Dear Colleague

Welcome to the May edition of the newsletter.  This month lots of news on new product releases and how these can help you work more efficiently.

Also an extension to our training and support environment which is already paying dividends for users.

Malcolm West, Managing Director

Version 2.2 released

Earlier this month we released PROJECT in a box version 2.2 and already a huge number of our customers with current support contracts have upgraded to take advantage of the new features.

Yet again this upgrade provides a range of significant new features mostly in response to requests by our users:

• New PM Console - to help the PM see and adjust the document permissions set across the project all from one form, making it much easier to customise when providing access to customers, suppliers etc.  The form also gives a pan project review and control of notifications.
• Drag and Drop - now you can add new content to your project with drag and drop for even closer integration with your windows environment.  This is great for including emails and other documentation included as the project progresses.
• Approved and Baseline Flags - On check-in particular files can be identified as baseline or approved versions in the file history and this information is included in reports and other view locations.  It can also be used in custom reports to return data from file versions such as the original or latest baseline versions.
• Navigation memory - The system now remembers your preferred arrangement of process diagrams (size and location) so when you come back to the project it will be as you left it.
• File Explorer Refresh - The File explorer has been extensively refreshed to make it even easier to use including providing sliding panes,roll up/roll down history, inclusion of tree icons in the document/file panes, customisable styling to allow you to include your own colours for each different method template.
• Check in Extensions - The checked out documents list now has features included to allow check in or undo of checked out documents allowing you to manage your checkout returns more efficiently.
• Large User Numbers - behind scenes changes to accommodate the bulk loading and management of large user numbers, also inclusion of display name and user name.
• Report Extensions - including more details from audit trails into reports including sending of files by email to colleagues.
• Minor fixes and updates - a number of changes including control of characters used in project names and support for Vista SP1.

Information on the website has now been updated to reflect this release including report examples and screenshots.  Read more here....

We are now moving on to think about the version 2.3 release which is scheduled for the end of August.  If you have any requests for new features now is the time to let us know...

Enterprise Hub Changes

Enterprise Hub is the browser based view only access to PROJECT in a box, it is very easy to use and the perfect tool for keeping the broader project team and stakeholders in touch with the project activities.  Until now Enterprise Hub has been the preserve of our larger customers as we only sold an unlimited licence for this and it was installed separately, however this is all changing as follows:

Standard Installation - The Enterprise Hub is being rolled into the standard Personal and Server install so it will be included and set up as part of your routine installation.  This will give your existing Manager and Team licence users an alternative route to accessing project documents for example when away from their desk.

Licence Packs - Now you can buy user licenses for enterprise Hub in packs of ten (ten for £100) so small teams or even Personal Version users can take advantage of Enterprise Hub in sharing access to their work with colleagues over a local network or even the Internet if required.

Managing Successful Programmes

We have been supporting the Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) Methodology since March 2007 and it has been popular, in particular with our larger public sector customers.

Since we received our new licence to distribute material from the updated MSP manual we have been busy updating the MSP Method template which is now complete and is available to users in two formats: 

For Server - with multi users systems £1,000

For Personal Version - single user £250

The Method Template includes the usual navigation diagrams, structure, template files as well as extracted guidance, all authentic and direct from the manual.

What's more with PROJECT in a box you can integrate your Programme managment direct with the projects which are already held on your server, finally a cost effective programme management office.

Online Training and Support

After trialling a number of systems we have adopted GoToMeeting as our system for webmeetings and the flexibility of this is enabling us to significantly extend the services we can offer to you our customers.

For those of you who may not have used web meeting systems before this lets us share our desktop with you so you can see our software and follow through a demonstration.  Importantly with GoToMeeting we can:

• Invite multiple participants - we can meet with up to 16 people at the same time for demonstrations, workshops or to deliver training on-line and this is supported by a conference call system for audio.
• Share keyboard and mouse - we can let you take temporary control of the chairpersons PC so you can point to an area of interest or run through a feature and try it for yourself.
• Reverse control - Once you are in a meeting you can choose to show us your screen or even give temporary access to your keyboard and mouse.  This has proved excellent in diagnosing and addressing support issues raised by customers as well as interacting on Method Template workshops.

Other tools we had trialled were sometimes unable to work with customers in secure corporate environments but we have found that GoToMeeting works very well in these environments and we are yet to find a customer we can't connect to.

Feeding off the back of this we are now offering the following:

• shared desktop support sessions to customers who would find this helpful (free), contact us to arrange....
• multiple participant demonstrations or sales meetings (free), contact us to arrange....
• Online training, consultation sessions or method template workshops (£100/hr), contact us to arrange....