GT Agenda Review

I was recently contacted via the blog by a man named Dan touting the Project Management App, GT Agenda. I thought I would take a look and do a quick write up. According to Dan’s original comment:

If you would like a tool to manage your small business activities and Projects, you can use this web aplication:

http://www.Gtdagenda.com

You can use it to manage and prioritize your Goals (for business but also in other areas of your life), Projects and Tasks. It has a Checklists section, for the routines and repetitive activities that any business has to do. Also, it features a Schedules section and a Calendar, for scheduling you time and activities.

Sounds like fun!

Right off the bat it’s clear GT needs some work on their website. Unfortunately, it’s not bad, but there in lies the rub. You see, your website (in this case GT Agenda) isn’t being compared to other small, mom-pop websites, or even a majority of project management app websites. No, it’s being evaluated against ALL other websites. Is it attractive, does it convey a message of security and authority. And especially in an environment where GT Agenda is asking us to 1) not only sign up providing some personal information including email but 2) they are also asking us to use their app to track our daily lives and/or work projects; extremely important, sensitive data. Additionally, I only signed up for the free account in order to test the system for this review, but I would be very hesitant to provide any credit card information.

Unfortunately, the inside of the system continues the same look and design trends.

Once inside I noticed this is a whole different beast from Basecamp, with a much different interface, naming convention, etc.  And that brings me back to how important design is. Design isn’t JUST the overall look of things, it’s the placement of words and tools, the actual wording of those elements, and the flow of the system. Unfortunately GT Agenda has a novel way of presenting and organizing your project data, but it is organized haphazardly and so detracts from these pluses. As both a casual user of GT Agenda as well as someone who understands GUI/Web Development I am very frustrated with the overall layout and organization of the tool. With that said however, a friend and I created a system a few years ago. He did the programming, I did the wording/graphics, and to me this tool felt the same way. Just a couple of guys with a great idea and limited experience. It took 3 iterations for our tool to be presentable and usable by the general public, so if this is the first iteration they’ve done a great job, but they still have a far way to go!

The Tools in GT Agenda

Rather than have Projects – the master organizational tool within Basecamp, and then individual messages/tasks GT Agenda reverses this convention.

Based on previous experience and assumption I thought goals would be part of a project, but it’s the other way around. Appropriately so. You create a project and assign it to a goal. Here’s an example. I created a project called “Lose 10lbs” and then assigned it to the “Personal Goals” goal.

Tasks are probably specific things related to a project and goal, but are not assignable as such, you simply create misc. tasks and there is no real grouping or organization. Tasks can be assigned a priority and a context. Contexts are like categories and/or tags. You can specify WHERE the task will be completed, or even a category of task – ie errands.

GT Agenda Pros

• Very Simply Signup Process – don’t have to confirm account via email (may cause spam problems, but personally I like this).
• Easy Access to Data – You can get data out of the system very easily – pretty much any screen has the option to send to email or download as XML, allowing you to use your data outside of the application, a great feature.
• Ability to Assign Dates! – Basecamp has needed this for years when assigning tasks.
• Outside Data – GT Agenda also accepts data from your email address, should you need to email yourself a reminder to put in a task or other information.

GT Agenda Cons

• Chintzy Website – Again, not a professional warm feeling, I only trust this website because I wanted to get a more in depth review.
• Poor UI – Greatest features such if they are too hard to use/navigate.
• Feature Creep – Lot of great features, because some users may want or need, but will ever user use? That’s the key question. Eliminate things that aren’t necessary in order to guide EVERYONE.

Conclusion

Overall GT Agenda is a fantastic little tool; it was very quick to setup, and get going. However although it has more pros then cons, I reiterate that many of the features will be lost without proper design. At this stage I would recommend opening up the application for free, to get on users while the application has time to retool.

Haystack Renamed Sortfolio

I was poking around 37signals‘ site yesterday when I noticed the previously released “Haystack” had been renamed and rebranded as “Sortfolio.” According to the website:

Sortfolio helps you find the best web designer for your project.

