News Round-up for September #2

It seems like everyone is getting into the ‘back to school’ fever with software news. Here’s the second part of this month’s Software September news round-up.

Teamlab now in Finnish and Portuguese

Good news for project teams in Finland and Portugal – you can now use Teamlab in your own language. Available as both hosted and on-premise versions, the Teamlab portal is now available in these two extra languages, thanks to some dedicated translators.

Resource Guru launched

Resource Guru logo. Wouldn’t you want to plan your resources under the watchful eye of this wise man?

Resource Guru is a brand new web app which schedules people, equipment and other resources online. Specifically targeted at project managers, the aim is to help you see who is booked on what jobs when. It actually looks very good, although I haven’t had a chance to try it out myself yet. They have even started looking at what features they are going to introduce next, including daily email reminders, drag and drop functionality and adding downtime for holidays.

Journyx launches iPhone app

Journyx, the time tracking software, has launched a new mobile app so you can enter your time sheet information from anywhere. Free for Journyx customers, it allows you to manage current, past and future timesheets, add new entries, submit your timesheets and enter time by project – great if you are working on project tasks that take you away from the office.

It’s only available for iPhone at the moment but the company will be launching an Android app in the next month or so. “Our multi-faceted mobile offering demonstrates that we are listening to our
customers’ needs and delivering products and applications to them that make their interaction with Journyx simpler and more convenient,” said Curt Finch, CEO of Journyx. “Mobile is no longer just an industry buzzword; it’s a way of life. We believe that our mobile app and our mobile-optimized web
site will further enhance our customers’ Journyx experience.”

Podio launches new iPad app

Podio has just launched its brand new iPad app which makes its collaborative work platform more mobile. It’s a team-based piece of software aimed at bringing people, projects, business processes and tasks together. The iPad app lets you create your own workflows and use them on your iPad.

The new Podio iPadd app showing the data stream

New project management online community launched

Skillsharks™ is a new collaborative learning community for project managers from ESI International. It gives you access to project management learning tools and the chance to chat to ESI experts and others through the forums. It’s designed to be an engaging, business-focused environment to help project professionals quickly find information, learn on the fly and get results. There are 5 tracks:

• Better Projects: How to deliver a better project from start to finish.
• Handle Projects: How to handle the risks inherent to every project and get your projects back on track.
• Lead Projects: How to be an effective project leader, from communication to managing change
• Earn Credentials: Learn about project management credentials, tips on the application processes and exam prep strategies.
• Ugly Projects: Share ugly project stories and help others protect their projects from getting ugly.

It costs $25 per month to join though, so it better prove that it gives you lots of value or users will choose to opt for support from free communities like Gantthead or the project management groups on LinkedIn. I look forward to seeing whether it evolves into a community for all project managers or whether it turns into a learning forum for those who have taken ESI training courses. I don’t know if ESI is giving away memberships with courses, but if they aren’t already I’m sure they will soon.

 New on this blog: more project management software reviews

This year we had an unprecedented amount of project management software companies contacting us for reviews, and my assistant Jo and I had a hard time sifting through the applicants to pick products for me to look at. Reviewing software takes time, and I can never get through as many products as I’d like (or that the suppliers would like).

To supplement the reviews I have done myself, this year I have added a FindTheBest.com widget for project management software reviews, so you can get more product reviews at a click. If you are surfing for new software, check out the software review index and at the bottom of that page you’ll see the FindTheBest.com reviews as well. What do you think? Does it add anything extra or would you rather see more reviews from me?