How do you use FengOffice? Let's help them to understand us

[WiZaxx]

I'm seeing the lack of a public(able) road-map from FO as a mirror into the community. We all have different needs and we all want different features, but still reading through the forum I can't figure it out how is FO implemented by the community/users.
Would you care to share? Here is us:

Who we are
Start-up, new technology, engineering

Primary use
Project management spanning 3 nations in two continents
(as I'm traveling a lot, I also use it as our "family calendar" )

Work scenario
The managing team is in USA. The R&D team is in Italy, and the manufacturing in Brazil. Potential clients are all over the globe.

Day-to-day activity in FO
Project Management
Collaborate in writing contracts, procedures and manuals
Managing activities (tasks) and monitor progresses
Reporting to stakeholders (Gantt charts)
General file repository
Mail client
Calendar

What's missing
Gantt Chart Thank you Allen
Task dependency
Better, more detailed Task Management
TO-DO list to send to our mobile phone


Now is your turn....

[cabeza]

Great initiative WiZaxx !!

I just wanted to encourage others to describe how they use Feng.
It is very valuable for us.

[allenlook]

SI Group, Inc.

Who we are
Global chemical company, family-owned, founded in 1906.

Primary use
Project management for Global IT.  20+ locations in 13 countries on six continents.

Work scenario
US-managed, teams or personnel at most facilities.  No "clients" in Feng Office terms, eg. no "client companies".

Day-to-day activity in FO
Project, Milestone and Task Management
Managing activities (tasks) and monitor progress.
Reporting to stakeholders (Gantt charts).
General file repository for project docs only, otherwise in SharePoint.
No mail function. (use Exchange)
No calendar function. (use Exchange)
No office function (word proc., spreadsheet).  (use Office)

What's missing
Roadmap so I can sponsor known activities
Plug-in sub-system
Assign task to more than one user
Assign user to more than one team
Task dependency
Shortcut keys (ala rememberthemilk.com)
Mobility

[conrado]

Ditto. This is very important. Looking forward to see more!

[Syrion]

We (design duo) are currently testing FO, so I can't provide information. I'll gladly do this once we're using it more often.

[dave-k]

hi guys, first off - FO seems like the perfect solution for my small web design and development team.. for its ease of use, allroundedness and price!

BUT

after a few weekends of fiddelind with it, im still not sure how im supposed to use it, for example  there are no "project" objects, and i see in the demo version, that the projects are treated as "workspaces" and seem to be set up according to the clients companies,so why name it "workspaces"?and why did you also give the option of  "Client companies" in the administration tab? maybe people can write more specificlly about the diffrent ways  they are setting up FO structure  for diffrents needs, so we can learn what are the best ways to approach system.

i write this mainly bacause of a dillema im having:
i must be able to assign timeslots to predifined  job category types  (e.g. programming, design, internal work) for measuring purposes. so should i still set up my workspaces by client and projects or by job type? maybe it would be better to assign job type by use of tags? or custom properties? or maybe milestone template (treat milestones as job type)?
the only answer i found was here: http://forums.fengoffice.com/index.php?topic=3959.0 - which helped, but its hardly comrehensive.

also in the demo, under the administration workspace  i see workspaces like payments and saleries, which is great! but there arn't really any finance modules in the system, so we can't actually calculate anything in useful reports, just make notes of stuff.. so whats the point of having it?

further more i suggest you should consider a new forum topic called "best methods and approaches" or " tricks & tips"
and maybe a friendly tutorial video on the subject of setting up the system for the diffrent uses would  mostly benefit FO's marketing department.

[WiZaxx]

Everyone:
Please feel step in and help !!

Let me try to share how I use it....

I'm not in the web designing business, but I will change the wording to accommodate an example that may help you.

So...I have a  contract with ACME Inc to deliver a new website, so I create a work-space called ACMEinc.

Now... I have a few departments, each following one part of the project(s). Lets say:

• Graphics
• Codes
• Testing
• Drafts

So I created one workspace for each department inside the ACMEinc.

Now let's say I have three groups of people working on graphics, one group is working on the GUI another group is working on the content and another group integrates the work of both.
So I create 2 work-spaces inside Graphics

• GUI
• Artwork

Now I create the users.

• John and Paul are working on the GUI so I assign them to the GUI workspace only.
• Tony, Bill and Jim are working on the content, so I assign them to the Artwork workspace.
• Mary is in charge of the whole look 'n feel and I assign her account to the Graphics workspace (that is higher so by default she has access to all its content)

...and I would do the same for each department.

Now I have a draft of the website and I want to have it approved by my client: ACME Inc. So I create a new client company and assign it to the DRAFTS workspace inside the ACMEinc workspace.

I now copy all the drafts to be approved( including links to demo, etc.) in the DRAFTS workspace.

I now assign a task (approve draft) to the client from withing the DRAFTS workspace and send notification. When the client logs in, he will only be able to see the content of the its own DRAFTS.

Although you can simplify the structure, I would make a template of it and use it for each project.

I hope this helps,
Wz

[conrado]

maybe people can write more specificlly about the diffrent ways  they are setting up FO structure  for diffrents needs, so we can learn what are the best ways to approach system.

That would definitely be of great help.

I promise to provide cases myself, but I am certain the best ones are going to come from the community.

BTW; great contributions WiZaxx!

[conrado]

Also, did you notice we just created a complete Forum Category for this subject?

That's how important this is.

 

[dave-k]

awsome!
great to see such excellent response from the team.
keep up the good work..