What is the point of a Project Management tool to handle clients around the world if every user can not modify their settings to represent their desired currency? That is a problem some of our users have pointed out to us so we built our product to handle every currency in the world. Whether you work in a large country such as Brazil, Canada, and India, or a small country such as Denmark, Nepal, and Senegal, Mavenlink has you covered. Collaborate within in Mavenlink: your end-to-end project management tool.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
How to Use Mavenlink
There are so many great new features of Mavenlink that you should take advantage of today. We are going to highlight three core components with videos. Who doesn't love videos?
- Mavenlink integrates with Google Apps - From Google Docs to Google Calendar to Google Contacts, integrate the cloud computing monster of Google with Mavenlink.
- Time Tracking, Expense Tracking, and Online Invoicing - Who doesn't want to get paid? Well, we just made it easier for you to do extremely professionally.
- Custom Private Label Branding - Customize your online workspaces to your company's logos, colors, and URL is our extremely easy to do private label feature.
If you have any questions, email us at info@mavenlink.com or call directly at 949-336-7611.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Latest Mavenlink Blog Posts on Business, Collaboration, and the Cloud
We like to keep you all updated with what we find helpful for small businesses to thrive, especially in the online world. Here is a quick write-up with links to each post. Enjoy!
Time Tracking, Expense Tracking & Invoicing - This is a tutorial on our time tracking software, expense tracking software, and online invoicing software that will really help service providers, small businesses, and freelancers work well in the cloud.
Work Green with Google Docs - This is how you can work more efficiently, while "working green," with Google Docs and the Google Apps product.
Today's Freelance Economy Require Keeping Clients Happy - This is a great piece from the Mavenlink CEO & Founder, Ray Grainger. Focusing on the freelance market, I think the title tells you the rest. This was first published in Corp! Magazine.
Is Modern Management Extinct? - This was first published by Alan Murray of the Wall Street Journal and is a great article on the change in management in the workplace today.
Riding a Bigger and Better Wave - This is an article on why you should use Mavenlink as your Google Wave replacement. We have all of the features, plus so much more like the time tracking software, expense tracking software, and online invoicing software that I mentioned above, plus we are rolling out private label, which looks amazing.
If you have any questions, please email us at info@mavenlink.com or on Twitter.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Latest Online Business Collaboration News
We have several blog posts that we figured you would all enjoy to help ease your work online.
The first is 3 Simple Tools for Juggling Business Online, which is simply three online products that we enjoy using to ease our work online. The first is Google Apps. We use Google Apps for project management for more than just email. The simple document, calendar, and contacts integration that it has with Mavenlink and ability to add additional integration products through the Google Apps Marketplace really take it to the next level.
The other products are MailChimp, which we use for mass emails and email analytics, and OneLogin. We use OneLogin for a one-shop for storing and accessing passwords. It is also an easy way to handle passwords for outside professional service providers, freelancers, independents, and sub-contractors.
Another post is about Collaborating New School, which we already talked about on this blog. There we talk about getting to the top with teamwork with products like HootSuite and Ping.fm, which both help with social media.
Also, last week was great because we were mentioned in both IT Business Edge and Go4 Web Apps as a web based collaboration software. We were mentioned in The Street regarding time management and project collaboration and GetApp under their Top 20 Business Apps in September of 2010. Hopefully, we continue to climb that list, even though they have use ranked as #1 for Project Management. Glad to see that. Maybe next month we will crack the Top-10.
We also have our September Slogan Contest on Wildfire and Facebook to look for something great from our users. We love hearing from you guys so keep the great ideas coming. The caveat with our September Slogan Campaign is that the winner wins a free iPad, which is pretty awesome! Our winner of our July campaign, Bonnie, is loving her iPad.
