Disclosure: This post is a paid review of axosoft OnTime 2007 offered to me through
Reviewme.com. As I understand it, axosoft paid $250 for this, and I'll receive $125 of that while ReviewMe takes the rest. I'm being paid to blog about the product, can say whatever I want in 200 words or more, and must mention that this is a paid review. How much I'm paid is based on the popularity and authority of this blog based on things like Alexa and Technorati rankings. I figured that's worth mentioning at the get-go. This is an experiment on my part. Please let me know in the comments or directly via email, phone, or Skype what you think of disclosed paid posts like this.
Moving on . . .
I'm a big fan of web based applications. In my ideal world, all of my work could be done via the web from any computer with web access. That way, I'd never have to haul around a computer. I'd just use one wherever I went. As this point, I manage to be web based for email, calendaring, and photo storage.
One area where I've been experimenting lately is with web based project management solutions. Being mobile, it's nice to have a project management application that's accessible from any computer rather than one that only works from work or through some sort of proprietary software. In the past, I've used
phpcollab for this, which is a free open source PHP/MySQL application that you host yourself. It makes it easy to set up projects, to-dos, etc. Currently, I'm using
BaseCamp to manage tasks for Technology Evangelist such as to-dos, bug reporting, enhancement ideas, etc. It's a pretty slick program since it allows for easy task assignments, has RSS feeds of changes, works in any browser, and is free to cheap depending on how many projects you want to manage.
Another player in this field,
axosoft is in the process of releasing the latest version of their popular application,
OnTime 2007. axosoft's product delivers a much higher-end feature rich solution for project management with significantly more robust reporting and task management. For example, the service has a clipboard capture/crop/save feature that allows for easy attachment of screenshots to bug reports. The program also breaks out management based on features, defects, and incidents for better management based on common IT roles. A good comparison for this type of feature is
Track-It.
OnTime 2007 runs an interesting hybrid of installed and hosted pricing for their service. The business seems to be built primarily around hosting the software in-house, which seems like a popular option for many corporations who shy away from publishing their project development details to a 3rd party site. However, they do offer a subscription based service for businesses more interested in focusing on developing great software over managing project management tools.
Personally, while OnTime 2007 offers many features beyond what I get from BaseCamp today, I don't see enough benefits from those features to justify dropping what I've grown used to today. Plus, I'm a big fan of RSS feeds for task tracking. However, I think OnTime would be a service worth evaluating for larger corporations interested in a feature rich web based project management / issues tracking application.
axosoft offers a
free 1-user mixed-mode license that covers both in-house or hosted options, which should give you a taste for the service, or could be all that an individual consultant may need to run their business.
1. Posted by: DP Dan on November 16, 2006 1:20 PM:
Ed,
Nice post. I see how you handled disclosure for this sponsored post and was curious if you might consider adopting a site-wide Disclosure Policy for your and affiliated blogs -- linked to all with "Disclosure Policy" link.
When I was researching investment in PayPerPost (the original sponsored post guys), I became familiar with the balance between blogger, marketer and audience expectations. I also learned the diversity of bloggers, audiences and media; suggesting that one solution won't work for all transparency issues. That led me to champion DisclosurePolicy.org and a Disclosure Policy framework that could grow with the medium.
I'd appreciate you adopting a Disclosure Policy and reviewing DisclosurePolicy.org -- created to provide tools like the DP Generator (edit as you like) and centralize best practices on the topic so new bloggers start on the right foot. Your feedback as an established blogger and multi-blogger site would be helpful. Giving audiences a standard "Disclosure Policy" link to find/click on every page is something MSM cannot match and moves everyone closer to common expectations. All thoughts appreciated...