Related Content
Technology Tools Archives
 |
|
|
|
|
||
Sponsored Sections
Ok, Everybody, Let's Do This!
Published July 2008
PREV 1 | 2 
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE
PRINTER FRIENDLY
COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE
BUY A REPRINTBest For: Hashing out graphic designs
What it is: An online collaboration space for visual projects, such as marketing brochures and packaging designs
What's cool: ConceptShare acts as a proverbial conference room table on which a range of visual designs can be spread out and pored over by the necessary parties. After an employee uploads, say, a PDF or JPEG, the image is displayed on the screen. Users can digitally mark up the visual with a fat red pen, add comments, and chat in real time.
Drawback: Although any number of users can comment on visuals, only a limited number may start new projects.
Price: Free for one project. For multiple projects, pricing ranges from $19 per month for 25 active projects to $99 per month for 100 projects. A one-month discount is available for annual billing.
Best For: Wiki-ing your way through a project
What it is: Web-based software for creating wikis and sharing documents
What's cool: You get a password-protected site at which employees can craft language for many types of projects, including advertising campaigns and press releases, using wikis -- documents that may be altered by any member of the group in an easy-to-use online editor. Nuospace tracks changes to your wikis and makes it easy to see what was changed each time they were edited. Employees can also share other files and make comments on revisions. Files can be marked confidential, putting them out of reach of other team members.
Drawback: The system lacks scheduling and task management features that other collaboration tools include.
Price: Free for up to 200 MB worth of documents. Additional space can be purchased starting at $50 a month for 1 GB.
Best For: Managing a project's budget
Daptiv Project Portfolio Management
What it is: A heavy-duty online project management tool
What's cool: Daptiv helps project managers allocate resources, including budgets and manpower. The system can send up a red flag when a manager tries to add a new task to an overscheduled product development team, for example. Daptiv also lets employees share files, create to-do lists, and view project calendars. You can use Daptiv to build other applications that let you, say, compile press clippings and send problems to the IT help desk.
Drawback: For simple collaboration and task lists, more affordable and easier-to-use systems are available.
Price: From $50 per user per month, with a minimum of 10 users. There's a standard training and configuration fee of about $1,500, which can reach up to $12,000 or more depending on the size of the group.
PREV 1 | 2 
