Microsoft recently gave a peek at its roadmap for MS Project project management software at the Microsoft Office Project conference.

After reading about the proposed direction for MS Project does anybody have any reviews or thoughts?

Vertabase 4 project management software was launched last week.

So far, the reception from clients and the press has been very good!

With Vertabase 4, we’ve focused on the eco-system of applications users work with to create and share information. It continues on in our approach of making it easy for people to track, manage and collaborate on projects regardless of their technical background.

Feature highlights include:

• Rapid project set-up
• Import from MS Excel and Google Spreadsheets (along with MS Project and Vertabase templates)
• Export to MS Outlook and Google Calendar
• Generate PDF reports and integration with Adobe Acrobat.

If you have any comments or questions on the new release, let us know.

Its a week past due but thank you to the Charlotte Adobe Users Group.  Had a great time with great people and lots of good conversation (both during and after the meeting). 

We talked about everything from software design, user adoption and project management to where is Adobe and ColdFusion going, and what technologies will stand the test of time.

Thank you to Sutton for putting it all together, to Lodestone Digital to hosting and to everyone who attended.

I’ll be speaking to software developers and ColdFusion fans at the Toronto ColdFusion Users’ Group (Toronto CFUG) meeting on Wednesday, August 15 at 7 pm ET. This is a special meeting and launch party for ColdFusion 8 (CF8) in the Toronto area. 

Come on by -there will even be a chance to win a copy of CF8!

To attend or for more information visit http://www.cfugtoronto.org/ 

I will be speaking on effective project management, particularly for development projects and IT implementations. I’ll also be giving a walk-through of Vertabase Pro, an enterprise project management application written in Adobe’s ColdFusion.  (Its a great alternative to MS Project.)

Question: How can I reduce shipping costs when sending products, parts or components to customers?

Answer: Knowing what the customer will need ahead of time, accurate forecasting,  is the key to reducing shipping costs.

Now, mind reading is tough. But when shipping is part of the projects and services you are providing customers, you can control your shipping costs by controling the scheduling of those projects or services.  By knowing the schedule, you can know when items will need to be shipped.

Data Systems of Texas implemented Vertabase Pro and was able to better group projects and resources -scheduling them up to six months ahead of time.  As a result, they were able to cut shipping costs by 50%.   

“We used to ship everything overnight express at full costs. Now, our time management is much more efficient and we know who needs what in advance. Consequently, we save a significant amount of money by using standard shipping services,” says Tom Davis, Support Manager.

Vertabase Pro offers scheduling tools for people of all levels of technical experience. 

I’ll be speaking to software developers at the Detroit Area ColdFusion Users’ Group (DETCFUG) meeting on Wednesday, August 8 at 6 pm ET. Come on by.

To attend or for more information visit http://www.detcfug.org/cfug/meetingSingle.cfm?meetingID=23.

The topic will be effective project management, particularly for development projects and IT implementations. I’ll also be giving a walk-through of Vertabase Pro, an enterprise project management application written in Adobe’s ColdFusion.

Question: What are some key features to look for in a project management tool to help Executives made strategic decisions?

Answer: Data integrity is the building block for strategic decision making. If data on a project or portfolio is not accurate or up to date, the value of the decision will suffer. Executives will be more likely to make the wrong call since the information they’re relying on is wrong. When looking at project management software, its therefore critical to make sure that it gathers and generates accurate and up to date information on projects or portfolios.

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Project management software can significantly simplify time management in an enterprise.

To get this benefit, make sure to look for a project management tool that centralizes timesheet data by project along with percent complete status of individual projects.  This can provide a seemless picture of effort and labor costs on a project compared against where the project actually is. 

This same feature set facilitates financial forecasting by giving managers up-to-date information to best estimate how many more resource hours will be needed to be complete a deliverable -and therefore, often time, send an invoice to a client.

Message Makers, a multimedia communications firm in Lansing, Michigan recently experienced these benefits with Vertabase Pro. 

“Prior to implementing Vertabase Pro, it was difficult for us to effectively manage resource allocation,” said Chiung Cheng, PhD, Controller and Research Director. “We selected Vertabase Pro because it addressed our most essential need - the merging of project status reporting and timesheet management into a single function. Now, with Vertabase Pro, we are able to evaluate overall status instantly.”

To read more about their experiences, heres a case study on improving resource allocation with project management software.

There’s a differences between project management software and task management software. Understanding the difference can help you search and select the right software for you or your team.

Project management software is centered around a work breakdown structure. That means that each project has a specific set of tasks that need to be completed for the project to be completed. There are also a variety of other components to a project which the software helps manage. These include issues, budgets, documents, notes and resource availability.

The overall goal of the project manager is to plan, manage, track and complete projects as a whole (along with the other components of the project). Project management software helps the project manager do this job. This can be on a single project or, if the software has portfolio views or project portfolio dashboards, for numerous projects across the enterprise.

Task management software is built around to-do lists. The main goal of task management software is help the user keep track of everything they have to do. Or, in the case of a manager, to help them keep track of everything everyone else has to do.

When searching for project management software, understanding this difference, can help you define the terms you’re searching for and make a better selection of what it is you need.

There are three key features most users look for in enterprise project management software:

1) Porftolio Views;
2) Executive Dashboards and;
3) Automatic notification.

Portfolio views allow managers, clients or executives to view projects grouped together into different portfolios, or categories, that are meangingful to that person. For example, a marketing department may have numerous initiatives active for a particular brand. The project status details of each iniatitive may be important for the resources working on them or to their manager. But an executive often wants to see the status of all projects for that brand, grouped specifically by brand, compared against other brands for which that executive may be responsible.

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