WorkZone: No-Frills, Effective Project Management Software
Updated March 10, 2015

WorkZone: No-Frills, Effective Project Management Software

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with WorkZone

Pros

  • WorkZone provides a clear, easy-to-manage method for organizing projects by task. You can set deadlines for each individual task to be completed and have alerts sent to you when deadlines approach. It is a great way to stay on top of the small tasks that help complete a larger project successfully!
  • I love the fact that WorkZone allows different levels of access to projects. This way, management can have full access to all employees' work across projects and even across disciplines, while limiting the access that employees have. This only makes sense, seeing that someone in Business Development, say, does not need to be getting reminders about the Finance projects approaching. It helps employees focus on their tasks alone, while allowing management to maintain a grasp on all projects/tasks at hand.
  • WorkZone has the wonderful feature of being able to output to an external calendar (Outlook, Google, etc.). I live by my calendar, so having upcoming deadlines for tasks and projects lined up next to my meetings significantly helps me prioritize and manage my time well throughout the week.

Cons

  • Entering dates for individual tasks became cumbersome after a while. If I wanted tasks to happen sequentially (say, 4 tasks over a period of one month, thus 1 every week), I would still have to enter each date individually. I would greatly appreciate a function that would automatically calculate and enter sequential dates for multiple tasks.
  • The Setup menu can be slightly confusing, if users do not pay attention to which workspace they are working in. To reach a site level setup menu, you must be viewing All Workspaces. If you are working in an individual workspace and click Setup, it will take you to the setup menu for that workspace alone. It would be nice if the Setup button always took users to the site level setup, and let them navigate to the specific workspace, if they wish to do so.
  • As far as I have seen, if you post a document for review by your team members, and someone comments on it, you must navigate back to the individual document you posted to see your team members' notes. I wish there was an easier way to see all comments from the project page, without having to navigate to the task and then to the document.
  • As a startup organization, we were often juggling multiple projects across all divisions. Unfortunately, some things just fell through the cracks. We wanted a software that would help us organize our projects and tasks and hold us accountable for deadlines; WorkZone was very successful in helping with that.
  • WorkZone made it very easy for us to track how successful employees were in meeting deadlines and completing tasks. This significantly increased overall efficiency and productivity for our team, because we could address issues if we saw a deadline was approaching and not close to being met.
  • WorkZone practically eliminated our problem with letting small tasks slip through the tasks. Our workload was that of 20+ people, but we did not have the resources to hire more employees. WorkZone made our small team's job of completing work much easier, acting as an organization tool and accountability partner.
Our team researched multiple project management systems online, and ultimately demoed two systems: WorkZone and Basecamp. WorkZone seemed much easier to use and seemed to offer more amenities than Basecamp; after initial demos and trainings, our team felt more comfortable using the WorkZone software. We thought it was a much better value for the price, compared to other alternatives.
WorkZone is most suited for organizations that have not used a project management software before. It is a no-frills system that gets the job done. It is best for those groups that are looking to implement a project management platform that is a blend between social task management systems and complex project management software. Those who are looking for a complex, detailed system should look elsewhere.

Using WorkZone

10 - Our organization used WorkZone to track employee performance in meeting deadlines, and maintain a calendar of all tasks and projects needing to be performed. We primarily used WorkZone as a project and time management tool, in an effort to increase organization and team members productivity and efficiency, while taking advantage of the software as an accountability partner.
2 - The people who support WorkZone, in terms of managing projects, users and permissions, should be those with access to information across all divisions. Though they do not have to be a technology genius, having a fair amount of tech savvy-ness will speed up the learning process in training. These people should be problem-solvers and should have the availability to devote a significant amount of time to support WorkZone.
  • Increase Organization Productivity and Efficiency
  • Allow Management a Better Understanding of Employee Performance in Completing Tasks
  • Organize and Identify all Project and Related Tasks to Be Completed
  • We have used WorkZone as a accountability tool for employees.
  • We have used WorkZone's tracking abilities to plan for surprise tasks (birthday celebrations) only known to a few team members! :)
  • Employee Accountability
  • Event Planning
  • Calendar Management and Synchronization
I was very impressed with how easy the WorkZone software is to use, and would very likely recommend the software to a colleague. I do see room for small improvements, however. I do not currently use WorkZone in my company, but if there is ever a need to implement a project management program, I would be happy to recommend WorkZone. The system is easy to learn (a plus when implementing from scratch in a new company) and the WorkZone team provides unlimited training and support.

Evaluating WorkZone and Competitors

  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
The single most important factor in our decision was the ease of use of the WorkZone system. The technology savvy-ness of our team ranged from both ends of the spectrum, so we needed to find a software that all users would have no problem successfully manipulating. WorkZone was the clear answer, in terms of ease of use.
We would probably demo more systems, instead of relying on online research and reviews. Quite simply, we needed to find a program fast, and did not have the liberty to take a significant amount of time to demo multiples systems. If we had to do it again, we would start this process earlier, so we would have that demoing opportunity.

