5pm - Project management on time (so you don't have to be)

Filed under: Business, Developer, Productivity, Web services, web 2.0

5pm - Project management on time (so you don't have to be)

by Alan Silcott Jul 21st 2008

The clock just turned 5pm, and if you are like us, everything you have worked on all day has instantly evaporated from your mind (yes, this just happens, we don't need alcohol). Luckily, we left all those papers on our desk, the scribbled whiteboard, and a monitor-o-sticky notes to help us figure out where we left off.

5pm by QG | Software is a web-based project management suite that provides us the tools needed to get back on track at 8am.

The underlying features of 5pm are fairly standard in the project management world. You create projects and assign them to one or more users or groups. The project can have a deadline, a client, and a priority level. Once you have created a project you can add items such as tasks and files. Tasks can be assigned to individual team members and emails can be sent to the group when tasks are completed. etc...

To help visualize your project over the course of its life, there is a timeline feature that shows your projects and tasks in a "Gantt" style chart. In addition, there is a reporting section that can help determine who is completing their projects on time and who isn't.

One nifty feature is being able to synchronize with Google calendar. We like the idea not needing yet another calendar.

Where 5pm separates itself from the pack is in the design. We have used project management suites in the past that were so complicated or bloated we instantly abandoned them for the old pen-and-paper todo list. The 5pm interface is clean yet completely customizable. Their website touts they have been improving the interface for 5 years based on user feedback and the latest technology. It shows.

5pm doesn't have as many features as other popular project managment suites such as mobile device support, active/open directory integration, and chat rooms to name a few. However, 5pm keeps project-management simple, and sometimes that is preferable to being drowned with options.

5pm offers a 14-day free trial on their website and costs start at $14/month for 5 users, 10 open projects, and 150mb storage.

Tags: productivity, project management, ProjectManagement, web services, WebServices

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Luke said 4:17PM on 7-21-2008

I tried this out a couple months back while looking for a good PM tool for various uses at my company. While it's very web 2.0 pretty, I found the feature set to be a bit lacking. I'd personally heavily recommend ActiveCollab (google it) over it.

Ken said 10:05AM on 7-23-2008

Thanks for this ActiveCollab tip, overall, this is a better value.

dep said 5:20PM on 7-21-2008

Wow, the interface is really clunky. I'd love to see more "inline editing" as opposed to bringing up the dialog box for everything. The home page looks hella slick, but the actual tool really seems convoluted and weird to me.

Sergei said 6:22PM on 7-21-2008

Alan, thank you for the review. We keep adding new features and are improving our 5pm service daily, so your feedback is very welcome. If it keeps somebody stay on track with their tasks - we accomplished our goal. It definitely helps our team managing our own projects.

- Sergei (www.5pmweb.com)

Chuck said 4:11AM on 7-22-2008

I wish there is a free-1-user edition for non-commercial use. If I use it in real life for my personal use and like it, you can bet I'll tell people about it. (Free Advertising!)

Alan Silcott said 11:02AM on 7-22-2008

Sergei, I would have to agree with Chuck here. I would use this program in my everyday life if I didn't have to pay $14/month for it. It would be nice if there was a free edition for personal use and it only cost money if you wanted to add extra users to the project.

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