Basecamp is one of the most popular light-weight project management tools, and with good reason. But many enterprise users are looking for more powerful project planning and collaboration tools.

As a result, we’ve seen plenty of users who’ve migrated from Microsoft Project and Basecamp to Deskera, looking for a complete solution that meets both their needs of project planning and collaboration.

Deskera already supports import and export of project plans from Microsoft Project. Looking at the sheer number of Basecamp users who wish to migrate to Deskera, we thought it was time to roll out an ‘Import from Basecamp’ feature.

We wish we could bring in your documents as well, but sadly, Basecamp does not support this. As of now, Basecamp does not support importing of project information from any other tool either.

For more details on ‘How to import projects from Basecamp’ you can head over to our support forum. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

• Import existing plans from Microsoft Project
• Sync Deskera calendars to Microsoft Outlook and others using iCal
• Export Deskera project plans to Microsoft Project
• Export plans and reports to .pdf and .csv files
• Embed project plans anywhere on the web
• Import/Export your existing contacts from Microsoft Outlook and via .csv files
• E-mail Notifications for tasks and to-dos
• RSS feeds for project updates

Plus we know that the real way to lock in customers is to give them the keys.

Ready to migrate from Basecamp? Sign Up to manage your projects the way you really want to.

P.S. Also, let us know if there’s any other tool you wish to migrate project data from. We’ll do it.

Or any other feed reader of your choice – Google, Yahoo, Thunderbird, Netvibes, FeedDemon, Krawler[x] and even web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, etc.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS)  is a way for content publishers to make news, blogs, and other content available to subscribers.

Using the Global RSS Feed provided in Deskera, you can get notified of updates across all your projects.

Individual RSS Feeds are also provided for:

1. Individual Project Updates
2. To-Do List Updates for each project
3. Event Updates for each project and
4. Individual Calendar feeds as well

All you need to do is click on the  icon, subscribe directly by selecting your Feed Reader (Microsoft Outlook, Google, Yahoo, etc.) or you can also copy the URI from the address bar and paste it into your reader.

Deskera is the only truly Microsoft Project Compatible project management software available. You can import your existing Microsoft Project plans, collaborate on them and export the updated plan back to Microsoft Project.

Now Deskera allows you to embed your project plan anywhere on the web.

1. Get the embed code from the Export option in Deskera
2. Paste it into your website, blog or any HTML editor
3. You can change the dimensions of the plan to suit the destination

Some of the benefits:

1. Any updates to the plan in Deskera will automatically be reflected
2. Search-as-you-type on your embedded plan
3. View the true Work Breakdown Structure – expand task lists for a complete view
4. View task details on the Gantt Chart as well
5. Give your clients and project stakeholders complete visibility – Accurate project status. Every time.
6. Get feedback on your project plan from colleagues and experts.

Also now you can not only work on your Microsoft Project Plans on the web, but also publish them anywhere on the web. Deskera is definitely the best Microsoft Project Viewer around!

Embed Project Plans – Increase Visibility. Incorporate Feedback. Improve Efficiencies.

What are you waiting for? Sign Up.

You can now access your Deskera calendars from any calendar that supports iCal, including Microsoft Outlook, Google, Yahoo, Blackberry, iPhone etc.

Using the URL provided, you can access events from all your Deskera calendars in any calendar you choose. You can also choose to export only individual calendars. Learn more about how to export calendars in Deskera.

Whenever your project events are updated in Deskera, you will automatically be notified on your other calendars, whether MS Outlook, Google, etc or your mobile calendars.

This means that now you don’t even have to log in to Deskera to be in sync with your project events. Stay informed of your schedule on the move.

You can also import your existing events in other calendars to Deskera.  So along with importing your existing Microsoft Project plan to Deskera, you can also move your existing schedule and events in Microsoft Outlook, Google, Yahoo, Blackberry, iPhone, etc to Deskera.

One more step towards being the single application for all your project management needs.

Rest of the series: Project Planning, Simplicity

We know how Deskera lets you work on Microsoft Project files on the web. But that’s not all, Deskera offers much more than just Microsoft Project on the web.

In this part of the series, we compare the Collaboration Capabilities of Microsoft Project and Deskera Project Management Software.

Using Microsoft Project for Collaboration

Let’s take the case of John and Richard who are in-charge of end-to-end Project Management including planning all the project activities and Work Breakdown Structure for their biggest client so far.

John’s boss gifted him a copy of Microsoft Project last Christmas (for the extravagant sum of $1000) and he gets going on the project plan immediately.

• He gets a draft ready and wants Richard to take a look at it.
• Richard unfortunately does not have Microsoft Project installed on his PC.
• He tries using a free .mpp Viewer and e-mails out the changes required to John
• John updates the file and re-sends it for review each time. Way too cumbersome.

