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ActionThis Outlook 2003 client now available

Posted on 17 December 2007 by Ed Robinson

We have some great news for those of you who use Microsoft Outlook 2003: the ActionThis Outlook 2003 client is now available.

The ActionThis Outlook 2007 client has been out for several weeks and has been keenly adopted by those who have the latest version of Microsoft’s email and productivity tool; the client lets you create and manage action items from within Outlook. We’ve realized all along, though, that not everyone uses Outlook 2007 and that the reality is that the majority of people are still using Outlook 2003.

We listened to the requests, and the result is now available. The great news for Outlook 2003 users is that you can do everything with the client that you can with the ActionThis Outlook 2007 client.

To download the client and try it for yourself, sign into ActionThis, click on the Setup menu and select Downloads – the rest should be easy.  Here is the direct link:

If you’re not currently an ActionThis user, sign up for a free trial here: http://www.actionthis.com/Product/Trial.aspx and try it for yourself.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, contact support@actionthis.com or ask a question in the ActionThis online forums: http://www.actionthis.com/Forums/

Ed Robinson, CEO

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New Features

Posted on 17 December 2007 by Ed Robinson

We released new ActionThis features last weekend.  Here is a summary of what’s new:

  • Outlook 2003 client. You can use ActionThis on the website, and for an enhanced experience you can download clients for Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007.
  • Improved IntelliSense on the website. When assigning someone an action item, ActionThis will help you pick from people you’ve recently assigned action items to.
  • More help. We’ve added “How to” pages in the help section on the website.
  • Simplifications to payment section. We’ve revamped the “My Organization” section of the website making the billing section easier to use.
  • Better emails. We’ve improved the layout of emails ActionThis sends, including a better experience when you assign a new person an action item.
  • Changed the “How am I doing” graph, implementing a new way to calculate scores
  • Raised security. We’ve increased security when logging in, and added the ability to reset your password without emailing the password.
  • New Outlook feature “Track with ActionThis”. We’ve added a new feature for the Outlook clients enabling you to quickly create an action item to follow up an email.

We’ve also almost finished a client for Excel 2003 and Excel 2007 enabling you to download action items into a spreadsheet. This is coming soon.

Ed Robinson, CEO

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Should underperformance be acceptable?

Posted on 13 December 2007 by Tim Howell

Recent research released from Tata Consulting Services indicates that one in three companies' IT projects fail to perform against expectations.

No surprise there for anyone who has been involved in IT projects.

What is surprising is this: 43% of organizations say that their business managers and the Board accept problems as the norm. Put a different way, that means that almost half of the organizations involved in the survey expect such projects to run this way and will, therefore, accept underperformance. Is this really acceptable?
Two of the key common problems cited for such failures are overruns on time (cited by 62% of respondents) and budget (49%). Both these factors are usually intrinsically linked – time is money, as they say.

At the end of the day, such figures can be put down to one thing: failure to execute. Execution requires people to get the right tasks done, in the right order, on time.
Admittedly, IT projects can be particularly complex, typically involving multiple internal and external resources. As one commentator noted:

Given the number of technology implementation disasters, Tata’s results aren’t all that surprising. Big enterprise projects are difficult and require a lot of things–business processes, people, customization, training and financial support–to line up. More often than not these moving parts don’t line up.

Software is one solution to this problem, but traditional project management tools are typically too complex to use and update, and the information project plans contain is out of date as soon as it's published. Also, given the myriad tasks in a typical project, are project plans really the best way to manage hundreds of small tasks?

ActionThis has been designed to align these “moving parts” and make sure that action items get done. We don’t claim to replace the communication and project management tools you’re using right now – we complement these tools to help drive successful outcomes.

In early 2008, we’ll be taking this one step further, providing synchronization with Microsoft Project so that plans can be defined in Project, and a core set of milestones can be defined, with ActionThis managing and driving all of the associated discrete tasks through to completion, updating the plan with real world data along the way.

Using ActionThis, with or without Project integration, will inevitably drive people to finish what they start, helping to ensure that underperformance, and missing goals and deadlines, are a thing of the past.

Tim Howell, CMO

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The death of email is exaggerated

Posted on 04 December 2007 by Tim Howell

Recently there’s been a lot of online discussion about the death of email, and how services such as Facebook provide an alternative way for people to communicate with others.

