Article From IT World

Online Project Management Takes Another Step
SUPERSITE MANAGER
Susan Levi Wallach

Project management is one of those natural Internet applications, allowing, in this case, collaboration, real-time updates, and easy communication among participants. Now, TCC Software Solutions is trying to up the ante.

With The WorkFlow, the maker of Web-based products and a division of The Computer Company in Hartford, CT has brought in such features as additional authority levels for different types of access, automatic email notification of updates, extended automatic billing reports, and a broad database search facility. "Basically," says Matthew Hasson, vice president of TCC Software Solutions Inc., "it gives the capabilities of having better integration not only with the people working on the project but also with the customers and all parties to the project." Which in turn should shorter time to completion and lower development costs.

The model for online project management is fairly simple, the gist being to facilitate real-time Internet-based collaboration. Project.net Inc., for example, offers such applications as team collaboration, project portals and workspaces, and project extranets geared to automating many of the traditionally sluggish tasks that development usually entails. It also offers OEM solutions. The Enact Enterprise System from Entactex also focuses on collaboration and communication.

"The reason a company would implement something like this is that it is a cost-effective way to communicate project tasks and project duties through an organization," says Eileen Hasson, TCC Software Solutions' president. In today's world, where people are so transient and the global economy is so demanding, it makes a big difference to have a tool that can go with today's market trend."