Posted by Dana Larson on September 14, 2010
In today’s business world, more and more companies are expanding the reach of their employees across cities, states and even countries. Now, more than ever, virtual teams are being built and working together on company projects. Whether they are brought on the team on a project by project basis or as full-time company employees, the virtual worker trend in here to stay.
Facilitating this trend is the ability to connect with anyone anywhere at any time. The internet and web conferencing tools like DimDim and Skype have allowed face to face interactions to happen over the web, rather than in person. Online project management solutions can keep the entire team on track, no matter where they are located. Businesses can also feel better knowing they chose the right candidate for the job, regardless of where they are located, because they can stay connected to the company and the work at hand from anywhere.
Posted by Dana Larson on June 24, 2010
With all the chatter about effective business collaboration, you’ve probably heard that our main stance is that collaboration needs to be accepted and integrated into the corporate culture before it can take hold and be effective for the business. What’s incredibly challenging is when there are some in the organization that realize the need for an effective work management and collaboration solution, and others don’t realize that anything is wrong with their current situation.
So how can collaboration penetrate these businesses? Before we go into those solutions, let’s take a look at a real life case study of how ineffective processes are hurting individuals and business projects.
Posted by Dana Larson on June 17, 2010
Analysts, collaboration professionals and even businesses are realizing more and more frequently that in order for team collaboration to work in their business, they need to accept it into their corporate culture. It’s not just the tools and processes that make collaboration - it is the people using those tools and the people following those processes.
Last week, we talked about some of the common challenges with accepting collaboration into a business’s internal processes. One of the biggest challenges is that team members will revert back to their old habits of ineffective collaboration if they aren’t pushed toward making the new collaboration processes work. In this post, we will expand on ways to encourage others to keep collaborating in the new way to make it more effective.
Posted by Dana Larson on May 06, 2010
Well, if you have a a somewhat twisted mind, you can probably come up with an idea connecting beer, yoga and babies. And we aren’t judging you for it at all. But what we actually see as a common thread between these three very different industries is an increase in business organization and team collaboration success.
Lift Bridge Beer Company, Itsabelly and Yoga Pro have all been OnePlace customers for some time now, and have experienced huge success after implementing the solution. Make sure to read these case studies to find out how!
Posted by Dana Larson on April 30, 2010
Because OnePlace loves to give back to non-profit and charity organizations, we are pleased to announce the arrival of a new customer - Shekinah Fire Ministries.
Shekinah Fire Ministries is a church organization dedicated to teach the Word of God. They were looking through many project management and task management solutions before finding OnePlace.
Posted by Dana Larson on April 16, 2010
Yesterday, PCWorld Business Center compiled a great resource: The Essential Project Management Reading List. For those looking for a bit of help in their project management positions or just curious abut how to improve their ability to manage projects, this list can meet their needs.
We've pulled a few of our favorite resources from PCWorld and listed them below. You can also read the full article on the PCWorld Business Center.
Posted by Dana Larson on April 13, 2010
In case you’ve been hiding under a rock every Spring since you were born, April 15th is Tax Day - so you better make sure you’ve filed your tax return by then!
You should also know that last year there were many tax changes. If you found it a bit challenging to get all the pertinent information needed to file your tax return this year, why not use this as a reason to get organized for next year?
There are many ways to get organized and make a difference in the way your information is stored. Here are just a few tips for keeping important information in a safe place.
Posted by Dana Larson on April 06, 2010
Spring has sprung! The time has come for winter clothes to be packed away, flower gardens to be planted and sunscreen to be purchased.
And along with Spring comes Spring Cleaning - the annual event of cleaning out the mess you’ve stored over the winter and starting fresh with a clean house... and a clean office!
Here are 5 tips for Spring Cleaning your work to get you more organized!
Posted by Dana Larson on April 01, 2010
It’s been said that if it takes you longer than 5 minutes to list all your active projects, you aren’t managing your projects effectively. It’s also been said that if you can’t see work being done, it’s not being done. These concepts are two of the issues solved by a quality project management solution so you aren’t fooled by your projects again!
We want to make sure you are the master behind your project planning, so here are 5 ways to avoid being fooled by your projects.
Posted by Dana Larson on March 30, 2010
Project management is a thriving topic these days, and while some people love it and some people hate it, it’s difficult to not utilize project management practices in any business setting.
