We just released the 1.7 version of Reports module. This update continues on the breakthrough 1.6 version, makes it more stable and even easier to get insightful reports about projects, people and companies from your activeCollab setup.

We have significantly improved the localization support in this version. Translated strings now show at all places and are dynamically loaded from your activeCollab.

Now even send Reminders in Spanish from Reports module. We have full localization support.

Here’s what included in this release.

Feature Additions

• Improved localization support. Now all labels can be translated and work well
• Project name in summary boxes are now clickable and linked to Project Dashboard
• Added links to all “Recent Activities” and “Upcoming Items” in People reports
• Omitted projects under “Project Template Group” in projects list
• Moved Reports Module loading indicator higher for better visibility

Click here to learn more about Reports module and how it can benefit you.

Issues Fixed

• Next Milestone Date is now adjusted according to user’s timezone
• Fixed: HTTP Request Error – if Calendar module is not installed
• Fixed: If admin entered hours for other people, they were still reported under admin
• Made “wmode opaque” for Reports flash file. Will show Project List / Status / Quick Add windows above the Reports module now.
• Fixed: If person was not assigned any project, DB Query Errors were generated.
• Fixed: All items going in “Other” category
• Fixed: Estimates staying flat if there were no tasks on tickets
• Fixed: Date time field mismatch in DB Queries for end dates
• Fixed: Clicking a ticket from Person Card did not work

We recommend all current users to upgrade to the latest version. This upgrade can be done simply by replacing all files in their correct locations over FTP.

Click here to learn more about Reports module and how it can benefit you.

The superb folks at A51 – makers of activeCollab web collaboration and project management software – reviewed our Reports module for activeCollab. An extension to activeCollab that lets you track key performance indicators of projects, people and companies. activeCollab team says:

Reports Module is one of the most successful activeCollab related products developed outside A51.

That’s right. Hundreds of customers use Reports module and they all find it invaluable. Here’s a comment we got a few hours ago:

I use both your Reports and Planning modules. LOVE them both.
- Monica

We eat our own dogfood. We use our products daily and listen to our customers. Frankly, we developed Reports module for our own use. When we couldn’t imagine living without it, we released it as a product.

Sometimes you download software and you just can’t believe how bad it is, or how hard it is to accomplish the very simple tasks that the software tries to accomplish. Chances are, it’s because the developers of the software don’t use it.
- Joel Spolski on Eating your own Dogfood

Thankfully, our software does not fall in this category.

The Story Behind Reports Module

It’s been over a year we launched the Reports module. We were using activeCollab for managing projects and needed a better reporting system. We wanted to track velocity of projects (rate at which they are completing), iteration charts (kind of work done each week) and insights into most active and longest open items. We also wanted to track what items needed attention and were risky / dependent on others.

We started generating these reports using SQL queries on activeCollab database. We created a few MySQL views, ran a set of queries and exported a CSV file at the end.

One day, I resolved to make this look prettier and put together a dashboard with charts and lists populated from these queries. I polished it over the next few days and put it up on our activeCollab setup. The reaction was “WOW!” We kept it going for a while, but Reports module was destined for something bigger.

Software Services vs Products Dilemma

If you are a software services company, you write a lot of code. You build tools that save you time. Most of these tools have great value, but only for you. At times, you dream of generalizing these tools and releasing them for greater good. But often they end up as internal side projects. Sometimes you release them, but can’t give them enough attention since you already have other paid projects waiting.

I’ve been through this experience two dozen times. In last 12 years at Magnet, I’ve initiated about 22 products. Most died. Some were released as open source. Some became popular. Some took life of their own. None gave us revenue we could sustain. Paid consulting projects kept running the company and product ideas remained only a wish.

I was not going to repeat that mistake this time.

If you do it, do it for good

When I decided to release Reports module to public, I was clear it had to be a long-term product, a paid product and something that I will pay enough attention to. No more side projects. I wanted something that will become a business in its own.

