Viewpath: In The News

Viewpath Provides Online Project Planning Solutions for Everyday Tasks

October 3, 2008 at 1:23 pm · Filed under Reviews

I recently spoke with the Dean Carlson, the CEO and founder of Viewpath, an on-demand, visually oriented project management tool. Dean said that today people’s lives are connected to projects of all sizes — from the small business owner launching a new product, to marketers developing a community website or newsletter, to the to-do list on personal issues. He said that although the scale of the projects may vary, the successful execution of each project has a common thread: keeping things organized, managing time efficiently and achieving desired outcomes within budget. I would certainly agree with this as I work through my notepad of to-dos, including writing this post.

The goal of Viewpath is to facilitate the effective management of these tasks. It is not designed to replace the large complex project management tools but to give people a way to move off spreadsheets, calenders, and notepads to a more effective means to keep the many things we do on track. Dean has more than twenty years experience as a consultant on project and time management. Viewpath grew out of this experience and the issues he observed people struggling with. He launched the Beta of version one in 2002 using the NET framework. Version two with an AJAX front end launched recently.

Viewpath’s 2.0 version offers two options: an unlimited free, ad-supported, Express edition and an enhanced Standard edition. Dean said that the free version has 80% of the features of the Standard Edition. The two versions interact so some team members who need the extra features can be on the subscribed version and others can be on the free version. You can even move back and forth between plans on a monthly basis. Here is an example of a Gantt chart in the Standard Edition.

In comparison, here is a Gantt chart in the Express Edition.

When putting Viewpath in context, Dean said that “everywhere you turn, people are engaged in project-related tasks. But many individuals don’t see how their day-to-day activities are interconnected within the larger context of a project schedule as a result, they miss opportunities to streamline workflow and communication with team members, or worse yet, let time-critical tasks get lost in the shuffle. Having trained more than twenty-thousand professionals during my career, I’ve seen everyday business professionals get frustrated by the complexity, long learning curve, and high cost of traditional project management software typically deployed in large-scale projects. When people have easy access to project tools that are tailored to their everyday realities, activities are executed with better clarity, and completed in less time with less stress.”

Dean took me on a tour of the features and it is certainly a feature-rich offering. There are intuitive drag-and-drop visual planning tools and a “smart” Gantt chart format. Ease of use is a design goal and it seemed simple enough for me to use, which is always the real test. It is modeled on project management best practices with customizable activity dashboards. With AJAX, there is no lag time for changes. You can start a page without all the details and not be forced to make a decision prematurely. This is a feature that I especially liked having been put in the straight jacket of other project management tools in the past. I think this is a solution to look at when considering an online project management tool. Here is a sample screen for “my Viewpath” with all the things an individual might be interested in tracking.

Here is the expanded week and day view from Viewpath.

For a video overview of Viewpath’s offerings you can visit the Viewpath site.

Microsoft Project remains the de facto leader in desktop project management software, but several alternative solutions are winning over fans, emphasizing their flexible, user-friendly features for planning, estimating, executing and collaborating. Here is a closer look at three such offerings: Clarizen, LiquidPlanner and Viewpath.

Dean Carlson, the founder and CEO of Viewpath has a catchy way to sum up the facility of his two-year-old online project management tool: 90 percent in 90 minutes. What he means is that within 90 minutes of being introduced to the system most people understand about 90 percent of its capabilities.

The 90/90 come-on is a good one. Not only does it roll off the tongue, it’s also strategically smart because it goes right to the most-often-mentioned complaint about project management tools: that the 10,000-pound gorilla in the field, Microsoft Project is about as easy and stress-free as a tightrope.

“Microsoft Project is a good tool, and there will always be hard-core project managers out there who swear by Microsoft Project,” he said. “But I know a lot of PMs who say it’s taken them months to become proficient in Microsoft Project. A lot of people can’t afford that luxury.”

