31 October 2012

October 2012 Release

In this latest release, we've made a stack of changes to help you manage your projects online. Here are just some of the new features and changes that we've made.

Mobile App

We've released a brand-new iPhone and iPad mobile app called "project management software". This new app allows you to see free training videos and daily tips streamed straight to your mobile device. In this release, we've also made it so that you can access your projects online, as well as your messages and contacts. In this way you can see and update tasks as you go.

Prepay

Under the accounts page in the system, you can now prepay your account online. When you do so, you will receive a 10 - 30% discount on the monthly price paid your account.

Expenses

You can now entered planned versus actual expenses for your projects. Before you could only record the actual expenses that took place as your project is underway. Now you can enter planned expenses as well and then compare them with actual expenses on the expenses report

Tasks

We've added a variety of options to the tasks report including the ability to be able to include tasks for today, this week in this month. You can now report on tasks that have not yet started, already started or are complete.

Security

On the security page in the system, we've added a wide suite of hovers to help you understand the settings that are available.

Other Changes

We've also made a variety of small but important changes to help you manage inactive resources, change profile photos, update discussions, expenses and risks on the go. Login now to see all of the new features on offer.

22 August 2012

August 2012 Release

Today we've released a major upgrade to the projectplan.com website. It now comes with enhanced e-mail integration, better timesheet features as well as a big list of upgrades that have been requested by customers. Here are some of the new features that have been released:

Email Integration

This feature has been requested for a long time and we are now proud to say that it has been released today. You can simply send projectplan.com e-mails directly from Outlook or Gmail and we will store them for you online. In this way, you can store all of your e-mails relating to a particular project. You can then search across all e-mail for all staff within a project as everything will be stored in one place.

The accounts administrator will need to turn e-mail integration on for you by going to the main menu and choosing the accounts page and then the settings tab. Once it is enabled, you can simply start e-mailing your project to save a copy of your correspondence online

Templates

Now you can create project templates online within projectplan.com. In this way, when you create a new project you can simply choose to use an existing project template to save you time. You can manage your templates from the "All -> Projects" page quickly and easily.

In the coming months, we will release a suite of new free templates for you, to help you manage your projects and get a head start.

Opening Projects

We've also upgraded the way that projects are accessed in the system, so that you can open projects faster than before. Simply click on the Menu button in the top left corner when you log in, to open projects quickly and easily.

Password Security

We've enhanced the password security feature by ensuring that passwords are now reset within the system, as opposed to by e-mail. We've also released the following new features:

• There are now a suite of new project fields that allow you to store project level information within the system.
• Clients are now able to upload a picture of themselves for everyone in your account see.
• Within this latest release, you can filter your portfolio status reports, as well as include custom status as you wish.
• The timesheet report now has a View option which allows you to see it online in a much clearer fashion.

30 May 2012

May 2012 Release

We've just released one of the largest sets of new features since we went live 3 years ago. Here is a list of the new features made to help you manage projects more easily.

Risks and Changes

We've merged the risks, issues and changes pages to simplify the user interface for you. If you wonder where your risks and changes have gone, then simply click on the issues tab and you will find them here. That way, you can manage them more quickly and easily all from the one place.

Actual Effort

Before, if you entered Actual Effort on the My Home page, then it wasn't connected to timesheets or the tasks page. Now, when you go to update actual effort, regardless of the page you're on, then it will allow you to add specific timesheet entries to it. In this way, the Gmail widget, mobile phone app, My Home page, timesheet and task pages all present the same actual effort data - keeping everything consistent.

Custom Issues, Risks and Changes

When you load issues page, you can now click a small settings button on the right-hand corner to customise the fields on the page. For instance, if you don't use the description field, then you can simply hide it by un-checking the box in the settings popup. You can also create custom fields which allow you to enter data into the system for fields that are unique to you.

Custom Expenses

Just like the issues page, you can also customise the expenses page by clicking the small settings icon in the top right corner of the expenses page. When you do so, a pop-up will appear which allows you to turn fields on and off, as well is create custom expense fields as you wish.

Editable Projects Page

The "All" Projects" page is now fully editable. You can click on specific cells to change things like the project status, description or project manager. Not only that, but you can click the small settings icon in the top right corner to add customized fields to this page. So for instance, if you wanted to add a new field called "Department" then you could do it quickly and easily here.

