I have been very happy with Central Desktop as part of the Abraham Harrison business and client services platform.
We had previously used Basecamp HQ. I didn’t mind it but my team hated it so I had Sara Wilson and Saul Wainwright go out to explore all of the project management, task management, business management, and process management tools out there — a collaboration tool that my team and I could use every day to help synchronize our daily work.
We needed all the help we can get since Abraham Harrison is a virtual and distributed company, spread across 7 countries and 16 times zones. When Saul and Sara finally made their recommendation, they recommended Central Desktop.
Back in April, Saul wrote an article on Marketing Conversation, Central Desktop Does it for us!!, and we received the associated buzz from Central Desktop.
Central Desktop offers a lot of different things, including group shared calendars, collaborative wikis, intranet tools, project collaboration, task management, web conferencing, audio conferencing, extranets tools, project management, forums, group discussions, salesforce.com, global search, online spreadsheets, and iCal compatibility.
We have limited our Central Desktop usage so far to project collaboration, task management, group wikis, asset and file management and storage, group discussions, and the iCal feature. We use Google Apps (Google Docs, Google Mail, Google Calendar) religiously so there are certain things we don’t need from Central Desktop. We’re also slowly drinking the Salesforce.com kool-aid, so I am sure we’ll start making that work for us soon.
Anyway, I am posting Saul’s review of Central Desktop below because I think it is very interesting and I think you’ll learn a lot and maybe check Central Destop out.
Central Desktop Does it for us!!
So, I don’t know if I have mentioned this on our blog. But, we spent months, and I mean literally months looking around for a web based project management tool that met the needs of Abraham Harrison. You would think that this would be an easy mission. Hell no!!
We wanted to dump Basecamp so badly, yet we didn’t wanna go to something else that was kind of….well…ho hum!!! Just when I was at the end of my tether in the search a bit of synchronicity came along and a potential client mentioned Central Desktop to us.
So, off I ran and checked out this software – it was on my list but I hadn’t really give it much of a go. After a week of digging around, having my Executive Assistant dig around in CD – we both agreed that this was the one for us.
It is simple, clean, fast and does what it needs to do. There are elements missing, for sure, but that is a given. My biggest gripe is their need to integrate more time tracking/management capabilities. However, after a phone call with the CEO, Isaac Garcia (heck how often do you get to talk to the CEO of a company as a small time client) he assured me that they are working on many improvements.
What I found so cool about this company (besides their awesome platform) was that they had built this tool up without any major funding, with paying customers – no, “come use us for free” approach in the hope that it would make them popular. No, they did it while having to please paying customers.
So, last week I got an email from Isaac, following up on the phone call we had had a week earlier and he informed me that Central Desktop had just got its first round of major funding – $7 million from Openview Venture Partners. Not bad, not bad at all….especially when you realize that Openview is one of Central Desktops paying customers (well, maybe they will give them a free account).
I like seeing companies do it the old fashion way. Create a good product, get people to buy it and watch it grow. Hell, getting popular off “free giveaways” is always easier, but certainaly doesn’t guarantee a good product.
Congrats Isaac and the CD gang!! We over at AH look forward to more and more slick features and are stoked that you guys are around.
Comments (7)
I’m curious as to what other project management tools you evaluated before settling on central desktop?
Same question here as John.
I have an article on PM Hut about the ideal project management tool. Does Central Desktop satisfy the criteria listed there (I’ve heard a few time before about Central Desktop, but never tried it myself).
I couldn’t agree with Chris on this one, and yet for many small to middle companies tools like CentralDesktop, @Task are way too expensive and there is still no clear leader in this market
Godzhesas » How small of a company do you need to have? If you can’t afford Central Desktop then you’re either not profitable enough or you’re just too frugal, especially when you compare the cost of supporting a real office. We’re not ritzy or glitzy as a company — there are 22 of us soaking wet — and yet we can afford Central Desktop, Google Apps, and Salesforce.com as well. I mean, we’re paying $99-$249/month for all of our 22 staff members, which is really inexpensive, considering. And, with regards to cheaper solutions, you really do get what you pay for.
These are the ones we looked at here at Abraham Harrison. We gave them varying degrees of scrutiny – some got a quick glance and we immediately realized it wasn’t what we were looking for; others got more in-depth study:
Basecamp, Viewpath, TikiWiki, Dot Project, PHProjekt, OfficeZilla, 5PM, Agendapoint, Simply PM, Zoho Projects, ActiveCollab, @task, Fasttrack, Jumptree, KiwiManager, Softalot, WebCollab, Aceproject, Celoxis, CopperProject, Deskaway, Enterprise Project 2.0, Goplan, Huddle, Let’s Prove, Onstage, Project 360, Projity, Who Does, Wrike,
24SevenOffice, Clocking IT, Comindwork, Hitask, Proworkflow.com, Qfile, Santexq, Teamwork, Vertabase, Worksmart
Central Desktop still doesn’t do 100% of everything we’d like it to do, but they are adding features on a regular basis and they are VERY receptive to requests from clients.
Central Desktop is a good solution, and it’s good to see they have devoted customers. It’s an amazing list of apps you tried too. Wrike is also adding features every month, by the way. We are now working on a sleek mobile interface. It’s going to be our next “killer feature”, after interactive Gantt chart, multiple project views and email integration. You’ve welcome to check it out.
You should also take a look at OnePlace (https://www.oneplacehome.com). OnePlace attempts to address some of the shortcomings of both Basecamp and Central Desktop and their customer service is second to none.