Enterprise Software Blog

Overview:

Project-management software can help workers collaborate and organise their tasks, but many available applications don’t always adapt to the way real teams actually work. LiquidPlanner provides a means of organising, assigning, and tracking tasks. It also includes tools that are designed to help project managers keep everyone on deadline.

Because LiquidPlanner is web-based, there’s no software to download, which makes it quick and easy to set up. LiquidPlanner will remain a free service. Pricing for companies with more than three users will start at $35 per month, per user (and will be discounted to $25 per month for year-long subscriptions).

System requirements:
*    Supports all modern internet browsers (IE 6+, Firefox 1+, Safari)

*    Supports all operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux)

*    Special plug-ins are not required

“We designed LiquidPlanner to match the reality of how teams work today — in highly collaborative environments that are subject to constant change and uncertainty,” said Charles Seybold, CEO and co-founder of LiquidPlanner. “Even in this day and age where we look to new technology to improve efficiency, most teams still rely on antiquated tools to manage their projects. LiquidPlanner is ideal for small and large teams who want the flexibility of a Web-based service but don’t want to make compromises on features or scope.”

Features:

• Task Management: LiquidPlanner’s workspace allows you to easily organize and prioritize your tasks. The workspace has two distinct task list views to allow you to view, schedule, and update your work by function or by timeline. Drag-and-drop prioritization lets you change the order of your scheduled tasks as priorities shift. Team members can create folders, subfolders to organize the data at hand so details at any level of a task can be viewed. Global priorities for your entire team or organization can also be managed in this workspace.
• Project Scheduling: LiquidPlanner features a Probabilistic Scheduling engine that uses statistical math, ranged estimates, automatic tracking, and more to create realistic timelines and schedules. Best-and-worst case scenario estimation can help create a more accurate view of timelines. An automatic tracking feature tracks the expected progress on scheduled tasks, so the project schedule stays alive and up-to-date, even when team members don’t update it themselves on a regular basis. A promise date alerting feature will let you know when project or task-level commitments are due.
• Collaboration: The dynamic, shared project environment offered by LiquidPlanner allows for collaboration, no matter what size your team is or where they are located. You can invite as many people to the project workspace as needed, even if they are outside your organization. A wiki-like commenting feature lets everyone keep a record of the dialogue about a task or project. Each item has its own comment page, where everyone in the space can communicate. Documents and links can be uploaded and shared with team members to let everyone communicate efficiently.

• Email Notifications — Team members can now get dynamic updates on their upcoming tasks, both within the LiquidPlanner service and/or via automated email alerts;
• Import/Export Capabilities — MS Project files or spreadsheets can be quickly imported into LiquidPlanner, and LiquidPlanner projects can be exported into CSV files, providing critical project portability;
• Performance Optimization — Significant enhancements have been made during the beta period to accelerate application response, eliminate latency, and improve overall system performance;
• Schedule Engine and Usability Enhancements — A newly designed personalized dashboard, easier-to-manage dependencies, automated flow-around scheduling, and more.

Disadvantages:

Online project planning offers unlimited collaboration, and lovely extra features like emailed updates. Offline project planning allows much quicker updating and better customization, but the program is normally limited in some ways, and it doesn’t allow others to collaborate.

Conclusion:

LiquidPlanner allows more flexibility in organising and reorganising tasks in response to real-world delays and circumstances. With its easy-to-use interface, LiquidPlanner is a good team player, no matter what type of team you’re on.

Source: ReadWriteWeb

Filed under Enterprise Services, Software As A Service

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 19th, 2008 at 11:44 pm and is filed under Enterprise Services, Software As A Service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.