Time management

[Anonymous]

I am wanting to streamline the time management process for projects and asking if there is something inherent in AC that will allow for tracking of time. Also was wondering what methods/software small firm owners use for time tracking on projects.

[Anonymous]

mjf966 wrote:
Better gone fishing than loose hundred hours trying to make it working!!!

Hey man I'm surprised! What kind of problems did you have with archioffice? The Archioffice support team is very good! Did you try it?

BTW I notice that nobody downloaded the demo...

[Anonymous]

Yes, support is available and very willing to help. They always replied promptly to our email requests and even called us (in Italy) to help us sort out one particular issue.

Unfortunately, after installing v8 (quite complicated procedure) we have problems with permissions that no one has been able to solve, despite numerous tries, so it's impossible for us to create any new records. More than that, the Filemaker based format is unpractical (in my opinion). I wish someone would create time management software with OpenBase (like Daylite, which is fabulous http://www.marketcircle.com).

[Chazz]

For time tracking, I use the very simple and affordable Timeslice.. It can be deployed in group envioronments or individually. However, if I was starting all over I'd use an online time tracking sevice such as Harvest or Keepmytime.

For project management and collaboration (in and out of the office), there is not really a better option I've seen than Basecamp. Yeah I've plugged it before but it is that good. All of that charting and graphing in ArchiOffice is your clue that it is lame old impress-the-boss-with-BS bloatware. The simplicity should be the real power. I love basecamp because the developer has realized the most important truth about project management: that PM is not powered by charts and graphs but my communication.

I'm really getting tired of investing money in hardware dependent tools (and in the case of ArchiOffice, even software dependent) that sit on my local machine and can't be shared with others easily or accessed remotely. AIM, and ArchiOffice are old school. Web apps are where it's at now. No Machine level configuration, just Firefox. It looks and acts the same on any computer on the planet, never needs to be upgraded, is always up to date, is always backed up, Bla Bla Bla. These are HUGE benefits.

[Anonymous]

Chazz wrote:
there is not really a better option I've seen than Basecamp.

For those interested there is a free (open source) basecamp-like product that you can run on your own server called ActiveCollab.

See www.activecollab.com

I've been using it for over a month and it's pretty good.

[Anonymous]

PSA Scorecard seems to do almost everything ArchiOffice does except it is an online solution. Looks pretty good.

http://www.psascorecard.com/

[Chazz]

Eric wrote:
there is a free (open source) basecamp-like product that you can run on your own server called ActiveCollab.

I too was intrigued with activecolab when it was announced but I stuck with Basecamp for this reason: you don't have to spend too much time dinking with the install and the config and the maintenance and the updating, etc. before the $24/month you spend on Basecamp begins to look like a bargain.

Perhaps someone will start offering activecolab as a hosted solution at a discount to Basecamp and this might attract more users.

[Anonymous]

Chazz wrote:
the $24/month you spend on Basecamp begins to look like a bargain.

Unless you have a lot of projects that are active and/or if you want to "own" you data on your own servers.

The installation is pretty easy if you use UniformServer for Windows:
www.uniformserver.com
or you can use MAMP for OSX:
http://www.mamp.info/

Use either of these to setup Apache, MySQL, & PHP and then you can simply extract the ActiveCollab files and run the setup for it.

There is even a screencast of the installation process here: http://www.sridhareena.com/addons/screencasts/activecollab/activecollab.html

[Anonymous]

Eric wrote:
Unless you have a lot of projects that are active and/or if you want to "own" you data on your own servers.

I agree! The idea of putting all my hard work in a strange server makes me scared. No way!

But I have to say that ArchiOffice have a solution for remote acess thru the internet... Take a look:
www.archioffice.com/pages/remote_access/RA_Overview.html

I like the activecollab idea, but I still think Archioffice is more adapted to the reality of an architectural office, like the automatic documents such envelops, contracts, letters, etc...

[Fritz T]

I hope this forum is still active...

We are looking into investing in a networked software time management solution in our firm (5 stations), and have come across a program called Studiometry, which seems to do all some of the stuff we want to do. (the most important being integrated time management)
It does seem to rather be targeted to Graphic and Advertising companies, but some of the reviews on Macworld etc. vary from being very good to bad.

Does anyone have any experience with this software?,

[Anonymous]

Since you seem to be a small Mac based office, you may want to wait and see if the new iCal, Mail, and Address Book coming with Leopard might do the trick for you.

I have been using a little program called iBiz for time billing since it links to iCal and is cheap. It has some annoying quirks (which may be sorted in the new version which I haven't installed yet) but it does the job with minimum fuss and bother.

The new iCal supports more groupware like functions and the new Mail has some seriously cool new features. I tend to recommend against full featured time/office/business management systems for small firms since the setup and operating overhead (not to mention the purchase price) is often more than it's worth.