So finally Richard gets his boss to spend another $1000 for his own copy of Microsoft Project and suddenly feels all important and in control. So John and Richard start ‘collaborating’, sending each other new versions of the plan by e-mail till the file name reads something like this: Project-plan-(1)(150508)(1.6)final3.mpp

• They are still working on different versions
• More time is spent updating the changes rather than getting any real work done.
• No single version of the file for the team to work on.

The only way to get that done is to spend another $5000 odd for a copy of Microsoft Office Project Server. So after a lot of money and time spent for installation, configuration and training, they can at least work on the ’same’ file.

But it’s still not Real-time. The copy they are working on is as of last ‘checkout’ date, but they trudge along…

How do they discuss and collaborate on the project plan?

• They send out numerous emails to each other and the rest of the team.
• Using various online chat and Instant Messaging applications such as Yahoo, MSN, Skype, etc.
• Numerous phone calls and brainstorming sessions

Unfortunately all this communication history was either never tracked or lost in heaps of other Minutes-of-Meeting documents.

And they haven’t even started working on the project yet… Just the project plan so far.

What if they switch from Microsoft Project to Deskera instead?

• John uploads his existing Microsoft Project plans to start working on them immediately.
• Richard and the rest of team see the changes being made in real-time and update the Project Plan and Gantt Chart themselves. No additional software required, saving time and money.

• All team members access the project status from any computer running any operating system
• This leads to dramatically lower costs than buying Microsoft Project for each team member.
• John and Richard communicate real-time using the inbuilt chat functionality, or send messages to each other.
• Dedicated project discussion forums are used for gathering feedback, resolving issues and holding all other team discussions.
• Using the dedicated calendars, they setup meetings and events for all project members.
• All communication history is available whenever they need it, even for the new members who would join later.

Collaboration tools including Messages, Discussion Forums, To-Dos and Calendars are leveraged for getting the actual project work done.

And all this at negligible cost compared to Microsoft Project.

So why not sign up for Deskera? Let us know what you think.

In line with our philosophy of importance of collaboration in project management, we’ve included powerful communication tools such as Discussion Forums and Personal Messages.

Discussion Forums

1. Dedicated discussion forums for each project
2. Threaded discussion forums for efficient organization of communication
3. Flag discussions based on importance
4. Preview of discussion posts on a single click
5. Search-as-you-type capability for quick retrieval
6. Discussion Moderation capabilities can be granted to users
7. Rich Text Editing Capabilities
8. Single source of truth for all project communications. Handover’s a breeze.

Personal Messages

1. Single Messaging System across projects for each user.
2. E-mail like functionality – efficient and easy to use.
3. Send messages to anyone in your network
4. Folder Management Capabilities – Inbox/Outbox/Drafts/Custom Folders
5. Get system generated notifications straight to your inbox as well – Connection Requests, Upcoming Events, Project Updates, etc.
6. Search-as-you-type within Messages by Subject, Author, etc.
7. Preview messages on a single click

We hope that these tools make it easier for you collaborate on projects within a single application rather than disparate silos of project communication. Let us know what you think.

Now you can send email notifications for to-dos. Once you create a to-do and assign it to a team member, you can choose to notify the to-do owners by e-mail.

You can select multiple to-dos by holding down ‘Ctrl’ and send multiple notifications at once. We’ve also improved the Mark-as-Done UI by replacing the old checkbox with a neat ‘Tick’ icon.

And thanks to all our customers who said they loved the drag-and-drop functionality. Give it a go at demo.deskera.com and tell us what you think.

Rest of the series: Project Planning

We know how Deskera lets you work on Microsoft Project files on the web. But that’s not all, Deskera offers much more than just Microsoft Project on the web.

Simplicity

As we’ve noted earlier, 80% of Microsoft Project users use only 20% of its numerous features. So at Deskera we’ve simplified a lot of rarely used Microsoft Project functions to deliver a more capable, yet simpler, project management methodology.

Earned Value Management

All the main EVM values are calculated by Microsoft Project, including: Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS), Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP), Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP), Schedule Variance (SV), Cost Variance (CV), Budget at Completion (BAC), Cost Performance Index (CPI), Schedule Performance Index (SPI), Variance at Completion (VAC), and Estimate at Completion (EAC).

EVM potentially is a great tool to identify variances and discrepancies and warn managers in advance of looming problems. ‘Potentially’ is the key word here.

One thing consistent across the various EVM implementation methods is that they demand quantification of project plans in advance. And accurate quantification at that.

