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Saas – Feature Bloat V Ease Of Use With Proworkflow

Saturday 1 November 2014, 12:11AM

By Beckie Wright

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Over their time in business ProActive Software has been caught between the conflicting constraints of keep it simple so customers can easily use the product and ever more features that some customers really need.  Feature bloat has long been the nemesis of software development and getting the “Goldilocks” best fit feature set has long been the aim and bane of product management.  So doing what one group of customers want could well disappoint another group of customers – a real dilemma in a company dedicated to customer service.

Resolving this ‘want this feature/don’t want the feature’ conflict has been something the ProWorkflow team have wanted to solve for a while, giving customers choice and not forcing the matter one way or another, while keeping their core application as easy to use as possible.  Their solution is the ProWorkflow App Store – build add-on functionality over ProWorkflow to give customers what they need and only what they need when they need it. Their App Store will develop over time from their own developers and from third parties who use ProWorkflow bring in yet more creativity and pulling more utility from ProWorkflow.
For their larger customers, reporting is important, less so for those with only a few users who can see an example in the app store on reporting and data capture:

Profitability Report
https://www.proworkflow.com/appstore/app/Profitability-Report/


Weekly Workload (drag and drop scheduling and workload on a large screen)
https://www.proworkflow.com/appstore/app/Weekly-Workload/


Recently added was the Image Uploader:
https://www.proworkflow.com/appstore/app/Image-Uploader/


The Image Uploader will help with image capture of receipts, contracts, signed proposals, reference images or onsite pictures, even meeting notes and white board images – very useful to those whose needs just bloat the app for those with different needs.  There are a number of other apps in development, and users are advised to check the App Store regularly to see them.
“There has always been pressure to add more and more features, just as there has been pressure to keep it simple: hard to satisfy both demands in one product.  The App Store fixes the problem and we are pleased to add this functionality”, says CEO Julian Stone.

“Not having to say no to customers, being much more flexible fits the ProActive Software culture much better than working to negotiate to limit feature bloat, the App Store is a great step forward”, says Chairman John Walley.

For further comment contact Julian Stone (+6421 864 639) or John Walley (+6421 809 631)
ProActive Software is based in New Zealand, develops and sells ProWorkflow web based project management software.  For more information please see http://www.proworkflow.com .