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Overview Presentation
smartQ is a workflow visualization and agile project management software. It is an online Kanban board that is customizable to fit different kinds of workflow, such as for project management, product development or service management. An online visual task board allows users to easily create tasks, distribute it, track its progress and help teams focus on getting work that matters moving through to completion. As agile, lean and Kanban methods become popular for its effectiveness, here is a task tracking and team collaboration application for the rest of us.
Features, Benefits, Strengths
Multiple Project Views – smartQ workflow visualization software provides users several views for task management and issue tracking. It has a Board View that offers a clear picture of tasks, their stages, progress and bottlenecks at a glance. Aside from giving a high-level information and overall picture, it also has a very interactive interface that allows users to easily move and re-prioritize tasks, instantly get details, add and reply to notes, filter, customize and display tickets. The List View provides an organized area especially for notes and files across all tickets. The Ticket View displays details, custom fields, threaded discussions, file attachments, email notifications and more.
Customizable Workflow, Form Designer and Performance Reports – This agile project management software enables users the flexibility to customize it according to their workflow, processes, policies and procedures. The Workflow Designer gives users the option to add, re-order or remove stages or columns on the Project Board. Here, the work-in-progress limit can also be defined for tickets per stage. The Ticket Form Designer allows users to customize the ticket field for each project. Users can define column field sizes, required fields, field values, select different field types such as text, number, date or choice and design the form with drag and drop. The software also has reports that can be run to provide cumulative, burndown or bottleneck graphs, filter by dates and people, present in table view and export to CSV and Excel formats. Team Roles are also customizable, where level of access can be defined per role.
External Access, Third-party Integrations, Mobile Apps and more – smartQ allows access to non-registered users so they can submit tickets. This is possible either through email or an external form, both of which are simplified interfaces. The software also integrates with Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, Spiderscribe and Firefly. It has native iPhone and iPad apps. It supports an Open API and uses 256-bit SSL encryption of data.
Pricing
smartQ online workflow visualization software is offered in two simple SaaS premium plans. The Basic plan includes for unlimited Project Boards and 500 MB data storage per user at $5 per user per month. The Pro plan also includes for unlimited Project Boards and 1 GB data storage per user at $8 per user per month. Both plans also include email notifications, reports and secure 256-bit SSL data encryption. A 30-day free trial period is offered where users can decide later what plan to choose.
smartQ agile project management software is ideal for startups and SMBs. It can be applied to most sectors and industries with a need for visual workflow management, project management, product development or help desk.
Clients include Best Western Hotels, Atari, Yellow Pages, and Technicolor SA.
Testimonials
Bradley Smith of ProActive Technology LLC stated that smartQ provides the company visibility into project stages and resources assignments in their practice areas.
Michael Messagie of TravelClick described the software as easy to use with very minimal training required. They loved the Kanban board approach and the ability to easily change a form’s layout through the Ticket Form Designer.
Why smartQ
The human brain processes visual objects better and more efficiently than texts. smartQ is really a smarter way of managing and doing work with its visual task management approach. Users find it very easy and helpful with their work, which they can spend more time getting done rather than figuring out how their business application works. Perhaps in the future, an additional interactive Gantt view and dashboards can provide better overall perspective and insight.
Company Info
smartQ is a product of Disarea, LLC, a computer software company based in Wake Forest, NC, USA. It is the same company that created 5pm project management software. smartQ was launched in 2010 and has increasingly been used by many companies in different industries. It continues to add relevant features over the years that includes a smarter interface, more integrations and an iPhone and iPad app.
Jose Santos is a long-time contributing writer for project-management.com. He is a subject matter expert in the field of project management and has many years of experience writing about project management software and tools. He has written hundreds of articles for the project management industry, including numerous software reviews, book reviews, training site reviews, and more.