Forum OpenACS Q&A: ]project-open[ V3.2 Integrates With GanttProject to form OSS Business Application Stack

Hi,

I'm just posting our V3.2.Final release press release. We try to focus on the story that two open-source applications come together to form a complete application stack, suitable for not so tech-sophisticated customers.

It would be great if you could spread the word... Please see http://www.openacs.org/forums/message-view?message%5fid=621211 for the announcement of the V3.2.Beta5 including change-log and http://www.openacs.org/forums/message-view?message%5fid=931108 for our biggest success story so far.

Also: We expect an increase of customer requests with V3.2. Please let me know if you (an individual OpenACS developer OR an OpenACS company) would like to help us rolling out projects. There are several collaboration models possible, from subcontracted work to being fully responsible for a rollout.

Cheers,
Frank

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BARCELONA, Spain, May 9th -- The ]project-open[ development team is proud to announce the release of version V3.2. of its project management and project collaboration application. ]po[ is currently ranked #65 at SourceForge.net with >100,000 downloads. RPM installers are available for Open SuSE 10.2, Fedora Core 6 and RHEL 4. A VMware image with SuSE 9.3 is available for Windows and Debian users (native installers will follow soon).

The main feature of the new version is an integration with GanttProject, the no. #1 open-source project management application. Together, the two applications form an integrated open-source based application stack covering the complete project cycle for IT departments and IT companies from definition and planning to execution, tracking and invoicing.

"]project-open[ and GanttProject together form the first one-stop solution to managing project organizations." says Frank Bergmann, founder of ]project-open[. "I believe that application stacks are the key to the success of OSS business applications in general".

While GanttProject is similar to Microsoft Project, ]project-open[ is comparable to the Microsoft Project Server application, as it stores and manages multiple projects and resources and financial information on a server. In addition, ]project-open[ includes a number of collaboration modules such as forums & tasks, full-text search, file storage, calendar, wiki, bug-tracker and workflow plus a number of financial modules such as timesheet management, expenses, travel costs, project controlling, invoicing and support for backend accounting systems including SAP.

"We frequently see customers running a dozen applications ranging from bug-trackers and wiki to timesheet management and travel costs, each with different GUI and logins. Our goal is to integrate these applications into a single system." says Klaus Hofeditz, the other founding member of ]po[.

With Version 3.2, ]po[ now presents a mature, industry-tested product. Using the Open Source approach, ]po[ is able to offer enterprise class solutions that require a considerably lower investment than comparable commercial software.

Application Scenario: IT Department or IT Company:

The following application scenario demonstrates how ]project-open[ and GanttProject can be used together to define, plan and execute a project:

A key account manager or a sales manager start the project cycle by creating a new project in ]po[ as a container for requirement documents and brainstorming results by using the file storage and forum modules.

Also, the account manager starts to plan the budget top-down or bottom-up by defining and estimating project tasks and resources using GanttProject.
The resulting project proposal often passes through a priorization and approval workflow in order to enforce company policies on budgets, margins and project approval. Using a graphical workflow editor, the approval workflow can be defined and modified. Project attributes can be added and customized.

A project manager then takes over the responsibility for the project scheduling and resource planning using GanttProject. Using ]po[ reporting, the PM identifies resources overallocations and bottle necks across projects.

During project execution, members of the project teams can use a large number of ]po[ modules such as calendar, forum, wiki and bug-tracker to collaborate across geographical and organizational boundaries.

Meanwhile, the project manager tracks the project progress on a per-task level and compares it with the internal costs from ]po[ timesheet management and the external costs from the ]po[ expense & travel costs modules. Alternatively, cost information can also be imported from external applications such as SAP.

After delivering the project, an accountant or senior manager then uses the ]po[ invoicing module to create and track invoices for fixed-price and effort-priced projects. The results can be exported via CSV or XML to backend accounting packages such as Quickbooks, Lexware Buchhalter or SAP.

About ]project-open[:

]project-open[ is the company behind the open-source based web application with the same name. ]po[ has been founded in 2003 by two German engineers in Barcelona, Spain. The mission of ]project-open[ is to bring the benefits of open-source based Internet technology to small and medium companies.

]project-open[ offers installation, support, training and customization for the ]project-open[ product family.

For further information please contact us or visit us on the web at http://www.project-open.com/en/press/.

Resources & More Information:

]po[ Web Sites:
- http://www.project-open.org/ (Developer Site)
- http://www.project-open.com/ (Marketing Site)
- http://www.project-open.com/en/press/ (Press Kit)
- http://pcdemo.dnsalias.com/ (Online Demo)
- http://sourceforge.net/projects/project-open/ (Download)
- http://www.project-open.org/download/change_log.html (Change Log)

GanttProject Web Sites:
- http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/ganttproject/ (Download)

Developer Conference:
- September 27.-29., 2007 in Barcelona, Spain
http://www.project-open.com/product/services/devcon/

Analyst Briefing:
- For questions and further information:
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 8pm CEST / 2pm EST
Dial-in: +1-641-297-5600
Participant Code: 78819

Press Contact:
- Frank Bergmann, Founder
Tel: +34 933 250 914 (11am - 7pm CEST)
mailto:press@project-open.com