anglaisaparis.com

First of all my congratulation to the team behind WebAsyst. It is a lovely example of what Web 2.0 applications should be like. Ajax is used sensibly, the design is clean and clear, and the stripped down applications have just about the right level of functionality.

WebAsyst is however a little lost. It doesn’t seem to know what it is yet but once it finds its direction then watch out! The full version currently contains document management, contact lists, project management (tasks), notes, photo manager, email client, issue tracker, a collaborative writing tool and an e-commerce tool….whew!! These are also available as stand-alone modules and I cannot stress enough how well these things are written. Where the full version falls down is the interaction between them. In my case I’m looking to tie together the projects (task lists) with files, issues, contacts, collaborative writing and two applications that they haven’t yet got (blog and forum). They have however made a start by linking individual projects to specific project folders within the document management section. Lets hope this is a sign of things to come. Without a doubt this is one to watch. The other upside is that a very reasonably priced self-hosted version is available.

Well done guys and girls! Spread the word!!!

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Proworkflow is available as a hosted or self-hosted solution. It is the most professional offering that I’ve seen to date. It is orientated to a business managing multiple client projects and focuses mainly on task/time/budget management. There is no forum, blog or document management area. It is not at all orientated towards online collaboration. It is nicely done though and the company offers customisation services.

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Wrike turns out to be a glorified task list that can be updated via email. The solution may be hosted or self-hosted. Seems to be nicely done if this is what you’re after.

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This solution pops up everywhere (Google, reviews, blogs, etc.) But as the web site is full of corporate b*llsh*t blah blah (likewise the ”demo”) then it’s virtually impossible to work out whether it’s a valid solution or not. NEXT!!!

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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. 

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I had a very quick test run of the eStudio tool. I know that looks are not everything, but it has a very 1990s techy developed feel to it. This is also reflected in the page layouts and forms that reminded me of PHPAdmin… The overal result is poor and will send the average manager running in the opposite direction. However, projects are easy to set up and in reality the system is fairly easy to use. It lacks functionality however, certainly for document management (no versioning, no folder creation) and milestones (which can’t be assigned dates). It has a few simple but useful collaboration features such as chat, forums, etc. The drawback is that these are at the parent level when they should be at the project level. This one isn’t for me…next!

PS. eStudio is offered as a hosted or self-hosted solution (you really have to dig around the web site for the latter, called eStudio Fortress.)

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I didn’t test Smooth Projects but simply watched their demo. It looks to be a task/time/client management tool for one business working on projects for multiple clients. Some interactive features but not really a collaborative work environment.

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Copper is offered as a hosted or self-hosted solution. It appears to be be oriented towards agencies working on multiple client accounts. It is focused on task/time/client management. It is not very interactive and has no blog or forum feature. It is more of a tracking tool. If you’re looking for these features then it seems to be well done with a simple, intuitive interface.

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Teamwork is offered as a hosted or self-hosted project management tool. The interface is poorly layed out and not very intuitive. It took me over ten minutes to work out how to create a project and then I only managed to do that by going back to the opening splash screen. The tool mainly seems to be orientated to task management. There is no forum or blog. There is a calender and document repository. The latter has limited functionality with no folder creation option and no version history. Gave up at this point… 

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Comindwork is offered as a hosted or self-hosted web-based project management tool. It offers basic project management features for multiple projects, including tasks, blog, wiki, milestones/calender, tickets and document management. 

The experience started well with some simple customisation offered (logo, company details, change the skin, etc.) Creating projects and adding team members was also simple. Things became more complicated when trying to actually run projects. The blog, which is more like a forum, is wiki based and for non technical users this is quite disorientating. For example, I included an attachment and was surprised when the path of the link was inserted in the middle of my body text. It is also not possible to insert pictures. The document management section is also too techy. For example, you cannot include spaces in folder names and some system folders (for blog and wiki posts) share the same space. There is also no versioning function for uploaded documents.

I stopped testing at this point as it was clear that it didn’t meet my requirements. The system is fairly expensive for something so techy orientated. Such levels of functionality can easily be obtained with free solutions. An upside is that the people behind it seem keen to provide services, so some of these niggles could be ironed out with some consultancy time (and money!)

The search continues…

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