###
So fellow mavens, what products do you use to ease your work online? Please let us know. We love to hear new ideas!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
IT Business Edge and Go4 Web Apps Coverage
Mavenlink was featured today on IT Business Edge's list of Top 10 Google Apps for Project Management. They note how we are "an online collaboration solution that allows you to manage projects from start to finish." We strive to be the best one-stop shop for cloud computing when managing projects online. That's what motivated us to integrate with Google Apps and their cloud Document, Calendar, and Contact features.
We were also mentioned on Go4 Web Apps under Business Tools as the Single Destination to Conduct Business with Clients. They discuss how Mavenlink is "the first of its kind, on-line interactive workplace developed to run the networked economy more efficiently. Its cloud-based, advanced and agile technology allows users to privately manage every aspect of their business. Using Mavenlink, you can manage all your projects from a one place, create timelines and documentation, accept contracts and manage your resources."
We are glad to hear people are as excited our Google Apps integration and new features, such as Time Tracking, as we are. We plan on rolling out at least three key features by the end of this month that will really take Mavenlink to the top of the project managment and collaboration cloud computing world. We hope you are ready.
###
What are some features that you would like to see us add to make your online project collaboration and management that much easier?
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Get to the Top with Teamwork
Last month, Sean Ellis did an interview with Andrew Warner of Mixergy discussing marketing, startups, and entrepreneurship. As somebody who was recently turned onto Sean’s blog by Sean Craft’s post, Focus on the Love, I was listening intently. What was the one item I took from the interview more than anything else? Teamwork.
As Sean Ellis mentions in his recap of the interview, there is obviously a lot more than a “secret weapon” or “pure luck” that helps a company succeed. You can’t simply build a valuable product for your users and then stand pat.
Your product & development team must capitalize on the user’s needs for your product and listen to what they are saying to continuously enhance your product, such as with the Google Apps Integration. The marketing team must continue the momentum with customer acquisition based on what has and has not worked; they need to remain analytical instead of gut feelings and speculation. Everybody must collaborate together to get to the next level and continue doing so until you get to the top of the mountain.
Evolve. Grow. Succeed.
###
What do you think it takes for a small business or startup to succeed? What have you found works or does not work in some of your past work?
What new features would you like to see on Mavenlink? As always, feel free to comment below or contact us directly at info@mavenlink.com.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Riding a Bigger and Better Wave
"I got a fever and the only prescription is more Mavenlink.” - Christopher Walken Okay, maybe that’s not exactly what Mr. Walken declared in his much loved SNL skit, but Mavenlink is the cure for the many wondering what to do after Google’s surprising announcement. Last week, Google made headlines by suspending Google Wave until at least 2011, which left people scrambling on cloud project collaboration. There’s no need to fear, Mavenlink is here! The top features of Google Wave were: Blank Waves, Real Time Discussion, Task Tracking, and Shared Attachments. Mavenlink has all those features, but we just have slightly different names: Project Workspace, Real Time Messaging, Project Tracker, and Attach Files. As you can and will see, Mavenlink covers everything, plus much more. Mavenlink is a real time, shared space in the cloud where people can collaborate on all types of projects or activities. Whether you are a small business owner, professor at a university, or busy scheduling charity events with your friends and family, you can efficiently manage all of those projects here. Message the whole group or specific individuals and attach files, pictures, and links and link them to specific tasks. For all of you Google users, Mavenlink is fully integrated with Google Apps so all of your Google Contacts,Google Documents, and Google Calendar can be accessed and shared seamlessly. Also, just like in Google Wave and their Conversation Playback, you can keep track of different conversations in one place and once somebody is invited into a Workspace, they will be able to catch up on everything that has happened to date. What are some features that Mavenlink offers that Google Wave didn’t? Glad you asked. We offerScheduling, Budget, and Payment options with PayPal integration and security preferences. We have in-depth Time Tracking and Billing that can be linked to activities in the Project Tracker. On top of that, the messages and attachments you link to each activities in the Project Tracker can be managed by our simple Filter function. We continue to make improvements to Mavenlink everyday. With invoices, expense tracking, and private label about to be released, we are working hard to make your life easier and accelerate your productivity in our secure project collaboration cloud tool. Come join us now! You won’t have to worry about this wave crashing. We are here to ride the whole thing out with you. ### Did you use Google Wave? If so, have you switched to Mavenlink for your project collaboration? If you have any questions or want to know more on how to use Mavenilnk, please comment below or email us at info@mavenlink.com. We will get back to you quickly. We promise!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
"Like" Mavenlink for a FREE iPad!
