Project Management Technologies Needed!

September 30, 2009 3:29 PM

I'm working on a group project that will involve quite a bit of research, scheduling, collaboration and communications and need a centralized, web-based platform to make the job easier... Any recommendations?

I'm a B-School student that is currently enrolled in a course that contracts our services out to private clients. We're at the beginning of a 12 week project and the volume of email I receive on a daily basis from my teammates is already unmanageable. My team will be doing a great deal of research and needs a structured system to build upon. I need a solution!!!

Needs:
- Shared calendar for scheduling meetings, teleconferences, etc...
- document storage
- task assignment / management capabilities
- messaging / email integration
- must be web-based
- must be verbose
- can share links, data, notes
- User friendly and intuitive

I've already spent a fair amount of time exploring:
- Google apps and, unfortunately, think the structure too diffuse for our needs. THis includes, Google groups...
- Yahoo Groups is even worse.
- Basecamp looked promising, but because the service lacks an integrated calendar (what planet are they living on?) it's falls short of our needs.

Any thoughts? What do you use for these kinds of projects? Please remember that I'm on a student's budget!

posted by Dr.James.Orin.Incandenza to Technology (5 answers total)

Basecamp
posted by Packy_1962 at 3:32 PM on September 30, 2009

Response by poster: I've used Basecamp in the past and it falls short of my needs (no integrated calendar)
posted by Dr.James.Orin.Incandenza at 3:36 PM on September 30, 2009 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I've looked into this stuff, and I can't recommend Central Desktop enough - they have a $25/mo plan, which is a pittance to keep organized. Get a pot going among the team to pay for it. It's so worth it. I have no affiliation with them other than 'I wish I worked at a company that used it to organize'. It has forums, which help prevent the madness that is email threads, and piles of other useful tools that help you manage your projects. Basecamp is fine if you're in grade school, but for bschool, use what the smart kids use :)

(Mefi me if you have more questions).
posted by rmm at 3:47 PM on September 30, 2009 [1 favorite]

What about hosting it yourself and using OpenGoo its a great alternative to basecamp.
posted by bleucube at 4:50 PM on September 30, 2009

If you're willing to host it yourself, I really like Open Atrium. Free, easy to use, and all around great.
posted by advicepig at 5:07 PM on September 30, 2009