But what exactly is project management? How do we explain it? How do we get started more effectively managing projects? And how can it benefit us? These are all great questions that have been answered in many recent blog posts.
Posted by Dana Larson on March 25, 2010
I was catching up on my Twitter feeds last week, and I noticed a tweet that caused me to have a rather large reaction:
michellegallen - Use BaseCamp myself, but haven't fallen in love. Perhaps I shouldn't expect love from project management software?
This astounded me. I couldn’t understand why someone would use an additional solution for organization and project management and not love it.
Posted by Dana Larson on March 01, 2010
At OnePlace, we believe that companies - large and small - can benefit from online business organization and project management solutions. They are the right tools for encouraging your team to be as successful as they can be.
Here are a few posts published last week that offer some great tips for small and large businesses - highlighting everything from project management tips to ways to keep your employees dedicated to their jobs.
Posted by Dana Larson on February 23, 2010
We love talking with our current and potential customers. Because of this, we are offering a OnePlace Web Demo every Thursday morning for attendees to learn more about OnePlace and how it can make their business even more efficient and effective.
At 11am CST each Thursday morning, join Steve Kickert - CEO and co-founder of OnePlace - as he takes you through using OnePlace to improve your small business organization and communication. You will review the different features of OnePlace, including online project management, team collaboration, discussions and file sharing. You will also learn how OnePlace will empower your people to be successful, so your business is too.
You can register for the OnePlace Web Demo on our homepage at http://www.oneplacehome.com to hear more about how OnePlace can positively impact your business.
See you on Thursday!
Posted by Dana Larson on February 23, 2010
Riverock Technologies, a software development company based in Minnesota, was founded in 2007 with one goal in mind - to provide employees with a balanced life while allowing the team to create small business software that people love to use. Riverock Technologies developed OnePlace to do just that.
OnePlace was created as the solution to effectively manage the complex projects that come with developing software. OnePlace also combines this information with personal organization to increase personal productivity. With OnePlace, users can organize their personal and professional lives in a way that keeps all tasks and projects in a central location and alleviates the stress of not knowing what is on deck for tomorrow.
OnePlace allows the team at Riverock Technologies to manage projects online and follow the agile development practices of the software industry. OnePlace is the main tool used for communication and collaboration between team members, using features such as Discussions and Team Pulse to ask questions and keep the team updated on the status of tasks. And because Riverock Technologies is a virtual company, OnePlace keeps everyone connected, making it feel like the rest of the team is in the next office.
This solution is perfect for the Riverock Technologies team, and has proven to be perfect for other small businesses as well. Read more about how OnePlace has improved business, organization and communication for Riverock Technologies, and sign up for a free 14-day trial of OnePlace to improve your business success.
Posted by Dana Larson on February 15, 2010
Last week was a busy week for project management with hundreds of blog posts being written about the topic. This is a key indicator to how important a good online project management solution can be.
Here is an overview of some of the more popular project management posts that came out last week.
Posted by Dana Larson on February 12, 2010
In honor of Valentine’s Day coming up this Sunday, the OnePlace team wanted to share how much we love and care about our customers and their success. We thrive off of your feedback to keep making OnePlace better and better.
And OnePlace users love us too - below is a list of the Top 5 most loved OnePlace features that keep our customers successful in their personal and professional lives.
Posted by Dana Larson on February 04, 2010
When we developed OnePlace a few years ago, we wanted to ensure our solution met the needs of small businesses to increase their business success. One need we saw over and over again was the need for project management within the business.
Online project management allows you and your business team to organize and manage projects and tasks in an efficient and effective way. Keeping track of projects across multiple team members can be a bit challenging without the aid of an online solution. We kept all this in mind when developing OnePlace.
Posted by Steve Kickert on February 03, 2010
At OnePlace, we are strong believers in making the individual successful - not just professionally, but in their personal life as well. We understand the lines between work and home life are blurred more than ever, and want to manage that blurred line to keep organized and benefit all facets of life.
We have built our small business organization solution to focus on the individual first. Because of this focus, we help the individuals in any business setting improve their organizational styles and communication techniques. The skills our solution aids in developing are incredibly important workforce skills that increase the productivity and the success of that individual. And you definitely want successful people in your business.
Why? Without good, successful employees, your business doesn’t stand a chance.
Posted by Dana Larson on February 01, 2010
A main component of our small business organization solution is online project management. We are all very organized people, and like to help others stay organized as well.
