Product overview

Product

Comindware Project is a project management and team collaboration online software.  It is designed to help project managers and  project teams successfully manage projects, and collaborate on tasks.  It provides a unified workspace for planning, task assignment, project execution, document sharing, visibility of information, and commenting on tasks.

Company profile

website: http://www.comindware.com/project/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cmwlab/

Twitter: @Comindware

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/comindwareinc

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Comindware

 Pricing and market

The price structure of project management online applications can be grouped into two categories.  They either charge:

• per user and unlimited projects
• per projects and unlimited users

Comindware Project charge per users.  As such, the price structure is biased toward smaller groups with many projects.

The cost is $29.99/user on a monthly basis, or $299.99/user on an annual basis.

It is also possible to buy a license to run the application on premise.

See: Comindware pricing page

User interface

Web

The user interface is nice and very modern.  Simple at first sight, but it holds a lot of features.  It is easy for the user to find the various options.  So far also, in all my tests, the interface and the app is responding very quickly. I must say that I am usually difficult on the subject of user interface.  I don’t like at all when the application looks like a software designed in the 90s.  In my opinion, it is no longer acceptable to design an interface that requires a long and complex training for the user.

On the design of the interface, Comindware Project have done an excellent job.  I like it.  It is very well done.  It is impressive for a new player in this market.

An opportunity for a future version may be to give to the users a way to customize options on the size of the font and height of rows.  That being said, this comment doesn’t impact the high quality of the current interface.

Mobile

Often, it seems that online project management application can be grouped as follow:

• Good web application, weak or no mobile apps
• Good mobile apps, with a weak web app.

Too often, I find that companies have a strong focus on one side (web or mobile), and neglecting the other side. As a user, I like to be able to manage my project from various platforms.  I may not always be in the same location and may not always use the same device.  Therefore, a good user interface on multiple platforms is much appreciated.

Comindware Project has both a good user interface on the web and various mobile devices.  It is available for both iOS and Android.  On the iOS, it has a separate application designed for the iPad, which can do more than the iPhone app.  The idea is that the screen size of the iPhone does not lend to a productive interface for some complex task, such as creating projects.  Therefore, projects can only be created on the web and the iPad.

With the mobile app, you can:

• Have structured discussions
• View activity stream
• View and manage tasks

The mobile experience is excellent and integrates well with the web application.

Project Planning

A good project management application should provide the necessary tool to plan a project effectively.

Creating projects and tasks

Comindware performs very well on planning.  It is easy to create projects and tasks.  The design of the interface is excellent.  It feels sufficiently natural, and the user can see the relevant information on the screen.  The user doesn’t need to search and navigate complex windows to set the various characteristics of projects and tasks.

There is a good tutorial that walks a new user through the process of creating a project, tasks, and other key features of the application.  It is integrated into the application, making it very clear. It helps the first-time user by minimizing the learning curve.

Planning is also supported by an automated priority-based planning, predictive Gantt charts, and a module for resources allocation.

Gantt Chart

Comindware Project has a nice Gantt chart features, integrated with the project view.  On the left side, it displays the list of tasks and the right side is either a Gantt chart or the particular information of a selected task.  I like this features.

Team Collaboration

Team collaboration is one of the core benefits of managing project with online applications.  It integrates the project plan with the execution of the tasks.  It is much more efficient than having a project plan in one application and communication in the email application.

With discussions, email notifications, and activity stream, Comindware Project provides excellent team collaboration capabilities, making it easy to engage in real-time team members and boost productivity.

Monitoring work

Online project management applications should not only help plan the work, and delegate tasks.  They should also help the users follow the various activities happening on the project and tasks they are working on.  To support the project execution, Comindware Project provides in a good activity stream and email notifications, along with discussions on the web and mobile apps.

Activity stream

The Activity Stream is a dashboard that let each user quickly see updates on tasks, documents, and discussions from all projects.  Also, each project has its activity stream, containing only information specific to that project.  The user can also select which projects, tasks, or rooms they want to follow.

Email notification

The users can receive notifications on tasks, projects, and discussions.  The users can customize the type and frequency of notifications that they want to receive.  If you like email, this feature is nice.  If you are like me and prefer to manage inside the application, and reduce email count in my inbox, you can receive a summary or turn it off.

Timesheet

If you have to manage time spent on tasks, Comindware has a nice timesheet features.  You can enter estimated work required for each time, and then enter the actual time.  The timesheets are easy to use and work in increment of 0.5 hour.   I would personnally like if I could set up the time increase.  Also, at this point, there is no timer.  Users have to enter the time manually.  While this can be viewed as a weakness, in my experience, it is very difficult to effectively user a timer with an application.  To be honest, I don’t mind entering the time manually.

Conclusion

Overview

Comindware Project is a new player in the field of online project management and team collaboration application.  I am very impressed with the solution that they propose. Comindware Project can easily be used to manage various types of project, including many professional services, new product development, IT projects, and marketing initiatives.

Among the top benefits, I would list:

• Appropriate for project teams with numerous projects
• Excellent modern user interface
• Developed for both web and mobile devices
• Excellent Gantt Charts
• Advanced planning and resources allocations
• team collaboration and discussions

Among the opportunity for improvements:

• Better cost management features
• Add the translation in more languages
• More customized options

Other review

You can also find detail reviews of Comindware on Bright Hub PM.

Recommendation

I do recommend Comindware if your key requirements include:

• numerous projects,
• a modern and easy to understand user interface,
• Gantt Charts
• Team collaboration and discussions
• Web and mobile applications

Take a look at comindware