Item: Podio
Rating: 9
Author: Kim Westermann

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Podio across our organization. We are a nonprofit housing agency with offices in different cities in NC. We use Podio to organize events, to track projects, and as an agency-wide intranet for our employees. Podio cuts down on the number of emails employees receive and helps managers keep their eye on the progress of specific projects.

Pros and Cons

Podio tasks lists are very helpful - employees can keep private task lists or assign their tasks to shared workspaces so their colleagues can pick up on something if they are out sick.
Workspaces are very flexible and can be set up to include any number of employees or outside partners. You can design your own apps to help get work done, so everything is 100% customizable.
The chat function and the activity feed in workspaces gives people a place to chat without filling up everyone's email inboxes.

The calendar function in Podio is its weakest function. It's hard to sync Podio calendars to Outlook calendars, and the personal calendar is difficult to customize.
There is a definite learning curve with Podio, especially for older employees who didn't grow up with social media.
You really need a Podio administrator who helps people set up workspaces and apps for the first year. There is a danger in over-using the software, or expecting it to fix other organizational issues.

Return on Investment

Podio has required a lot of staff time from one or two of our employees, to set up and get the others on board.
Once Podio is up and running, it saves a lot of time and helps us communicate better.
Podio has some features - i.e. webforms - that have helped us do event registration and applications better.

Alternatives Considered

We really hadn't used other project management software before Podio. We relied heavily on Outlook and Excel for communication and organization. Podio allows for more visibility across employee task lists and projects and helps us collaborate better.

Other Software Used

Microsoft Office 365, Bloomerang, Citrix ShareFile

Likelihood to Recommend

We've used Podio for staff recruitment, event planning, and our agency wide intranet. Our property management team has also used it for specific projects, like tracking all of the tasks associated with turning an apartment. Individual employees use it to manage their own task lists. It works less well for calendar-based tasks or for complex and long term project management (i.e. new construction). There are times when a project is just too complicated for Podio automations, so the software should be used to track basic items and remind users where they can find more information.

Podio - help your team work together!

Overall Satisfaction with Podio