by Barbara Mosher Zinck
Bamboo Solutions knows SharePoint. They dedicate their days and probably nights and weekends (on occasion) to designing and developing web parts, Solution Accelerators, and other solutions that either enhance SharePoint or help you work better with it.
Think back to MashPoint, a data integration platform, custom, personalized navigation, and the hack to run SharePoint on Vista. Add to that the number of Project Management components they offer, and you know these guys have dug deep into the SharePoint platform and found gold.
Now they offer the first complete solution to ever come out of Bamboo, and it’s based on a topic they seem to know and love well, Project Management.
Built From Experience
Bamboo’s newest, complete solution is called SharePoint Project Management Central or “PM Central”. Want to see how it works? Watch this video.
In a blog post announcing the new solution, Bamboo Project Management Team Lead Wes Bryan says that the functionality built into PM Central is based on two things:
- Bamboo’s years of experience providing Project Management technologies for SharePoint
- Their own internal experience using SharePoint for project management (they make a good case study)
Bamboo PM Central
Bryan lists a number of values that lead to the PM Central solution:
- Simplicity and Ease of Use: We’d actually be surprised if they didn’t build some easy-to-use — Project Management is itself enough to deal with, the technology needs to make life easier.
- Affordability: High-end functionality with no user fees, and it works for both WSS and MOSS
- Flexibility and Extensibility: Customization via settings and configuration options, branding, and design to suit your organization.
- Automated Communications: A Real-time dashboard that eliminates some of the need for manual communications and integrated of Alert Plus, advanced SharePoint alerting functionality.
Built From a Gallery of Web Parts
PM Central is completely built on SharePoint and includes a number of site templates and 16 of Bamboo’s most popular Web Parts. Features include:
- Site Templates for both the Project and Top-Level Site
- Document Management and Collaboration
- Project Summaries for Tasks, Issues, Milestones
- Schedules and Project Statuses
- Team Notifications
- Reports and KPIs
PM Central – Tasks
Pricing and Licensing
Licensing is per server and costs US$ 6,500, including Basic Annual Technical support. This solution becomes the centerpiece to Bamboo’s Project Management Suite, and subscribers to that suite will automatically get PM Central.
You can download a 30-day trial license of PM Central to get a feel for what it can offer your organization.
Wanna Read a Book?
Bamboo does know SharePoint. And they know Project Management. So much so that Dux Raymond Sy, Bamboo’s expert on Project Management in SharePoint wrote a book for O’Reilly, lovingly titled: SharePoint for Project Management. Get your copy now.
Bamboo says that PM Central is the first in a line of complete solutions that we can expect to see. What do you think will come next?
SOURCE: CMSWire
