Although a variety of tools are available to make sure important projects keep to time and budget, most require investment in not just the software itself, but the supporting network and management infrastructure to allow interested parties to collaborate effectively.

Work Together eliminates the need for much of that investment by providing access to key project management and collaboration tools in the form of a hosted service.

Work Together is a web-based service hosted by the supplier OLM. All that end users need is a web browser, the only restriction being that it has to be Internet Explorer rather than Firefox or Opera which, as yet, aren’t fully supported. Java is also required.

From the browser project, managers and participants are given access to a single definitive source of information relating to projects they’re involved in. Everything is held on the remote server, from custom documentation detailing the methodology to be followed, through to important milestone documents, forms that need to be completed, budget requirements, project diaries and so on.

The structure and content of a project is largely set up in advance, but users can be allowed to upload as well as download relevant information. Data can also be pulled in from Microsoft Project files and Work Together diary entries exported to Outlook.

Management information can be exported for use in Microsoft Excel and alerts configured to advise users of significant project events. For example, alerts can be generated when important documents are uploaded to the information warehouse and managers prompted to take action when budget issues are encountered. Alerts can be sent via the web interface or by email.

Delegated authority enables project managers to precisely manage the security of their projects, specifying which tasks each group of users is allowed to perform. They can also determine the structure of the project and a high level of customisation suits a wide range of projects. For example, the menus to be displayed can be configured, the standard method library replaced with a company’s own manuals, the number of stages specified, budgets set and so on. Users can also set up their own desktops containing links to ‘favourite’ projects and other resources.

Comprehensive tools can monitor project status. These tools start with a traffic-light summary display where red, amber and green flags are used to show the state of the project and highlight any risks, with more detailed dashboard displays and reports also available, again, with a high level of customisation possible.

Some knowledge of project management is, inevitably, required in order to set up and manage projects, but there’s plenty of help and training available from the service provider and, from the end-user standpoint, the interface is very easy to follow, so minimal training is required.

Work Together has been of particular interest to local authorities, with a number of corporate customers now also on the books. It will also be of interest to small companies with limited resources of their own as all you need to supply are user PCs and internet access.

The necessary servers are all hosted by OLM and the software installed and maintained for you. It’s all backed up too, eliminating a lot of the management overheads and enabling you to concentrate on running your projects not supporting project management and collaboration systems.