All-Around Project Management and Collaboration with Binfire

I wouldn’t be wrong if I claim that project management web apps have broken down the myth that it takes a seasoned veteran to get a project done. It doesn’t take too much time to learn and adopt an online project management app. Web apps have done decent job of breaking down the entire project management grunt work into manageable pieces – just like the way projects meant to be executed.

Project Management apps for sure improves communication and enhances the productivity of the team. If in doubt, you should ask our AppStorm editors; project management helps us keep working with a team that’s never even beenin an office together. The increased productivity and collaboration is so infectious. Binfire is one among the many project management and collaboration apps around. How unique is it actually?

Overview

At the outset Binfire positions itself not just as a run of the mill project management app but as one that can get ideas across effectively using their real time chat, whiteboard and commenting tools.

Pricing

When it comes to pricing, Binfire has got one of the most sensible plans I have ever come across for a project management app. All plans (including the free plan) have generous storage space. Plans range from $9.95 to $99.95 and the number of users, number of projects and the storage space vary with pricing.

User Interface

Dashboard

As usual, I signed up for the free plan and after email verification, I was taken to the dashboard. There isn’t much to look at here and to get things going, click on the Create a new project button in the right pane.

Project Management

Creating a Task

The flow is pretty much the same once you create a project – add members to your team, create tasks and milestones, assign it to your team and in no time you will be managing the project. Tasks and Sub tasks with deadlines make managing project less painful. Members are free to comment or reply to remarks ensuring a transparent workflow.

Status Updates

Twitter inspired stats messages make a swanky addition. Use short status reports to keep everybody in your project informed. All updates and activities of each project can be monitored from the Overview section.

Collaboration

On top of having a powerful commenting system, real time chat with client and team members is a dynamite addition. You can initiate group chat in seconds by dragging and dropping names.

Using the Whiteboard

The Whiteboard is another feature that you won’t find in many mainstream project management apps. On the whiteboard, you can draw shapes, import pictures and PDF documents directly. Use the markup tool to annote, highlight and draw directly onto PDF files.

Whiteboard files can be saved and edited any time you want. It isn’t mind blowing, but could be extremely handy when brainstorming.

Gantt Chart

A Gantt Chart is a visual representation of a project complete with the milestones, tasks and sub tasks. It helps to better understand a project and plays a major role when trying to assign resources, avoid redundancies and bottle necks. But despite being such a vital feature, many of the project management web apps don’t have this one built in, so it’s nice to see Binfire incorporate it.

Additionally, Binfire’s work breakdown structure (WBS) allows tasks to be broken down to 6 levels, which incidentally is the PMI (Project Management Institute) standard. It’s laudable that the app strives hard to stick to professional standards!

File Sharing and Management

As I noted earlier, Binfire offers gigabytes of storage, so you can go on a file sharing binge. Even the free plan has a 2 GB limit, which should be more than enough even to store hundreds of files. A centralised file repository can be created from where you can share files, documents and images easily with your clients or other team members.

Uploading Files

File sharing and uploading is not just limited to the project manager. All team members can upload, share and manage files within the project folder.With respect to file formats, you can upload anything from Microsoft Word, Excel, PSD, JPEG, PDF and more. Uploading multiple files in one go should save you a lot of time. The web app supports file versioning and all old files are backed up when new ones are uploaded.

While collaborating, there is a chance more than one person might have to edit the same document and could end up in a mess. Binfire lets you lock the file that you are working on so that no one else can access it until you lift the lock. Once the file lock is revoked, an email is sent to the team informing them of the same. Like in the case of uploading files, all team members can lock the files to prevent it from being edited or deleted.

Final Thoughts

Teamwork begins with good communication. Binfire scores major points for making it a breeze to share ideas, clear up issues and resolve any misunderstandings. File level protection makes Binfire stand apart. However, instead of Carte blanche file access, an option to pick and choose members with special file manipulating features will empower the project manager.

When compared with its competitors, Binfire has got affordable and economical pricing plans. But, the app clearly lags behind a lot of its peers when it comes to user interface design. The user interface is bland and is a bit uninspiring. If they fix this in a future release, Binfire can for sure give its competitors a run for their money.