Because of Post-It Notes, calendar updates and reminders on your cell phone, there are just as many ways to manage tasks as there are tasks to complete. And while we love it when stuff gets done, we want to make sure the people in your business are remembering what to do, and getting the right things done.
Here are 5 ways to manage tasks more effectively to ensure greater efficiency:
Posted by Steve Kickert on January 29, 2010
When a position opens up at your company, you go through many applications and rounds of interviews to make sure you are choosing the right addition to your team. You need to ensure they are capable of the job at hand, as well as making sure they fit in with the culture of your company. This can be a long process, but once you choose the right person, everything should work smoothly.
Then, on their first day, you give them the basic office tools - desk, computer, email, phone and chair. But what else? How do you know they can keep organized at their job? How do they know how to communicate and collaborate with other team members?
Posted by Dana Larson on January 25, 2010
The OnePlace team is dedicated to using OnePlace to help organize our professional and personal lives. And if we weren’t, what kind of advocates would we be for our small business solution?
Since joining the team, I have become increasingly aware of the intricacies of OnePlace and all the cool features that make this solution great. I want to take this time to point out some of these great features in OnePlace to aid some of our current customers in using OnePlace to its fullest extent.
Posted by Dana Larson on January 22, 2010
I recently came across an article published in October 2009 from Web Worker Daily entitled The Pomodoro Technique: A GTD Alternative?” After reading the article, I found myself relating to the issues that the Pomodoro Technique claims to alleviate.
If you’re not familiar with it, the Pomodoro Technique is a way to manage time and projects to get the most accomplished. It targets those people who are easily distracted by outside factors when trying to get work done, and those who have anxiety over looming deadlines and the “ticking clock.”
Posted by Dana Larson on January 15, 2010
Do you ever have those days where you were really busy, but didn’t end up getting anything accomplished? Or when you can’t overlook the amount of work you have to complete, so you just don’t do anything?
The team at OnePlace knows how important it is to keep on top of your goals to get work accomplished. Heck, that is why OnePlace was created! We believe that task management and team collaboration can improve the efficiency of any small business team and make them more productive.
Here are some easy to follow tips for improving your business productivity:
- Schedule Your Work - Outlining exactly what you have to accomplish each day and managing your tasks gives you a nice visual of all your work, and allows you to choose which to work on next. And nothing beats the feeling of checking things off your to do list! (read a blog post on scheduling here)
- Take Notes - Have you ever left a meeting and forgotten your next steps? Take notes when in meetings, on the phone or anytime they pop into your mind. This saves time by not having to revisit the conversations later.
- Organize Your Workspace - A chaotic workspace can distract you from the work at hand. Make sure your desk and computer desktop are neat and organized prior to beginning your work.
- Open the Doors of Collaboration - Brainstorming with team members is a powerful tool. So is the opportunity to run an idea by a coworker to see if you’re on the right track. Team collaboration tools help to open the doors and keep team members connected all day.
- Love Your Job - If you don’t like your job, you are automatically going to suck at it. Make sure that you are doing the best for your boss and yourself by finding the right job for you. If it helps, take a career assessment to find out what skills match your personality best.
- Know When to Procrastinate - Procrastination is one of the worst time-sucks in the workplace - but there is a time and place to procrastinate. By managing your tasks, you can complete what you feel like completing, and move the other items out to another time.
- Attack the Big Rocks - There are some tasks, however, that need to be worked on right away. Start working on those “big rocks” first thing in the morning. Once you get them done, you’ll feel more accomplished for the day.
- Delegate to Team Members - If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the work in front of you, ask a coworker for a bit of help. Taking 5 minutes to reassign a task and explain it to someone else will free up a lot of task time for you to accomplish everything else.
- Exercise - A mid-day heart rate boost can increase productivity for the afternoon. If you can’t do jumping jacks in your office, a lunchtime walk works just as well.
- Keep Team Members in the Loop - By sharing your to do list with coworkers, you are instantly held accountable for completing that work. Ensure you are using a team collaboration solution that offers transparency and allows team members to see other’s work easily to manage that accountability.
- Eliminate Distractions - Get rid of email, Twitter, Facebook, and other distractions on your computer and get to work. Without the distractions of questions, tweets and status updates, you will find yourself working harder on your task list.
- Work When You’re Productive - There are always going to be times in the day when you are more productive than others. For me, it’s first thing in the morning. Identify these times for yourself, and plan your work accordingly.
