Interview with Vadim Katcherovski

Earlier this month I reviewed Easy Projects .NET, a project management package from Logic Software. There’s a bit of a trend with more and more players coming into the project management tools arena, and more companies are leaning towards web-based tools that help with collaborative working. Easy Projects .NET (now Birdview PSA) is used in 27 countries, and has a clientele including Philips and Heinz. What I found interesting was that Logic developed the software to meet their own internal needs and then decided it was good enough to spin off and sell to other people.

I put a few questions to CEO Vadim Katcherovski, to find out some more.

Where do you think project management technology is going?

We strongly believe that the focus of project management software will shift from data to people. We at Easy Projects .NET think the future of project management software is in a true collaborative environment, where two or more people will not only be able to see and hear each other, but also share, visualize and manipulate the context: e.g. if one person changes the schedule, everyone else instantly sees the change and is able to make respective changes as well.

Also, the ideal tool of the future will further strengthen team communication by providing each stakeholder with information personalized to their specific cultural context. For example, a person in Spain will see the same information as his colleague in India, but that information will be presented in a completely different way, set up to ensure the fastest comprehension by each end user.

Why is collaboration so important in projects these days?

You’ve heard the buzz words: globalization, outsourcing. More and more companies are using remote teams. Quite often these teams are located in different time zones, countries or even continents. A lot of companies learned the hard way that the success of a project depends on not just its cost, but on the processes and people. And no project can be successful if the team members are not able to collaborate effectively.

That’s why it’s so important for the project management tools to provide distributed and multi-cultural teams with an easy way to communicate, share files, track progress, exchange ideas, etc.

What makes Easy Projects .NET different from other software tools for project managers?

We believe that focusing our efforts on the following principles allows Easy Projects .NET to stand out in the market:

  • Focus on users
    Most of the people using project management software are not PMI trained project managers, so it is critical to make the software easy enough for them to use effectively.
  • Ease of use
    Easy Projects .NET was specifically designed to make project management hassle free and straightforward. This means that there are no bells and whistles involved and no need to worry about a sophisticated setup process. Learning to manage your projects shouldn’t require an entire training course so EP.NET  features an intuitive and friendly interface so easy to use that you will be set up and going in 30 minutes or less.
  • All-in-One
    EP.NET features not just project management, but also time, issue, and request tracking. We believe that our customers should not have to pay for and learn how to use each of these functions separately, so we brought all the features together under a single umbrella.
  • Flexibility
    A customer (or the main stakeholder in the project) should always have a choice! We allow customers the option between running EP.NET in-house (licensed software) or using our hosted SaaS service. If customers want to customize the product – no problem; the source code package to the rescue! If customers need integration with 3rd party tools or add-ons – our API is the perfect solution.
  • Customer support
    Unlike other well-known products on the market, our customers can actually talk to live people– and support isn’t just limited to the phone; we also offer e-mail, instant messaging and remote access support.

Thanks Vadim and Amanda for letting me demo and review the software.

If you’re looking to invest in project management tools, there are plenty of free demos and webinars, so have a look at a couple of products before choosing one that is right for you and your organisation.