Dear Colleague

Welcome to the June edition of the PROJECT in a box newsletter.  This month we are delighted to provide you with an introduction to PRINCE2 2009 and to a preview of the new PROJECT in a box version 2.5 which will be available in August.  Both are produced with our new video software giving you better quality.

Also links to some great reviews of PROJECT in a box 2.4 published over recent months and finally something new...

Malcolm West, Managing Director

PRINCE2 2009 video briefing

PRINCE2 2009 was officially released on the 16th June 2009 and as usual with such launches it is difficult to get a handle on what that means without purchasing materials or going to one of the commercial briefings.

So we thought we would help out and have produced a video briefing which we put on our PROJECT in a box channel on You Tube and has already proved to be very popular.  Click on the screen to watch it now (9.45min) .

We have also included a new PRINCE2 2009 page on the PRINCE2 PRIMER with other feeds which will be expanded as more free materials become available.

Of course as soon as we have a licence from OGC for the new materials we will be updating Community Edition as well.

Version 2.5 preview

Development work is almost complete on PROJECT in a box version 2.5 and so we thought you might like to see what is on the way.   Click on the screen to watch the video tour now (13.50 min).

Loads of exciting new features including lots of reporting extensions, process diagram navigation in browser, SharePoint and smart phone interfaces and very helpful direct link capabilities so you can build a document which contains live links to PIAB held files, to name but a few.

View the video to find out more or check out the website for a more complete feature list.

We are also looking for Beta testers so if you want to try this out before the August release date just let us know.

Product Reviews

The move to PROJECT in a box version 2.4 has generated lots of interest amongst user organisations, partners and also the trade fraternity and we has resulted in a number of notable reviews in the trade press.

Project Manager Today reviewed version 2.4 for their May edition.  Steve Cotterell did another comprehensive review since his look at the first version back in Jan 2006 and was very impressed by how far things had moved on.  The PMT May 2009 Review is an in depth three page analysis by one of the most experienced journalists in the sector.

PROJECT in a box version 2.4 was then also reviewed by Project Magazine (the magazine for members of the Association for Project Management) for their Tried and Tested section in June.   This is a different format mixing our summary of the product with the results of an independent interview of a user.  James Simon the editor of Project interviewed Denis Benham a long time PROJECT in a box user at Humberside Police.  A different sort of review but equally valuable if you are trying to get an idea of what PROJECT in a box can bring to organising your projects.

We hope you find these reviews helpful and informative, there are other reviews available for Community Edition and the full PROJECT in a box as well as published customer case studies and a selection of sound bites on our Reviews page.

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Surveys and Opinion Polls

We are always interested in hearing what you, our users think about the direction we should take our products in and general project management issues.

With this in mind we are launching a set of quick polls to find out which methods you prefer to use, which ones you would like us to provide and how quickly you will move to PRINCE2 2009.  Of course by submitting your view to the polls you will be able to see what your peers think on the same subject.

If there is sufficient interest in this we will extend to a more complete survey on the state of project management in 2009. 

Visit the Survey page...

...and finally