since 2006 that offers Huddle.net as an online collaboration tool. It offers a network of workspaces supported by a set of simple and secure project management, collaboration and document sharing tools.

Price plans range from free to $200 per month primarily differing on the number of workspaces, storage, web conferencing features and custom banding options. Security, support and conferencing features are bundled alongwith all plans. Huddle.net does not base costs on the number of users. There are unlimited number of users for all plan types which is great. Currently they have a one month free trial but this is a Limited period offering.

Signing up and getting started with Huddle.net is fairly simple. Glad they avoid the unnecessary complications like detailed sign up forms and restrictive passwords. The confirmation mail for activating the account was almost instantaneous and lead us to our new workspace with single click!

At first sight the dashboard seemed a bit intimidating, but on closer inspection we felt it to be well laid out and packed with a lot of useful features.

We found the design and interface easy to work with and largely self guiding. Liked the option of being able to invite multiple users to the workspace by simply filling in their email IDs on a simple invitation form rather than having to invite each person individually!

It was nice working with a tabbed interface – easy to navigate and quick to load on screen.

Creating and sharing files and documents was simple. Huddle.net allows the option of creating online Word and Excel docs using Zoho. This however was a little slow to work with (especially since everything else was loading so fast, you kindof get used to that kind of super service!). You can mail files directly from the workspace, in fact there’s also the option of zipping and attaching the files in the email.

Whiteboards and Discussion boards offer easy and effective collaboration options. The version control adds to the utility of Whiteboards. By default all members on the project have access to these sections, you cannot restrict access amongst team members.

Tasks can bet set according to date. Tried to a lot the task to an individual but surprisingly all in the team were getting selected. There seems to be a bug here. However there were no options for time tracking reports and task dependencies which was a big disappointment.

Also amiss is the integration with Google docs unlike many other project management tools. Though Huddle.net offers integration with Zoho, this is not as universally accepted as Google Docs and also has its own set of limitations.

Huddle.net offers an interactive feedback forum. What’s even better is a voting mechanism wherein users can vote on ideas/suggestions. Huddle representatives then respond to these ideas and also update the community on the status of the ideas that they pick up for implementation. It’s a good way for the Voice of the customer to reach Huddle.net.

In summary we felt that Huddle.net is a great tool with some noteworthy offerings. It definitely scores above its competitors on the collaboration front, but could do with sharpening some features on the project management side.

5PM – Enterprise Collaboration Tool review

Posted on 05. Oct, 2009 by Abha in Reviews

5PM is a web based project management solution from QG Software, a US based company founded in 2003. It is offered at price plans ranging from $18 – $175 per month, each primarily differing on number of users, storage and projects. There’s a 2 week trial period and also the option of creating customized plans as per specific client requirements.

5PM has a self guiding and friendly interface that is quick to load on screen (no download delays). It has good navigational features and a well defined project workflow. We particularly liked its dual panel layout and projects timeline.

E-mails have been integrated well with tasks in 5PM. This is a useful feature as it brings together 2 of the most important aspects of project related work – mails and the project management tool and thus shows a clear intent by the 5PM team of bringing together everything related to project work onto one common platform!

Visual cues and rollover hints make the tool very usable (especially for new users and team members). It’s easy to navigate and switch between projects, tasks, progress notes and time reporting/tracking. E.g. when adding a progress note you can also specify the time spent on a task, which is good coz most project management tools expect you to specifically go to the time tab then select the project and the respective task and the time spent on the same!

RSS feeds have been put to good use for frequently updating team members on all activities and progress related to a specific project.

5PM integrates well with Google Docs and iCalendar and offers the option of multiple time formats and zones to choose from.

The application specifically recommended for small business owing to its relatively moderate cost, ease of use and no requirement for any IT infrastructure. 5PM however, lacks advanced features for heavy business users like online chats, conferencing, task prioritization, custom branding etc.

5PM boasts of a flawless server uptime.
Website monitoring by Myserveralerts.com.

In summary, 5PM is on the must evaluate list for small and medium businesses with less than 100 active projects and limited file storage requirements.

CubeTree – Enterprise Collaboration Tool Review

Posted on 23. Sep, 2009 by Abha in Reviews

CubeTree  is an enterprise collaboration software service founded in 2008 that attempts to change the way employees interact and innovate especially in the context of large, geographically distributed companies.

CubeTree  is offered as a freemium service ranging from Basic (10 MB per user), Professional (1 GB per user  + $3 per user per month) to Enterprise editions (1 GB per user + $5 per user per month). The free Basic edition offers all functional features and gives the user an opportunity to get a good feel for the product and evaluate its usability based on a company’s specific requirements. Custom branding and security policies are available only to customers subscribing to the Enterprise edition.

Infoworld in their review stated CubeTree to be an impressive and secure cloud based enterprise collaboration tool. CubeTree’s collaboration tools (wikis, microblogging, blogs, file sharing, and user profiles) is a rich bundle of offerings.

 We recently reviewed CubeTree, Basic web version and here is what 20:20 Social staff thinks about the product

What we like ?

CubeTree is built on a social networking platform and offers micro-blogging features like status messages, follow/follower news feeds etc. The idea is to bring employees together to want to tell their colleagues what they are doing / what they are all about and through this generate curiosity and conversations amongst larger groups.

Some of the collaboration tools include wikis (with a version control, comparison and analytics for page views), file sharing, polls, quizzes etc.HR and Knowledge managers can use quizzes to impart corporate and client info in an effective manner. The in-built rewards system for the community, team shirts , options to follow colleagues or co-workers, photo tagging, polls are a refreshing mix of tools.

Wiki pages are well structured and can be leveraged as an effective knowledge sharing tool. Anyone can follow updates, add comments, and share wiki content. Creators have additional controls to lock the page from edits and to hide the content completely.

Cubetree offers seamless integration with Google Docs, Google Calendar, Adobe ConnectPro, Salesforce , TripIt, Twitter, Webex, Scribd, YouTube, Vimeo and more. It also offers iPhone, Blackberry and GTalk and Desktop clients.

What we did not like ?

When creating a new wiki page and saving it, it got lost somewhere on the site and. We could salvage it only after going through the site search. Ideally there should be a ready reference index to all active wiki pages on the network.

Assigning tasks and tracking team progress are good features, but surprisingly one can assign only a dateline and not a timeline to these!

A How To and FAQ section are conspicuously missing. If you get lost there’s no guidance on the site whatsoever.

Summary

CubeTree has a delightful bundle of offerings for enterprises that seriously want to embrace collaboration. It’s offerings for Project management, enterprise collaboration and  content management at the given price point make it stand out amongst competitors in this space.