Cool Online Project Management Webapps VII

I have writeen some (positive) lines about Basecamp. However I found this website http://www.whybasecampsux.org/ and I think it's fare to share it with you. If you are considering Basecamp as an online project management solution for you or your company perhaps you should visit it because as any other webapp Basecamp has its own issues. You can find there a big list of alternatives to Basecamp. You can also read my posts about some of them.

Cool Online DB & Reporting

Zoho has surprised once again as they launched a new webapp called Zoho DB & Reporting. This webapp "Provides database and reporting functionalities coupled with web based features like sharing, tagging, publishing and more..." as you can read at Zoho's website. To understand what you can do with it I recommend you to watch the demo video here. I found the SQL support particularly interesting.

Cool Contact Manager Webapp

I found this post at Wired's Compiler blog about the new Plaxo: "Plaxo has launched a brand new version of its popular online contact manager app as well as new and improved desktop clients. Plaxo 3.0, as the company calls the updates, boasts a number of synchronization improvements and aims to be your one-stop address book and contact manager.". The post goes on and I invite you to read it if you're a fan of Plaxo or if you are curious about it.

I tried the new Plaxo and I found it more interesting and specially useful than the older one because for instance it enables you to sync with your personal Google Calendar and your professional Outlook calendar between others. Plaxo also came up with Pulse some kind of data feeder that enables you to see and share feeds with your contacts. If you add your blog feed to your own profile Pulse notifies your contacts when you make a new post! This service is quite similar to what you see in Facebook when a friend of yours updates it's info.

I probably will use more the new Plaxo than the older one because the new sync features are great! I was expecting these kind of features from Google but Plaxo was faster! By the way Plaxo supports OpenID! Great!

Check out this video demo regarding the new Plaxo.

Cool Online Project Management Webapps VI

TaskBin is a simple yet powerful task management webapp that can be useful for teams that rely on to do lists to get things done. I got this e-mail from Preetu Gupta from Mangospring.com about TaskBin.com:

"Hi Sergio ,I just wanted to drive your kind attention to TaskBin.com a Group Tasks Management Tool for managing team and group To Do List.Being a startup venture we are typically small teams( at times spread across locations). We work closely and have numerous tasks going back and forth often over IM or email. Complex project management tools are fine but often do not help maintain a light weight queue of day to day tasks. We came up with TaskBin trying to address some of these pain areas. We make tall claims of being different and one of our kind, allowing users to work in a group setting. In TaskBin, all your tasks are visible to others and can be shared. Other members can add new tasks or edit tasks already there. It, avoids the hassle of dates and has simple priorities like Now, Today, Tomorrow, Sometime This Week, and Sometime Soon. ".

I gave TaskBin.com a try and I found it surprisingly simple and useful. It needs some work though and I would perhaps integrate it with OpenID if I was developing it. After all one standalone app can benefit from OpenID because, as I've said before, entry costs for new users are smaller (don't need to create a new username and password for every site). I invite you to give it a try!

If you want read more about Online Project Management Webapps check out my previous posts about it.

Cool Online Project Management Webapps V

Lighthouse from Artifact Software is not just another online project management webapp. Actually Ligthhouse is a specific breed of online project management tools called Software Development Management (SDM) tools. They claim to be the first of that breed!

One can read the at Artifact Software's website that "Lighthouse is the industry's first Software Development Management (SDM) system, fusing together all of the tools used in software development projects. Lighthouse includes everything needed to manage, monitor and measure requirements, tasks, defects, costs, schedules, change requests, documents, notifications, and much more.".

Lighthouse has a big list of features such as: Notifications, Bug Tracking, Change Requests Dashboards, Document Management, IDE Integration*, Issue Tracking, Requirements Resource Management, Task Management, Test Management, Timesheets, User Roles & Security, Custom APIs*, Custom Branding, Custom Dashboards*, Custom Fields*, Custom Labels*, Custom Methodology (including Agile & RUP), Custom Reports, Integrated Project Management*. The asterisk "*" means coming soon!

