Project management software Thread poster: Vahur Lokk
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Vahur Lokk
Georgia
Local time: 08:30
English to Estonian
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Hello!
A bit weird situation.
10 months a year i am an ordinary freelancer, doing my 10-something projects a month, few invoices, no suppliers, etc.
2 months a year, namely october-november I am responsible for coordinating a subtitle translation for a film festival. For a one-man-business this is pretty huge:
2000 pages and growing every year, many language combinations, 40+ translators and editors with different types of contracts, payment and taxation options, 1... See more Hello!
A bit weird situation.
10 months a year i am an ordinary freelancer, doing my 10-something projects a month, few invoices, no suppliers, etc.
2 months a year, namely october-november I am responsible for coordinating a subtitle translation for a film festival. For a one-man-business this is pretty huge:
2000 pages and growing every year, many language combinations, 40+ translators and editors with different types of contracts, payment and taxation options, 1-2 project managers have to be hired temporarily. One crazy client, one invoice to cover everything when the show is over.
Altogether, a nice big funny farm.
I have been using Excel till now, but last festival drove it home to me the hard way - I am going to need some real PM software to survive next year. And I don't know, where to start.
Everything available seems to be web-based and that's not gonna work for me, cause during the project there is lots of hand delivery of DVDs, project managers are constantly moving around and they can't be always online (read - can't connect to project management software).
So what I am looking for, is some kind of stand-alone software, that can be synchronised with server, when online, but is still usable offline. And it cannot cost much, cause festival works on principle fun-instead-of-profit, I make my salary from it, but not much more. On the sunny side, I am above average computer-savvy and will have some time to tinker around during X-mas or even next summer, install, setup and test stuff.
Wahur
[Edited at 2007-12-05 16:26] ▲ Collapse
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You may want to try this. The core of the software is free, and only specific modules are paid. For your needs, I think that the core software would suffice. There is lots of information, detailed screen captures and live demos on the website, and from the look of it, this is very handy for precisely the application you are looking for. I wish I didn't have cygwyn factory-installed on my computer. I wasn't able to install project-open because it comes with its own version of cygwyn, and if you a... See more You may want to try this. The core of the software is free, and only specific modules are paid. For your needs, I think that the core software would suffice. There is lots of information, detailed screen captures and live demos on the website, and from the look of it, this is very handy for precisely the application you are looking for. I wish I didn't have cygwyn factory-installed on my computer. I wasn't able to install project-open because it comes with its own version of cygwyn, and if you already have cygwyn installed on your system, you have to remove it first - this is what I wasn't able to do, so I couldn't use it. But I did walk through the online demo, and it seems super. You may have more luck than I did.
http://www.project-open.org/ ▲ Collapse
| | | | Vahur Lokk
Georgia
Local time: 08:30
English to Estonian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Yep. I am aware of project-open. But AFAIK its web-based. So if my temporary PM is out in the field with some translator he cannot use the program (if the server is in my home box).
OR
Every project manager has to install whole LAMP stack + project-open server in ones laptop and then we somehow have to synchronize it. Sounds also quite crazy.
Exactly that's why I want to avoid web-based stuff.
Wahur
| | | | | What exactly are you looking to do? | Dec 6, 2007 |
I have an idea of what work setting you would need a product for, but I am not sure what you would like to accomplish with that product.
Is it for managing the work itself (which file goes to which subtitler, which file has what deadline, who has completed which project, etc.)? Is it to keep track of accounting? Also, why do you want a desktop solution vs. web-based? Would you be the only person managing projects through the product? Would you then send reports to your project manag... See more I have an idea of what work setting you would need a product for, but I am not sure what you would like to accomplish with that product.
Is it for managing the work itself (which file goes to which subtitler, which file has what deadline, who has completed which project, etc.)? Is it to keep track of accounting? Also, why do you want a desktop solution vs. web-based? Would you be the only person managing projects through the product? Would you then send reports to your project managers? Or would you like others to also have the interface and be able to use it?
There are many products out there, a few good ones that are free also. But they are all very different from each other - the only trend I noticed is that there is some kind of Gantt chart module somewhere in all of those products. It would therefore help to have a more precise idea of what you are seeking to accomplish with the product and how you would like to use it. For one thing, are you open to the idea of Gantt charts? ▲ Collapse
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