So whats’s new? Well firstly we’ve finally created a series of tour videos that give a great rundown of what Copper can do for you, so make sure you watch all of those. We’ve also separated out the more detailed tutorials into a new Help section that will definitely be refined and shaped as we find out how people are using it and what they’re missing. We’ve tweaked our Free Trial and Buy pages, and everything else has had a clean up.

Noticed the new logo? As simple as it looks weagonizedfor weeks, and I’m sure the very talented Lee Wong could give you her detailed notes on how the new Copper logo represents the very best web-based Project Management Tool if you asked her.

Wow it doesn’t really feel like we did that much at all, but behind the scenes theres quite a bit happening to ensure that our customer information is tracked and managed more efficiently, so whether you’re just wanting to kick a few tyres, or you’re a died-in-the-wool Copper champion, we’re ready to help you as best we can.

But please, go forth, use the site, break it, romanticize about little changes, tell us about said changes, explore, grow, regale your friends with merriment. Because if we’re not growing, we’re dying.Deep, exponential ponderings, yes. But true all the same.

Love, Team Copper.

http://community.copperproject.com

– Ben Prendergast

– Ben Prendergast

This means that from our Standard product at $29/mth, you now have access to the web’s best project management and collaboration tool. Standard offers the best 5-user PM tool, with interactive gantt charts, resource time management, stopwatches and task comments that drive automated timesheets, billings, and our improved file upload function.

In addition, we’ve been super busy, adding a new file upload feature, improving UI workflows, and have even more planned over the coming weeks.

4.03 Tweaks/Fixes (rolled out 2nd Dec 2009):
- Fixed Projects/Contacts Tab
- Language Token fixes in Projects
- Removed Est/Act/Comp column to declutter project view
- Fixed issue with Springboard Activity Tab not filtering by year
- Now sections remember how a user had them (open/close them, they stay open closed!)
- Fixed New Event on Calendar
- Fixes to Multilanguage in Gantt (Finally! Copper is about 99.999% Translatable now)
More to come in 4.04 – in dev now.

Now there’s no excuse! Come on board and see how Copper can improve your studio/business productivity instantly. If you have any questions or queries, please get in touch!

– Ben Prendergast

– Ben Prendergast

With a loyal client base, Copper is utilized by leading organizations such as Sony Pictures, Apple, Mercedes Benz USA, Novell and Redken to name a few.

As the business moves in to an exciting new phase of growth, the opportunity has arisen for an experienced and talented Web 2.0 Software Developer to join this independent company on a contract basis.

Working from the comfort of your own home or studio, this role will see you, the successful candidate, taking technical briefs from clientele in order to diligently and effectively develop & self-test intuitive solutions.

As the successful candidate you must possess:

• High level proficiency with PHP, MySQL, AJAX and CSS
• Experience with Actionscript / Flash / Rails a bonus
• A strong focus on usability and user interface
• An active interest in web 2.0 products, web sites & technologies
• A sense of urgency about your work
• A very strong focus on providing long-term solutions
• A pro-active and disciplined approach to your work

This is your opportunity to work with a leading Australian Web 2.0 product with offices in Melbourne & San Francisco without leaving your home!

Daily/hourly rate commensurate with technical expertise & experience.

To apply, please forward your current resume and covering letter for consideration to info@copperproject.com.

– Ben Prendergast

Q. How does copper compare to MS project software? Why use copper, what are the costs and how does it work better than MS project?

A. The biggest issue with MS Project is that it is simple a single user repository and having come from a PM background I often found that it dictated how I work. I also found when I did use it within a team environment that MS Project did nothing to assist in the management of the politics of a project, and tended to make me focus more on the technical side of the timeline than actually getting things done (and the more I focussed on that, the less work that got done, and the more I’d have to update my schedule!)

With Copper, we turned that on its head. We still provide great project setup tools like the flash gantt timeline view and drag and drop subtasks in the project creation screen, but the real power of Copper comes with its multi-user platform, which assists in the collaboration component of all your projects.

Once you’ve allocated your users to tasks (or even gone the extra step of committing their available time, if you want finite resourcing), they then go ahead and provide a running commentary of the work they do along with how long it takes them and their subjective impression of how complete a task is. This is an easy process for them, and provides a natural update mechanism, removing the pain associated with timesheet tracking, and ensuring if one member is away for whatever reason your team can pick up where they left off. This is to say nothing of the other areas of Copper like the document management module, contacts module, reports, and group calendar functions within Copper. Being available anywhere anytime, I don’t hear of may customers going back to MS Project once they’re on board with Copper

The net result is that over time you can review how your projects have tracked and we’ve found teams become more cohesive the more they use Copper. In a recent survey we found that over 80% of our customers save between 10-20 hours per week, and 20% save more than 20 hours a week just by using Copper.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any specific questions on functionality, or anything else for that matter!