Going a little deeper about the Integrated Project Management (IPM) feature I read that it will let you create project plans using either Lighthouse (Premimum) or Microsoft Project. This sounds interesting because there are a lot of Microsoft Project users out there. This IPM feature will also allow you to "Easily create tasks, dependencies, and schedules. Monitor with GANTT charts or advanced reporting, and quickly identify schedule and cost variances.". Sounds great doesn't it? I'll be waiting for all these coming features!

I found Lighthouse from Artifact Software when I was looking for more info about Lighthouse from Active Reload. These two webapps have the same name and play in the same field and I think that's a little bit odd... Don't you think? I don't know who came up with the name first but one of them or both should change! My next post will be about Ligthhouse from Active Reload!

Cool Online Project Management Webapps IV

I would like to talk about another online project management webapp: wrike! This one was suggested by a reader of this blog after my first post about this topic. After that I made two more posts. You can read them here: second post and third post or you can just check the content under the label project_management.

So what do I have to say about Wrike? It offers really nice features such as creating tasks through e-mail, useful gantt charts and reporting (mainly task related reports/lists)! For me it lacks a basic feature such as time tracking between others. They don't support OpenID. To wrap up I think Wrike is interesting if you want to manage tasks by e-mail (send an e-mail that creates a task) and so far as I know they are the only ones offering that feature. It's not enough to make me switch from Basecamp.

Cool Money Management Online Webapps

Need help managing your money? Get a webapp and... much more at Wesabe: "Wesabe is a community site that makes managing your money easy. Enjoy secure access to all your accounts, painless tools for taking control of your money and reaching your goals, and members’ tips and discussions to help you find the best values.".

Wesabe doesn't support your bank or you just want to easily track your expenses? Don't worry, try Gastus: "Every month you spend lots of money ... with Gastus you can keep track of your daily expenses.Gastus offers an incredibly easy way to know exactly how much you've paid every month.You can categorize expenses by types and concepts, and make nice pie charts and graphs to analyze your data. ". I am currently using Gastus because my bank isn't supported by Wesabe. Gastus is really simple and it works with OpenID! That's a best practice!

Gastus is too simple and you need something more powerful and refreshing? Try Mint because they are "refreshing money management". I can't decide between Mint and Wesabe so I recommend you Howard Lindzon's post "Mint.com vs. Wesabe.com…Cage/Cat Fight".

Cool Online Project Management Webapps III

I finally made up my mind about the online project management webapp I should use to support some of my projects. The decision wasn't easy but at the end it was not so hard at all. One of my prerequisites was the time tracking feature: GoPlan doesn't have it yet, Zoho Projects has it, online Collab doesn't have it yet (offline version has) and Basecamp is the best at it. Although Basecamp is more expensive than Zoho Projects after trying both I chose Basecamp because I'm almost sure my users will prefer the look and feel of Basecamp. If you're looking for something really cheap then you should go for Zoho Projects or Collab.

Cool Online Project Management Webapps II

Found another interesting Project Management Webapp. It's called Collab and it's the hosted version of the open source collaboration tool Active Collab. This webapp looks great, it's very simple to use and it's really really cheap ($10/month for the richest plan)! It would suit my basic needs if it had a time tracking feature. I sent them an e-mail asking if they are considering it.

They state at their website they are the cost-effective alternative do GoPlan or Basecamp:
"Collab provides a hosted version of the popular activeCollab open source collaboration tool. All you pay is a small monthly fee for hosting and we set up a fresh install of activeCollab complete with plenty of storage space, FTP access, and a customizable URL. If you've looked at other services such as GoPlan and Basecamp, Collab is a cost-effective alternative.".


Meanwhile I found this interesting post: Basecamp, activeCollab, and Goplan compared. This comparison isn't up to date because activeCollab is now also available as a hosted webapp as I mentioned above.

Cool Online Project Management Webapps

I found these cool project management webapps: Basecamp, Goplan and Zoho Projects. They aren't Microsoft Project but I think they are ok for someone doing basic project management.

Basecamp is the most popular of the three and it's probably the best choice, although not the cheapest. Goplan is a Basecamp clone and I say it because it also lookd great and I guess the features are very similar but I'm guessing because their website isn't very clear about features. Zoho projects is perhaps the most basic project management tool one can use but it's cheap and integrates with Zoho Writer, Sheet and Show.

