Thread

We are a small (3 people) web design group that needs to have a good place to organize our web projects. In the past we have used http://www.activecollab.com/ and while it has many, many features does not work well for us.

We want to:
Keep everybodies tasks organized - what’s done, what’s not who is responsible for what.
Break down larger projects into manageable chunks
Allow current clients to create/enter maintenance items
File upload and management - when a person creates file for a project we want to be able to upload those files for other on that same project.

What are people using out there? Any recommendations?

Basecamp - http://basecamphq.com/ - possibly the most useful tool I’ve ever used 😉

I suggest http://www.binfire.com . It is much more practical than Basecamp, it includes task management (WBS) and Gantt chart plus collaboration tools like real-time interactive whiteboard, collaborative document markup (PDF), Group chat and project control panel. All pages are live, and you can collaborate with your team seamlessly. It is a great online project collaboration tool!

You can also take a a look at DeskAway, its feature rich, easier and economical than most others.(http://www.deskaway.com)

Thanks for the link Ruchi

Our team used base camp for a few years, then switched to teamworkpm.net

Never looked back.  Great features and interface.

we used basecamp then activecollab and now back to basecamp again. neither are perfect. but we invite our clients to join the projects and the feedback is that they prefer basecamp so we switched back to it. we have the largest package available w/ basecamp due to the number of active projects we have at any given time. it has been reliable. because we have not seen a better product out there basecamp is my recommendation but it is not because i think it is fantastic. it’s just the best available. the nice thing is about all of the pm tools is that you do not have to get into a long term contract. you can try it and see how you like it. good luck!

Basecamp vote here.

i went through many of these systems and none really fitted. |So i rolled my own in it most basic form using CI - and its great for me. Not usable for any other business, but suits mine. It even runs through to the billing and does my tax return figures… so don;t exclude that option.

I am trying callabtiveat the present. I don’t like any of the pricing schemes out there for the cloud based systems.

I agree with many of the sentiments expressed here.  I have been using Basecamp and think it is missing some important features, especially for team collaboration ( e.g. Gantt charts), but it really shines when you get clients involved.  Client engagement is a really important feature for me - Basecamp allows you set to up a very clear and easy to understand list of To-Dos that include people assignments.  So, on the off-chance that a client does not meet a commitment :cool grin: you at least have it documented!

If you do not care about including clients, you are probably better off looking elsewhere.  Give this a look: http://www.zoho.com/projects/

I heard about Assembla from an Ellislab posting indicating they were using it for managing development.  I don’t know if they are still using Assembla, but I love it.  It probably doesn’t have everything for everyone, but it works great for my purposes.

Of all that you’ve mentioned above project task management and team collaboration are very important. A colleague of mine who started off on his own had a similar problem. He used Microsoft’s project management software application to help efficiently capture and communicate project status. This helped him gauge project progress and to anticipate planned efforts, cost, and timeframes needed for the project completion. I suggest you to check their website for a better understanding of the features and how it can benefit your organization.

I switched from Basecamp to Apollo HQ - highly recommended.

We use Harvest/Co-op for time tracking and billing and Basecamp/Flow for project management.  It seems like a lot of apps, but I’ve found that the specialized apps tend work better than what you get with a packaged deal.

Of all of these I’d have to say I’m the most excited about Flow.  The company is young, and pretty prolific with updates.  Unfortunately, none of these really have client side ticketing.