Has Anyone Tried Out 5pmweb.com?
It isn’t everyday that I feature websites or articles sent to me via email (unless of course, you’re Vyoma). But 5pmweb.com looks just too intriguing to pass up. The cheerful, Web 2.0-ish look seems to paint Project Management (the online service’s focus) in a casual and inviting light.
I’ll be trying out the service over the next week. The website does have a 14-day free trial period. Though I do suspect that, as an online project management application, 5pmweb.com may be too much for one person to handle. Any freelancing groups out there that have experience with this website? (5pmweb.com)
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4 opinions for Has Anyone Tried Out 5pmweb.com?
Anthony C.
May 3, 2008 at 7:51 am
I’ve been freelancing for a while and always used an Excel document to keep track of my clients. Lately I moved to Google Docs. Now I moved to 5pm and it works well for me - I use it mainly to track the tasks and the time I spent on them.
I have about 20 clients and about 3-5 projects running at any point of time. 5pm support clients login, so I created a couple of logins for my biggest clients. I use the cheapest package - $14/month, which lets me having up to 10 open projects at a time (closed ones don’t count) and 5 users (me, plus a couple of big clients).
I don’t use all the features 5pm offers, but there are a couple of favorites. “My Stuff” view is great to just see all my open tasks as a list and sort them by deadlines and so on. The Time Report helps me with billing the clients. Then there is email integration - I can just forward an email from a client to 5pm and it will be transformed into a task.
Oh, and forgot to mention - you can adjust the interface. So I did hide all the extra columns I don’t use, resized the panels in my way and made it much more “minimalistic” for my own freelance usage.
I think it doesn’t really matter how you track your projects. The benefits of using a system like 5pm just makes you look more professional. I added my logo to 5pm (they support white label) and my clients appreciate me having a system like that. So I would say “looking professional” is the biggest benefit.
Anyone tried some of the more complex features? Any tips from other freelancers?
Joe Hewitt
May 6, 2008 at 6:37 am
I love the “Login as Bill Lumbergh” in the demo. . “Peter, yea-a-a-h”
Sal
May 10, 2008 at 8:28 am
If you want a free trial initially with no time limit, you can also check out DeskAway. DeskAway is used by quite a few freelancers and consultants managing multiple client projects.
Cheers!
rjleaman
May 12, 2008 at 7:55 am
I’ve been trying 5pm over the last few days, on the free trial, with an eye to its usefulness to small nonprofit organizations. So far, I’m liking it very much: I haven’t had one of those “wish I could but can’t” moments, and it’s so friendly-simple to use, even those volunteer board members who are antsy with email could easily be coached to take it on.
As a freelancer, I’ve always been a Wrike fan - but any PM system is only as good as its adoption rate by the clients and/or collaborators who need to be using it with you!
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