My company is looking for a way to share news and project updates across different project teams; so that everyone in the company are more aware of what's going on.

I think the best way to do this is probably through some kind of collaborative web software that can be hosted on our intranet. Preferably this would be easy-to-use and cheap/free. A visual way of seeing project timelines/news on a chart/graph would be great too.

Does anyone have any experience with this, or ideas?

 

I looked into this for my company a few years back, but we never implemented it. Microsoft Project-Sharepoint and Primavera P6 seems to do the job.

 

+1 on sharepoint

 

sharepoint

 

Are those options easy to use? I don't think my company wants to have a huge implementation task on their hands, not have to have a dedicated admin

 

Well then it probably wont happen. Sharepoint is your answer, but there is going to be implementation tasks and someone will have to administer it. Maybe not dedicated, but there will be time and cost involved setting it up.

 

From my readings, that's exactly the issue with Sharepoint. From the end user's perspective it can be the greatest thing since sliced bread. From the IT perspective it can become a slippery slope real quick. Again, that's just the impression I get from the various IT resources I frequent.

 

Still from my recollection a few years back, but I was under the impression that Sharepoint was very scaleable, depending on what features you want. There is even a version that is hosted and managed by Microsoft that costs very little per month.

 

We installed Community Server Express. That will get you 15 blogs and 15 forums to communicate through. All with RSS. All free for internal use.

 

BTW, basic template-driven Sharepoint services come bundled free with Windows Server 2003.

 

I'm going insane from all this research. Turns out that there is "knowledge management" software options as well. Or maybe "project management software" is another option...

I think what my company is looking for is a simple interface for a number of people to enter in their current projects, the timeline for it, any news/updates related to it, and maybe see some kind of roadmap for everything.

 

what about an online solution, one of the products from http://www.37signals.com ?

 

That doesn't sound very collaborative.

 

Yeah, maybe it's more like "knowledge/news sharing"

 

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ep...656441033.aspx

 

I think this is what you need then.

 

Like a blog?

 

check the link I posted. it's made for what you're looking for dude.

 

Outlook public folders are cheap.

 

The overkill is making my hair fall out.

OP's requirements included easy-to-use and cheap/free. The selected product probably won't have "enterprise" in its name.

I wish I had the time to try that out with my MSDN subscription, though. It'd be a nice resume bullet point.

 

Astro's 37signals and NSXNEXT's Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management look to be good options I will present to my boss.
37signals' basecamp product looks very simple and easy to use; and the MS solution looks very involved and feature rich. Thanks

 

Just make sure to tell them about astro's 20% consultation fee

 

Well, I certainly misjudged what you were looking for. If that's your level of need and you'll get the value out of it, go for it! It sounds like a fun project to set up. Probably not so much to train users, though.

 

Sharepoint looks serious I like

 

wow since looking into basecamp, I've found lots of other competing products as well.
5pm and Wrike look very tempting with their timeline views and features. I don't think I saw a timeline/roadmap feature on basecamp.

Thanks again everyone for their input!

 

I'm fairly certain you're the first Exchange admin I've ever seen encourage the use of public folders. It seems like most everyone is wishing for people to get the hell out of public folders.

 

Meh, disk space is cheap now a days...