The decision has been made. At least for the next 6 months.
We’re going for Google Apps and Clocking IT.
The google Apps will provide us with the collaborative editing and communication environment and ClockingIt with the project task management and delegation and time logging.
(I’m still using Huddle for organising myself so I can let you knwo how they all go).
Todays book was The Dip by Seth Godin.
It really was book of the day too Short and Sweet! what more can I say, read it perhaps. I read the entire book on the train into town (and part of the way back) so it probably took 1.5 -2 hours and was well worth it.
Seth explains when to stick and when to quit, I would say more but the book is short so i don’t want to give too much away.
The content is particularyly fitting for me at the moment, I am in The Dip and this has helped me see the light, yes, I do believe I am genuinely in the dip, we have just done a whole load of quitting and now we need to drive on through.
It’s a good quick read, read it then pass it on. you can check out Seth’s blog as well
Today I went to Technology for Marketing, not the kind of place I’d usually go, but you know needs must and it’s always good to explore, find out what everyone else is up to. I’m expecting to be flooded with calls trying to sell me CRM and data cleaning solutions for the next month… anyway there were some really goo talks from the likes of Saatchi and Saatchi, Google, Oracle (although I missed that one, I snuck next door to the Expo-Expo, weird it was just in the next room, but sooo different, not full of marketing people I guess) anyway collaboration.
Huddle were there, they are on my (not so short) list so I went and had a chat, now I’ve been reading all the websites and trying to figure out where to start with my list, as Felix Ray said in a comment he left on my earlier post, it’s a challenging task to check out everything on the list. So now having seen Huddle and had good comments (and a good feeling about Wrike) they seem to have floated to the top of the list. They explained there are some more features due for launch in a few weeks and if that all goes to plan then it may actually be exactly what we’ve been looking for…. until I know the trials will continue .
I’ve just finish Richard Branson’s short book Screw It Lets Do It. It might be a small book but it’s certainly not short on ideas and advice from the great man of business. I would throughly recommend it, it’s short, very easy to read and inspirational too.
I’ve got his autobiography waiting to be read as well but I might put that off for a while just to let me think about what he’s said here (and because I belive there wil be some overlap). It also gives me the chance to get started on reading my next short book, which is The Dip by Seth Godin, I keep short books in the car to read while I’m waiting to give people lifts, or stuck in traffic.
Just to let you know where I’m up to with trying out the online collaboration and project management tools.
5PM
Ace Project
BaseCamp
celoxis
CentralDesktop
Clocking It
CoMindWork
Copper
DeskAway
GoPlan
Huddle
OnStage
ProWorkflow
Q
SmartSheet
Teamwork Live
WhoDoes
Wrike
Zoho Projects
We’re trying it out in the office at the moment (all sat looking at each other, which is great for figuring it out) our short list is given (left, alpha order… no preferences in the listing). There are a few on there which only just made it and there are a few which got kicked out which look fantastic but look a bit more ‘Enterprise’ level, great tools but we’re a bit smaller (although whatever we pick will have to scale!).
What we’re trying at the moment is; Google Docs sharing the files whilst we work on them, and using the chat facility where we can (occasionally we resort to shouting across the room) and using ClockingIt. This is just our in house trial and we will try out some others. At the moment it’s working out okay, although there is a bit of mental overhead, and we’re pulling the google docs documents back to MS Word for our final formatting to check it’s all house style before anything goes out, but i’m sure we’ll figure it out.