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© 2012 Jason McGuire | www.jmcguire.com

Choosing the Right Project Management Tool{ A brief summary of 5 leading tools for Creative Services Departments }

Jason McGuire: Traffic & Production Manager

Monday, April 2, 2012


What makes a good project management tool? Jason McGuire

When it comes to project management tools, creative departments have a unique set of requirements that are different from other departments in the company. In fact, we live and die by the systems that we deploy. A good project management tool needs to be easy to use. It needs to have real-time access to project status and schedules, so that everyone on the team knows where things are and who is working on what. It should include the ability to clearly communicate when an asset has been approved or rejected.

These tools are good examples of project management tools.

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Jason McGuire


Basecamp

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If you’re looking for an online project management program that is very

quick to learn (for everyone on your team), allows you to store files, and record time, and ALSO can be used to communicate back & forth with your customers, use Basecamp. If you need something a little more

powerful and client communication is NOT a vital need for your organization – don’t. But, it will drastically reduce communication

time and can help squeeze the communication hierarchy (watch out account executives!)

> PROS: SaaS, ease of use, quick to set up, inexpensive, respond to tasks via email

> CONS: Not a lot of reporting options. Multiple (more than 10) projects are easy to get lost. Have to buy additional add-ons to add features. No job initiation form or feature.

www.basecamp.com


Jason McGuire


5pm

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5pm’s strength lies in its task and progress-management capabilities.

Once a task is entered, anybody can add a progress note or a comment on the task. Additionally, you can connect tasks to one another and indicate dependencies by creating subtasks that must be completed

before the parent task can be completed.

> PROS: SaaS, ease of use, task and progress management capability, easy navigation

> CONS: Moderately priced ($175 for unlimited users and space. No job initiation form or feature. Prioritizing tasks doesn’t work well at all. The timeline is not very useful.

www.5pmweb.com


Jason McGuire


Robohead

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RoboHead - is a marketing project management tool specifically

designed for marketing and creative users and the type of high volume, fast turn projects that they manage every day. With real-time access to project status and schedules, everyone on the team knows where things

are and who is working on what. In addition to managing the project, you can also manage deliverables using online annotation and sign off tools.

> PROS: SaaS, Initiating projects quickly by either copying an existing project or using project templates. Planning projects within seconds using best practice workflow. Sharing files using a Library function to only those users with the proper permissions. Initiating and tracking approvals online, with a complete audit trail (the user, approved / not approved). All time and date stamped, online project form initiation

> CONS: Expensive depending on # of users - $35-50 a user. Low 1GB per user.Steep learning curve

www.robohead.net


Jason McGuire


Cooper Project

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Copper Project is ideal for budget-tight solo businesses all the way up to

giant corporations that do not want to spend tens of thousands of dollars to get high-end project management tools. Includesa powerful online project management tool to track projects, invoice clients, and a tool that

allows you to tightly control client access (including a read-only option).

> PROS: SaaS. Ability to enter historical data and backdate items as done. Moderately priced. Simple user interface. Fully customizable look.

> CONS: No project initiation form. Difficult to log out of. No bells and whistles. No design prowesses.

www.copperproject.com


Jason McGuire


Project Insight

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With the easy-to-use features and the interface which is similar to that of

Outlook, you can get going right from the beginning. There are plenty of features available, including one-click access to projects, tasks, issues, reports, and favorite pages. There is also a context-sensitive right click

option. This brings up menus from anywhere on the webpage.

> PROS: SaaS. Mobile option. Email integration. Easy document sharing. Integration with many other applications.

> CONS: Interface customizability. Need enterprise feature to access all capabilities.

www.projectinsight.net


Jason McGuire


About Jason

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Jason has experience in managing production/traffic teams;

overseeing information and cost management in creative services; working with stakeholders in finding environmentally responsible solutions; hands-on production and maintaining

the highest quality of all deliverables for clients such as Taleo, Subway, Salesforce, Design One, Oracle, AT&T, Nike,

and ALDO.

‣ Over fifteen years print production and management experience

‣ Expert with all desktop publishing tools, including Adobe Creative Suite

‣ Expert in direct mail production and implementation

‣ Expert in production and implementation processes


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