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Vertabase is an online task/budget management tool that appears to be designed for one business to manage projects for multiple client. The interface is horrible. The screen is split in the middle using frames and as such you find yourself continually scrolling up and down to see the contents of the work frame, which is in the bottom half of the screen. Another issue is the system’s use of pop-up scripts to add information such as tasks. These scripts are blocked by most browsers and create confusion for users. In addition, after four attempts I gave up trying to add tasks as it just wouldn’t take. The third issue is with the menus, three are visible at the same time: global, project and sub-project - most confusing. And all of this for what is a very limited project features set: document management (one level of folders and versioning), task management, and reporting. Globally you have timesheets and other reporting options but very little for those actually trying to work on a project.

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5pm is a hosted task/document manager for multiple projects. The design is 100% Web 2.0 but as with many Web 2.0 applications the features don’t live up to the hype. The system handles multiple projects with each project associated with a list of tasks and files. The latter can not be organised into folders and there is no document versioning. The layout is unusual as other features such as reports, timelines and even users are global. Given the fact that all users can see all projects I wonder if it is oriented towards marketing agencies managing client projects.  Either way, they have some way to go to make this a viable solution - even for simple projects. The system appears to be in beta so perhaps they plan to address some of these issues.

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VPMi Professional is a hosted task/time/budget management tool. I didn’t spend much time with this one as it was clear from the outset that it is oriented towards reporting, focusing on task/time/budget management. Two versions are available, Express and Professional, the latter seems to be available as a self-hosted solution. I tested the Professional version. The interface is very attractive and managers get lots of fancy graphs to look at. Nearly everything can be transfered into Excel. Nice solution for the accountants/managers but no real features for those actually doing the work…next!

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Acunote appears to be an online task manager designed for team projects. I only did the quick tour as it doesn’t meet my needs so I have no further comments.

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