– Ben Prendergast

However, a few opportunities have come up to simplify the next version by potentially removing features. Well, not so much removing features, rather removing redundancies that exist within the software.

So, we have a few questions that we wanted to throw out there to the customer base so that we can make better decisions about these key changes. We’re really looking for an economy of movement/function in this version.

So here are seven quick questions, you can reply via the comments here, or by emailing info@copperproject.com

1. How does your company use Files? Do you view the files tab in clients? Do you view it in Projects? Do you only upload files that relate to tasks?
2. How does your company use Contacts? Are you using the related contact feature in the task commentary?
3. Would you prefer the Project and Task % complete to be automatically based on hours Estimated vs Logged, or continue as a subjective % estimation on each update?
4. How many resources would you typically have on a task? and what’s your max resources on any task?
5. Do you have a single charge rate, charge rate for each client, charge rate for each role, charge rate for each user, or charge rate for each project?
6. Describe your ultimate report, think laterally, what would you most like to know about your business?
7. In general, what is the most time consuming thing you do with Copper? Don’t solve the problem with ‘it would be nice if’, rather, just tell us in words what you spend the most time doing.

Please shoot through your thoughts via email or by commenting on this post, it all helps. Version 4.0 is shaping up to be an amazing piece of software, we know you’re going to love it. And yes, if you’re keen on contributing or want an amazing discount there are still spots available in the Inner Circle.

Until next week.

– Ben Prendergast

Of course this is easier said than done!

I need to ensure that the new product doesn’t disadvantage anyone, it needs to be more efficient than its predecessor, yet we want to continue leading the pack with great new features. So for me the process is like a 6-month game of chess. Every small move has repercussions, there are risks, happy accidents, and opportunities.

I’m also a songwriter, and this process is so similar, starting with a theme/idea/rationale, or even a set of principles, and driving your obsession to create a new form. So, this time around I thought I’d share the process with you all. while I won’t be divulging too much I hope you find the journey as fascinating as I know I will. Let’s begin!

The process for me has become refined over the years. It used to be that we’d add one big feature (e.g. Our flash-based dynamic gantt chart, a web-based PM first), and I’d plant myself in a local cafe (e.g. My current fav, A Minor Place, on Albion St, Brunswick, if you’re ever in town!) with a 20-page wish-list document from customers, seven latte’s, and choose five features that would make the most impact for our customers within our limited budget.

Five years on the process is a little more refined (as is Copper these days), however, despite the available technology it still starts with a table full of printouts, three principles and a spec document.

The three very simple principles for Version 4.0 are:

1. We’re going to reduce pages/clicks by 40%
2. It needs to be something that I personally will use every single day
3. We’re going to add 100% of the features in our specification document

These might seem like relatively simple goals, but they’re anything but! Reducing pages/clicks by 40% (point 1) whilst adding over 165 features (point 3)?! Thanks to the Inner Circle program (which is filling fast, click here if you want to secure a spot) all three principles are certainly achievable. We’re about a month on since those above shots were taken.

Next week, I’ll post back with a sneak-peek at the spec doc, maybe a screen or two, and talk about how the mock layouts work hand in hand with the spec doc to arrive a development-ready brief. As always thanks for your continued support!

– Ben Prendergast

The magic number is 30-40. “Hey, that’s two numbers Ben”, I hear you say. “Well spotted old pal”, I retort, “thats because we like to stay zen with our development, and you know this!”. But certainly 30 is the target, and 40 will result in the ultimate awesomeness for Copper.

Here is the offer:

You purchase a Copper Enterprise license ($2999) and receive:

1. A complementary hosted v3.5 Enterprise account (normally $199/mth) during development (or current server license).
2. Unlimited users, Unlimited projects. Boom!
3. Involvement in our v4.0 development (ready to kick off this month)
4. A guaranteed feature inclusion (you ’sponsor’ a feature from our spec)
5. The v4.0 Enterprise version when it is released (Est 4-6 months)
6. Two years of free updates and support
7. Inclusion in our East/West coast gatherings (June 2008)
8. One Inner Circle participant will receive an iPhone/iPod Touch. ($500 Value)

As mentioned above, we have a clear cut specification for v4.0, that closely mirrors the key changes requested over the last 3 years, and is going to take Copper another 5 steps forward in terms of efficiency/project visibility.

This offer represents a great opportunity, in fact you could add a zero to the price and still not approach the approximate value here, but ultimately you need to ask yourself; What price the love of a good software?

If you’d like to be part of the next Copper chapter, please click here to get in touch for more details about the offer or click here to purchase an Enterprise license and secure your spot in the circle.

– Ben Prendergast