- Just Do It - Sometimes the best way to get stuff done is to start working. Get to work and see how much you can do :-)
Being aware of what you have to accomplish can help push you get more done. Learn what tools help you work more efficiently and continue to use them to wow your boss and feel good about your work.
What other tools do you use to keep productive?
Posted by Dana Larson on January 07, 2010
OnePlace is enabling charities and non-profit organizations to continue helping out in a more efficient way by offering free online project management and team collaboration.
New Life Church - located in Foley, MN and currently meeting in the Foley High School - needed a bit of help collaborating with employees and members. They turned to OnePlace as a virtual solution to aid in team collaboration and project management. Now the New Life Church can more easily communicate with team members and keep more organized on current and upcoming tasks.
OnePlace is proud to welcome New Life Church into the OnePlace family. We look forward to giving back to those charities and non-profits that give of themselves as we expand OnePlace and our online project management solutions.
Posted by Steve Kickert on October 25, 2009
After three solid months of work, the NEW and MUCH improved version of OnePlace shipped today.
I would like to thank all our customers for helping us make OnePlace a success and for giving us your valuable feedback. Hopefully, you will see some of your great ideas implemented in this new version.
Click here to check out the new OnePlace.
Click here to see the complete release notes
Regards,
The OnePlace Team
Follow us on Twitter
Posted by Steve Kickert on September 29, 2009
We are getting close. We have been working on a major upgrade for OnePlace for over two months now, and we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are hoping it is not a train. :-)
Back in July, we met with many of you to get your feedback on how OnePlace was working for your team, and to hear what you would like to change about OnePlace. Thanks again for taking the time to do that. We listened carefully, and have made some big changes and a mountain of little ones to OnePlace as a result. We can hardly wait to let you move into your new OnePlace. We are excited to use it ourselves.
Here is an abbreviated list of the changes that are coming:
Posted by Steve Kickert on March 08, 2009
Hello,
We upgraded OnePlace on 3/8/09 at 9:00pm CDT.
This upgrade is comprised of just about 100% customer-requested features and enhancements. The highlights include:
Project Enhancements - We added a start date, project manager and priority for projects.
Daily Update Email - You can now configure OnePlace to send you an email with your scheduled tasks for the day, and also the Projects and Tasks that have a deadline in the next seven days.
Configurable System Notifications - You can now configure which system notifications you will receive. An example of a system notification is the inbasket note/email you receive when someone assigns you to a task.
Inbasket Enhancements - We spent quite a bit of time improving the inbasket. OnePlace now allows you to see what inbasket notes you have sent to others. We also added additional actions that you can perform on the inbasket, such as marking all the inbasket notes as read, or emptying your inbasket with a single click.
The list goes on and on, so please check out the rest of the enhancements and bug fixes in the Recent Changes section of the Online Help.
Don't forget to check out the OnePlace forum. It is a great place to interact with other OnePlace users. Feel free to ask questions or just share a tip or idea for OnePlace. It is a resource for you.
Please keep the suggestions coming!
Thanks, The OnePlace Team
Posted by Denis Ahearn on February 03, 2009
If you are a project manager looking to get information out of OnePlace, one good way to do this is by generating a Project Details report. This report provides high-level statistical information about how work in the project is progressing, as well as information about things inside the project (i.e. discussions, sub-projects, tasks, files, etc.) A handy use for this report is for quickly checking the health of a project. Another good use is for facilitating status meetings.
Posted by Denis Ahearn on January 27, 2009
One of our users suggested a fantastic idea today for making it easier to navigate a hierarchy of projects, and we'd like to pass along kudos to this person for helping make OnePlace better.
The Projects tab, which displays a hierarchy of projects for a workplace, shows the number of sub-projects that any given project in the hierarchy has (see screenshot below). When you click on the sub-project count, the current behavior is to drill into the project and place you on the Project Dashboard. The new behavior will be to go directly to the Sub-projects tab for that project, eliminating the stop on the Project Dashboard.
We'll be rolling out this enhancement in the next upgrade. This will definitely be a click saver for folks with any kind of complexity in their project plans!
Posted by Denis Ahearn on January 20, 2009
Once in a while someone will ask us why we decided to create OnePlace, especially when you consider the number of other online tools that are available today for helping manage your projects and tasks and for collaborating with others. We have a pretty standard response to that question that I thought would be fun to share in this blog.