Reports Module Sales Trend

Over the last year, Reports module has evolved. Nine releases in a year, many bug fixes, enhancements and a major overhaul, Reports module has come a long way. We have also seen sales grow after our initial launch, slow down, and then pick up once again after the major 1.6 version launch. We have incorporated a lot of user feedback (we feel privileged to have participating customers!)

Today, Reports module gives us insights. It helps us track project progress, how the team is doing and even the overall system usage. There are enormous improvements in the “prettiness” too!

Reports Module in Feb 2009 (click for full view)

Reports Module in Feb 2010 (click for full view)

We have our wish list open though, and there are improvements we are planning for this year.

activeCollab team did a comprehensive review of the module – features, usefulness and its working. At the end, they said:

Reports module can be a very useful and handy tool, especially if you’re working with clients and great number of people. Everything is accessible easily, available at one place, and simple to set up.

Everything is accessible, available and simple! – that sums up our principles for developing software. We use them on all our software and are glad activeCollab team recognized them clearly. (I hope they finds Reports module useful for tracking their projects as well!)

I want to end this post with a summary of I think contributed to our little success with Reports module (and our other products).

Success Factors

• Unexplored, super niche market: Reports module was the first commercial module for activeCollab. First reporting tool of its kind. activeCollab has a small, but participating and forward thinking customer base. This really worked.
• Accessible, available, simple: Our focus is always on keeping only what’s important and making it easily accessible. Things that would take you hours to do, we want you to do them in minutes. We want everything simple and easy to understand. We spend more time thinking about simplifying our products, than in writing code! Everything from our products to demo videos is designed with our users in mind.
• Community participation: We made it simple to give feedback. We’ve had some great feedback from customers and we improve our products with that. Participating on activeCollab forums helped establish credibility as well.
• Long term vision, self-interest and passion: I founded Apps Magnet to be a sustainable long-term business that makes money by making people more productive. I am passionate about programming, productivity and making a difference. Apps Magnet is an expression of my passion. We make products that we want, we build them with passion, and are happy to find enough customers who share this passion.

Thank you for reading! I wish you a passionate and productive day today!

(dancing balls image from Flickr)

Guido Jansen of Realvine blogged about how they use activeCollab for managing their Magento development projects. The post is in Dutch. (English translation here – thanks to Google!)

Guido mentions that since activeCollab is web based, it is much easier to get all parties involved together. Communication is smoother and customers can participate in the development process.

They also use our Planning and Reports modules for activeCollab and said:

Reports we use internally for all projects and looking around to see how many hours the various components in a project cost and whether it matches the data in the planning module.

With this understanding we can better estimate for new projects, see where any bottlenecks, thus increasing our efficiency.

I am glad our products help increase efficiency and better track your projects Guido!

Thanks for sharing your story.

How are you using activeCollab / our products?

Ho ho ho! The latest release of Reports Module – version 1.6 – is now available for instant download. If you are an existing customer, download it using the link in your original purchase confirmation email. If you have not yet purchased it, and want to get insightful reports on your projects, people and companies, click here and buy it today.

So, What’s New?

A whole lot. Almost everything actually! We rewrote the whole system. Here’s a summary of what’s changed.

Reporting engine revamp

Reports now include checklists, tasks, milestones and tickets. Daily snapshots have higher accuracy and are in line with activeCollab’s access privilege system. The core reporting engine is robust and well tested.

Person Reports Card

Detailed People reports added

You can now keep track of your team’s activities. See detailed statistics about work activity, project assignments and compare people using the Activity Score. Assignment chart shows you items assigned to a person across projects while Hours chart shows the actual hours spent across assigned projects. You can filter people by name, role and company as well as see performance in given date range.

Company Reports added – including overview of projects for that company

Another major addition is Company Reports. You can now see project status summary for all projects of a company on one screen. Filter to see only Active Projects or All Projects.