More Features

We've also released the following new features:

• Roadmap: The roadmap page now allows you to expand, print and save the project hierarchy.
• Task Updates: If two or more people access the tasks page for the same project at the same time, then the system will inform them. This helps you avoid overwriting each-others work.
• Workload: You can now filter the workload page for specific projects.
• Speed: We've rebuilt the timesheet, issues, expenses and "All Projects" pages to make them faster for you. We've also upgraded the system hardware to the best in the market.
• Report Settings: Now when you select customized report settings, the system will remember the settings that you have selected so that the next time you run a report, the settings will be preselected for you to save you time.
• Timesheet Report: You can now add any of the common task fields, to the timesheet report.

There are stacks of other new features that have been released, so if you have any questions then we'd love to hear from you.

20 February 2012

February 2012 Release

Today we released a stack of new features to kick-off the 2012 New Year. Here they are:

Gantt Printing

We've substantially enhanced the printing of the Gantt so that you can now:

• Choose whether to display the gridlines on the Gantt chart.
• Choose whether to display the task names on all pages that you print.
• Choose whether to automatically change the timescales when you print, so that the system calculates the most relevant timescales for you.

Timesheets

The timesheet page has been greatly enhanced by allowing you to search and filter your projects and tasks as you are adding time to you timesheets. We have also added the ability to add non-project time (like leave, meetings and workshops) so that your team can track their time as accurately as possible.

Calendars

On the My Home and Project Calendar, you can now add events to your calendars so that you can schedule meetings and workshops for your team. When you invite a colleague to a meeting, they will receive both a message and an e-mail allowing them to collaborate with you online.

My Contacts

Under the My Home tab, there is a new "Contacts" page. Here, you can add personal and business contacts to store them online. If you add a business contact then it will be shared with the rest of the users in your account.

Request a feature

In the top right corner there is a new "request a feature" link which allows you to quickly and easily request new features to be created within ProjectPlan.com

Critical path filter

On the tasks page, you can now set a new filter called a "Critical Path". When you do this, you can limit the number of tasks resolved to just those that are on the critical path for your project.

13 December 2011

December 2011 Release

We've just released a suite of new features that help you manage documents, tasks and reports online. Here is a summary of the top new features:

Online File Store

• Personal Files: On the documents page, you can upload personal files of your own into the "My Docs" folder.
• File Security: You can also set file and folder level security so that you can limit who can view and download your documents.
• The trashcan: When you delete a file, it goes into the trashcan. From there, you can move back out into the normal folder structure if you wish.
• Rename: You can rename files and folders as you wish.
• Attaching files: You can now attach files to the expenses, risks, changes, timesheet and issues pages.
• More File types: We've added 50+ file types to allow you to store a wide variety of files online.

My home:

Under the "My Home" section, you now have these additional features:

• To do this: You can add and create "To Do" lists when you wish.
• My calendar: You can view your personal calendar which allows you to see the tasks you need to complete, across all of the projects that you are assigned to the system.
• My tasks: You can enter the percent complete, add notes, upload files and enter the actual effort on the "My Tasks" page more quickly and easily.

Alerts

We have added an additional e-mail alert that allows you to receive messages as e-mails.

Security

A variety of additional security features have been added including the ability to set roadmap / calendar / messages security.

Your timesheets

You can click the settings button to assign administrative time to your timesheets, such as annual or sick leave.

System reports

We've added new timesheet and availability reports and tweaked other reports so that they provide more data.

If you have any feature requests, then please let us know as all of the features above have been requested by customers.

6 October 2011

October 2011 Release

We have just released one of the biggest feature set improvements since we went live in 2008. Here are some of the new features we have included:

My Home

When you click on the "My Home" page, you will be able to see what is happening inside your account. Every time one of your colleagues saves data, uploads a plan or adds a file then you will see a link to it allowing you to navigate to it directly. This helps you keep informed of what is happening within your account. You can also comment on any of the activity undertaken by your colleagues, just like in Facebook.

Roadmap

The new "Roadmap" page allows you to see at a helicopter level, when all of your projects start and finish. Presented as a summarized Gantt chart, it is the first time in the world that a service has offered the ability to roll up multiple Gantt charts and view them all on the same page, at the same time.

Messages

We love adding new collaboration features to the software, so now you can send messages to colleagues quickly and easily using ProjectPlan.com. When you send a message, your colleague will receive it immediately and can simply hit "reply" to message you back. The messages feature works just like Facebook and LinkedIn to help you keep in touch with your team.

Prepay

It's now easier than ever to prepay your account for multiple months in advance and receive a bulk discount on the transaction. Simply click on the "Accounts" page and there you can prepay for 12, 24 or 36 months. If you have any questions then simply contact us at support@projectplan.com

Project Calendar

The new project "Calendar" allows you to see at a glance, all of the tasks and resources assigned to your project in a calendar view. Just like Microsoft Outlook, you can see when tasks are scheduled throughout the calendar month and you can click on each task to open it directly in the Gantt view.

