ClearDrop's Preferred Project Management Solution - Zoho Projects

• quickly be learned and easily used by a hybrid team of distributed developers
• scale to handle the company’s growth

ClearDrop evaluated several client-side and cloud-based project management solutions including 37signals’ Basecamp. Ultimately, the company selected Zoho Projects.

ClearDrop’s Challenge

“I like to keep things simple,” said Jan Hendrik Mensen, CTO and
consulting partner at ClearDrop. “We can’t afford to complicate our
developers’ lives with a project management tool that has too many
options and settings. All those bells and whistles are actually
user-unfriendly and just complicate things and clutter the screen. We
need a lightweight tool that does all the essentials and lets us manage
all of our projects with minimum effort.”​

For ClearDrop, those essential project management features include
logging and tracking bugs, tracking project progress, setting and
assigning tasks and milestones, and managing the overall project
workflow. And those features must be presented in a streamlined,
easy-to-use interface.

Why Zoho Projects?

Broader Suite of online applications

In addition to satisfying ClearDrop’s list of essential feature demands, Zoho Projects offered other, distinct advantages. It is part of Zoho’s broader online application suite that includes Zoho Creator Helpdesk and Zoho Analytics, both of which ClearDrop expects to use going forward.

Google Apps Integration

Another key advantage of Zoho Projects, it integrates with Google Apps.

“The Google Apps integration makes it really easy for us to add users and give them access to Zoho Projects using their Google accounts,” said Mensen.

How ClearDrop uses Zoho Projects?

For now, ClearDrop uses the Tasks and Milestones features in Zoho Projects to keep projects and deliverables organized and manageable in a single, easy-to-access location. Project milestones give ClearDrop full control of what its developers are doing and how the various projects are progressing. The company also uses the Wiki, and of course, the Bugs module too.

“We’re in software development, so we need to be able to log bugs. That’s really important to us, and Zoho Projects is one of the few tools that combines project management with bug tracking,” said Mensen.

Zoho CRMUsage

ClearDrop also uses Zoho CRM. Mensen likes the fact that he can test the application for free yet still access most of the key CRM functions. As the company expands its use of Zoho CRM, Mensen expects to easily scale from the free to a paid version of Zoho CRM. “I like how Zoho enables small businesses to just use a freebie,” said Mensen, “and if you grow and have the budget, it’s not a big step up to a paid plan.”

Zoho Projects Impact

“Software development projects can really be a pain, especially when you’re working with offshore teams,” said Mensen. “As a manager, you need to feel that you control the situation. You need updates. You need visibility. And Zoho Projects gives you all that. I can go to my dashboard and see the latest updates, so I know what’s going on and what my team is doing. Now, we don’t have to worry about being in control. With Zoho Projects, we’re in control.”

Read more about ClearDrop and Zoho Projects here.

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