More Open for SMB

I haven’t gotten a lot of feedback from readers on the first few SMB IT blog entries (I figure everyone’s too busy trying to stay in business to spend time writing to me), but the feedback I have received is in favor of more open-source software. That pleases me — I’m a big fan of open source solutions where they make sense.

I’ve been spending more time with OpenOffice, and I have to say that I continue to be impressed. I’ve heard from small businesses that are running on OpenOffice, and I don’t think they’re suffering from their choice of software. My happiness with OpenOffice has led me to take a new look at more open source business applications, starting with OpenProj, an open source project management package. I have spent many hours wrapped around a Gantt chart, so I’m always pleased to take a look at any software that promises to make managing a project a bit easier.

Now, let me start with an obvious statement: OpenProj isn’t Microsoft Project. Project has become the center of a software solar-system, with tons of plug-ins, extensions, and separate applications based on the central project. OpenProj isn’t like that. Even the basic product is not nearly so feature-rich as Project. If your work life involves coordinating armies of workers in intricate gavottes of well-regulated activity, with regular reports to partners and executives, and automated task assignment through Outlook, then you really should plan to write a check to Microsoft. If, on the other hand, you’re a small business manager who needs to manage small business projects, read on.

OpenProj has all the basics you need to manage basic projects with as many assets (both human and material) as you’re likely to need. There are views set up as top views and bottom views, and if you’ve used any major project management product you’ll have no trouble creating and managing projects in OpenProj. Now, here’s a warning: If you haven’t used project management software before, I’m not sure I’d recommend that you dive into OpenProj because the documentation is, well, minimal.

OpenProj, like OpenOffice, can easily pass information back and forth with the Microsoft equivalent. OpenProj can read mpp, .xml and .mpx files from Project, and write .xml files to be read into Project.

The bottom line? If you have a small business and want to manage your projects, OpenProj is worth a look. To give it some context, I’d be very comfortable using OpenProj if I was a sub-contractor on a residential or small commercial construction job. If I was the general contractor, I’d probably want a different product to keep up with all my subs. The good news is that, with the document interchange that’s possible, the general contractor can use Microsoft Project while the subs use OpenProj. That’s a win-win situation, especially since a sub can take what they learn with OpenProj and apply it when they move up the project scale and have to move to other products.

What are you using for project management? Which applications are you using that are based on open source licensing? Let me know, and we’ll work on building suggestions for full suites for the cost-conscious small business.