Sortfolio is unique in that it is unbelievably simple to use and connects web developers (or agencies) with clients via, location, price, and portfolio. A potential client comes to the site, narrows down the first fields (location and price) and then flips through sample portfolios until they land on a dev. company they like. Although I feel the name Haystack seemed more in line with 37Signals’ conventional naming scheme and overall brand, it was a bit confusing and took some thought in order to understand what they were getting at. And the metaphor was correct – finding a good web development company is like finding a needle in a “ahem” Haystack. But, with the rename to Sortfolio, and a slight redesign to the site, it’s even prettier and easier to understand than ever. Sticking with its simplicity mantra 37signals is allowing you to sort web development companies by their portfolio… sortfolio!

My main company had a listing within a few hours of launch and I feel Sortfolio’s unique approach is leaps and bounds beyond how current clients find business.

Unfortunately the program doesn’t address the following:

• More stuff – you can’t narrow your searches by core competencies (IE, you really only select a firm based on the above 3 items, not on other talents like programming ability, internet marketing, etc.)
• Needs more branding – we’ve found the #1 way to get business is to be #1 on local web developer searches. IE, most people looking for a website designer will search “website designer miami” and then click on each of the 10 links google provides and contact the company they feel most comfortable with. Until Sortfolio is just “known” as the go-to resource for companies seeking web development help, it will be useless.

Regardless, the link and exposure absolutely don’t hurt, so if you’re a web development company check it out and get your stuff posted!

Intuit Quickbase Review

This is a 5000 foot overview of Intuit Quickbase and how it stacks up against the competition, namely 37Signals’ Basecamp.

First what is Quickbase? Well, it’s described as an “online database” and is created by Intuit, the makers of Quickbooks and Quicken. For that reason alone it is very attractive. If you are like 95% of small – medium businesses out there you most likely use Quickbooks for tracking your accounting and the fact that Quickbase is made by the same company implies interoperability, you can use similar applications to save time and money and not waste time copying over data.

According to the Quickbase website:

With QuickBase, you can create unlimited custom applications to match your unique business processes, and integrate them with your existing systems. It’s an ideal way to centralize important data on the web, and help distributed business teams work and collaborate more efficiently. Plus, with Intuit’s proven capability to manage critical data, you can rely on QuickBase to meet even the most stringent IT requirements.

Essentially it’s for three things:

• Collecting Data
• Managing Data
• Sharing Data

In this respect although Quickbase competes with Basecamp, it doesn’t do so directly. Here’s why: as the tag line implies Quickbase is an online database which does kind of sound like techno-jargin, but it’s more of a platform than a system for controlling any one business process. Based on there tours, wording, and the website it seems like you, the end user, have to implement or develop applications for specific business processes and morph the system around your own business processes – not a bad idea at all. But, here’s the problem, if Quickbase’s free templated application don’t match your business, you don’t have the technical expertise to create apps, either on staff or the money to hire someone to “figure it out” for you (learn your business processes and develop them online use Quickbase) this could be a hassle.

Quickbase Pros

• Open platform – appears to be very extensible able to handle any kind of data, fields, files, etc. and can be molded to your specific business processes
• Intuit Based – In my experience Intuit has been a very rock solid company with good support and a great track record, additionally this implies cross communication with their business accounting software Quickbooks.
• Applications – Current database of applications for many types of businesses meaning you may not have to do everything on your own.

Quickbase Cons

• Expensive – for only 10 users you’ll have to shell out at least $300/month (not including specialized applications/plugins)*
• Applications May Cost You – Although the website says some apps are included, its clear others aren’t (IE outlook plugins) so you may have to shell out even more every month.
• Not Simple – By it’s very nature Quickbase is complicated. You make it work for you, in every/any capacity you need and for this reason implementation is not simple and is based on you and your organization.

