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Central Desktop is a hosted online project collaboration and management tool. It is easily the best tool that I’ve tested and I’ve chosen it for a couple of our company projects.

The layout and intuitiveness are excellent. From a user’s perspective there is a very clear division between personal tasks, calender entries, etc. and those related to group projects. Likewise for administrators there is a clear distinction between global administration, project administration and administrators’ own tasks, calender entries, etc. This division seems so simple yet has been lacking in other tools that I’ve tested.

Central Desktop comes in two main flavours: Team & Corporate. Both offer more of less the same project level features. The Corporate Plan adds SSL security, tagging, customisation options, API access and more disk space/user/workspace options. It also allows administrators to distinguish between internal users and external users. The main advantage of the latter is that company specific information can be shared with internal users only. I’m not sure that this is incredibly useful feature but we’ll see.

The main features available for project collaboration/management are:

Forum

• Multiple category levels
• Rich text editor for discussion topics
• Attach files to discussions
• Post to a forum via email
• Etc.

Blog

• Create categories
• Rich text editor
• Attach files
• Etc.

Document Management

• Nested folder structure (multiple levels)
• Upload files or create documents using online editors
• Add web page snapshots and links via browser plug-in
  (haven’t found a way to add these manually, which is a little odd)
• Versioning with check-out/check-in system
• Document status determines what actions can be performed
• Various upload options (single file, multiple, drag and drop)
• Etc.

Tasks

• Multiple categories
• Assign tasks to team members
• Etc.

Calender

• iCal feed
• Add meetings directly into Outlook
• Invite others
• Etc.

Team Contacts

• Contact details for each team member
• Create customised listing views
• Etc.

Custom Tabs

• Tabs can be created for any page. This is an incredibly useful feature and allows for extensive customisation, certainly when coupled with the “create your own databases” option

Create your own databases

• A wonderful feature that allows you to build as many databases as you like. You simply create your own list of fields using the built in templates (text, two line text, drop down list, upload, etc.) and click “create.” It is that easy! You can then add the new database as a custom tab.

Most of the above features also have a range of communication options: subscriptions, notifications, RSS feeds, emails from within the system, etc.

I’ve only touched the surface of what is available in Central Desktop. The nicest thing about the tool is that it offers a good level of customisation (design and features) for administrators, yet the interface remains clean and simple to use. This is not an easy balance to strike and Central Desktop should be congratulated for this.

The tool does have a few drawbacks:

• Firstly, it is only available as a hosted solution. This was and still is a problem for me. The first couple of projects that I’ve created do not need a very high level of security but I’m wary of using the tool for more sensitive projects. The optional “security pack” doesn’t address my concerns and in any case security should be built in to these tools and not sold as an option!! With hosted tools what I’m mainly concerned about is the integrity of the provider. I want to see systems in place that ensure that their employees cannot access my data. A check box in the administration system and a privacy statement is not enough… I’d also like to see some third party companies offering security audits for such SaaS providers.
• Secondly, the rights management for users is not fine grained enough. If I take the database feature as an example. Users without Edit rights can still modify database fields. This shouldn’t be possible and goes beyond collaboration and into administration.
• Thirdly, adding new users is too difficult. The emphasis is put on users to create their own profils and manage their own passwords. I would prefer to allocate passwords and have the option to allow a project manager to edit team profiles. The latter can in fact be done but this involves giving this user the rights to manage company information as well….very strange!!

These few problems aside, the is a great system and is a long way ahead of the competition. It’s no wonder that they’ve just received another 7 million dollars in venture capital!

Before closing my short review, I should also mention that plug-ins are also available for online meetings and salesforce.

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Google Sites used to be the online application JotSpots. It is a very simple tool for creating collaborative web sites. It can’t really be described as project management but it has some collaborative features that could be useful for families, associations or small businesses. The tool allows you to build a web site by adding standard web pages, document management pages, lists/tasks pages and dashboard (mix of features) pages. The features set is increased immensely by the possibility to embed or link to Google documents, photos, gadgets, etc. The drawbacks are that you need to have a Google account to access the system, you need to be using other Google tools to really take advantage of the features set, and all users have the same rights.

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Project Spaces is a hosted online project management tool. It is refreshing simple to use. Each project contains the following functionalities: announcements (blog), calender, tasks, documents, discussion and contacts. All of these features are very easy to use and effective. The documents section has a slight drawback in that you are limited to two levels of folders. Another criticism would be that the system asks if you wish to update users after every change, which becomes annoying. The latter are small points however and shouldn’t detract from what is a nice tool. The version I tried was limited to one project and I’d be interested in trying a multi-project version before taking any decisions. The other bonus point is that the development team are happy to create customised tabs should you have need for additional features.

The drawback may be the price. It is simple and easy to use, but some would argue that the price is high for such a simple system.

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DeskAway is very well done. It is probably the best I’ve seen so far for my requirements. The drawback is that it is only available as a hosted solution and I’m worried about data security.

The design is clean, well laid out and results in a highly intuitive system. Help notes and videos are available in each section should you get stuck. Features offered by project are: milestones, tasks, issues, timesheet, document management, collaborative documents, team directory, forum and reports.

Milestones, tasks and issues all work well. The document management section allows for the creation of one level of folders, versioning, meta data (description) and comments. Simple but well done. The forum feature however is a little over simplistic, with no text editors and no possibility for attachments. The blog is in the main section and is independant of projects - a great pity as it works well. Most project features give you the possibility to alert team members via email when something changes.

As well as a blog the main section also contains global and personal contact lists, team members for all projects, site search and a personal calender.

I’m very tempted by this system but worried about security and longevity. I’d also like to tweak a few things, which obviously can’t be done with a hosted, standard solution.

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