Ability to send a reminder from within Reports module

Reporting without the ability to take action has limited use. You can now send a reminder / followup / appreciation right from Reports module. Appropriate person will automatically appear in the To field, and you can add any other user using intelligent auto complete system. You can do use this quick action system from all reports – Projects, People and Companies.

Printing improved significantly

Printing now works much better, and works for all three reporting screens. We have even included a summary at top.

Company Usage Stats

System usage statistics as part of company reports

There is no way to find out how many total, open and closed tickets you have in activeCollab. No way to find out disk space usage or number of users either. System usage statistics – available under Companies Reports – provide you detailed usage statistics about your activeCollab system. You can narrow down by client companies to see their usage patterns too.

Project status summary added to Project Reports, including forecast

Get a summary of project’s progress at a glance with the Project Status summary panel. You can see % completion, leader, group, next milestone and a pie chart indicating progress. Hovering over gives you additional details. Project’s Velocity (speed of completing items) is highlighted. And we have even added a forecast date for project completion. It studies the last few weeks’ items – opened, closed, reopened, added – and predicts a completion date.

HTTPS support

Reports module now works well over HTTPS too! Thanks to everyone’s patience on this!

Revamped interface

We are proud of user interface redesign in this release! We spent numerous hours getting the details right. We hope you will appreciate it.

Permissions and configuration for Reports from AC Admin section

You no longer need to edit PHP files to change settings. You don’t even need to go to System Roles to give permissions to view Reports. We have added a Reports Configuration option in activeCollab administration screen. You can configure permissions, date format, weights to use in activity scores and other settings from there.

Fine grained access control – rights inherited from activeCollab

Reports module now will only include those projects, companies and users that are visible to the currently logged in user. It will show reports according to access rights of current user. You can now rest assured that users won’t get access to any unauthorized information. Rights are inherited from activeCollab and you can also set permissions for the three types of reports from Reports module configuration screen in activeCollab administration section.

Possibly a hundred other small improvements!

There are many other enhancements! Lots of tweaks to make your reporting easier, faster and more productive for you. We have paid attention to the details so that you can focus on taking decisions based on these reports.

Wow, that’s a lot! Is there a demo?

We don’t have a live demo, but invite you to our short introduction video on Reports Module. It will show you all types of reports available and how you can use them. You can also see some screenshots from documentation page.

Looks good. I want to get insights on my projects too!

Sure. Go ahead, click here to purchase Reports module ($69) and download it instantly. Installation instructions are included in your download.

You can learn more about Reports Module here.

Learn More – View Demo Video – Buy Now ($69)

Thank you Santa!

Thank you Santa for this wonderful Christmas gift!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you from Apps Magnet team!

(Santa Clause photo by Matti Mattila)

Reports module version 1.6 is live!

Price is $69. And it’s worth much more!

If you are an existing customer, you can download the latest version using the same download link as you got in the original purchase email.

More updates and demo video coming soon.

I set up the about to be released version of Reports module for activeCollab on our services company‘s server. During all these months of development, I’ve been testing it with small amount of real + test data. And I was zapped when I tested it with real big data today.

System Usage Statistics

Reports module tells we I have 41 active projects now, and have logged close to 22,000 hours of work on those projects. We have tons of work items completed, 2GB worth of files, and we are going strong.

And when I looked at the overall project summary, it told me we are 91% done, yet will never finish our projects. We have logged close to 4000 hours over the last 3 months and have items that are due for more than 290 days.

Summary - All Projects

And if that was not enough, we are closing work only at a rate of 12 items per week.

Few!

I planned to spend about 10 minutes reviewing the reports since I just wanted to test before wrapping up the build. But I spent well over half an hour – with occasional “wow’s” and “aha’s”, and “damn’s” in between.I think I am loving it.