These are just some of the features that have been released to help you manage your projects online. To view all of the new features, login to ProjectPlan.com

5 August 2011

August 2011 Release

In this latest release we have added a suite of new reports, upgraded the project groups feature and simplified the way you manage tasks. Here's a snapshot of the new exciting features we've included when you signup.

Reports

There are now a stack of new reports which help you to manage your projects. This includes new resource, time sheet, expense, risk, issue and change reports to name a few. You can now also customize your reports by adding and removing columns. As well as new reports, we have added the ability to be able to report on project groups.

Creating Project Groups

You can now group your projects as you wish. Simply go to the "All" tab and click "Projects". There, you can create groups of projects to match your teams or departments within your organization. Each project group can be reported on separately. By creating a hierarchy of your project groups, you will more easily be able to find and manage your projects day-to-day.

Tasks

To help you manage tasks, we have simplified the interface for the Tasks page. This means that when you create your project plan, you will be able to add tasks, assign resources and schedule delivery dates faster than before.

Discussions Changed

When you create a discussion, we have now automatically subscribed you to it so that you will receive e-mail alerts for the comments that are added. In this way, you can keep in touch with the discussions that are most important to you.

It's Faster

We have rolled out the first phase of a new Content Delivery Network. In most locations around the world, this has doubled the speed of using the site. The next phase will be rolled out on 3 October which will improve the speed of the site yet again.

9 June 2011

June 2011 Release

This month, we have rebuilt a number of the existing pages to make them faster, as well as adding a suite of new features. Here is an overview of what we've done:

Documents

The documents page has been rebuilt entirely, to make it faster:

• Speed: Clicking on each of the folders will now have an instant response.
• Search: You can now search documents quickly and easily.
• Upload: It's now simple to upload multiple documents at the same time.
• Download: You can download documents in bulk, if you want.
• Moving: Simply click and drag documents to move between folders.
• Delete: Select multiple documents at the same time to delete them.

Timesheets

The Timesheet page has been revised as follows:

• Auto-fill: When clicked, the system will automatically fill your timesheet with the tasks you need to complete this week.
• Export: When you export timesheets, you can choose which projects and date range to export data for.
• Summary: The system now automatically calculates your total time spent each week.

Restoring Projects

You can now restore projects that you have previously deleted. It was often the case that people accidentally deleted projects and we had to restore them from the server. Now you can restore projects into your account that you have deleted in the past, quickly and easily.

Other Features

We have also released these features:

• Copy a project: You can copy an entire project or just part of the project, as you wish.
• Workload: On the workload page, the data has been revised so that the calculations match the workload calculations in the reports.
• Email Alerts: Every e-mail alert that goes out now, has a link which directs you straight to the relevant place in the system.
• Discussions: You can subscribe to discussions as you wish.
• Closed projects: When you close a project, it will disappear from the dashboard and reports.
• Pop-ups: The pop-ups are now much faster to use.

5 April 2011

April 2011 Release

In this latest release:

Documents

On the documents page, you can now import multiple documents at the same time. This allows you to upload documents from your PC in bulk. We have also doubled the upload speed so that you can upload documents faster than before.

Security

On the security page, you can now choose which particular users or roles can see which particular charts on a dashboard. So for instance, if you don't want your team to see the cost chart then you can simply hide it.

Email Alerts

The e-mail alerts screen has changed so that you can set both immediate and regular alerts. We have also added additional alert types to help you keep informed of the status of your projects.

My Home

• Links: On the my home page, you can now click on the project or on the specific task to go straight to the relevant project.
• Settings: There is now a new settings button (beside the person graphic) which allows you to change the sort order of the information displayed on the My Tasks quadrant on the My Home page.

Miscellaneous

We have also added these other valuable features:

• Risks, Issues & Changes: On these pages, we have added additional fields so that you can add more information about each risk, issue or change.
• Export Discussions: You can now export project discussions to Microsoft Excel or Word.
• Project Priority & Status: When you create a new project, or click on the project Info page, then you will be able to create and edit your own priority and status types.
• Lockouts: If your account is locked out because of a credit card issue, you will now be able to log in and update your credit card details without having to contact customer support.
• Multi-User Access: If multiple users update the tasks page at the same time, then each user will now receive notification of the changes that the other person is making, while they are viewing the page.
• Task Exports: The export feature now provides additional data when exporting tasks.
• Project Groups: We have changed the project group reports so that they only include projects within the group.