for one entry in the drawing for your FREE iPad from your friends at Mavenlink. If you already “Like” our Fanpage, you automatically have one entry. For every person you refer that “Likes” our Fanpage, you will be awarded another entry. For instance, when you “Like” us and you refer 20 friends that “Like” us, you will be awarded 21 entries to win your free iPad. Winner announced on September 1st.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Custom Fit Community
Custom Fit Community
by
Sean Crafts July 16, 2010
In the next several months, Mavenlink is going to put time, attention and dollars towards the development of our online community. Our goal is to provide our users and followers a resource that enhances their professional life.
As we identify the content, the approach and the layout for our on site Mavenlink Community Pages and expand our efforts to grow our presence on Facebook, Twitter and other social outlets, we wanted to make sure we captured your input.
Please take a moment to fill out this short survey (1-3 minutes) to help us ensure our future community fits your needs, after all, we're building it for you: Click here to complete the survey.
Also, check out our Blog with posts such as 3 Reasons Email is Not Secure.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
How to Integrate Mavenlink and Google Apps
This video is an overview of how to integrate Mavenlink and your Google Apps account so that it works seamlessly with Google Docs, Google Contacts, and Google Calendar. They are two option shown. One is done strictly on the Mavenlink site and the other option is done through the Google Apps Marketplace site where you can see Mavenlink as one of their Featured Apps. Please check out our follow up videos to see how to take advantage of some of the integration features.
Mavenlink is the #1 application for managing project communications, documents, budgets, and payments between independent professionals and their clients.
Mavenlink is the #1 application for managing project communications, documents, budgets, and payments between independent professionals and their clients.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Check Out Our New How To Videos
Check Out Our New How To Videos
by
Taylor Miles July 07, 2010
Mavenlink How To Help Videos
Today we released a few how to video's. If you are new to Mavenlink or even a seasoned user, there is something to be learned from these short simple tutorials. Check them out below:
Mavenlink Collaboration Overview - What is Mavenlink?
Real Time Messaging - Brief Overview highlighting the key features of Mavenlink's messaging capabilities, including:
- Real Time Messaging
- Personalized Messaging
- Attaching Files
- Attaching Google Docs
- Linking Files to Project Tasks or Deliverables
Project Workspace Invitations - Short video describing how you invite colleagues, clients and/or consultants to work with you inside a Mavenlink Project Workspace.
Financial Transactions - Video overview describing:
- Scheduling project due dates
- Creating project budgets
- Change orders for budget updates
- Requesting payments & logging offline payments
- Using Paypal to pay online within Mavenlink
Project Apps Tracker - This video provides an overview of the capabilities of Project Tracker within the Mavenlink Project Workspace. Project Tracker allows you to: - This video provides an overview of the capabilities of Project Tracker within the Mavenlink Project Workspace. Project Tracker allows you to:
- Create tasks, deliverables & milestones
- Assign responsibility to project activities
- Identify dates, linked to your Google Calendar, for project milestones
- View and Manage files and attachments associated with specific project activities
Trusted Group Networking - The Trusted Networks Overview is meant to provide an introduction to Mavenlink's Trusted Networks. Users will learn about the public facing aspect of the Network, the private collaboration area, and how to create a Network.
Monday, July 19, 2010
3 Reasons Email Is Not Secure
3 Reasons Email Is Not Secure
by
Roger Neel July 15, 2010
Did you know that your email is about as secure as a kid's game of telephone? The only difference between email and telephone is that the communication between the sides (generally) doesn't break down.
