Celoxis
Clexosis is as close as I’ve got so far to finding a system that matches my requirements. It is available as a hosted of self-hosted solution and is aimed at PMEs. I found the system to be laid out in a logical way and the options to add/remove elements from the home page and hide elements on the main menu were nice touches. Each project gets the following tools: tasks and billing management, a forum and a document management tool. Tasks are handled well and can be reviewed in a number of ways (Gantt, by calender, etc.). The forum is simple but effective. The best tool here is the document management section, which allows for the creation of folders at multiple levels, uploading of one or many documents (included uploading and automatic unzipping of ZIP files) and the listing of web addresses within folders. Access control settings can be applied to individual documents and folders. Drawbacks are that there is no visible folder structure so one is obliged to navigate via the rather small breadcrumb trail and there is no versioning.
I had trouble working out the permissions for users. In the end I decided that there were only two levels: Project Manager/Manager and Client. This was a stopper for me as Project Managers could do too much and clients too little. Once again it a system designed for one business to manage multiple client projects. If this is what you are after then I’d give it a whirl.
Tags: project management
June 14th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Just want to point out that there is version control on documents. There is also a discussion area on documents. You can add documents and folders to your favorites and you receive email notifications when new documents are added or when new versions are checked in.
You must be already aware that client can do the following: 1) view tasks 2) add their comments on tasks 3) participate in workflows (e.g. change request, client approval, issue tracking) 4) collaborate on documents 5) participate in forums.
What would you have liked in the Client collaboration? I would like to know.
June 14th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Hello Nikhil,
Thanks for your comments. I should point out that my reviews are done very quickly so I can miss things sometimes. From what I remember and from my comments above, I was very happy with the collaboration features of this product. The thing that held me back was user management. Your product seems to be oriented towards one company serving multiple clients. Therefore you have logically chosen to give project managers and managers full/nearly full rights and clients viewing rights. I need to allow the ‘client’ companies to participate in projects. Our business is looking for a solution that will allow us to collaborate with people outside of our company. The task/billing approach is less important than the flow of information.
June 17th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Hello,
In Celoxis, clients can indeed participate and not just view data. Clients can participate in project workflows i.e. it’s not just ‘view only’. They can even start a project workflow. For example, a change request. Also, they can upload/download documents, add comments on documents, and participate in forums. Clients can even add comments on tasks. And you must already know that client login accounts are free.
Also, you can set up a client hierarchy (to assign multiple persons to a project). The client hierarchy could be for example: ABC Company and in it have joe, mary, etc.
Is there anything specific that you want?
June 17th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Hello Nikhil,
I’ve just been back into your demo to have a look at this. It is the client page layout that confused me. I thought it was just a report and didn’t realise that I could go into projects.
I do have a couple of comments about the projects section. When I go into a project I have tabs for Details, Folders, Forums and Processes. It is most disorientating that the tabs disappear when I click to enter one of these areas. The tiny breadcrumb trail at the top just isn’t intuitive enough for the average manager to find his way back out. Talking of size, why is everything so small? The usability would be improved massively by an increasing in font size, color coded tabs/areas and some persistent page elements for navigation.
Thanks for your comments and for allowing me the opportunity to give some feedback. For information, I’ve chosen Central Desktop for a couple of my projects. It has a very intuitive and well laid out interface.