State of Online Project Management Software
As you know I keep up to date on the happenings of project management software. I have a complete exhaustive list available on the site. This article isn’t about one piece of software in particular, but on the whole market as a whole. My recommendations to new start-ups…
STOP!
There are so many. And this isn’t simply a plea for less news and software to track, but it’s a reminder of something I once heard from a lawyer here in Southwest Florida. The lawyer ran one of the largest firms in the world, litigating for everyone for the largest fortune 500 companies, and he mentioned the brands of CocaCola and Pepsi. He said something along the lines of:
If you can’t be the best (Coke), be second best (Pepsi)…
If you can’t be second best, be the opposite (Mountain Dew, Aquafina, etc.)
and if you can’t be any of those 3, get out… do something else
Regardless of your choice of top soft drink, the message is the same…
Clearly there is a lot of talent across the web, and upon hearing of 37signals’ success with Basecamp they’ve utilized that talent to make some exceptional programs. Unfortunately, the market is just too saturated, and in my opinion 37signals and a few others, do things so well that it just doesn’t make sense to continue to force your way into this market.
So What is The Answer?
The answer is simple, at the end of the day, what are programs like Basecamp and 5pm web REALLY? They’re simply tools to help small businesses. This is a huge market, but come up with ANOTHER TOOL to help small businesses. I’ve used many of the telephony tools available for example – most of them suck for small businesses. Plus, there’s in that market you have a moat. Negotiating with carriers and investing in the technology to make calls is time-consuming and expensive. Perhaps start there.
Hey there
I just wanted to mention Dooster which is the online PM tool I use and think it’s well worth a mention I much prefer it to BaseCamp. Have look here: http://www.dooster.net
We have been using Dooster for some months and it’s improved our systems. We looked at a few packages such as Zoho, Todoist, RTM and 5pm and others. They are all good. I’m commenting as a user though. Perhaps what might count is good customer service which is one of the noticeable things about Dooster after the useful apps.