Posted by Denis Ahearn on January 14, 2009
Launching a startup was never considered easy. As if developing a business plan, getting funding, and focusing hard on product development wasn't enough, the entrepreneur has to worry about attracting key employees, taxes and benefits, creating a pleasant working environment, and building a culture of teamwork and collaboration.
But today's startups face an even more difficult challenge: working effectively as virtual teams. Almost every startup these days, certainly in my experience, is at least partially made up of dispersed employees—oftentimes in different cities or states, and sometimes even spread across country boundaries. Many startups, at least in the technology field, are made up entirely of individuals in separate locations. How then do they function? How can the entrepreneur possibly succeed with his or her venture if there's no single "place" where employees can regularly meet and work? Email and instant messaging are not the answer—teams become quickly overwhelmed trying to manage their collective work that way.
Posted by Steve Kickert on January 06, 2009
Do you need a shot in the arm? (Pick me up)
Watch this movie (16 min)
Posted by Denis Ahearn on December 31, 2008
2008 was a very busy year at Riverock Technologies. Our sole mission during this entire year was to prepare for successfully launching OnePlace into the market. Every day was spent focusing on this goal, which we achieved back in September when we released OnePlace for general use, and officially opened the proverbial doors for business.
So, before we close the books on 2008 and turn our attention towards the year to come, we thought it would be fun to take one last look in the rear view mirror to see what happened to OnePlace during this past year.
Posted by Graeme Thickins on December 22, 2008
TAH-DAH! We completed another upgrade to OnePlace™ over the weekend! To be precise, it happened on 12/21/08 at 7:30am CST. As you know, we push updates to OnePlace™ approximately once a week—and, in some recent weeks, we've done it even more often that that. We love listening to our customers!
What's the major addition this time? A OnePlace™ "Customer Forum"! It gives you a convenient way to communicate not only with the OnePlace team, but with other OnePlace™ customers as well! Check out this new feature today by simply clicking on the 'Forum' link in the upper righthand corner of your OnePlace™ screen. Or, you can visit the forum directly by going to the following url: http://forum.oneplacehome.com.
Posted by Denis Ahearn on December 22, 2008
OnePlace has a great project management feature that is easy to overlook unless you go looking for it or just happen to stumble across it — the ability to create draft projects. A draft project is a project that is only visible to the person creating it. No other members of the team that this person belongs to will see this project or have access to it or any of its sub-projects and tasks within OnePlace. It's like the project simply doesn't exist to those team members.
Posted by Graeme Thickins on December 11, 2008
When we say the OnePlace™ team is ever-vigilant, folks, we're not just a whistlin' Dixie. The dedicated development team here at OnePlace's worldwide headquarters (half buried in snow here in suburban Minneapolis), never rests—constantly stretching their minds for new ways they can make your favorite software better. They never let up in their quest to help you take maximum advantage of OnePlace to boost your team's productivity. Not only did they push an update on December 8, but dog-gone if they didn't follow that with yet another one on December 10! Here's what these two updates included...
Posted by Mark Peterson on December 10, 2008
In real life, we all squirrel away stuff that we don't use regularly in closets and throw stuff that we don't need away in the trash (except children and college students, who just seem to keep everything on the floor).
In our Internet lives, we need to do the same thing, store some information and throw other information away. OnePlace supports these needs through Archive and Trash (for you children and college students, we're still working on a Floor).
The OnePlace archive is accessed via the 'safe' icon in the OnePlace toolbar and can be thought of as your OnePlace closet. You can put items in the archive that you only need occasionally and/or information that you may want to review again at a later date. Stuff that you put in the archive stays there forever unless you take it out again or move it into the trash.
Posted by Denis Ahearn on December 02, 2008
In a recent upgrade, we introduced the ability to perform a "Save As" on a project or list, which provides an easy way to make a complete copy of an original project or list. Since the way we added this feature to OnePlace is a tad bit on the subtle side, we thought it would be a good idea to highlight the this cool new feature here on our OnePlace blog.
So why the need to copy a project or a list? Well, here's just one of the many possible uses.
Suppose your team uses OnePlace to collaborate and share information related to your customers, and you've decided you want a project for each of your existing customers, as well as any new customers that come along in the future. And, each time you bring on a new customer, you don't want all the overhead associated with spinning up a project for that customer . Here's where project "Save As" comes to the rescue. Simply create a "New Customer" project in a workplace that makes sense for your team, and then use it as a template for all new customer projects.