While there’s no doubt Facebook and the other social networking services have a role as enablers of communication, right now it’s premature to call these services replacements for email. This could change sometime in the future, as more people use these services, but for small businesses and those of us who aren’t early adopters, email is the norm. There are a number of reasons why:

  • Everyone has email. Email usage is universal, while email is now considered as essential to business as the telephone and the fax machine. “Email me” is something that can be said by many millions of people – the same can’t be said for most other forms of electronic communication.

  • There are standards . Regardless of whether you use a Microsoft product, a Google service or a product or service from someone else, you use email to communicate. While there is something proprietary about almost any service, the fundamental premise of email is that you can use any “version” to communicate with anyone else. This is proven and works well.

  • Not everyone wants to join social networking services. Yes, usage of social networking services is increasing, but not everyone wants to join the latest service, nor do they want to be updated on what’s happening to their “friends” every minute of every day. Already, there are dozens of services out there, and who knows whether a service you join today will be there in months or years to come? The answer’s simple: If you want to communicate with others, and minimize the effort involved, use email.

Here at ActionThis we’re firm believers in the role that email plays, and believe it will continue to be a significant part of how we all do business for many years to come – that’s why we utilize email for key parts of our service.  We don’t doubt there are opportunities to leverage the capabilities of social networking services, but we see these as future opportunities, not of great interest to our customers right now – if you disagree, let us know!

Tim Howell, CMO

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Updates To ActionThis including Safari support

Posted on 03 December 2007 by Ed Robinson

Thanks to everyone who asked for Safari support. We listened, we worked hard, and last weekend we rolled out an update to ActionThis, adding wider browser support. In addition to IE7, Firefox 2.0 and IE6, we now support:

  • Safari 2
  • Safari 3
  • Firefox 3 beta
  • and we improved layout in IE6

We also fixed some annoying problems that prevented comments in the forums and blogs. You will need to sign out and sign in again to see the changes.

Finally, we extended everyone's trials - so we can get the Outlook 2003 client released and put some final changes in place, letting everyone have a chance to try them.

Thanks for your support, and let us know any feature requests or future capabilities you would like to see in ActionThis.

Ed Robinson, CEO

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ActionThis updates

Posted on 21 November 2007 by Derek Watson

The ActionThis team has been working hard to regularly bring new features to our users since launch and we have another set ready to be released now.


To make these features available we are going to be releasing an update outside our advertised change window tonight (approx. Tuesday 8pm PST). We will keep the outage as short as possible, but apologies in advance to anyone who is affected by unavailability of the site during this time.


Following the next scheduled release on the 25th of November, we are moving to a 2 week release cycle with a firm committment to not releasing outside the advertised change window again. Making this change will not affect the number of new features we incorporate in the product, but it will reduce the rate of churn.


Derek Watson, CTO

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Outlook Integration Video

Posted on 20 November 2007 by Ed Robinson

ActionThis is a great team management system using the website alone. If you use Outlook, the ActionThis client makes assigning action items as simple as email.  For a one minute overview of the Outlook client, see this video:

https://my.actionthis.com/private/Downloads/atOutlookVideo.wmv

Ed Robinson

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Updates coming in two days

Posted on 19 November 2007 by Ed Robinson

No site update today, we need two more days to finish some features:

1. Forums + the ability to comment on blogs
2. A better downloads area
3. Improvements to filtering, formatting and mailing of the workload and status reports
4. Smarter connect pane and minor improvements to the Outlook 2007 client
5. Better merging of email aliases and organization management
6. Fixes to some issues around adding comments to action items

This release will go live Tuesday night PST.

So - I assigned 5 action items out for ActionThis to follow up on, how did they do?  4 came in on time, and the forums still need to be done. 80% on time leaves some room for improvement, but that's what we're all about - executing and improving.

What we're working on next: Outlook 2003 client, Safari browser support and some other productivity extensions for Microsoft Office.

Ed Robinson

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Updates to ActionThis

Posted on 14 November 2007 by Ed Robinson

We rolled out updates to ActionThis last night:

  • A number of bug fixes to the website
  • Stabilized the Outlook 2007 client, and fixed the Outlook restart issues
  • Added the ability for people to delete their accounts
  • Revamped the organization management section, so you can upgrade/downgrade your account
  • Added a user guide for the Outlook 2007 client
  • Provided a smaller "update" download at 3Mb. If you've already installed the full version of the Outlook 2007 client once, then the prerequisites will be in place.  Simply install this update (without uninstalling the full version) to install the update.

If you have Outlook 2007, try using the ActionThis client - it makes assigning and working with ActionThis action items as simple as email.

Ed Robinson

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Updates coming this weekend

Posted on 09 November 2007 by Ed Robinson

We’re preparing for another upgrade Sunday night Nov 11th PST. The major changes are simplifications to organization management and bug fixes.