How does email work?
You write an email in Gmail, Outlook, on your blackberry or iPhone. You hit send. It's there! Unfortunately, that message didn't just go directly from you to your sweetheart. It got relayed from you to your local DSL provider; from them to a central server; that server to some server in Nevada that routes emails; from that server in Nevada to another one in Idaho; that one in Idaho, over to Minnesota; and on and on until it gets to sweetie.
Here are a few reasons why email isn't secure:
1) Every relay gets a copy of your message
Just like our game of telephone, server 1 says "here's my message" to server 2. Once server 2 has the message, they say "got it," at which point server 1 is supposed to delete the message. Does it? You don't know.
That's the unlikely case of security issues - most providers are contractually obligated to ensure the normal flow. Here's another case: a hacker might be monitoring all emails coming through a relay point. That hacker might have a little filter running that looks for "social security" or "my credit card number is" or "2813 1327 0000 1234" and so on. All emails that match collect in a nice little document for him to sell to the highest bidder.
2) SSL security(?)
Oh, but you say, "I turned that SSL thingy on in my email! It says it's secure!"
From wikipedia: "While it [SMTP SSL] protects traffic from being sniffed during transmission, it is technically not encryption of e-mails because the content of messages is revealed to, and can be tampered with by, involved email relays. In other words, the encryption takes place between individual SMTP relays, not between the sender and the recipient."
What does that mean? It means that each relay makes the decision to support or not support the encryption. It's unlikely your email is getting from one end to the other completely encrypted.
Not only that, but if your accountant sends your tax documents to you to sign and they've got SSL enabled, but you don't, the best case scenario is: you're the problem. It has to de-encrypt the message before it gets to you if it didn't already do so on a relay.
3) Single point of failure
Yeah, we've all got a few email addresses, but they're often coming into one inbox whether in Outlook or on a mobile device. What happens when you lose your phone at a bar or have your laptop stolen? Your email (and other things) are now readily available for consumption.
This is a slightly different conversation than the first 2 reasons, but the reality is most hacks happen when someone figures out your password or gets access to one of your devices. Since we all use email so much, it's often the most easy/convenient thing we have at our fingertips. Do you have your devices configured to ask you for a password every time you want to view/check/send email? Probably not. That would be a pain in the neck.
Next up
In my next entry, I'll talk a little bit about alternatives. In the meantime...keep emailing! We all do!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Collaborating New School
Collaborating New School
by
Casey Armstrong July 14, 2010
Finding the right tools for online project collaboration and new ways to efficiently handle clients is something I continuously investigate. Handling multiple clients, multiple projects for each client, fellow consultants in far away lands, and my desire to save time, I need more than just email to collaborate effectively. The problem I come across is that I sometimes spend more time figuring out how to use my “time-saving” products than if I did everything the “old school” email way.
(Quick tangent: I like how email alone is almost considered a thing of the past. The times they are a-changin’.)
I will spare you the tools that I wasted time on and cut to the good stuff. The first tool I used to collaborate with clients was Google Docs. I started with my basic Gmail account and then started using it with my Google Apps business account. Some of my favorite aspects are how simple it is to use from the onset (seemingly a Google staple with their simplicity), the fact that multiple users can edit the same document in real-time, and that most people I work with have at least a basic Gmail account. Plus, it is completely free. It is hard to complain about that in early small business stages.
Shortly after this, a friend of mine suggested I check out Ping.fm and HootSuite. If you are not familiar with either of these, here is a quick breakdown. Ping.fm is great tool to blast out one message across all of your Social Network sites with the click of a button. You just link each account with your Ping.fm account and you are done. HootSuite can be used in a similar fashion, but you get the ability to schedule future posts and it has a built-in URL shortener that also tracks basic analytics. On top of that, you can link HootSuite with Ping.fm so you can schedule future posts across all platforms and track them. That is how you collaborate efficiently with Social Media.