And so, Carlson’s Viewpath is looking to develop a niche among “everyday business professionals” who need a solid project management tool without a steep learning curve.

From Projects At Work

August 7, 2008, 04:49 PM - Network World - The term "Project Management" usually brings pained looks to business people because they associate it with Microsoft Project. The tool may make their lives easier, but the software costs hundreds of dollars per user, and worse, the desktop-centric management application of yesterday doesn't fit well with the distributed workforce reality of today. What's more, when you take the plunge, getting up to speed on the methodology takes time before you see results.

But take a look at the modern world of project management software: online, easier to use, and cheaper to try. If you have avoided the pain of project management software in the past, you may be amazed at the growth of hosted project management tools. My search for "hosted project management" returned 2,680,000 hits. That's a lot of project management options. Don't let the project of finding a project management tool drive you away.

Scott Ellis, Manager of the Forensics and Litigation Technology Practice for RGL, recently waded in. RGL provides forensic accounting and consulting services to insurance companies and legal groups wading through sometimes millions of documents and accounting records. These may be on paper, electronic files, or subpoenaed hard drives. Projects may use as many as 40 employees spread throughout RGL's 23 offices worldwide, all digging into thousands of data items for every job. (Compare Forensics Tools)

Ellis describes RGL as a "firm that embraces project management philosophy and techniques but hasn't, up until now, codified that philosophy with any sort of a firm-wide protocol." Even if RGL is bigger than your company, it has the same problem you do: a need to be better organized that is up against employee resistance and the "We've always done it this way" attitude.

Microsoft Project, the long-time leader in desktop PM software, had a presence in RGL, Ellis says. "Microsoft Project is used, but not widely. It's not a tool conducive to sharing because it's all on the desktop." Since a single project may run across many of RGL's small offices, a desktop-bound solution wouldn't work. Ellis and other RGL managers had their fill of trying to juggle e-mails, spreadsheets, Microsoft Outlook shared tasks, and paper notes to manage big projects. So Ellis went searching for a better answer.

At a conference in Las Vegas Ellis met some people from Clarizen, a company with the tag line of "Projects Made Real." He looked around at the conference and didn't see anything he liked better, so he tried some Clarizen demonstrations. "I got a good response from Clarizen, and some training," says Ellis. So he signed up for a few licenses to try to manage an insurance project RGL just received.

"There are seven parts to one huge insurance loss," Ellis says. "The managing partner must know where all seven parts are at all times."

Ellis just named the single best way to introduce project management into a company. "The person at the top said everyone must use this so he knows what's going on, so people are using Clarizen."

Typically, any new project management application -- or any other application for that matter -- will be welcomed with open arms. By that, I mean all the employees will say it sounds great, but I have two arms open wide to carry all the work I have now, and no time to learn something new.

"The magic argument to get someone to try project management? Tell them it's easy to use and makes their life easier," Ellis says. "It helps you keep things balanced." Even better is the manager at the top using it and demanding others do as well. When you get management support and an internal champion, employees will get with the program. They'll still complain, but they'll get involved.

Try to narrow down your choices for project management software by trying a few of the online services. Names I hear from friends and readers include Basecamp, Viewpath and Liquid Planner. The Zoho suite of online software includes Zoho Planner, free for small projects and a limited number of users. Each of these, and all of the other choices, let you try the software before paying. So try a few and see what happens. The life you organize may be your own.

Besides Project, Microsoft offers a number of Dynamics applications that handle some part project management. I checked the main Dynamics Web page, but I'm still not clear on which Dynamics version -- ranging from GP to NAV to AX to SL -- works for which projects. If you know, leave a comment and explain.

Spreadsheets and index cards work up to a point. But online project management tools cost less today and do more with less effort than ever before. With the right online tool, you can organize your projects without aggravating all your coworkers. Or you can aggravate them via an online project management system, rather than through e-mail and phone calls.

Having an audit trail of who dropped the project ball, online and available for everyone to see? Priceless.

From IT World