ADVANTA, management of projects and organisations with functions of social networks

"Social networks have taught us that any information is spread immediately in many directions and that reactions to it arrive just as quickly. The ADVANTA tool uses all of the advantages that functions known from social networks provide," says Martin Sahula, product manager for KOMIX. An immediate overview of the project portfolio is presented by a "wall of events" on the entry screen of the ADVANTA system and for each specific project. Besides changes in projects, the wall also includes news about newly created discussions, contributions, acceptance of tasks by individual users and other relevant information. Another social function is a discussion forum, which ensures quick and comfortable communication among individual team members. It can also be a very effective tool for getting suggestions and innovative ideas. ADVANTA also serves as a central location for collection of documentation regarding projects and their exchange, for example with external suppliers.

A key advantage of the ADVANTA tool is the ability to work visually with data, both during evaluation and during creation of projects. The system enables advanced OLAP analysis of project data, and selected outputs can be presented in many ways in graphs or control indicators. The integrated graphic editor, through its simplicity, directly encourages planning in diagrams or process overviews.  "Even a very complex strategy, thanks to graphic illustration, gains an effective and clear form, from which the status of projects is obvious at first glimpse," says Sahula. 

Besides the already mentioned innovative functions for supporting cooperation within a company, ADVANTA also fulfils all standard requirements of project professionals. It is also worth mentioning project templates and pre-configuration of typical work flow, which in the practical world of project management can result in significantly time saving. 

ADVANTA also introduces a non-traditional licence model onto the Czech market. The licence for project executors is free of charge, and only the "manager licence" has a fee. This makes it possible to provide access to the system without difficulties both to the entire project team and to, for example, the company management. 

"Besides the attractive licensing policy, Czech companies may also find it interesting that ADVANT runs in the environment of the company intra/extranet and can be accessed via a web browser, even from a mobile device. We will soon be able to offer ADVANTA as a service for companies, which do not have the necessary infrastructure at their disposal," Martin Sahula adds. 

A Czech demo version of the ADVANTA tool can be found at www.advanta-group.cz.