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Google Apps + Manymoon = productivity and customer satisfactionGoogle profiles Social Signal's project management process
- 10 December, 2009
- 4 comments
Social Signal regulars will know that we've (and by "we", I especially mean "Alex") put a lot of effort into finding the perfect solution to our project management needs. We've tried web apps like Basecamp and Remember the Milk, desktop apps like Daylite... but nothing has met all of our needs.
Which, frankly, doesn't surprise us too much. Every organization has its unique demands and idiosyncrasies, and short of a tailor-made solution, no off-the-rack suite is going to drape every bump and curve in the most flattering way.
But we came remarkably close with a combination of project-management upstart Manymoon and Google Apps. (You may remember Manymoon from such blog posts as this one, and such podcast episodes as this one.)
And now the nice people at Google are telling the story of how we did it, as part of their series of customer profiles. (To see Social Signal's article, selected "Professional services" and "Small business". Or view it as a Google Doc right here.)
It's boggling to realize how recently you would have had to pay thousands of dollars for tools like these - mainly because they were only being built for enterprises, if at all. Yet the no-charge edition of Google Apps is more than enough for most organizations... and Manymoon is almost shockingly affordable.
And therein lies an untold story. How big an impact has the arrival of new, no-to-low-cost business applications (and their open-source counterparts) had on the creation and growth of small businesses and non-profit organizations? So many of them run with such tight margins that I'd be surprised if it isn't substantial, but I haven't seen any research on the question. Anyone else?
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Comments
William Azaroff says
Now that is cool! Congrats!
Social Signal Reduces Software Costs by 90% « Simp says
[...] mentioned how tools like Manymoon and Google Apps are making it easier to create businesses and drive growth. Social Signal is doing their part by releasing Open SoSi – four years of social media [...]
Amanda Everse says
I, too, have used Basecamp et al in the past, but searched to find a platform that integrates well with Google tools. I recently started using Nozbe.com for that reason, but hadn't heard about Manymoon. Will have to check it out.
Alec Kinnear says
Hi Rob, We've run into a lot of the same issues which you and Alexandra have run into with task management in Basecamp. Especially as Foliovision grew and grew. We thought about building our own project management tool but in the end, decided to work with the Basecamp API to bake advanced task management into Basecamp.
AscentList will help you manage your team and manage all your own tasks in a focused way. It's like GTD for Basecamp. AscentList is in free beta (permanent discount later for beta testers).
I'd love to have your feedback!
PS. I loved your comments about 5pm's branding and the time necessary to evaluate new tools properly over here: http://socialsignal.com/basecamp-workflow
Their branding turned me off as well: why would I want to encourage my team to become slackers (or even myself).