WorkPool Standard Edition: R4777 Professional Edition: R8777 In a nutshell, WorkPool is a business-management tool which enables you to manage and track your client relations, individual employee's work progress, your schedule, and company projects - to name but a few. What originally caught my attention was the fact that WorkPool is fully Internet and/or intranet based, depending on your current network setup. What this boils down to is that if you have offices in different towns, or even countries, you can manage your workflow and communications by simply logging on to WorkPool over the Internet. Using WorkPool, there would be no need to install applications on workstations, which also means that troubleshooting the application only has to be done in one place. WorkPool is a full-on Java application, backed up by a MySQL database, which is a default inclusion. This means that Java runs in a web-browser environment, like a web page. Se7enth Sense Technologies already has versions of WorkPool running on Mac and Linux platforms, which proves that WorkPool is a no-hassles Java-based application. The best way for me to explain the benefits of WorkPool is to give a practical example of it in action: VirtuaMedia is a hypothetical software-design company. Apart from developing software it also provides technical support to its customers. When a software package is developed, more than one person is normally involved. Say, for example, Peter designs the interface and Paul writes the program. Paul makes use of WorkPool to track changes and updates he writes into his code. When he has finished his updates or patches, he forwards the job documentation, using WorkPool, to Peter so that he, in turn, can design the relevant new interface features. If Peter comes across a section of design he cannot complete because Paul has left out some code, he can send the job back to Paul, with an explanation of what is missing. Paul has to accept the job and do the necessary changes before Peter can continue the design process. On the technical-support side of things, if a customer uses his software and requires some help with it, a customised customer number is created. Whenever this client phones, the problem he experiences and the solution he receives is logged into WorkPool. This is great for tracking conversations between the company and the customer. If Michael, the manager of the company, wants to see what is happening to a particular customer problem or software development, he can simply call up the relevant information in WorkPool and get all the information he requires. This is obviously a very simple example of what can be achieved by using WorkPool. Industries that typically could benefit from WorkPool would include: financial advisors, transport companies, attorneys, estate agents, accountants or auditors, advertising agencies, publishing or printing, IT development or project management companies. If you need to streamline your company's workflow, WorkPool is a tool you should definitely not be without. Se7enth Sense Technologies: (021) 592-5083 http://www.workpool.co.za/ Reproduced with the permission of SA Computer Magazine - www.sacm.co.za Click here for the original article on the SA Computer Magazine website.