Productivity Hacks

What are the benefits of using Teamlab, an open source solution, for creating your corporate portal?

TeamLab is an online hub application that allows users to edit documents, manage projects, create tasks and send instant messages, all from an Amazon cloud-based platform. Project managers can enable and disable the various modules on demand, allowing TeamLab to be customized to the unique needs of each user. Other features include blogs and forums, image uploading, poll creation and a simple registration process.

The best thing about TeamLab? It’s free. According to Teamlab.com  the freemium open-source model is a business process management application designed for small and mid-size companies that need an effective platform for hosted project management. Supported operating systems include Windows Server 2003-2008, and Windows 7, Vista and XP.

TeamLab Development Timeline

First launched on July 7, 2010, TeamLab was developed by Ascensio System SIA of Latvia, a IT solutions provider. Founded in 2009, this fast-growing company also has offices in London, UK, offering most of their services and features for free.

According to their July 28, 2011, corporate blog, TeamLab now has over 115,000 worldwide users in 148 countries, representing a 300 percent increase over the past six months.

Current TeamLab Features

Improvements and updates to the TeamLab application are occurring frequently as the Ascensio developers respond to user feedback and beta test results. As of August 18, 2011, the following features are included in TeamLab:

• Project Management: Using the Project Management module, milestones can be created along with lists of active, completed and overdue tasks, and due date notifications. Tasks can be designed and delegated to specific team members, and discussions between team members are enabled. Managers can use the time-tracking tools to generate detailed project reports, and the access rights feature (for Premium subscribers) allows for the creation of different visibility levels for files, tasks, milestones and discussions.

• Business Collaboration: These features enable users to create and manage corporate profiles, manage internal announcements and develop polls. Photos can be uploaded to the cloud server and shared using the blogs and forums tool. There is also a wiki section to a create corporate knowledge base through the TeamLab portal.

• Document Management: These are among the most popular TeamLab tools, and let users edit, import, share and integrate documents directly on the TeamLab portal. Document version control is enabled through automatic file saving and organization, including the ability to restore to earlier versions sorted by date and time.

• Instant Messaging: TeamLab users can chat live with contacts through the portal, as well as integrate the corporate messenger with other desktop email clients.

TeamLab Security Features

All TeamLab portals are protected by HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol), which adds an extra layer of digital data protection with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to personal data like passwords, login information, and all the content on the portal. SSL encrypts all communication within the TeamLab environment, making it virtually impossible for hackers to obtain any private business information through the TeamLab portal.

As of August 12, 2011, TeamLab is offering a free online diagnostic system that scans all applications and services automatically during system startup, with the goal of detecting and eliminating threats like viruses, trojans and damaged files.

TeamLab Premium

Launched on the first anniversary of TeamLab, TeamLab Premium is available for $49 a month. Along with the features included in the /freemium/ version, TeamLab Premium users receive:

• 10 GB of cloud-based storage versus 1000 MB in freemium model.
• 100 MB file size upload limit (up from 10 MB per file in the free version).
• User-controlled file sharing, private projects and access rights management.

Premium subscribers also enjoy faster upload speeds in comparison to the free model, and have priority access to customer support service from TeamLab.

Planned Upgrades to TeamLab

Ascensio System Limited has announced the following upcoming features for TeamLab:

• A full mobile version of the project module for Android and iOS devices, with the ability to email team members, edit tasks and comment on events, blogs and forums.
• Email integration via the TeamLab portal, including user-controlled tag-based message filtering.
• CRM support integration including sales and communication tracking, report generation and the ability to import data from Highrise.
• A calendar feature with customizable tracking, history logging and separate work and personal scheduling.

Other improvements to the application will include Gnatt charts for project management, currency conversion tools and customized contact and deals forms.

TeamLab User Reviews

Early users of TeamLab are impressed with the fact that 90 percent of the features are free, it supports multiple languages, and the portal is completely customizable at the point of use.

According to an August 18 post on SoftwardReviewBoffin.com, TeamLab earned a five-star rating because of the variety of collaboration tools, ease of IM client use, and the fact that, “TeamLab is the only project management solution that includes fully featured online editing.”

