Thanks for your interest towards our product. We launched the production version last year and are targeting small to medium sized companies and individual departments on the large enterprise. While there are similarities to Basecamp, which I think is a great product and good for basic project management, the main difference is that Lumo Flow is based on social networking concepts and contains more functionalities for team communication and sharing of knowledge. The core functionalities are discussions forums, project management and Wiki documentation, all integrated so that for example you can create a related task for a discussion and then once the task is finished, record it into Wiki as a related Wiki page. This way the whole workflow is recorded and the link is stored between different actions.
There's a free version for up to three persons so everyone is welcome to try it out at http://www.lumoflow.com
Sami, I did go to Lumo and would like to know more details. We've several users here familiar with Basecamp and Ning. Could you tell the differences?
I copy pasted information from the Lumo homepage below:
Virtual collaborative teams face unique challenges because their communication is not face-to-face. They are composed of members who rarely, if ever, meet physically but still need to work together around a specific task. Often these teams have members who not only work from different locations, but also live in different time zones, creating real challenges for communication.
One of the benefits of virtual teams is that you can bring in new members from anywhere in the organization as required by the project. While it is beneficial for the company to be able to connect the talent from several locations to work on a task, there are operational issues that need to be addressed. You need to ensure that everyone has real-time access to the same information about (often changing) requirements, deadline, customer issues, and the like. It is very easy to have team members to be unaware of common goals, or accidentally work on different version of documents.
Maintaining quality and productivity across all participants despite the physical distance is a primary challenge. Since most of the time your communication lacks all the nonverbal clues, it is easy to misinterpret the message. However, virtual teams can be successful if they are managed correctly. A key enabler is a collaboration environment that is designed to address the unique challenges faced by virtual teams. Since virtual teams are using technology as a primary means to communicate, choosing the right tools is crucial.
Lumo Flow as a virtual workspace for distributed teams
Our mission is to provide a collaboration environment that is ready to support telecommuting and flexible work arrangements while keeping the work productive. While there's no substitute for face-to-face communication, we believe that applying right technology in a people-oriented way can help in many ways. Managing the process is crucial for any project work, but in the end, it is conversation among team members that is the most critical thing the manager of a virtual team needs to support. As a consequence, we have designed Lumo Flow to be primarily a conversational platform; every bit of information is open for commenting by all the participants. Virtual teams often work on different time, which requires ongoing and bounderless collaboration. Ideally, work should never get stuck due to distance or differences in time zone.
Comments
Thanks for your interest towards our product. We launched the production version last year and are targeting small to medium sized companies and individual departments on the large enterprise. While there are similarities to Basecamp, which I think is a great product and good for basic project management, the main difference is that Lumo Flow is based on social networking concepts and contains more functionalities for team communication and sharing of knowledge. The core functionalities are discussions forums, project management and Wiki documentation, all integrated so that for example you can create a related task for a discussion and then once the task is finished, record it into Wiki as a related Wiki page. This way the whole workflow is recorded and the link is stored between different actions.
There's a free version for up to three persons so everyone is welcome to try it out at http://www.lumoflow.com
I copy pasted information from the Lumo homepage below:
Virtual collaborative teams face unique challenges because their communication is not face-to-face. They are composed of members who rarely, if ever, meet physically but still need to work together around a specific task. Often these teams have members who not only work from different locations, but also live in different time zones, creating real challenges for communication.
One of the benefits of virtual teams is that you can bring in new members from anywhere in the organization as required by the project. While it is beneficial for the company to be able to connect the talent from several locations to work on a task, there are operational issues that need to be addressed. You need to ensure that everyone has real-time access to the same information about (often changing) requirements, deadline, customer issues, and the like. It is very easy to have team members to be unaware of common goals, or accidentally work on different version of documents.
Maintaining quality and productivity across all participants despite the physical distance is a primary challenge. Since most of the time your communication lacks all the nonverbal clues, it is easy to misinterpret the message. However, virtual teams can be successful if they are managed correctly. A key enabler is a collaboration environment that is designed to address the unique challenges faced by virtual teams. Since virtual teams are using technology as a primary means to communicate, choosing the right tools is crucial.
Lumo Flow as a virtual workspace for distributed teams
Our mission is to provide a collaboration environment that is ready to support telecommuting and flexible work arrangements while keeping the work productive. While there's no substitute for face-to-face communication, we believe that applying right technology in a people-oriented way can help in many ways. Managing the process is crucial for any project work, but in the end, it is conversation among team members that is the most critical thing the manager of a virtual team needs to support. As a consequence, we have designed Lumo Flow to be primarily a conversational platform; every bit of information is open for commenting by all the participants. Virtual teams often work on different time, which requires ongoing and bounderless collaboration. Ideally, work should never get stuck due to distance or differences in time zone.
Br
Helge