Finding your Vibe in the storm of production
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
My organization comprises of a small group of individuals that interact with 3-4 clients each on a daily basis. Maybe not a lot, but when in media production and website design and development, keeping it all together takes its toll. I was looking for a solution where we could have a centralized location for the data materials collected from our clients (e.g. content to be used for websites, scripts, graphics for videos); post project ideas, meeting notes; keep track of production schedules from start to post completion (social sharing, delivery of content, etc.), in a centralized area to post new tips and production shortcuts. These things were needed and more as time progressed... all the while being maintained in a clean and appealing interface. (We're creative people!) Micro Focus Vibe really came through for us. It delivered what we needed. My team was quite comfortable with the setup, and also using it to set up temporary client accounts to share data, thoughts and messages. It's hard to get the creative to slowdown and record their thoughts and processes, but Vibe made it easy enough for my teammates to jot down what they're doing, what needs to happen with their projects, and I get updated all the while.
Pros
- RSS Feeds: As a project manager (at the time and still am in a sense) being updated as information is posted helped me to stay on top of progress as it happened. The feeds also allows me to foresee problems before they happened, coming in like Super Woman to save the day...kidding (or am I?).
- Customizable workspaces: While we've got our video project workflows down to a science, our website projects are a different monster. Because we offer customized websites, each client's needs are different from the next. Vibe's Workspaces reflects this - not only for our projects, but for the users as well. Everyone has a different way of organizing their thoughts and with Vibe no one has to fall in line with cookie cutter layouts...or at least they can start out with one and develop it into their own.
- My god MOBILE DEVICE Support: I know many many many project collaboration tools have migrated to the mobile device platform - but I found that a lot of times, features are limited. I'm always on a go and can't always access my Surface for a brief look at what's going on. But when you fall in love with a platform, it makes it all the better that it is usable outside the confines of my desktop box.
Cons
- Export calendars or sync calendars with programs like Outlook.
- Easier way to print or create reports on projects (completions status, tasks left to be done, etc.) for paper trail lovers. The workflow process is nice, but it takes time to configure. Most of my teammates weren't quite in love with that aspect.
- Instant messaging for those of us who don't like the phone and want to keep project related work conversations in the same window.
- I really wish there was better is a way to display videos. In video production, we're always trying to find ways to share our progress and being able to do so in the same platform without one having to download it would have pushed Vibe to a 10 star rating.
Likelihood to Recommend
I think Micro Focus Vibe is very well suited for organizations that work in a team collaboration front and have to share documents. I think this really shines in organizations that have a standard set of information that gets lost in the sauce because of the sheer amount of people in an organization. In this case, the Wiki is very helpful in this setting. I wouldn't quite recommend this site for video production houses unless you are patient enough to correlate your needs to the many many features available through Vibe...because it all boils down to patience.