WorkZone Implementation

Implementation of WorkZone was very easy. We simply log into a portal online and begin to set up our projects. Access codes were sent very quickly to our team, so there was practically no delay once we signed the contract for our subscription. Training was scheduled quickly and was very helpful, especially as new team members joined our organization.
  • Implemented in-house
Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled
  • Training Team Members
  • Gaining Access Codes (Not a negative issue; just a large piece of implementation to be addressed)
  • Took a significant amount of time to set up all projects in the system, so users could begin to track performance and completion.

WorkZone Training

  • Online training
The WorkZone trainers are wonderful! They offered us unlimited over-the-phone and online support, and the trainings were always informative. The WorkZone support team was willing to answer multiple questions and review sections of the training if need be. They were always accommodating, and trainings were scheduled very quickly for when our team needed them!
Some sections of WorkZone I taught myself. The system is very easy to get around, so self-teaching is not hard. I would recommend getting initial training with the WorkZone team first, so they can give you a basic overview of the system. If you are comfortable with the program, self-teaching is simple after that point.

Configuring WorkZone

For organizations looking to implement a straightforward project management system, WorkZone's configurability is just right. You can configure certain settings within the Setup menu, but configurabiliity is not overly complex. For those looking for a project management system that offers a significant amount of freedom in configuration, WorkZone will not offer this.
No recommendations.
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code
No additional configuration to default (outside of changing the color scheme) was made.

WorkZone Support

The team at WorkZone is incredibly helpful and very willing to lend support when they can. Our team was constantly growing, and our new team members needed training every time someone cam on board. The WorkZone support staff was more than willing to ensure our new team members were completely comfortable using the software and set up for success.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
No escalation required
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
No - The standard, unlimited support and training offered with our subscription is more than enough for our organization. We have been very pleased with the support we have received from the WorkZone team, and they are very knowledgeable about their product and explain in simple terms that are easy to understand for our team members.
We had a particular team member who took longer than the rest of the team to fully grasp how to use WorkZone. The WorkZone support team was exceptional; they offered three separate trainings that this individual attended, and were very patient when she had multiple questions. They were more than accommodating when she needed more training.

Using WorkZone

WorkZone was very easy to learn, especially for the members of our team who were not as technology-savvy. WorkZone offered unlimited training as well, making it easy to transition new team members to the program, as we were a startup organization consistently adding new team members.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Setting up users and defining permissions is very easy to do.
  • Viewing upcoming tasks and project deadlines for the week is easy, thanks to WorkZone's "To-Do List".
  • Viewing project task completion and how the project is performing against deadlines is easy to do.
  • Setting up deadlines for sequential tasks can be difficult, as there is no way to fill in sequential dates automatically.
  • Accessing site Setup menu can only be done from the "All Workspaces" option.
  • Not particularly "social-friendly", in that there is not an easy way to chat directly with other team members working on the same project while using the software.

WorkZone Reliability

We are a small organization, so the need to expand our use of WorkZone was limited. I only rate it below a 10 simply because I do not have much experience with the scaleability of the product. From the previews and training sessions, it does seem that the software can easily be adjusted to accommodate a growing workload; something we may use in future, just not at this point in our organization's development.
Throughout the use of the WorkZone software, we never had a issue with it being unavailable. This is important, considering we wanted to access our projects and see our progress at any moment. WorkZone was always available and made constant supervision of tasks and goals easy; no excuses for not checking in on the status of a project.
I have zero complaints about the performance of WorkZone; for our organization's needs, it was a perfect tool for keeping track of various responsibilities and tasks. We never experienced a lag or down-time when using the software, and the simple interface made things exactly that from our end...simple. WorkZone is a fantastic tool for work management that never fails to perform, in my experience.

Relationship with WorkZone

From the beginning, the customer support at WorkZone has been fabulous. They offered unlimited training, which was incredibly beneficial for our "spread out" team. Working in an educational environment, many of our team members had different schedules. The vendor was flexible in working around each schedule and offering support whenever needed.
As easy as it was to reach the vendor while considering WorkZone for our work management software, they were just a available and willing to help after we purchased. Customer service was always available for questions and support, helpful when many of our team members were not as familiar with new technologies.
I, unfortunately, was not involved in the negotiation portion of the sale. I believe WorkZone was willing to work with our status as a nonprofit education insitution, but I do not know the exact details. We did find that on all comparison levels (price, flexibility, ease of use, customer support), WorkZone was the best option for our organization.
It is always easiest when you can have as many people in the room as possible; though WorkZone was willing to train as many people at as many different times as needed, I do feel we could have more effectively covered different topics and areas of concern with all users in one room. Other than that, no complaints here. The WorkZone staff were incredibly helpful, knowledgeable and patient as we transitioned to their software.

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