I haven't decided which one I will use for managing my personal projects but it will be a tough call.

Cool Online ERP

If you think your company is ready to embrace something more than an online CRM then perhaps you should check out Netsuite and Workday.

According to Netsuite's website, Netsuite is a "Comprehensive Web-based solution for midsize businesses that integrates Accounting/ERP, CRM, Ecommerce and partner collaboration capabilities.".

"Workday is delivering the first on-demand alternative to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP); a new generation of solutions designed for today's dynamic, global businesses. " as one can read at Workday's website.

Cool Family Tree Builder Webapp

A couple of months ago I found Geni and I created an account. I think Geni is a very cool family tree builder and it is also very simple to use. And it's free! I don't know why more common social or even professional networking tools don't offer this family tree feature.

More about Geni from their website:

"Geni lets you create a family tree through our fun simple interface. You can expand your tree by adding relatives' email addresses. They will be invited to join your tree and can add other relatives. Your tree will continue to grow as relatives invite other relatives.

Each family member has a profile which can be viewed by clicking their name in the tree. This helps family members learn more about each other and stay in touch. Family members can also share photos and work together to build profiles for common ancestors.".

Although it's very cool and everything I didn't found it very useful once I built my family tree. Well, I got birthday reminders... Great!

Check out Geni's video demo.

Cool Business Plan Webapp

Although I didn't test it properly I thought I should share another cool webapp such as PlanHQ. In a nutshell and quoting their website PlanHQ helps you: " Bring your Business Plan to life - Make a plan, make it happen and track your progress". It looks cool and useful (for US purposes). I will test it when I have the chance to do it.

Cool Online CRM Webapps

Being a CRM enthusiast I am curious about everything that is CRM related. Nowadays every piece of software is going towards the Software as a Service (SaaS) approach. So it was no surprise for me when Microsoft announced they will directly offer their Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a service (SaaS). As far as I know Salesforce works just like that and now it will be followed by Microsoft Dynamics CRM. I don't know if Siebel is going this way or not. They play in a different league, at least for now.

But what has surprised me the most was these three cool CRM webapps that I have found: Zoho CRM, Highrise and Etelos CRM. From the three I have to say that for me the only one that can be called a true CRM is Zoho CRM because it has a lot of features that one expects to found in a CRM application (Sales & Marketing, Inventory Management, Customer Support & Service, Reports & Dashboards, Outlook Plugin). And guess what? The first three users are free and you only have to pay from the 4th user and up. I think this is a great marketing move from Zoho.

Highrise tracks contacts, communications, tasks and calendar and its design is really very stylish and user friendly (as I see it).

I have to be honest, I didn't explore Etelos CRM but I took a pick at their website and I found the most interesting feature about this wannabe CRM: iGoogle integration. They also integrate it with Windows Live. This is a very cool feature because I'm still expecting for Google to come up with a real contact management tool (perhaps when it integrates Gmail with orkut). Unfortunetly Google hasn't decided to come up with a CRM tool from their own. It would fit the Google Apps portfolio for sure!

Cool Google Docs & Spreadsheets Alternatives

I have been using Google Docs & Spreadsheets for a while but I think it lacks a lot of features and it's quite slow. I recognize though that it's great for real-time online collaboration. There is still a lot of work to be done so I can forget MS Office or OpenOffice office suites.

One of these days I decided to try Zoho Writer and Zoho Sheet and I was very impressed about it. It offers more features than Google Docs & Spreadsheets and it has a MS Office like environment with which I felt very familiarized. Now check this out: they have this Zoho plugin for MSOffice that lets you open your Zoho-online-stored documents inside MSOffice Word and Excel! And the changes you make while using MSOffice are reflected to your Zoho-online-stored documents. That is great and it actually worked because I have tried it!

When I thought I had seen them all I found ThinkFree. Their slogan or perhaps their vision goes like this: "the best online office on earth". It sounded promising and I signed up to try it. I chose to create a new word document and when I realized I thought I was inside MSOffice Word because the webapp interface was just like it! Remarkable stuff! However while using Thinkfree dashboard (folders and files management) I found some glitches which help me remind they are still offering their online office suite under beta stage.