"Project KickStart is a pleasant surprise!  I loaded it, tried it, and within 24 hours was using it in meetings to assist clients in their preliminary project planning.  It's a truly collaborative tool for that bumpy period of initial project planning... Nice work!"

"Project KickStart is to project management what Quicken is to accounting software; it takes the best that project management software has to offer and makes it easy to use. If you need more, Project KickStart can be used in conjunction with a full-fledged project manager."

-Executive Computing

• Work with any size project -- up to 1000 tasks and 100 resources. 
• Drag and drop hints from Libraries of Goals, Phases and Obstacles. 
• Multi-line cut and paste. 10 levels of subtasking 
• Gantt chart for "big picture" scheduling. Includes a Done column and Bump Date tool. 
• Reports Generator for unlimited reports 
• Save As HTML -- post project plans on your Intranet. 
• Hot link to Outlook, Word and Excel -- include project plans in proposals and business plans. 
• Hot link to Microsoft Project, SureTrak, P3, FastTrack Schedule, Project Scheduler, Milestones, WBS Chart, PowerPoint, MindManager, ACT! -- great for novice users. 
• FREE technical support 

"Project KickStart is amazing. You sit down with it and in about 30 minutes, you can put together a very impressive project plan and schedule. Nobody believes it's that easy until they use it for the first time. After that, they're converts."

-- David Little, Program Manager, Hewlett-Packard Outsourcing Services Group
 

But that's just the "tip of the iceberg"!

Look at the different projects that have Project KickStart templates to get you up and running quickly...
 

Click & hold on box below.  Project KickStart Templates Client Server Company newsletter Create a winning presentation Expo Golf tournament Home construction Quality certification R & D resource chair Training seminar Web site

And some of the industries and functions that use Project KickStart...
 
 

Click & hold on box below.  Project KickStart Industries & Organizations Accounting Architecture Banking Church Clubs Communications Community health Construction Consulting Education Engineering Event planning Film, movie, PR Fire Protection and Suppression Healthcare Installations IT Legal Malaria Control  Manufacturing Medical Not for profit Pharmaceutical Power / energy Professional practices Real Estate Regulatory / Government Services Software development Training Video production Website development  Wire and cable Writing

 

Click & hold on box below.  Project KickStart Functions Accounting projects Architectural projects Business Process Re-Engineering Capital projects Club activities and events Committee planning sessions Communications Construction Scheduling Controlling Coordinate amongst multi-providers Curriculum development  Data center buildout Engineering Estate planning Event planning Finance management  Fundraising General Management. Grants HR staffing Infrastructure management projects Investing IT mgt., planning, control, projects Large mainframe software installs Learning Managment projects Marketing planning Medical practice opening Meeting planning Network Admin Projects New business ideas, launch New sales development Office relocation projects Organizational goals Organizing Organizing documentary film projects Personal projects and jobs Personnel planning Planning Power Plant Projects Presentations Product development Project tracking Research Research in education Sales Planning Sarbanes-Oxley planning Scheduling School project Seminars Software development Staff development Staff training System Implementations Training Web hosted applications

"I often have a dozen consulting projects in various stages from proposal to completion. Plus 8 of my own sites to manage. Project KickStart is one of my essential tools - and clients love tracking our progress!"

- David Jones, Site Build It! Certified Webmaster
 
 

System Requirements

• Windows Me / NT / 2000 / XP / Vista
• 128 MB RAM, 30MB free disk space
• Project KickStart may be installed on a network

Need More Information?