Summary

In comparing Quickbase to Basecamp in more depth for the sake of my own company as well as for you my reader I realize this is a true Apples to Oranges comparison. Quickbase, as a project management tool is probably overkill. Although certainly a project management app could be developed within the Quickbase framework. Personally I would want to have that be one part of it and then develop other systems for accounting and CRM (particularly because of the high price) .  I guess the decision comes down to weighing the costs and benefits of using such system(s). With Basecamp all that is done is project management (and to some extent contact management), it’s done well, and it’s done simply. With Quickbase you have the opportunity for so much more, that is if you want to develop it and pay the extra costs, which may be more than worth it for a larger organization.

*UPDATE

Thanks to Tim from Quickbase for pointing out there are a lot of free applications on Quickbase.

Top 10 Online Small Business Tools

Just found an article over on ReadWrite web featuring Basecamp. The article titled, “Top 10 Online Small Business Tools” features 10 great tools for managing your small business.

The article is pretty tiny, without an in-depth, or even kind of in-depth review of the 10 pieces of software mentioned, but it does give you a sneak peak into what ReadWrite finds important. The summarized list is as follows:

• OfficeMedium
• Basecamp
• CubeTree
• WizeHive
• SocialText
• CentralDesktop
• Onehub
• PBWorks
• Zoho Projects
• Socialcast

Honestly, I’ve only worked with two of the programs on the list, Basecamp & Zoho, but it does seem promising. However in briefly looking at OfficeMedium for example, it’s clear that it is a valuable tool for any business, but doesn’t fulfill the same needs/roles as a project management app like Basecamp.

Kompass For Basecamp

This is another post related to a comment we recently received.

After doing some research and talking with a few sources I am excited to learn that Kompass, the maker of many basecamp apps for mobile devices (iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and Android) is back on development and will continue to be releasing for these platforms (and possibly others!).

Personally, I had the opportunity to use Kompass on an iPhone and was very impressed.

Stay tuned for more.

Basecamp Single Sign On

I was reading the 37Signals’ blog – Signal vs. Noise, when I stumbled upon something I missed. A few weeks ago, 37signals released its long awaited, single sign on system, 37Signals ID.

Basically it’s a single sign on system allowing your one selected user account, to access any number of highrise, basecamp, or backpack accounts. If you’re like me you may have previously had different basecamp accounts, each with a seperate login. Now, with one username/password you can access multiple accounts. Maybe you have a primary basecamp account for work, another for side projects/jobs, and a personal backpack account. Previously you needed to login seperately. Now you can login with one selected username/password and then immediately access everything.

LaunchPad

There is a new login area called the LaunchPad. It’s got a fresh new look:

Once inside you’ll be directed to either your normal location (if you only have one account) or you’ll be presented with a list of accounts (if you have multiple):

Switching Between Applications

If, after going through the launchpad and selecting an account you decide you need to go to another account, doing so is now easier than ever, with a large black bar at the top that will easily allow you to switch.

If you’re a 37Signals or Basecamp fan, I highly recommend checking out the blog post they made regarding the update to the login system. It’s interesting to learn the whole transition took over a year (after an initial few week estimate), but it has been a stellar upgrade to the software. I had the pleasure of hearing Jason Fried speak at a conference and this definitely underscores the necessity for us (consumers) to choose good software companies when making our product selection decisions (more to come in another post).

Basecamp Countdown Review

I was recently informed of Countdown, a Basecamp addon, by a commenter and thought I would check it out and give my review.

What is Countdown?

Countdown is simply a budgeting extension for 37Signals’ Basecamp. The service allows you to provide estimated hours and then track your real hours against those estimates. For example, let’s say you have 8 hours budgeted to create a screen design, you (perhaps as project manager) provide countdown with the estimate/budget, telling countdown you have 8 hours for the task(s). Then your graphic designer will add hours as he/she progresses. You can then quickly see whether you come up short, meet, or exceed the budgeted hours.

According to their website:

Countdown is an budgeting extension to Basecamp using the Basecamp API. You use it by utilizing our special bookmarklet (a bookmark that does something). While in Basecamp, clicking on our bookmarklet will open up Countdown, and will show you the information related to the project you’re looking at in Basecamp, all without leaving Basecamp itself.