Posted by Graeme Thickins on November 28, 2008
One thing we can say about our crack development team, they are ever-vigilant. They upgraded OnePlace™ again on 11/23/08 at 7:30am CST—even though it's been less than a week since the last upgrade! The OnePlace™ team added several enhancements that have been requested by nearly everyone. Here are the highlights of this latest upgrade:
• Project "Save As" - Now you can make a copy of a project!
• List "Save As" - Make as many copies of a list as you want.
• New Bookmarks List type - Share your bookmarks with your teammates, or just keep all your favorite bookmarks in one place.
• Export Tasks preview - If you're using the Export Tasks capability, then you will love this new capability.
• TeamPulse filter update - There are now separate settings for determining: 1) who you're pulsing to, and 2) which pulses do you want to see?
That last feature will strike a chord with Twitter users! (It's part of our recently announced TeamCentral capability.) First, you can actually select who you want following you (something you can't do in Twitter). Secondly, you can select which of your team members you want to follow (same as in Twitter)—so that you're sure to see all their ongoing updates, or "pulses" as we say in OnePlace™ lingo. Best of all, it's easy for you to adjust either of these selections anytime via this TeamPulse "filter."
Posted by Graeme Thickins on November 18, 2008
This past Wednesday evening, Riverock Technologies' fearless cofounders, Steve Kickert and Denis Ahearn, took to the stage at Minnesota's own quarterly Barcamp event to demo the OnePlace™ app in the strictly proscribed time of seven minutes. And deliver it well they did—one of ten presentations to a standing-room-only, information-hungry crowd of developers, founders, VCs and other investors, marketing folks, local media, and tech bloggers, all jam-packed into the theater at Intermedia Arts in Uptown Minneapolis. It was one high-energy event focused on technology innovation in MInnesota, in the form of ten hand-picked, highly promising startups. (In the photo, Steve does the talking, while Denis mans the controls in the foreground. Photo credit: Manish Shrestha.)
Posted by Graeme Thickins on November 15, 2008
New to OnePlace™? Ready to dive in and get get going? Well, do we have a great place for you to start! It's our new "Quick Reference" page—which is instantly accessible via a link in the upper right of your OnePlace™ user interface. (Of course, first you must start a free trial to see it!) We designed it to help you get a good feel for what OnePlace™ is all about, and how you can get the most from it. No other online collaboration software has such a feature! Just another way we show our love for our users... :-)
Posted by Mark Peterson on November 06, 2008
In this day and age, many of us spend at least part of our mental bandwidth worrying about global warming, recycling, carbon footprints, carbon debts, and greenhouse gases. It's amazing to think that, only a few short years ago, most of these terms weren't even part of our vernacular and now they're part of our daily lives.
When thinking of ways to make ourselves more eco-friendly, software isn't usually the first thing that springs to mind. However, using the right software as part of your work and personal routine can indeed reduce your carbon footprint. How so? Mainly by reducing your need to travel.
Posted by Graeme Thickins on October 22, 2008
Joel Dreyfuss has a long history as a journalist; he's a well respected voice in the industry. In his current position as editor-in-chief of Red Herring, he's carrying on the mission of a very famous brand name in technology journalism, which traces back to 1993 and is now in its second coming as a source of news about innovation, technology, financing, and entrepreneurial activity.
Posted by Mike Yanke on October 15, 2008
Can project management, or even simply writing a task list, make you an innovator?
That really depends.
In your career, or in your home life, how are you managing your projects and creating your task lists?
Are you writing garbled notes on a calendar or post-it note? Are you creating mental checklists in your already overloaded brain?
Or, like we did at online marketing firm Misukanis & Odden, are you building massive Excel documents designed to contain every last detail, of every last project of every last task - yet invariably - always seem to neglect one or two crucial nuggets?
In the video below, Susan, Thomas & I introduce you to the new level of project management innovation we have discovered in implementing the OnePlace Chaos Management Solution, as we continue to take you through A Day in The Life of our agency.
Posted by Graeme Thickins on October 14, 2008
Minnov8.com is a news and information site about Minnesota innovation in Internet and web technology. Its About page tells the story: "Borne out of a frustration that there wasn’t a showcase for the talent, brainpower, creativity, and innovation that exists in this Land of 10,000 Lakes, several geeks set forth on a quest to deliver a destination site for just such a purpose." Steve Borsch is the lead geek, and the most frequent writer on the site. Some weeks ago, he met with Riverock's CEO Steve Kickert to learn more about the OnePlace™ online team collaboration and work management system, and later wrote an excellent piece about it.
