Business Empowered
Zilicus, cloud based solution collaboration provider of the best online project management software - ZilicusPM, will be releasing new and enhanced version ZilicusPM 7.2.
I am happy to share a preview of ZilicusPM 7.2 here. This improved version of ZilicusPM, will introduce reports like Earned value Analysis (EVM), portfolio level expenses reports, enhanced project financial reports along with new features like resource working calendar, quick planning utilities like copy-paste tasks, new project status as 'On-Hold', 'Cancelled', custom fields view, enhancements in meeting manager as well as issue tracking. Amazingly simplified interface for team members to enter timesheet and know work-allocation on zilicusPM home page and lot more.
1. Resource Working Calendar
ZilicusPM already allows you to configure organization's working days. Now, with ZilicusPM 7.2, you can specify working days for each individual resource as shown in the image below. This enables organizations to plan project work for resources who have discrete availability e.g. consultants who work on specific days like Monday, Tuesday only, for your organization.
Figure 1 Resources Working Calendar in ZilicusPM
The resource working calendar for individual resource in ZilicusPM decides its availability for task assignment. For task estimation type Fixed-Work, Fixed-Work-Fixed-Duration assigning tasks to discretely available resource can change duration of task. I'd suggest you to get a hands-on-experience with these features to use them effectively.
2. Project status as 'On-Hold', 'Cancelled'
There are situations, where you need to put an ongoing project on-hold, and you may want to resume working on it later. For such situations, the resource working on such project are supposed to be released for other projects. ZilicusPM in this version will allow you to put project On-Hold, as well as to cancel it all together. Following screenshot shows you how to change project status.
Figure2: Changing Project Status in ZilicusPM
Once project status is changed to 'On-hold', or 'Cancelled', it remains accessible to project manager only however the resource allocated in such project for non-completed task are released, so that they can be utilized in other projects. These projects can be found in 'Projects' tab, with specific listing as shown in the image below.
Figure 3: % Project Listing Based on Project Status
3. Projects listing in grid view
Based on customer's request we have also provided 'Grid-View' of projects in 'Projects' Tab, along with 'Tiles-View'. The grid view will also show custom fields and their values which can be sorted for order.
Figure 4: Project Listing, Grid View
4. Copy-Paste Tasks
Those who like quick project scheduling tactics in ZilicusPM, will surely love this feature. Using Copy-Paste feature for tasks, one can not only copy individual tasks, but also copy summary task (task group) and paste it to desired location in the same project schedule.
Figure 5: Quick Project Planning: Copy Paste Tasks
For all such tasks which are created using Copy-Paste feature will also copy task schedule, resource assignment and cost elements or original task (or task group).
5. Reassign Issue to Reporter
This enhancement will allow users to reassign issues back to the reporter. Previously, whenever issue is resolved, it would automatically be assigned to reporter, however some of the users have informed us that sometimes they need to 'Assign issue' back to reporter (especially their customers), if users is looking for additional information about a given issue.
Zilicus has addressed this concern and you can assign issue to reporter anytime during the lifecyle of an issue, even before resolving it.
Figure 6: Reassign Issue to Reporter
6. Adding Project Meetings to Project Schedule
We heard you. You wanted to make project meetings as a part of project schedule. This version will give you an option to create task from a scheduled meeting. If this option is selected (shown below), all meeting participants (who are in regular users are part of project team) will be assigned corresponding task. Any change in meeting schedule will reflect in corresponding change in task schedule. However the vice-versa is not true i.e. if you change the schedule of the task (created from meeting), the change will be done in isolation to the meeting's schedule.
Figure 7: Adding Project Meeting to Project Schedule
7. Enter Timesheet on ZilicusPM Home Page
To make it even simpler for team members to update timesheet entries while updating task status (and progress) on home page, we have introduced an enhancement. As you can view, one can navigate to the desired week, enter timesheet entries and save it for submission later.
Figure 8: Enter Project Timesheet on Home Page
8. View Day-wise Task Load on Home Page
Similar to entering timesheet details, one can know the work-allocation for an assigned task by clicking on the buttons shown below. So for team members, it is mostly home page that they need to refer to update task, issues, risks, action items from meetings, task comments, and discussion board. It has been super simplified for team members to use ZilicusPM.
Figure 9: Task Load View for Team Member
9. Additional Reports
As we have been introducing more and more reports in past few versions, this version is no exception. Here is the list of additional reports you can expect in this version.
If you would like to manage projects effectively, ZilicusPM is the right solution; not just for you as project manager but also for your team members (simplicity), as well as executive management (dashboard, reports). Sign up for 30-days risk free trial.