We also isolated cases where the Outlook client caused Outlook 2007 to restart. We’ve fixed these issues. We’ve also improved the Outlook client's experience synchronizing and working with non-Exchange mailboxes. There are now two versions of the client to download – full install and update. the full install contains all the prerequisites and is intended for first time installers. The update is smaller and doesn’t contain the prerequisites, after installing the full version once, you can simply install the update to get the latest features. We’re also adding a user guide for the Outlook client to help new users get started.

Whew! Lots of work but the application is looking great.
Next up, we’re improving some of the reporting, the email formatting, bringing the forums online and we’re working day-and-night on the Outlook 2003 client, it should be ready soon.  If you'd like to try out an early version of the Outlook 2003 client, please let us know by sending an action item to support@actionthis.com

Ed Robinson

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Presenting at the Connect springboard Showcase event

Posted on 05 November 2007 by Tim Howell

Last week we presented at the Connect Springboard Showcase, an event for early stage companies run by Connect New Zealand and the New Zealand Venture Capital Association.

According to the organizers, the event featured “early-stage technology and life science companies - a showcase of what we believe are some of the most promising, innovative early-stage companies that have the potential to become significant players in New Zealand's technology sector.”

It was a great opportunity for us to get out there and talk to other companies across a broad range of industries, and also gave us the opportunity to explain the benefits of ActionThis to the group of 120+ people at the event.

Tim Howell, CMO

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Make your Week Easier

Posted on 05 November 2007 by Ed Robinson

Try this, it takes 10 minutes and will make your week easier

Many of us spend half our work-week simply following up with people. This week, try using ActionThis to help. Choose 5 things you’re waiting on from other people – these might be emails you’re waiting for a reply, or assignments due this week.

Now assign each of these to the people you’re waiting on as ActionThis action items. Let ActionThis keep track of these for you. It doesn’t matter if the recipient isn’t already a member of ActionThis, they will be prompted to sign up.

When I send an action item to someone for the first time, I usually choose an action item that people are already aware of, so it acts as a reminder to something they’ve already agreed. I usually keep my action items short – a subject line and a due date, but the choice is yours – the more unambiguous information you give people – the more likely they will complete it on time.

Here are the five I sent out today, I’ll let you know the results next week.

  • Remember to set up a time to speak on the phone, I’m available Monday 12pm,1pm or 2pm to Tim W, due Monday
  • Schedule two days vacation for each of the team as a thank you for shipping, to Derek W, due Tuesday
  • Update Schwizzler Text. To Aaron S due Monday
  • Provide sketches for the IdeaLog article. To Mark D, due Monday
  • Get the Forums up and running. To DerekW, due Wednesday

With ActionThis, I can track the status of these items from the “My Follow up” tab in the dashboard, or set up a custom report view to email me the status every day.

Ed Robinson, CEO ActionThis

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Building awareness of ActionThis

Posted on 29 October 2007 by Tim Howell

In the run up to launch, we deliberately kept a low profile. As we’ve gotten closer to launch, we’ve contacted an increasing number of people – media, bloggers, analysts – and told them about ActionThis and what we’re doing.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive, and as the articles and posts have appeared, so has the visibility of ActionThis.

Now, as we launch, coverage of ActionThis is starting to build:

Success – and the coverage that will bring – will be dependent on one thing: our ability to execute. We’ve taken an innovative approach to solving a universal problem, and will be listening to – and learning from – the feedback we get from all channels. Feel free to send us your comments and suggestions.

Tim Howell, CMO

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Welcome to ActionThis

Posted on 29 October 2007 by Ed Robinson

Welcome to ActionThis, we’re an online project and team management solution with a difference. We focus on “execution” – getting things done. Planning and collaboration are valuable, but it’s the finishing that counts.

Sign up now, your first 30 days are free – you can use the website, invite your team and use the great extensions for Microsoft Outlook 2007. After your free trial, you can continue to use the web application personally at no charge, but I’m sure you’ll find our team connectivity features, client tools and the upcoming Microsoft Outlook 2003 extensions, mobile client and Microsoft project extensions add so much to your team’s productivity, you’ll want to take advantage of our premium membership at a low monthly charge.

ActionThis enables teams to better connect with each other, and I want to thank our partners who have connected with us and helped launch ActionThis:

Special thanks goes out to our hundreds of testers who have used ActionThis for more than six months, helping us fine tune and enhance the product.

Ed Robinson, CEO

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