Cloud Computing - Benefits of SaaS in the project management of an SME

Duxter, social network for gamers, is a company of eight people with a network of providers on the West Coast of the United States and the United Kingdom. It manages the majority of its business booming with Teambox, a platform based collaboration SaaS (software application).

Using Teambox by Duxter shows that even a small business can take advantage of a SaaS-based collaboration to strengthen project management and collaboration.

Team involvement provider 

Adam Lieb, CEO and cofounder of Duxter, traces the history of Duxter with Teambox: "We use Teambox for quite some time I do not remember exactly how long we used various collaboration tools We are a small company... and it is easy to adopt a new tool. We tried a bunch of different tools that we have not agreed for one reason or another. "

The great advantage Duxter found with Teambox is that it has obtained the favor of the whole company, including those in charge of development and marketing. Adam Lieb explains: "Most of the other tools we found were either management tools useful projects for the development or useful tools for collaborative planning or projects with Teambox, we found the combination of the two. which made everyone agrees. "

Selection Process

SMEs such as Duxter have an easier time with the process of selecting a solution project management or collaboration. "We proceeded by trial and error. We were even fewer at the time," notes Adam Lieb. "I was usually the first to test a solution, because I was the main instigator of the process and because it was something that would help me there."

Another advantage was that Duxter Teambox is simple to use and easy to understand.Perhaps more powerful and robust other tools they reviewed were, but they involved a high learning curve, and then the product was not easy to use and was not intuitive.

Low learning curve and ease of use 

"Teambox is easy to use and accessible to all," said Adam Lieb. "So to sum up, I did the tests, then I gradually sought the opinion of others to see if they were satisfied, and once we have determined that the tool suited us, we just validated our choice. "

The adoption of Teambox also allowed Duxter save on the price paid position for multiple applications of project management and collaboration that the company had in place previously.

Migration Teambox

Many business documents Duxter were already in the cloud, which simplified migration Teambox."We have always used Google Docs and Dropbox," says Adam Lieb. "Teambox integrates both, so we did not have to incorporate our documents. Collaboration became easier."

In fact, the bulk of the migration tasks and projects concerned the previous management tools and collaborative projects.

Duxter could also use the API Teambox to his advantage. "We had a standalone tool comments on our site that we developed ourselves and allow our users to click a button to report bugs or suggest us ideas," tells Adam Lieb. "So after we adopted Teambox, we simply created a bridge between our site and using Teambox Teambox API. From there, we were able to migrate all of our problems and bugs custom system to Teambox the system. It only took a day of work to transfer everything. "

Communication and improved workflow 

Although Adam Lieb says that there has been no fundamental changes in the activities of Duxter when they migrated to Teambox, there has still been changes in processes. Now, when a user reports a bug on the site, a task is created and assigned to a Teambox project manager for the purpose of prioritization.

The task is then to be determined and communicated to the user, is transformed into a task bug fixes for the development team. This has somewhat changed their workflow.

"I think it has improved communications and workflow, but also the documentation on what individuals do and when, and on the progress of a project. Clearly I see an improvement," enthuses Adam Lieb.

Collaboration with others

SMEs collaborate with many partners and other third parties and used Duxter Teambox to work with others in a rather profitable. For providers and external advisors, Teambox is a much better solution to keep everyone in the same sphere.

"Many of the tools we used were internal and other pricing models were designed so that the addition of a person represented about $ 15 more per month. So when you have a service provider or an independent you joined on a project and you do not necessarily want it accesses your internal tools, you end up spending more money, "complained Adam Lieb.

Simplified an outsider integration project 

"Teambox is simple enough to add a person and involve a single project or a single task and allow it to work with the team. This allows you to work more easily with anyone outside the company, as if it were present in the company. This is a bit more intuitive and convenient to communicate by e-mail, which is the usual way with outsiders. "

Similarly, with counselors and others indirectly related to the business, Duxter could integrate the system without involving them in all projects. A separate section is dedicated to them where it is easy to maintain.

Improvements in productivity and transparency

"The addition of this extra layer of process proved useful as the business grew. We did not do this when we were only four working in a garage," says Adam Lieb. "It was a little easier when everyone was minding his own tasks. But as the team has grown, this level of process has made us more efficient as a team, because we lose less time to communicate. "

For companies the size of Duxter, it is very significant to have a single tool that can bring everyone together. The entire company has a better workflow and better synergy now that everyone uses the same system.

"I compartimentais all in my head," says Adam Lieb. "Here, the technical work. Again, everything else. This is for us a great advantage of being able to follow a single location project progress from beginning to end, from ideas to customer surveys, to by the specifications, design, coding, and quality assurance. "

The key to adoption

The key element that led to adopt Duxter Teambox was that leaders "were convinced in advance that this was the right decision for the company," says Adam Lieb. "We also need to integrate the workflow by making it mandatory."

Teambox Duxter even help to better integrate new employees. Adam Lieb notes that new employees use Teambox faster today than in the past.

"It is easier to interact with people you've never really worked through before Teambox rather than by email. Teambox Create a task or a problem to comment Teambox is a" barrier "more easily surmountable . For new employees, it is less intimidating and easier to communicate by leaving a comment on Teambox a problem. "

Reporting tasks in Teambox