Getting Started Tutorials

                           Project KickStart Overview (5:30)

Introduction to Project KickStart

Navigating Project KickStart

Six Steps to Create a Project Task List

Phases, Goals, Obstacles, and People (9:30)


Developing Project Phases and Tasks

Creating Project Goals and Tasks

Building Tasks from Previously Planned Projects

Identifying Project Team Members and Tasks

Project Contact Lists

Managing Risks (Obstacles) and Contingency Planning

Assign People and Organize Tasks (7:20)


How to Assign People and Other Resources to Tasks

How to Organizing a Project Task List

Developing Project Subtasks

Editing the Project Task List

Managing the Gantt Chart (9:07)

Editing Start/Finish Dates and Durations

Working with Weekends and Holidays

Adjusting Tasks According to Resource Availability

Tracking Project Tasks

Tracking Project Costs

Project Milestones

Project KickStart, Project Communications (10:24)


Team Building with Project KickStart

Using Project Task Notes

Linking Tasks and Documents

How to Use Project Reports

Reporting Time, Resources and Costs

Gantt Chart Reports

Exporting PKS Data to Other Programs

 Project KickStart Pro Key Features

Project KickStart Pro 4 provides powerful task dependency tracking. In a nutshell, the Pro 4 version automatically updates your entire project timeline to account for any date or timing changes in related tasks.

You'll come to rely and know the power of a task dependency Gantt chart the very first time your project changes - and your plan adjusts before your eyes. Well designed, and well worth your money.

Advanced Gantt Chart Dependencies | Enhanced Gantt Chart Functionality | Flexible Project Options | Import/Exports | Project Reporting | Flexible User Control | Microsoft Vista Compatibility

Dependencies in your Gantt Charts

1. Project KickStart Pro now includes dependencies on the Gantt chart to make complex project scheduling easy and straightforward.

2. Use dependencies to handle scheduling demands, delays, and surprises without modifying every task in your project. Dependencies let you make adjustments as events change, giving you a more robust schedule and the opportunity to conduct what-if analysis.

3. Although dependencies meet your advanced scheduling needs, the Project KickStart Pro approach to dependencies keeps them as simple as possible. Project KickStart Pro does not burden you with complicated error messages and various types of dependencies. It provides only one type of dependency, finish-to-start, which is the most common type. This means you can fine-tune your schedule as soon as you open the Gantt chart—without having to learn technical terms or advanced project management techniques.

Enhanced Gantt Charts (with Dependencies)

We heard our customers loud and clear that Gantt Charts needed more flexibility to mirror the complexity and needs of their projects:

1. To make scheduling easy and quick, the Gantt chart opens in a starter schedule for new projects by setting today as the start date and assigning a one-day duration to each task. This creates a waterfall or cascade pattern, with one task following the other. To adjust the schedule to fit your project, you can move task bars around as well as change their start dates, finish dates, and durations. Also, you can change the project "start date" to change all the dates in the project.

2. Phases which contain tasks are represented by summary bars that "contain" their tasks.

3. You can set % done in a special column, which display in the the task bars.

4. You can set milestones (the task bar turns into a diamond-shape) by setting the task duration = 0.

5. You can change the color of task bars for emphasis.

Flexible Project Options

The Planning Wizard has been streamlined from earlier versions, with the following added features:

• The Task List view includes cost and % done columns.
• A new Task List toolbar makes adding new tasks, subtasks and notes clearer.
• A Task Information dialog allows for easy editing on the Task List and Gantt chart.

Project Reporting

• Print three styles of Gantt chart reports (wall chart, scale-to-smallest scale, and repeat tasks on every page).
• You can use the Report Wizard to select the data to print (date range and completed vs uncompleted tasks), see print previews of the Gantt charts, and specify Headers and Footers of Gantt reports.

Flexible User Control

• Speed your projects with Undo button and right mouse enabled.
• Modernized user interface.
• Weekends are shown as non-working days.
• Set holidays or other days as non-working days.

Improved Imports/Exports

Project KickStart 4's exports (which were called "links" in Ver 3) have been substantially enhanced, including exports to Microsoft Office 2007:

1. Word export saves in Word doc format

2. Excel export saves in Excel workbook format

3. Power Point export lets you chose a design template, provides clearer information, and lets you include the Gantt chart in your presentation.

