Company wide automation and group collaboration software is used through out our company. This document will help explain the advantages and disadvantages of each major software package used daily. I have broken the subject down into five main areas.

Microsoft Project http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/
Microsoft Project is a project management software package included in higher end Microsoft Office packages. Microsoft Project is used throughout the development cycle. It is being used in the planning to the implementation and maintenance stages. This product allows us to organize many resources while achieving a common goal.

WebEx http://webex.com/
WebEx is an online meeting and support tool. You can schedule or instantly setup meetings with people all over the world. Video is handled with an internet connection using the WebEx software and you browser. Audio is handled either with conference calling or over the web VOIP. We have production and marketing meetings weekly using this tool. With employees all over the world traveling to make meetings is not feasible more than a couple times a week. WebEx fills in the gaps. WebEx is also used to train and support customers. For example a customer is behind a firewall but needs visual, hands-on support on a server. We fire up a support session and gain full access to the customer’s server as long as the server has internet access. WebEx support sessions make life much easier when the customer is a long distance from your office.

Excel http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/
Excel is used to track time on smaller projects. Excel is also used for tracking and employee expenses. We have used Excel to organize individually in many ways. Once a project hits a mile stone you unload your data to a higher system like MS Project and start tracking information again. This tool is great for accounting and time management on a smaller scale.

Outlook http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/
Microsoft Project and WebEx both schedule meetings within Outlook. The ability to share your calendars and utilize web based calendar access helps in every project. Not to mention you need email for day-to-day communication anyway. This is a very important piece to our every day business process.

SVN http://subversion.tigris.org/
Subversion is a very important piece to product development. It is being used in open source as well as commercial software development. This tool allows many people to check out projects and commit changes with full change log history. For example one developer makes a change to a web application. He then commits his changes so the other developers can update and continue with the latest overall revision. This tool uses the internet to communicate using HTTP so there is no need for complicated tools to access the repositories. Check the link for more information including a full list of features.

In conclusion usage of these tools among others helps us get projects done on time while maximizing the profit by saving valuable time.

Best Regards,
Chris Gountanis