Daniel Raymond, Author at AceProject

It’s the human that makes the relationship

I’m a fan of Starbucks coffee. I love the taste and I love the atmosphere for their coffee shops.

In Quebec City, there are three Starbucks stores, and I have my favorite. Because the clientele is different at each place, and because I’ve developed a friendship with the baristas there.

Went I visited New York City for the holidays, I was really looking forward to being in a city that had a Starbucks on every corner (at home, I have to drive a few kilometers to reach one).

Over the 5 days that I spent there, I must have visited at least 6 or 7 different Starbucks stores. And almost every time, I was disappointed. It just didn’t feel the same. Even though it’s the same coffee, the same furniture, the same ads and posters on the walls – they even have the same blackboard drawings!

But it didn’t feel the same as my store here at home.

The difference is the relationship
Even though all the variables are controlled in chains like Starbucks, so that a customer’s experience can be […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-01-07T16:41:00-05:002009-01-07|

Happy new year!

Wow, another year ahead of us.

2009 will bring its load of challenges. The economic situation forces everyone to take a fresh look at expense. The idea is not to spend less, but to spent smart.

This is good for online software. Online software removes the burden of hosting, maintaining and upgrading both computer hardware and software. Take AceProject: for 99$ per month, all your staff gets access to a project management systems that also doubles as a time sheet system. For the price of one or two desktop software licenses, you’ll give project management software access to your entire staff for a year.

Using online software is not only cheaper, it’s smarter: people use the software with their favorite Web browser. It doesn’t matter anymore if the graphic design guy uses a Mac and the administrative assistant uses a PC. As long as their Web browser is fairly recent, the software works and the work gets done.

And because the system itself is not on the user’s computer, there is less demand on the computer’s hardware, like hard […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-01-06T12:38:00-05:002009-01-06|

Happy holidays!

www.aceproject.com

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all fo you for believing in AceProject and for your continuous feedback.

AceProject will be closed for the holidays, between December 24th and January 4th, 2009. We will still be monitoring the servers and the support email inbox, so if you have an emergency, write us at support@aceproject.com.

Everyone here will take this time to relax, recharge our batteries and have some quality time with our families.

We wish you the same 🙂

By Daniel Raymond|2008-12-23T09:40:00-05:002008-12-23|

Who likes change?

The short answer: no one.

When we are not the person who has decided the change, it automatically creates uncertainty. There are very few people who like uncertainty in their life.

When project managers decide to change their methods, it creates uncertainty. This uncertainty shows up as resistance to change: in you project team, your organization’s direction and your client.

As the project manager, it’s your job to communicate the change well:

Why are you changing your methods?
What is expected to be gain with this method?
What is the impact of the change on the team, the direction, the client?

Moreover, as the project manager, it’s your job to pay attention to how your stakeholders react to the change.

Are people “getting with the program?”
Is resistance getting stronger or weaker?

It’s important to be close to your team, direction and clients. It’s your responsibility to sell the change, and then make sure it brings the benefits you sold your stakeholders.

By Daniel Raymond|2008-12-18T09:14:00-05:002008-12-18|

How to get the most out of AceProject, Part III: Printers

Moving a brochure from an idea to a layout to an approved proof to a box of printed copies is no easy task.

With AceProject, printers can move files from one process to the next, and make sure that all the approvals are given before the file goes to the next process.

Create users for each production step in your workflow

At most printers, there are workstations near the presses. Those are not necessarily assigned to specific users. If you want to create a workflow that doesn’t depend on who’s running this part of the workflow, simply create users based on the process.

However you’ll need to make sure there is an email associated with this user, so they can receive email notifications.

Involve your clients

If you often work with the same clients, you can even give them access to AceProject, with limited rights, so that they can upload files, request quotes, or approve work before sending it to press.

Set Finish-to-Start […]

By Daniel Raymond|2008-12-16T14:54:00-05:002008-12-16|

How to get the most out of AceProject, Part II: Teachers and Schools

Last week, we saw how AceProject can help consultants ensure their budgets stay on budget.

This week, we’ll see how teachers and schools can improve communications with their students and keep track of all their classes in a central location. For workshop-oriented classes, AceProject can make your class like a project team.

One project, one class
AceProject helps prepare your materials for your classes. Simply setup each class as a project.

Then, you can create a task for each thing that you need to do to prepare the class, such as your class presentations, exams, or handouts. You can also create a task for each important event when you give the class, such as exam dates and paper due dates.

Not only can you upload all your documents to the task, you can even keep several versions of the same document right there in the task.

Once your class is all setup, you can keep it as a template and recreate the project for each term that […]

By Daniel Raymond|2008-12-11T14:53:00-05:002008-12-11|

Teaching project management with AceProject

Last month, Melinda Cline gave a presentation about using AceProject to teach her students about management information systems and project management systems.

Here are her conclusions:

“Using AceProject, students have an effective tool to increase their understanding of planning, organizing, controlling, and monitoring projects in a global environment. It is a cost effective way for instructors of project management and other IT management topics to introduce students to project management software without having to buy Microsoft Project licenses, which may be very expensive. It also has the advantage of being a web based tool with 24/7 access by students and instructors.”

You can download her PowerPoint presentation here.

By Daniel Raymond|2008-12-10T15:56:00-05:002008-12-10|

AceProject gets upgraded tonight

AceProject 4.6 is ready. We will begin the upgrade cycle tonight, with the free accounts, the Hosted-Standard accounts and the Hosted-Advanced accounts.

AceProject 4.6 was developed in 10 short weeks. We experimented with the Agile product development methodology: shorter development cycles coupled with complete product testing and documentation at the end of each cycle, instead of just at the end.

The results are amazing. We were able to release AceProject faster. More than that I believe testing at each development phase will give a higher quality product for you, our users. The more bugs we were able to find before the release, the fewer you will find when your accounts get upgraded to the new version.

Please tell us your impressions of the new AceProject!

What’s new in AceProject 4.6?

We now have inactive project templates, project templates that exist exclusively
as templates. With inactive templates, users don’t receive email notifications
and task reminders to its tasks. Moreover, tasks that belong to inactive project
templates are not displayed in task lists and reports.
AceProject now allows you to share a document
with someone who […]

By Daniel Raymond|2008-12-08T12:47:00-05:002008-12-08|

How to get the most out of AceProject, Part I: Consultants

AceProject is used by a wide variety of businesses, in many fields, from construction to health to marketing to product development, and then some.

In this series of articles, I will show you how AceProject can be adapted to a specific field of business.

Part I: Consultants

When you’re a consultant, time is money. Literally. What consultants sell is their time. So it’s very important for them to be able to track and manage their time accurately.

Moreover, when all your projects are client-related, it’s crucial to track billable vs non-billable time, and to respect the time allocated to the project.

Setting how time is managed

In AceProject, you can configure how you will track and manage time.

First of all, you get to decide how your week works: It can start on Saturday, on Sunday or on Monday. Week management is set in Administration > Configuration > Account Info: