Summary: YZ Project Manager is predefined project management software for all businesses. It supports the traditional management pattern. The lack of structure flexibility is compensated by a number of useful features. The software is suitable for companies that need to store project data in one place and get reports on projects.
Project Management features: YZ Project Manager targets all businesses, and its creators persuaded us that it will help in managing projects, tasks, operations, budgeting and activities online. It lets you see your projects on one page, and you can filter them by client or list them alphabetically. To view all your tasks, you need to find “tasks” in the main menu, than choose the “view” option. Your tasks will appear at your workspace, and you’ll be able to filter them by “user” (that is the person they are assigned to), by client and by group. The software features a calendar system, customized fields, 4 types of reports and graphical charts. The calendar gives you an opportunity to view your plans for the month. You can also filter the tasks by group, user, month and year. To view the task description, you’ll have to click on a particular task. The task details will show up in a separate window. The calendar also allows you to create tasks, projects or memos for a particular date. You will be able to view your memos through the calendar only.
Collaboration features: It is written on YZ Project Manager site that the software monitors user communication. That is, it enables you to send messages to your colleagues and then view them in bulletins. You get an e-mail notification if you get a new message in YZ Project Manager. This would be a convenient feature if these messages were associated with tasks. You might want to send just a regular e-mail instead of a message in YZ Project Manager, which will probably save your partner a couple of minutes on switching from his inbox to YZ Project Manager.
Usability: YZ Project Manager’s interface is a cross between classical Windows and a traditional Web-site look. It will take you some time to get adjusted to the application structure. According to the software creators, you are supposed to set up projects and associate them with a certain group, which are named after company departments (e.g. marketing, development, design etc.) When creating a task, you need to fill in all the fields; otherwise, you will continue to see red correction warnings at the upper left-hand corner. You should create a project prior to creating a task. This might suit organizations that are practicing traditional project management; for those with frequent innovations, the whole structure might seem inflexible. It’s easy to get acquainted with the interface and the projects structure by playing with YZ Project demo, which is available online. It is possible to adapt some parts of the software according to your preferences.
Pricing and support: This information will not available until you spend a couple of minutes filling out your company address and some other data. This will get you the access to the secure form that will calculate the price of the solution for your company. There are two variants of paying for this software. First, you can make a one-time purchase. It will cost you $100 per user. In this case, YZ Project Manager runs on a client’s server. You will have to upgrade your package with every new user. In addition to the standard package, you can also buy their yearly maintenance, which will give you access to the support toll-free number. Yearly support maintenance will cost you 12% of purchase price, depending on the number of users.
In the second variant, you pay a monthly price of $10 per user. The software will be hosted. You will have to pay for at least 3 months of using YZ Project Manager at once.
Installation/Browser requirements: YZ Project Manager creators say that the software can be easily installed on any server. However, if you use the server version, you still will have to make sure that your server meets the requirements mentioned on their site. With the server version, multistep installation is required. Your browser should also have JAVA plug-in, which will enable you to see graphs.