4. Outlook Export lets you:

• Export your tasks onto the calendar as a reminder on the due date
• Improve the Task View in Outlook
• Preserve the original order of your tasks within any project

The Import from Outlook to the People Library has also been improved:

• On Import, you can see the company name as well as the person's name, to help you identify which contacts to import.
• Imports contact information into an address book in the People Library , showing Company name, phone number, email, etc.
• Also lets you import contacts from the Outlook Business Contact Manager

5. ACT! 7 and later (2005/2006/2007) are now supported with an enhanced Export and Import.

• The Export puts tasks on the ACT! calendar as timeless to avoid clogging up your calendar view
• The Export is smart enough to be able to update your existing tasks from the same project
• It preserves the task history (task cleared, notes, etc.) in ACT!.
• It updates the latest task status and assignments (rather than overwrite all the tasks in ACT!)
• You can create ACT! assignments right from Project KickStart.
• The Import from ACT! 7 and later to the People Library has also been improved:
• And it displays the company name as well as the person's name to help you identify which contacts or users to import.

System Requirements

• Windows Me / NT / 2000 / XP / Vista
• 128 MB RAM, 30MB free disk space
• Project KickStart may be installed on a network.

Project KickStart 5

User Interface

A large part of the user experience in software is the look and feel of a product, and the ease of use. A cornerstone of Project KickStart from day one was making an easy-to-use software product and customers tell us we've really succeeded on that front. For the user interface in version 5 we've revamped the look and feel to make it more contemporary looking, and we've implemented common user itnerface practices that we hope will make you even more efficient, and make your projects more successful.

Dashboards & Reports

We've introduced a project dashboard so customers can quicly assess what is Due Today, Next Week, or Next Month. The new report interface provides easy access to project data to keep everyone associated with the project up to date and on the same page.

Preferences

Customers can set the program font size and color to their liking. Allowing customers to choose their default directories for projects, templates and contacts will save time and increase efficiency, especially in a multi-user environment. Customers can also choos to automatically set dependencies as a project default.

Import Contacts

Project KickStart Pro 5 has added flexibility in getting your contacts and resources into the application. The ability to import your coworkers, partners, or other resources from a comma separated value (CSV) means less time copy and pasting or inputting those resources manually and more time accomplishing your project goals.

Templates

We've included over ten new templates with Project KickStart Pro 5 which can serve as a model to help you build your own projects, or you can customize them to suite your own needs.

Project KickStart 5

Upgrade  To Pro Now and Create

Better Plans and Schedules 

The Pro upgrade is a must have for all our customers, whether business, educational, or nonprofit users. You will find Project KickStart Pro 5 the most powerful version even, still very easy to use.

Gantt Chart Dependencies

In today's working environment, most projects have tasks that depend on another task in terms of timing, completion, or other factors.
• Advanced fuctionality for automatically updating entire schedule when tasks are updated.
• Create the most realistic project plans by linking tasks that are specifically related.
• Spend valuable time on your plan and managing your project, not on manually updating tasks with new dependency feature.

Gantt Chart Improvements

• Improved Gantt chart with working days calendar.
• Gantt chart displays new Summary bars and project milestones.
• Added Cost column and Percent done column.
• Color options for Gantt chart bars.
• Three new Gantt chart reports.
• Print custom headers and footers on all reports.

Planning Wizard Improvements

• Updated interface.
• Undo Button through-out the program.
• Added address book look and feel to People Library.
• Attach documents & hyperlinks to tasks.
• Improved editing on the Tasks step
• Print wide variety of Task reports with custom editing.
• Email reports to colleagues from within Project Kickstart

Export Improvements

• Exports to Microsoft Office 2007.
• New export to ACT! 2007.
• Improved export to Outlook .
• Gantt chart image exports to PowerPoint.

System Requirements

• Windows Me / NT / 2000 / XP / Vista
• 128 MB RAM, 30MB free disk space
• Project KickStart may be installed on a network.

Upgrade  From Earlier Versions 

To Project KickStart 5 Pro or Standard

*Registered Users of earlier versions have the following upgrade options: