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Cheaper, easier to use project management software is now being offered by a number of companies to small and midsize businesses. New offerings are designed to be intuitive so that non-technical users can schedule the phases of a project, assign teams, set the budget and track its progress. Many of the new offerings are online and don't require in-house installation and maintenance. One Forrester Research principal analyst stated that the simpler, cheaper software has limitations which many small businesses will want to remedy, such as smooth interaction with each company's word-processing, spreadsheet, email, product-design and enterprise resource planning software. Interactive-media software startup company Clikthrough found Microsoft's project management software costly and lacking some collaborative features. It recently switched to Daptiv web-based project management software designed for small businesses, was able to customize it without consulting help, obtained the collaborative tools it needed, and will probably save $20,000 this year. In 2006, online video producer Animoto looked for something simpler to use than Microsoft offerings, and found Smartsheets, a webpage that gathers and organizes project plans, updates and all related documents to be shared by all employees. Unique Photo used LiquidPlanner web-based project management service when it moved to its first store opening after serving customers over the Web, on the phone and by mail for many years. Unique Photo's vice president of IT said the company really appreciates LiquidPlanner's ability to track uncertainty, and the way probabilities are updated as the project progresses.
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