Having tried a number of different project management applications including Zoho and Basecamp, Colorado based graphic design firm Phases had been consistently disappointed with the lack of features and collaboration tools on offer. Dealing with small businesses, Phases were looking for an application that was easy to use allowing clients to take as much ownership of the projects as the company itself. In house web designer with Phases, Kandra Churchwell says they found exactly what they were looking for in Teamwork PM and since implementing it in the day to day running of the business, they have never looked back:

“We had tried many different applications, heck I think I tried them all, but they just didn’t scale well and didn’t offer the same mix of features, ease of use and great customer service you get with Teamwork.

Here's how we use TeamworkPM to help our projects go smoothly.

·       Adding a project is totally simple, and the customizable welcome email allows us to introduce our clients to the system in a very friendly and specific way, which is important to clients who don't have a lot of time, or the inclination, to learn a new software tool.

·       We use TeamworkPM from the very beginning of each new project, communicating internally about the prospecting and proposal process using tasks, the message center and the file uploading tools.

·       The privacy settings are great. We often go through several rounds of internal revisions on graphics files and word processing documents before we're ready to show them to the client. The privacy tools allow us to chat and share all of this stuff inside a "cone of silence," so we can discuss the project openly without fear of releasing anything before it's ready, or of our clients being inadvertently offended by our sometimes frank discussions.

·       The file-uploading tool is excellent. All the information you might need about a given file is available at a glance, and the version tracking is so simple, even our least tech savvy clients can easily tell what version of the file they're looking at, when it was uploaded, what category it's in, and who's been working on it. The new Dropbox integration has made file sharing even easier than it was before.

·       Did we already mention how great the Dropbox integration is? Several of our staff, team members, and clients were already using Dropbox for backup and cloud storage, so adding this feature was a no-brainer and has already simplified our process.

·       The time tracking feature helps us stay on top of the budget, even down to the task level, which keeps the stress level low for us and for our clients.

For Phases, ease of use and smooth communication between both company and clients made TeamworkPM stand out from other project management applications available:

“A powerful aspect of Teamwork is that it keeps all project communication, files, task lists, meetings, everything in one place where everyone working on the project can access it from their desktops or mobile devices. With team members working remotely, clients spread out over the country, and hundreds of files and messages that need to be tracked, stored and managed in a user friendly way, this is an invaluable benefit.”

As well as offering a wide range of features, the one aspect of Teamwork that stood out for Phases as a company was the speed at which the customer service department dealt with any issues:
“Teamwork PM has some of the best and most responsive customer service in the business in our opinion. We’ve requested features on more than one occasion that would make our workflow or communication processes more efficient and easier. Not only did we receive a quick response- in some cases the features we were interested in showed up in the production software just a few days later- now thats service!”, she added.

Denver Web designer Kandra Churchwell is a branding and graphic design guru at Phases Design Studio, the premier Colorado branding firm for emerging and established businesses seeking a unique blend business savvy, creative fire, and passionate customer service. Visit www.designfiles.net to view a selection of projects created and managed with TeamworkPM.

A few weeks ago I put out a request on our Facebook page to chat to a few design houses that use TeamworkPM so they could share their experience with you, about what they do, and how they use Teamwork.

One company that has found Teamwork Project Manager effective in the day to day running of the business is Paradigm Marketing and Creative, a boutique style agency based in Tennessee that assists clients with all their marketing needs. The sheer breadth of services offered by Paradigm include everything from branding, analysis, web and print design, and advertising to creative services such as 3d animation, videos and photography. President of Paradigm, Charles T. Gaushell explains why the company relies so heavily on an effective project management application:

“Because our services are so broad, our client base is also broad. Projects we’re involved with can include everything from completing an initial brand analysis to designing websites and brochures; from producing online PR to shooting a high definition video and rendering an extensive 3d floor plan to animating a 2,000 acre community. Using Teamwork enables everyone in the company to keep track of their tasks and assign tasks to coworkers.”
Now in its 20th year in business, Paradigm’s focus on creativity has assisted clients across seven countries and 43 states, and two years ago the company decided to get rid of their older time keeping program to focus solely on Teamwork to keep track of all tasks, a decision which Gaushell admits has made the day to day running of Paradigm much easier:
“We use Teamwork to remind ourselves of deadlines and milestones- we’re big Dropbox and ProofHQ users, so being able to link projects has been a critical update. Also having Teamwork accessible at home and on the road using our smart phones, tablets and computers saves time and effort. Teamwork guides us through our project reviews at our weekly meetings by giving us a snapshot  and roadmap for the given week. It’s also great for organizing and keeping assignments and projects accounted for and features such as Messages, Comments and Notebooks are used daily. Teamwork for us has made communication much smoother and easier since we can track every email, reply and text version,” he added.

