Project management tool InLoox gets facelift

Project management tool InLoox that is available as a cloud-based web app and as a plugin for MS Outlook has released its latest upgrade — version 9. The upgrade brings with it a “sleek and modern design” and a new feature, dubbed Workplace, that provides project managers a central place for personal and project task management. Communication, in the upgrade of the on-demand SaaS solution, that uses a ‘Chat’ feature allows faster communication. The ‘Project Notes’ function preserves “ideas and best practices for future reference”.

“The impetus for this upgrade is to offer complete flexibility to our customers, specifically as it pertains to their ability to share project information and documents, monitor programs and communicate on one platform across any device,” said Andreas Tremel, CEO, InLoox.

“Clients need solutions that integrate to diverse workplace environments, affording users the ability to work across time zones with geographically dispersed teams, and on different devices and operating systems without hindrance.”

InLoox was founded in 2011 by Andreas Tremel along with Tiziano Panico. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company claims to have more than 50,000 users worldwide and clients like AVIS, US Airways, Verizon Wireless, HP, Hitachi, Novartis, Pentax, Siemens, besides others. The latest upgrade of the web app, known as InLoox now! also claims to close the gap between modern task management and classic project management user interfaces, featuring both a Kanban-board that allows users to visualize task progress and a Gantt chart to show overall project progression.

New Outlook

InLoox now! for Outlook has also been updated. Emails can now be easily converted into tasks. A new global calendar shows project tasks, milestones and activities as well as personal tasks, and automatic synchronization. The problem of a team working in multiple time-zones too is solved in the update. The time-zone of the task assigner is referred to for assigning and deadlines and automatically converted for other team members in different time-zones. InLoox, which is also available as an API — only with the enterprise edition — also enables users of the Outlook or web application platform to connect with other enterprise software, such as CRM or invoicing software. The new overall ‘Document View’ helps organization of documents, which can be sorted into folders directly in Microsoft Outlook. Personal documents too can be added, which can be managed in tandem with other project or department related documents at one place. The brand name ‘InLoox’, originally is a play on words that worked as abbreviation for ‘Integrated into Outlook‘.