Questions?

Has anyone used the add-on feature of the work log, where users can track how much time they are spending on different tasks? If so, do you have any thoughts regarding its usefulness and accuracy?

Thank you!

Hi,

We currently only see the word rate when looking for a vendor in smart project.

For almost every project the CAT analysys is already available. So it should be possible to show the total purchase price and margin.
I've seen this in other TMS. Is this possible in Xtrf or is in on the roadmap?

I'm curious about other's experiences here. We've tried various ways at getting at project manager productivity but I don't feel we've nailed it yet. So many of the metrics that we've looked at are overly subjective or dependent on factors external to the PM, so there is no perfect answer. However, I want to share what we're doing in hopes of getting other ideas.

Ways to measure PM productivity

• Quantity and revenue of projects as project manager or as project coordinator
• Quantity and revenue of quotes as project manager 
• Tasks and job data to illustrate relative complexity of project - Number of languages, job types, vendors.
• Compare this data to self-reported busyness level (of course not in XTRF).

Measurable KPIs

• Client feedback forms
• On-time delivery and entering delivery times
  
• Specialization and language variant usage
• Quote conversion
• Margins
• Vendor usage (new vendors, variety of vendors, “right” vendors)
• Client satisfaction surveys

Hello,
I’m here to ask somebody ur opinion.

I’ve found out that “tab” INSTRUCTIONS FROM CLIENT” doesn't support formatting images and it is a simple text editor.

Does somebody think that could be a good idea for ur business too, to be able to copy and paste also some pics/screenshot?

XTRF’s support asked me to bring this discussion here:

Yesterday 09:36

Hello Gae,

Thank you for contacting XTRF Support Team.
Unfortunately, "Instructions from Client" doesn't support formatting images. As you wrote it is a simple text editor. However, If you think it is a good idea for the business to have this feature in future releases, please share your thoughts on UserEcho.

Kindest regards,

Thanks! ;-)

We work with a sales and a project management team, and sometimes both of them are editing a project at the same time - perhaps adding additional information in the notes or assigning providers, etc.

Currently this means that someone's work won't be saved due to the system not being able to handle two lots of editing at the same time, and it's impossible to know when this will be the case as the system doesn't warn us until we try and save the work.

We'd like to suggest having some visibility of who is working on that particular project at the moment, like when you log in to a sharepoint file and you can see in the top of the page the person working on the project. Then we know not to try and edit it or can at least talk to the person to see how long they'll be working in there.

We are looking for ways to create Quote Templates as we need to quote for some of our customers for every project and as these are multilingual projects, it is quite time consuming to select languages one and providers every time.

To save some time, we are using "copy task" function but as we are using different providers for each language - it is not very effective at all.

Does anyone have an issue like this before and if so, would be able to come up with a solution?

How can we run a LQA process in XTRF with external documents and link them to the vendors. 

Use case: we evaluate vendors periodically with a balance score card

Ideally we would use XTRF e.g. the reports section "Client Feedback" to add the LQA information and to close with Pass or Fail. 

How does the rest of XTRF users deal with this issue? 

As you may know, PM can leave notes to Vendors using the Instructions tab.
Also, Vendors can send a note to the PM when performing or completing a Job. However, PMs cannot reply to Vendors' notes and the communication is not fluid. Sometimes transit between PMs and Vendors may require more than two contacts.

We need a more fluid communication between PMs and Vendors. For instance, for large or difficult projects, Vendors should be able to contact the PM and clarify any doubts.

We propose that this functionality/option be included in XTRF (Classic Projects) so as to allow PMs and Vendors to communicate more than 1 time by either including the option of replying to Vendors' notes or including a ''Chat'' functionality.

It would be great is XTRF had a simple log somewhere that tracked every action: time when X happened and by who.  It would be very useful for:

learning how things get deleted

learning how long it takes for activities to complete

learn what activities took place

learning whether or not things get done by a certain amount of time

very valuable management and management KPIs can be developed from this. 

I'm sure it would also help with troubleshooting problems with projects and the XTRF too.  

I'm curious how many XTRF users are using the Client Portal? We are having a very hard time making this work for us, without having to re-create the quotes from the start. I'm curious to find out if anyone has any suggestions. Note, we are using Classic Projects.

A few of our current 'issues':

*Clients want to add files after the quote has already been created - User A starts the project, but needs User B to upload the files (InDesign package, including art files)

*Client believes the deadline field is for the deadline for either the quote or the project (training issue), but this then populates all of the job deadlines, which are not accurate. The deadlines being populated in each job creates a LOT of wasted time for us, as the client may need 2 weeks to get approval for the quote, and we now have to reschedule everything. With 26 languages, that is a lot of time. I do not believe you can 'Clear' dates using Multiple Change, someone please tell me if this is wrong.

*Client has a project template (would prefer a quote template, but this feature is not available) and the CP does not link to the Project Templates.

*Client wants to start as a project, but they have to go thru the Quote phase - note, this is only for one client/division and a specific project type, so we have said yes, this is ok, but they are not able to start anything as a project, it has to start as a quote.

If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them. 

Best, Mindy