7 February 2011

Major Release

This month, we had a major release of ProjectPlan.com. We have added a wide suite of features to the website, including new search capabilities, task and resource management features.

Here is a summarized list of the main features that we have added:

• Search: You can now search for tasks, resources and links quickly and easily using the new search feature.
• Imports: This month, we have released the ability to be able to import tasks from Microsoft Excel, Open Office, CSV and text files. This allows you to to take your existing task list and import them quickly and easily.
• Copy and Paste: You can also copy tasks from any other application. Simply copy your existing tasks into the Windows clipboard and then paste them into our application so that you can start managing them online.
• Predecessors: We have added the ability to list and view predecessors and successes. These are tasks that link to or from the existing task that you have selected.
• Indentation: When you indent your task hierarchy, we will remember it so that each time you load your project plan, the indentation displays for you.
• Workload: You now have the ability to change a variety of settings on the workload page, so that you can manage team workload across multiple projects.

For more information on the latest new features, simply login and click on the "What's New" link in the top right corner. We love releasing new features regularly to the website, to help you manage projects better than before.

2 December 2010

December 2010 Release

Today, we performed a large upgrade to the project plan.com website by completely rebuilding the tasks page so that it is faster and easier to use. Here is an overview:

It's faster

You can now open project plans and work on them faster than before because we have re-architected the tasks page to use new technology that allows you to manipulate tasks faster in your web browser. If you use one of the newer web browsers like Internet Explorer 8, Google Chrome or Firefox then you will be running the latest version of our software which allows you to be able to load and manipulate tasks super quickly. If you are using Internet Explorer 6 then you will still be able to access the tasks page but it will perform at the prior rate of speed.

In Google Chrome, you can load a 10,000 line project plan in under five seconds which is phenomenally fast by any stretch of the imagination.

It's easier to use

With the latest version of project plan.com, we have adopted all of the standard keyboard controls which allow you to be able to select cells and rows quickly and easily using the tab, shift, control and up / down / left / right arrows just like you can with desktop applications like Microsoft Project and Excel.

It's also easier to print

We have completely rebuild the print function so that you can use all of the common printing types that Microsoft Project has to offer, like being able to print across multiple pages or portrait versus landscape. We know that printing is important to your daily project activities so the new print function will definitely help you to succeed with planning your projects.

5 November 2010

Final Hardware Upgrade

The last of our hardware upgrades was completed today, allowing you to access the system faster than before. We are constantly making improvements to the speed of accessing the site so that you can review and report on your projects as quickly as possible. In this latest release we replaced all of the network cards and our web servers with state-of-the-art hardware technology. These new web servers allow us to be able to provide web pages to you more quickly than before.

Coming up

In the next month we will release a major new rewrite of the tasks page which has the ability to be able to load larger project plans more quickly and reliably than before. We will also release a brand-new print function which allows you to be able to perform similar print features that Microsoft project has to offer, such as portrait versus landscape, fit to one page, and fit across multiple pages.

5 October 2010

Email Alerts Release

Today, we have released a new feature which allows you to be able to send e-mail alerts to your colleagues for particular events in the system. Many customers have asked for this feature because they want to know when their tasks are coming up or are late. So we built this exciting new feature which allows you to be able to send out an e-mail alert to anybody in the system, any time that a particular event takes place (e.g. the creation of a discussion, risk, issue or change). We have also created daily, weekly and monthly e-mails which provide you with a summary of the status of your projects. In this way, you can keep informed about the status of your tasks while your team update them, so that you know immediately when your project is starting to slip. This helps keep you on track.

5 September 2010

New Hardware

We have just upgraded all of our computer server hardware so that you are using the fastest computer equipment available in the market today. This means that the system will deliver content to you faster and also that the complex calculations that are required as part of the viewing of a dashboard or reports, will take place much faster. We have a farm of dedicated servers with liquid Web who are one of the best hosting companies in the world.

5 August 2010

Security Release

Today we released a variety of new features which allow you to be able to configure security for your user logins.

For every user in the system, you can choose which pages they can access and in which manner (i.e. either read-only or edit mode). This means that if there are pages on the system that you do not use (e.g. risks, issues or changes) then you can simply hide them to limit the number of features that you have available and therefore make the application much simpler to use.

In addition, you can ensure that for each person accessing the system, that they can only see the particular pages you want to see. So for instance, you might decide that only you should have heeded access to the project plan but your team should be able to have read access to it.