Project Management

[hayden]

Hi Guys.

I hope one day there will be a project management tab in commit.

However...

What is everyone else managing projects with outside of CommitCRM? I've taken a look at a few CRMs, and the results have been disappointing.

Basecamp seems far too simplistic. Was having issues with RSS feeds. No real good plugin for Outlook.

Suggestions?

[lpopejoy]

Re: Project Management

We just started using basecamp for projects. Simple, yes. That's not always bad. :)

[raymond]

Re: Project Management

This is also our #1 request. Not being able to group tickets and track everything under one project (master ticket) has been one of the most glaring oversights in the entire program. Here is the link with the main posting when we hit the 10K ticket mark: here

We have done this very reluctantly but we are now using Contracts to substitute for the missing Projects tab. Basically, you create a project contract (we typically use blocks of hours as it allows us to more quickly see how much time we are spending on a project) and use ticket types and now labels to help us flag project type tickets for quicker sorting and identification. This works OK but I HATE giving up the functionality of Contracts to make up for the missing Projects features. A true project tab with the ability to nest tickets and assign managers (in addition to account and ticket managers) would be welcome.

//ray

[hayden]

Re: Project Management

Hey Raymond.

I commented in that thread as well. We're at 12.5k tickets now and finally gone to SQL (holy god it's quicker :D)

We use to use the contract method, but when you need to start adding files, talk to customers and track notes from them, it becomes a pain.

We still use contracts, but only for internal time tracking now. We use basecamp for the actual project notes/documents/interaction.

I think there needs to be a project tab with some of functionality that basecamp has. It doesn't need to be flash with lots of features, it just needs to support the basics.

So we now create a contract for the project, ticket for the project, label the ticket as project and then create a basecamp project based on this... bit of work, but it's nice.

So Commit, are there any plans for projects coming up?

[lpopejoy]

Re: Project Management

Just FYI, you can use a field in CommitCRM and make a web link to open the basecamp project. You have to stick the basecamp project identifier in the field (last part of the URL in basecamp). I can export the online service if anyone is interested. Pretty simple.

[hayden]

Re: Project Management

Ya, I'm keen as I'm lazy today :)

[Support Team]

Re: Project Management

We believe that despite the, possibly misleading name, Contracts are still the best way to manage this.

Let's call Contracts Projects -

So here's what you have in RangerMSP Projects:

You can:

* Run multiple projects per customer.

* Allocate a time/money budget for each project.

* Create as many Tasks that needs to be performed and assign them to different staff.

* Schedule appointments/on-site visits that involved in this project and assign each to a different person.

* Log project-specific notes under the History tab.

* Manage project-specific documents, emails, attachments, diagrams, etc. under the Docs tab.

* Log time Charges, product/part Charges and labor Charges under the specific project - whether for billing purposes or not.

* Invoice a project (with RangerMSP-QuickBook Link module).

* Create service Tickets under the project so you'll get a quick access to all larger-scale tasks that were involved with each specific project.

* Etc.

Knowing BC, a great solution for its task, it probably does not provide you with many more options than this.

Is the above perfect? Probably not, however, it should provide you with the tools you need.

Having said all this we have received some interesting ideas that are unique to projects and we consider them. However, we also consider the amount of complexity adding yet another tab to RangerMSP, named 'project' will bring, and basically it will probably require to support all of the items listed above...

We're not saying that it isn't required just trying to show some different angles for this.

Any constructive feedback is welcome! Thanks.

[lpopejoy]

Re: Project Management

Basecamp does not provide you with many more options than this? Tell me how I can load my project on my iPad and iPhone in a native app... Collaborate across all of my team members and outside vendors and clients? Easily schedule todos or tasks and see all relevant tasks across a calendar.

I'm not convinced that contracts = projects. I'm not 100% sure what's missing. But I know it is WAY easier to pop a project into Basecamp and get it mapped out than it is to get contracts to perform as a project management solution.

I can haul a load of fertilizer in the back of my minivan too... That doesn't mean that's what it is made for. I don't know... I think this needs some more thought. It almost seems like Projects and Tickets need to be separated. Maybe?

[lpopejoy]

Re: Project Management

Basecamp Online Service

[Support Team]

Re: Project Management

We agree do think that Basecamp does a great job for what it suppose to do. Good idea about this Online Services setting, thanks for sharing!

[TriadNetSys2013]

Re: Project Management

We have had this problem as well. Tracking the projects became very painful. Now we create a separate contract for the account that we are doing project for and assign all the project tickets to that contract. At the end we get to see all the charges for that specific project, that is contract.

[hayden]

Re: Project Management

Yeah, main reason for Basecamp is the sharing of information, including to the customers. CommitCRM is too clunky for that. Maybe when/if the web interface is cleaned up.

Also having the mobile apps are great.

We have a standing ticket in CommitCRM, tagged with a label with a contract attached to bill the work out, but use Basecamp to do everything project wise.

[raymond]

Re: Project Management

Contracts work OK but they are a bit clunky... the labels have helped us be able to track projects better (we tag tickets based on the type of contract using the new labels) -- I can't imagine trying to do this before labels!

Anyhow, Commit, we understand that this isn't a simple addition but a lot of folks are looking to be able to track at the project level -- it is how a ton of tickets, charges and work in general get processed.

//ray

[raymond]

Re: Project Management

Contracts work OK but they are a bit clunky... the new labels feature has helped us track projects better though. We assign the "PROJET" label to a contract that is being used as a project tracking system which then stamps all tickets with "PROJECT" -- this makes it MUCH easier to see if a ticket belongs to a project, which them will prompt us to go find the contract it belongs to and view it from that level. It requires more clicks but is working OK for us (I can't imagine trying to do this before labels!. On a side, we are also using the Type filed to further identify a ticket as belonging to a project.

Anyhow, Commit, we understand that this isn't a simple addition but a lot of folks are looking to be able to track at the project level -- it how we work and better tools to track this stuff would greatly be appreciated.

//ray