On AppAppeal.com, an editor rated TeamLab four out of five stars, noting that, “TeamLab offers a unique solution that brings individuals together, no matter how many miles may lie between them.” This reviewer recommends TeamLab for freelancers as a simple, cost-effective (currently free) way to collaborate with clients, as well as small businesses looking for team management software. AppAppeal.com also suggests that schools and nonprofit organizations could make extensive use of TeamLab for work on projects and to facilitate effective communication among stakeholders.

Ryan Stubbs touted his approval of TeamLab in his May 18th post on Appstorm, where he writes, “TeamLab just ticks all the boxes for me.” He points out that all-in-one solutions are usually priced beyond the reach of most start-ups and small businesses, and other applications include features that typical users simply don’t want or need. Stubbs likes the fact that TeamLab has made disabling features “incredibly simple”, reducing portal clutter while improving usability.

::Start-Up and Small Business Applications::

TeamLab developers focused on making this application easy to use for both IT professionals and regular Internet users, with an emphasis on providing collaboration and project management tools for startups, small, and medium sized-enterprises. This product is unique in the way it combines a number of different functions in one user-controlled portal, increasing both security and ease-of-use. For managers and freelancers who require a comprehensive, stable and customizable solution for both projects and ongoing collaboration management, TeamLab provides a cost-effective resource.

While Teamlab is an excellent productivity application, what about solutions for personal productivity? Up Next:  “Using Pomodoro Technique and the Results Curve for Productivity”

The Totango Service

Totango [http://www.totango.com] is a new service launched on July 28, 2011, currently in a public beta, that allows users to track application events in real time for subsequent analysis. It is similar to Google Analytics [http://www.google.com/analytics/] but with the added ability for the user to control what data is collected and at which time intervals the recording occurs. Totango also enables AJAX tracking activity, and delivers the user a clear picture of application usage patterns as well as customer engagement levels. According to Totango, their mission is to help online companies build better customer relationships through the gathering and analysis of customer usage patterns of Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS applications. [http://www.totango.com/about.html]

Salesforce Integration for SaaS Applications

The Totango service is fully integrated with the Salesforce [http://www.salesforce.com/] Sales Cloud, making it a powerful tool for data generation to guide sales leads and activity. Totango analyzes real customer behavior within Software-as-a-service, or SaaS applications, making it easy to provide an immediate response to customer needs and achieve successful sales outcomes. Proactive account monitoring allows sales teams to develop valuable insight into customer usage and needs, and sales leads self-qualify through usage patterns that are automatically sorted by Totango.

Since users can specify exactly what goes into Totango using their own application, the data collection can be tailored to each users specific needs. This feature is what really sets Totango apart from page view metrics like Google Analytics, which are usually filled with information that needs to be filtered to be relevant to each users’ needs.

Using Totango

Totango is currently free in public beta, and implementation is simple once users sign up and obtain a Totango ID. No pre-booking or scheduling is required to record application events.

When users have a designated event they want to register for the SaaS tracking service, they simply create a HTTP GET to Totango and input basic information including username, organization and which event is being registered from either the client or call server side. Once Totango begins receiving data from the event, a string comparison is completed to support the best possible configuration. Within a few minutes, users will begin to receive information about their customer SaaS usage in real time.

Beta testers have reported that the service integrates well with no noticeable slowdowns on the server side. Real time displays of user activity stream onto the desktop activities monitor, and the numerous customer relationship management metrics within the system have practical and immediate applications for sales teams. Early reviews indicate that Totango may be the ideal tool for measuring trial conversion rates and timing sales to maximize profits on SaaS.

Future Applications

With the prevalence of SaaS usage either being maintained or increased by over ninety-five percent of organizations surveyed by the analyst firm Gartner, [http://www.documentmanagementnews.com/the-news/software-as-a-service/557-over-95-of-organisations-to-maintain-or-increase-saas-usage.html] SaaS applications have clearly gained widespread acceptance across a number of industries, including a rise among small and medium sized businesses. A recent survey by Goldman Sach [http://www.deskaway.com/blog/2010/02/15/44-of-saas-usage-is-for-collaboration/] reports that sixty-four percent of the companies they contacted use SaaS for salesforce automation, representing a large potential market for the Totango service.

Totango is excellent for tracking SaaS usage, but what about corporate portals? Next: “Creating Effective Corporate Portals using Teamlab”