If you too would like to share your TeamworkPM story with everyone here then please get in contact as we would love to hear from you.

I know it's not the done thing; to blow one's own trumpet, but then again we receive so many nice emails from users that go unseen by most people.  I thought I would just post up the latest few testimonials to come in to us via our feedback form. We love receiving all the message about new features you would like to see or improvements you want made to TeamworkPM. But from time to time we love to read about how much you love TeamworkPM and how it makes you life better and also how handsome we all are. Okay maybe the last ones a stretch, but we can always hold out hope ;-)

If you ever feel like you need to get off your chest just how much you enjoy using TWPM just drop us a email and you to could have your emails posted here if you wish.

Make sure to keep an eye on the blogs and our Facebook page to stay up to date, as we have some great new features coming very soon.

If Basecamp is a Cadillac, TeamworkPM is a Ferrari

Having finally gotten fed up with the abundance of limitations on Basecamp, we set out to find an organizational tool that really had the set of robust tools we needed to run our business. TeamworkPM even in the first pass was astounding in not only the type of functionality available but the polish in its implementation. As we dug deeper we kept finding ourselves in awe of the wealth of capabilities available. One click time tracking, role based project control, database backups, login form customizations ... the list goes on and on. I've worked with all manner of organizational and project management tools over the years and am in every way blown away by what the TeamworkPM team has built here!

Varr Willis
www.ploink.com.

Awesome.

TeamWorkPM is truly awesome. Honestly, I'm working here with a small team of 4 developers together on one new iPhone and iPad application and the task management system is just mind-blowing. Powerful and easy to use.

Just wanted to tell you this.

Thank you for this brilliant piece of software.

Artur Gasparyan

Below is a blog post from one of our customers who wrote this post on their own blog. We were so proud to receive this type of feedback that we just had to re-post it here in the engine room.

Top Notch Customer Service Is Teamwork Project Manager’s Killer App

About 6 months ago, Phases migrated our project management systems from Basecamp to Teamwork Project Manager – 2 web-based products that take the place of a desktop app like Microsoft Project. Now, I don’t usually take the time out to write a blog about a product/service that we use, but over the past few months I have been so impressed with Teamwork that I just had to take some time and let everyone know about this fantastic company!

Why We Moved

To put it simply, I felt as if the studio had outgrown Basecamp. There was no easy way to archive files once they were uploaded to the site, scheduling across projects was time consuming; we always found ourselves needing a feature that was not there, and updates were far and few between.

So we began to search for an alternative.

We demoed a few products, and Teamwork seemed to have most of the features we were looking for—not all, but most. The biggie was the ability to download files in batches. So we migrated our Basecamp data (yup, they offer a direct import from your Basecamp account!) to the new system and updated our clients.

Almost instant feedback response

After a few months I found an annoyance in the scheduling options, so I thought I would try out the feedback option. To my utmost surprise I had a response from one of the developers the same day. My request was a bit complex, but guess what? They have it scheduled for implementation!

Over the next several months I noticed a few little things that would make my daily chores much easier, so I used the feedback form again. And to my delight, I got the same speedy response from the guys at Teamwork with just one difference: some of my suggestions / requests had been implemented within just a day or two of my request! I felt like a kid in the candy store when I was using the new options that I had requested.

We’re from the Internet. We’re here to help you.

Today’s internet offers almost countless products and companies that are supposed to make our work-lives easier and more convenient. And while this is often true, because we no longer have to leave our desks, go down to the store and talk to other human beings in person, we end up missing the personal touch of a store front business.

Teamwork’s ability to supply the missing link of personalized client service is what sets their brand experience apart from other Web-based companies and what has made me into a brand evangelist. Kudos to Sam, Dan and everyone at Teamwork for the phenomenal customer service and fantastic product.

Here are just a few Teamwork Project Manager features that rocked our world:

• Notebooks: a way to easily share content with your team.
• Bulk file downloads: just check off the files you want and click the download button. Yup. That’s it.
• Risk Register: record and manage everything that might put a hiccup in your schedule.
• Resources: compile a list of resources (websites, google documents, anything and everything) that others on your team might need.
• File associations with messages: This one was fantastic to discover.  You can attach any file to a message after it has been uploaded, or upload a new file to the message.
• Task scheduling: (recommended by yours truly!) Reschedule an entire task list by “pushing” back the dates and maintaining time frame between each task.
• Calendar: Quickly view all activities across projects, and even schedule items independent of a project.

Check out the full list of project management tools the service offers for yourself, and don’t forget to look over the roadmap for future enhancements.