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Now in its fourth version, AtTask project management software has grown into an enterprise-ready scalable solution that can easily take part in a larger project architecture, yet maintains the ease and personality of a small office solution. Vast changes to this version enable it to integrate with third-party apps, and also to offer precise control and reporting for local project management tasks.

AtTask — or @task, as it's often written — is based in Orem, Utah. It began life five years ago when developers at Gravity Media created project management tools to help that company's own employees. After outside companies, including Novell, saw and liked the tools, one of the Gravity Media higher-ups initiated his plan to buy out the project management intellectual property. He recruited three other members from Gravity, and together they founded their own company. After a year of development, AtTask was ready for the marketplace.

The first versions of AtTask were mainly concerned with the project management experience, and including all the planning and reporting tools that managers required. With version 3.5, it became a fully Web-based system, while shaping up as a turn-key solution that was easy enough for any company to implement. But with the latest version, version 4, AtTask has jumped into all new territory. Using a Java Messaging System, it can now pass and receive messages from third-party apps and join in much more ambitious internal operations.

One of the best things about implementing AtTask is that it has so few restrictions on what it will work with. It's platform independent, working with Windows, Macintosh, and Linux PCs; database independent; and even browser independent. It's also scalable at all levels, and easy to grow as your needs grow.

With AtTask, all levels of an organization get the reporting views that they require. Executives can view a milestone chart to keep track of project status.

With version 4, AtTask got a UI redesign, and several new functions-bulk edits, dynamic list views, and custom user interfaces-are now possible. The tool gained simpler project creation abilities, a project approval system, and a colorful new icon view. Help desk and issue management functions were previously handled by separate modules, but both were brought into AtTask with this release.

None of these functions would matter if AtTask wasn't an excellent project management tool at heart. The reason is that it takes a whole team approach, delivering the kind of information that each level of employee needs to see. For the individual worker, AtTask shows that person's tasks in a clear interface. For the manager, it shows the status of team projects and gives graphic status reports for quick viewing. For executives, it offers milestone tracking and project summary charts. At any time users can drill down into that advanced data to research road blocks or other trouble spots.

AtTask's administrative controls are equally as fine grained. An administrator can set permission at the group or employee level, and can even customize the interface that each user sees when he or she logs in, so that people get exactly the information they need for their jobs.

AtTask is available in both installed and hosted solutions. The installed version carries a one-time fee of $395 per user, plus a 20 percent annual maintenance and upgrade fee. The hosted product costs $250 per user per year. Both varieties have a 10 user minimum.

Executives can also view colorful charts, to get a quick view of their projects.

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