The truth about most of the projects today is that they evolve with time, albeit within specified boundaries, and EVM is not as effective, in fact can be misleading even, when it comes to agile projects. EVM for agile projects is still an ongoing project management research area.

Even for achieving maximum potential of EVM methods, collection of real-time true progress information is critical. And the irony is that Microsoft Project does not facilitate that.

Hence the sophisticated EVM tools in Microsoft Project can rarely be leveraged to their maximum potential.

So in Deskera, we’ve employed a simple 0/100 earning rule for all tasks and we’ll be including intuitive and flexible variance tracking techniques after listening to our customers. You guys know best.

Task Types and Constraints

Microsoft Project provides for different calculation types for tasks: Fixed Duration, Fixed Units, and Fixed Work. In addition, tasks may be marked as Effort Driven.

Now the truth is that each of these, whether duration, units or work, possess a degree of variance with the effort involved being a reflection of the same. When the value of any of these metrics changes, the others are naturally affected and subsequently Microsoft Project asks you to specify a reason each time. This would be really cool if it was in fact used as a feedback mechanism to train Microsoft Project, but it just happens to be an unnecessary interruption.

Also, there are eight types of constraints that can be applied to individual tasks in a project. But the true purpose of these constraints can be achieved only when the entire team and resources are aware of these, which is rarely the case for teams using MS Project.

We believe that the ability to define dates and dependencies get the work done, and you can always attach additional notes to tasks.

User Experience

At Deskera, we pay a lot of attention to User Experience and we’ve worked hard to improve it. Whether it’s Microsoft Project’s inconsistent UI behavior or confusing expansive error messages, we’ve ensured that along with efficient project management, we’ve delivered enhanced usability and navigability within the system.

Don’t take our word for it. Experience it for yourself by signing up.

Zoli Erdos, of the highly respected Enterprise Irregulars, echoes our sentiments on Project Management 2.0 at CloudAve.

In the 90’s I worked on a number of fairly large scale SAP Projects in a variety of roles, including Project Manager, and supervisor of several other projects.  The standard tool was Microsoft Project.  It was used for:

• Planning a Project (initial Scoping)
• Selling it
• Periodic reporting to Steering Committee during the actual projects

What’s missing from the above?   Well, how about using it to help the actual daily work of project team members?

Project  team members did not even have access to MS Project, it only existed in a few copies on the PM and Team Lead’s computers. Information-flow was one-way: feed the beast to be able to occasionally print charts that look impressive (scary) enough which Steering Committee members won’t question.

Okay, I am admittedly sarcastic, but the point is:  PM 1.0 was all about planning, reporting and it served Management but did not help actual Project Execution.

My expectation of PM 2.0 would be that it helps all team members involved who can share information, collaborate on it and actually get clues from the system on where they are, where they should be, what their next step is, instead of just feeding the beast.

And that’s exactly what we are trying to do at Deskera. Oh & if you already use Microsoft Project, Deskera is just for you. Deskera lets you work on Microsoft Project files on the web. Really.

Give it a go by signing up for free.

Deskera’s Dashboard is a simple, intuitive and informative gateway to your project activities and tasks.

The Dashboard consists of 4 main sections:

1. Task Updates
2. Quick Links
3. Requests
4. Announcements

Task Updates:

The whole idea behind task updates on the dashboard is to bring to your notice the most important items requiring your attention.

These include:

• Tasks due Today and Tomorrow
• Tasks starting Today and Tomorrow
• Overdue Tasks
• Tasks starting in the near future

Each update also displays the concerned Project, the Task Name and the Current Progress (% Complete).

Task Updates help you allocate your time and attention to achieve your short-term goals, which add up to increasing overall project execution efficiency. No more lagging behind just because you couldn’t prioritize correctly.

The other sections displayed (depending on User Role) on the Dashboard are:

• Quick Links to all your projects and their activities
• Requests pending, including connection and administration requests
• Announcements which can be directed at specific users, projects or the entire company

To give it a try and start managing your projects in the best way possible, SIGN UP NOW for Free.

What’s the difference between tasks and to-dos?

Okay, let’s get that out of the way first.

• Tasks have start dates and end dates and dependencies. To-dos don’t. They are rather simplistic in nature, the kind of stuff you often forget.
• Both tasks and to-dos are assigned to resources.
• To-Dos by nature are simple, and we’ve kept them that way. It’s quick and easy to create them, group them and assign them.

Let me show you how easy it is to use Deskera To-Dos:

• Creating a To-Do:

  Describe the to-do and assign it to a resource. If you don’t specify a resource, it’s assigned to you by default.

  

• Creating a group:

  Just enter a name for the Group. Drag and drop to-dos into groups or to reorder them.

  

• Marking as complete:

  You check them and they are marked as complete. It is this simple.