Communication and collaboration enter Workamajig in a couple of forms. We begin by looking at the Diary. The diary began as a notes section for the Project. It continues to do so, but now we have embellished the Activity feature so that it is grouped within a Project. This can manage Project communications, such as the client wanting to update their color scheme to Blue. When the Traffic Manager, for example, adds this note, they can then locate and click on any of the Envelope icons to add relevant parties (as indicated by the related section where the icon resides) to an email list, which will send an email with all of the information entered to those parties. This is sent when you click Save. The relevant parties are updated by the Project (all people assigned to the project); Contact; Task (all people assigned to a task), etc. You can use these same activities to function as work order on a smaller scale without adding a specific Task. The data that you attach or enter, and then code to a specific Task, will then be accessible through the My Tasks widget.
What about the AE making communication to the Client? You can go to the Project Diary and create a new Activity and enter the message. It functions and appears much like an email. You only have space to enter one Project — what if you discussed more than one Project? Technically, you could copy/paste to multiple entries. However, if you click on the Links tab, you can add links to those Projects to accomplish this same goal.
Specifications can be used to store communication and details about the project. Some are pre-loaded into your system. They can be entered at the Opportunity level, The Project Request level, or at the Project level. You can always add additional Specs. You can custom create the fields for any custom Spec Sheet. Actual project specs can also be copied to other Projects.
The next area we can add communication in the Project is Files. Users are always looking for best practices for managing the Files in the Project. Workamajig recommends a period debriefing, closing, archival part of a project. During the process you can purge the files from your projects, and maybe keep a thumbnail. The intent of Files is to have a forum to drop and share files for Employee, Clients and/or Vendors. You can save drafts and revisions of files here. You can assign rights to the Files and create subfolders for them. For example you could have a folder for Draft Copy and one for Final Copy. Security for Draft Copy could be set to all Security Groups because the access restrictions typically are not as important or critical (except access for the Client). The Final Art could be set to high level security, such as the AE. These rights and file structures can be set up in your Project Templates. So folder structuring is the first element that we learn in managing files in Workamajig. You click on the relevant folder in order to then add a file to your system. The file will be saved in that folder, and you can use the browse button to look up the file. There is an option to use version control called Store Prior Versions — Workamajig will track your versions so that you can check out the file make changes and no one can effect the file until you upload a new version. You can notify people that you are doing this. Once it is saved it is viewable. You can view who has accessed the file; prior versions and upload a new version as long as the file is checked back in. You can also move files around from one folder to another, such as a drop-box where all files are dropped, and then someone with proper rights can then redirect those files to the appropriate folder. You can also search files across all projects. The search tool can utilize “.pdf” for example to search for all .pdf’s in your system. You can set up file attributes such as “Quicktime”, etc. to aid in searching. Once the file is complete, it could be set up as a Digital Art Review. You can open the file and click the command line for the Digital Art Review and it will automatically create a new review. Here you are able to set who will be notified of this review. There is an option for users to see comments by each reviewer. Next you can set the order of the review. It can go in a selected order of people or it can go to an entire selected group at once. As you add employees to the review process, you use a lookup tool that will by default pull up all individuals assigned to the project. Click on each person that needs to be included on the review. Before you add an item for review, you have to select a file type. The File Type for Downloadable File will allow you to upload a new item, or use an existing digital asset from the Project. Once the file is selected (your originating file was already added) you can submit for approval. Now the My Approvals widget will have a Review item added to it according to your approval process. Once you pull up a review for approval/rejection, you are able to set an approval status (customizable). The first three options will keep the Review open and active (Approved, Approved with comments, See Comments and Resubmit). If Rejected is selected, the Review will stop and the routing process will not continue. This doesn’t matter if you send to all people at once. The user can type in comments and select an Approval. The user can also add their own attachment. If you route the approval then the next user would see both files and your comments. What is the difference between the option to ‘Save Comments’ versus ‘Complete Review’? Save Comments allows you to save your comments and progress of the review in cases where you have typed data and have multiple items to review (you have run out of time). So you don’t lose your progress. Complete Review progress the Review Process. You can go directly to Digital Art Review to create a new review process. A user can open the existing review to view the status to see if it is complete.
Note that many of these communication tools are viewable on Workamajig’s Mobile Site.