Here are some other revelations / insights:

• Lot of team members use the system to just log hours (since it’s mandatory to log hours)
• Some tell me they will log hours, but never do! I could actually send them a reminder right from the Reports module.
• We don’t use the estimates feature of Planning module. Most items are not estimated.
• It’s actually good to have “Never” as the forecast date! It means my team has enough work  for a while
• Most of the clients are involved only in posting comments on discussions. May be we can get them more involved on features / bugs.
• We have many old clients in the system who are no longer active. May be it’s time to check how they are doing and if they have more work for us

My final reaction: this is deadly. This version of Reports module is just too dangerous. It’s sizzling hot. It must be handled with care.

Take care!

Viewing reports is typically a passive process. You would see your burndown chart and make mental notes. You would see the hours chart and nod your head. You will see project reports one after another and think about how you can improve your next iterations.

What if you can take some action right on that reports page?

That will make reports even more valuable. Imagine seeing a burndown chart and firing an email to your project lead – either congratulating on the consistent progress or inquiring into the causes of recent decline in project velocity.

We experienced a sudden flash of creativity while we were building people reports for the next release of Reports module for activeCollab.

We are incorporating a simple feedback mechanism on reports – ability to send an email to your team while you are viewing the project / people / companies reports. You can invoke it by a keystroke or clicking a button. You will be able to do that from any screen – project reports, people reports or companies reports.

Do you think it will be useful to you?

(PS: The bad part: This will delay the release by a few days. But we’ll complete it ASAP!)

We are working on the next release of Reports module for activeCollab and want your feedback on two new reports we are adding: People and System Reports.

We are close to completing development on this. You can see a few screenshots of the new version here on activeCollab forums.

People Reports

Allow you to filter users and see their activity stats. Monitor work progress and hour logs easily. Here’s how we are planning this screen to be.

People Reports Mockup - click to enlarge

System Reports

There is no way to find your overall system statistics with activeCollab. Here’s a simple screen that gives you all the “birds eye view” numbers you may need.

System Reports Mockup - click to enlarge

What do we want?

We want your feedback on the reporting fields included, the overall look and feel and the ease of use. All suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance!

Reports module used MySQL views to get categories and comment counts. Many customers had troubles configuring MySQL privileges to create views. We updated the code to let go of views – without compromising on any features!

The latest version of Reports module is available!

Feature Additions:

1. Clicking on an item in Most Active / Longest Open list will open it in a new window.
2. Report module does not require views anymore!
3. Checks available RAM and takes only as many weeks’ snapshot as possible. (In short, number of weeks snapshot to take = memory available in MB / 4)
4. Wrapped Reports SWF output in a <div> tag. Makes it easier to apply CSS on it. Thanks to Leon Poole for the idea.

Fixes:

1. Fixed problem where Reports overlapped Quick Add popup. Thanks to Leon Poole for the fix.
2. Used localized version of “iteration” in charts.

And it’s still at $39! Save yourself time and energy managing projects. Go ahead and buy the Reports module for activeCollab!

We released version 1.3 of our Reports Module for activeCollab today.

This version adds many powerful features and works with latest stable activeCollab version. Here is what has changed.

• Reports module now works with AC 2.1. Also added installation checks.
• You can now see reports grouped by activeCollab project groups.
• Added support for updating reports daily. Default changed to daily updates.
• Reports now also include Pages – active (open) / archived (closed), and hours logged on them. They also show up in most active and longest open lists.
• If project names are too long, the project drop down used to be too wide. Fixed.
• Confirmed that the module works over SSL as well.
• Increased memory limit and execution time limit while installing. This will make it work for setups with many projects / tickets.

We are excited about this release and got great response within minutes of releasing it! Here’s a customer feedback:

Thank you. This is an amazingly powerful and useful tool and on top of making it compatible you added all the extra power features that were suggested! I’m ecstatic.

- WillemN from gfxi

If you are an existing customer, you get upgrades free for one year and would have already received it. If you are interested, you can buy Reports module from activeCollab from here, it’s only $39.

As always, we look forward to your ideas, suggestions and feedback!