It’s now been almost a year since we had launched our first version of AdminProject. Having received lots of feedback from many users and by using it for our company as well, we felt that something was amiss, that we can do better than this. Such conclusion led us to where we are now, to the new version of AdminProject. What’s new in AdminProject 2.0 then? Long story short – EVERYTHING.
Towards simplicity
Clean and simple interface. Easy to use. Advanced functionality hidden behind straightforward actions. Powerful and robust assistant in European projects’ management. That’s right – we have taken into account all of these things which prevented you from working in a faster and more efficient way. We have also taken some of the responsibilities from you, so that now it is the system that is doing a significant portion of work for you! Keep reading to discover the most important highlights from the new version of the AdminProject software.
Tailored for European projects
Work Packages
Now you can work with Work Packages that correspond to your project. Feel free to add milestones and deliverables to Work Packages according to your project’s specifications. These elements have a deadline and a description, which will make the tracking of project’s achievements much easier. Each Work Package can be now given an acronym (WP1, WP2 – it’s up to you) which will be shared across your project’s space (e.g. in finances or dissemination modules).
Finances
Finances is a brand-new functionality and a result of seamless cooperation between the programmers and the accountants (believe it or not – it was tougher that it sounds). Within this part of AdminProject 2.0 you have the possibility to work on documents required in every single European project, namely: time sheets and travel expenses. Your role here is very simple – just enter any expenses and, thanks to all the magic behind the scenes, you’ll have a Word document ready to be signed and stamped for reporting purposes. Most probably you’d like to have these documents printed on your own headed paper (with company or project logos). It couldn’t be simpler! You only need to upload your own template (one empty Word page with header and/or footer), which will be populated with a report’s content. Sounds nice, huh?
Dissemination
This one is also a novelty. We all know how difficult it is to keep track of, and properly report dissemination activities undertaken in European projects. We have a solution for that. In the dissemination module you can record and track all your dissemination activities. All in one place, across all partners. You can optionally attach any supporting files for these activities – attendance lists, photos, brochures – you name it. Thanks to this module, when the time of a final report comes, you won’t have to search for everything dating one or two years back. All of the records will be there waiting for you.
Activity stream
Another long-awaited feature. When you enter your project’s workspace, you are now presented with latest actions and changes in the project, which gives you like a quick overview on what has happened since your last visit. Project’s summary also gives you an overall quick view on the project – its time frame, number of tasks that are currently open, and people working in the project.
My projects
My projects view (the main screen after you log in to the system) will, apart from presenting the project you are currently involved in and your tasks’ list (across all projects), give you a chance to see an activity stream with information from all projects you are working on. Say you are working in a number of projects, and you’d like to know what happened lately in all of them, on a single page. This shared activity stream is our answer to your needs. In case someone invites you to join his or her project, your dashboard will tell you (complementing an e-mail invitation) about it in the Pending invitations section. Your projects can also be sorted either by name (the default setting), or by a colour-code category. It’s even animated!
Files
The idea behind this module is the same as in the previous version of AdminProject, and that is where similarities end. Now everything is faster, clearer and more user-friendly. The uploader now supports bulk uploads, so you don’t have to upload files one by one. If your browser supports you can drag-and-drop file into the AdminProject 2.0 window. UI is simpler and more efficient. When you need to delete a complex structure of folders and files – you can now do it by taking just one action, and you don’t have to visit each folder and delete its contents manually any longer. Within AdminProject 2.0, you can also discuss a file the same way you would discuss tasks. All in one place.
Tasks
For many people this module is the most important one, as it gives a real spin for you daily work. We spent a significant amount of time developing this module and testing different approaches. Keeping simplicity and ease of use in mind, now you can manage your tasks even better. Simple, yet very usable, improvement is that you can prioritise your tasks, it comes very handy at times, especially when there are many tasks due on the same date. Other minor improvements worth mentioning here are: while approving the task, the progress of other people involved will be set to 100%; now there is only one progress bar for those who are working in a task (as everyone is working, they set the progress indicator individually).
Project’s settings
This part of AdminProject 2.0 had also been redesigned and given new features. Project’s settings access is limited to the owner and administrators of this project. This section will enable you not only to invite new people and set up their roles (user/administrator). Here you can upload a template for your project, so that all documents generated by AdminProject 2.0 will look the way you want. While visiting project’s settings page, you may set up a partnership, and assign personnel to appropriate partners. It is crucial for other modules like dissemination or finances, so the information displayed there can be complete.
Simplified notifications
Let’s be honest. In a fast-paced work environments the previous version of AdminProject sometimes behaved like a spam-bot. This is no longer happening, as we had revised notification mechanisms and dropped unnecessary e-mails. For example, if an owner of a task approves it, it’s of no use to let them know that they did it. There are also no notifications for new files being uploaded, as it produced high volume of e-mails sent from time to time. What is more, you can adjust the notification settings according to your needs in your profile.