Perhaps the best excerpt from the Minnov8 article is this one: "What did I like about OnePlace?" Borsch asked. "It’s easy to use and, within 15 minutes, I’d used most of the key features that enabled project/task management; time tracking; reporting; calendar; discussions; file sharing; notes; lists and more. I loved the iPhone interface. Connecting what we do on our desktop computers or laptops to internet/web server functionality 'in the cloud' isn’t enough when we carry around devices like an iPhone..."
Borsch concluded his article this way: "I’d encourage you to go to OnePlace and sign up for the free trial. You’ll undoubtedly see that it already has hit the sweet spot of what’s needed to collaborate with others. If you’re waiting until risk-becomes-reality and you or your company can’t go into the office and you need to collaborate virtually — or even if you figure you’ll just keep emailing around .doc’s and spreadsheets to those with whom you’re collaborating — OnePlace is an offering that is perfect for today’s increasingly mobile and always-on, always-connected workforce collaborating with one another online."
Posted by Graeme Thickins on October 14, 2008
Our local business weekly here in Minneapolis/St. Paul, The Business Journal, regularly reports on promising new startups. Recently, tech reporter Kathy Grayson, in her weekly column, interviewed Steve Kickert about Riverock's OnePlace™ online team collaboration and work management system. An excerpt: "The product offers a Web portal where employees working on group projects can find files, schedules and other information, as well as communicate. It also allows workers to collaborate across different organizations, and access data via mobile phones."
The article goes on to note that OnePlace™ users also get a private personal workplace online "where they can track their outside-of-work schedules. That’s a feature Riverock hopes will make the tool more appealing to workers, who sometimes view mandated collaboration tools as a hassle, said CEO Steve Kickert, who served as chief technology officer at HighJump for 16 years." Our local edition of The Business Journal has a paid circulation of about 12,000 for the print version, and its web site gets more than 137,000 unique visitors monthly, according to recent reports.
Posted by Steve Kickert on October 02, 2008
I have been invited to be on a panel at this years Defrag Conference. The title of the panel is "Re-imagining the metaphors behind collaborative tools". I am looking forward to it.
Posted by Mike Yanke on September 04, 2008
Our firm, Misukanis & Odden, is certainly no stranger to the chaos that can ensue if just one team member misses one small (yet critical) piece of a conversation involving a project. Hence marketing's "butterfly effect."
In our video below, Thomas McMahon and I walk through OnePlace's discussion feature, and illustrate how this team collaboration will help to minimize the 30-second heart attacks we can all feel when we realize a team member has not been included in a critical conversation.
Posted by Susan Misukanis on August 15, 2008
Team collaboration is a feature rarely thought of when a firm is making the decision to implement an online project management software solution.
Oddly, while collaboration and management may appear to exist on separate planes, they are far more interrelated than one might think - especially in our everyday lives at Misukanis & Odden.
For example, should just one bit of a discussion involving a client's project be lost to the ether - an entire project or campaign could end up in complete chaos.
In the video below, Susan & Thomas overview the concept of collaboration, and help to illustrate how it is not only a critical component of the OnePlace Chaos Management System, but a critical part of daily life at Misukanis & Odden.
Posted by Susan Misukanis on August 13, 2008
Project management can be tricky thing. This is clearly evidenced by the approximately 245 different online project management software tools available on the market today promising to herald into your firm a new and efficient collaborative environment.
After a thorough run through of what felt like 95% of all available project management tools on the market today, we at Misukanis & Odden, a high tech online marketing & PR firm in the Twin Cities, were lucky to discover the OnePlace Team Collaboration and Project Management System.
What we've discovered most about using OnePlace, and one of the features that truly sets it apart, is the ease in which you can learn its features, and conversely, the beautiful difficulty you have unlearning what you've learned.
For example, if one of our team members were to assign a task and timeline for a project, it may take a quick tutorial to discover the most efficient way to accomplish this. The next time around, not only will that team member not require a tutorial, they will likely be the tutor.
All that being said, we are still in the discovery process with OnePlace.
We truly look forward to sharing this discovery process with you over the next several weeks, both through these posts, and the videos below as produced by president Susan Misukanis, SEO designer Thomas McMahon, and Account Manager Mike Yanke.