Countdown seems to be unique (as far as the addon’s I’ve personally used for Basecamp) in that it works via a special bookmark you click when in areas of Basecamp. When you are on the correct screen and click the book mark a window appears allowing you to either add estimates or track estimates.

Pros

• Very simple to install (only uses a book mark – does require registration)
• Simple to use (once click operation once you’ve signed in)
• Doesn’t try to do too much

Cons

• Weird/Confusing – I don’t have an alternative, but the fact that you have to click a book mark, AND be on the right page(s) can get a bit confusing.
• Doesn’t REALLY track each individual task within a to-list. It only tracks total hours within a to-do list, for laser targeted tracking this is a big shortcoming.
• Notice how there are no pictures in this post? Unfortunately Preneer isn’t branding Countdown separately so there is no logo, etc.
• Is it really necessary? Professionally we’ve always tracked time estimates progressively throughout a project using either our project manager and/or just making sure to list requirements in to-do items. IE, when we create a to-do item we just let everyone know the amount of time that can be spent on the task or whole to-do in the description.

Overall, you may find a great use out of this tool, but personally I doubt it will be picked up and used that much because of it’s awkward use, lack of specificity and the fact that a similar thing can be accomplished using Basecamp’s available tool set.

For more on the tool visit Countdown’s website and watch their informative video.

As always if you agree or disagree or want to put in your 2 cents, feel free to comment!

Basecamp New Feature – Deadlines

They’ve finally done it. Perhaps the single most requested feature basecamp needed to add has been added. You can now add a due date on every to-do item.

As of today whenever you are creating and assigning a to-do you can also designate a due date.

For more information check out the following post: http://productblog.37signals.com/products/2009/11/new-in-basecamp-add-due-dates-to-todos.html

37signals Releases Web Business Portal

• Are you a web developer looking for business?
• Are you a company owner or marketing executive tasked with finding a quality web development firm?

Well, 37Signals, online project management Basecamp creator, has recently released a portal to connect these two entities. The website, is called Haystack and allows these two groups to come together, enabling companies searching for quality web designs to be introduced to web developers in their area.

Quick Review of Haystack

In finding out about Haystack, via 37signals’ blog, I decided to create an account. The process is EXTREMELY easy, there are literally only 2 screens in signing up. You can either choose a free account, which allows you to have one image, or you can opt in for a paid account ($99/year) and upload more portfolio images. If you are a web developer signing up all you do is:

• Add your logo
• Add a portfolio image (representation of work)
• Select the typical budget of the projects you work on
• Input your sales email address (where sales inquiries will be directed to)
• Some bio/contact information

That’s it!

The process literally takes less than 30 seconds and in true 37Signals style, is very simple and straightforward.

If you are a business LOOKING FOR A WEB DEVELOPER, you simply select the area you are searching for and your budget level, right from the homepage. The homepage dynamically updates with the new formatted information, you scroll through the developers looking for one that you like, click on it and you can see more information and get their contact info… all without having to login or create an account (which you can still do, if you want to have access to a few more neat features).

Good – Simple for both parties & a much needed tool

Bad – Very geographic specific right now (caters to select cities) – the city for my company for example wasn’t listed, but we are fairly close to another city and have a few clients there so that one was selected.

Basecamp Top Tool For Graphic Designers

Found this originally by way of the Basecamp Product Blog.

Basecamp was just mentioned over on GraphicDesignDegrees as the top tool for graphic designers. The massive post titled “Top 100 Graphic Design Blogs” was mostly a feature of the top 100 graphic designers, but towards the middle they had a very important and deserved section of top graphic design tools.

50. Basecamp: Stop here for a leading web-based project collaboration tool. They have various plans and options, a free 30 day trial, and sign up takes as little as 60 seconds.

Whether you’re a graphic designer, web developer, or really need a simple project management tool in ANY industry, Basecamp is an absolute must-have tool!