Fast-forward several months and I saw my workload and client list growing faster than my email, Google Docs, and Social Media shortcuts could handle alone. I needed something to ease my ability to collaborate on larger projects proficiently and not waste a lot of time learning the product of choice.
This brings me to Mavenlink. With Mavenlink, I can better manage my projects with real-time messaging feeds, attach documents, and accept payments via PayPal, among other features all online. Plus, you can receive extremely quick and detailed feedback from their support and everything is integrated with Google Apps. This means that another pair of my online tools are now working together: HootSuite with Ping.fm and Mavenlink with Google Docs.
My collaboration tools are collaborating together. I’ve had nothing to do with it, but I like the direction things are heading. Make my life easier. Automate the mundane. Work seamlessly.
I am now new school! Well, at least that is what I am telling myself…
Thursday, July 15, 2010
More Women Juggling Multiple Jobs Than Men
Mavenlink Blog Posts
More Women Juggling Multiple Jobs Than Men
presented by
MSNBC.com April 12, 2010
According to MSNBC, women are more likely to juggle multiple gigs than men, with some 3.7 million adult women working more than one job. The reason? Women often aren't interested in working a traditional 40-50 hour week due to childcare needs, also, they make less dollar for dollar than men and often have similar budgets. This forces them to take on multiple jobs.
“Many more women than at any time in our history are either the primary or sole breadwinner in their families,” said Eileen Appelbaum, a professor and co-director for the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University.
“The persistent pay gap between men and women and the greater incidence of part-time work for women means that women are more likely to need more than one job just to make ends meet for their families,” she said.
But this trend isn't just among women who are strapped for cash, it's also white-collar types who are looking to create a career they can't find through a traditional employment situation. At Mavenlink, we've watched as a growing group of female professionals from lawyers to graphic designers have pulled their business online. In order to be competitive, a resource like Mavenlink is essential for managing all the relationships that a self-=employed consultant has to juggle at once.
Mavenlink for the Legal Practice
presented by
Connie J. Mableson, Esq. March 30, 2010
Connie Mableson and the Mableson Law Group have focused on providing legal advice and counsel with the specific goal of enhancing their clients' success for over 27 years.
1) How do you use Mavenlink in your legal practice?
As an attorney, I create, review, or modify many documents. A client must see these documents and comment on them. It is difficult to email lots of documents to a client and to keep the revised versions organized. Mavenlink allows me to post all the documents in a single space. My clients can log on and view, comment and suggest revisions in one place. It is like a file drawer or conference room accessible at all times by me and my client.
2) Are you seeing any benefits?
The first person I invite to the individual client project is my secretary. As a result, she is always in the loop of communication between me and the client. If I add another attorney or a paralegal to the project, it minimizes the amount of time I need to spend with the team bringing them up to speed. This results in a lower legal bill to the client. And, my clients appreciate that the entire team is up to date on the case status.
3) What is your clients impression of the Mavenlink work environment?
My clients like the service. It costs them nothing and they feel closer to the case and more engaged in the transaction or litigation. They have access to their case files from any location and can keep informed as the case progresses by receiving messages through their preferred email applications.
4) How would you describe Mavenlink to a colleague?
Mavenlink is affordable. It is simple. Clients can log into it easily. It serves several business purposes and does not complicate the process with features I do not need. It contains the essential functions I need to work efficiently with my clients. For a small business, it is an affordable solution to case or project management that engages all participants.
5) What do you expect from Mavenlink over time?
I hope it retains its simple user interface and functionality. If additional features are added, I hope the project manager can choose to use them or not as is currently the case.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The latest on Mavenlink and topics such as Online Project Collaboration and the Google Apps Marketplace here: http://ow.ly/2atC1
Monday, July 12, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Mavenlink Now Integrated With Google Apps
Mavenlink Now Integrated With Google Apps
Embedded Apps Provide a Single Destination for the Global Independent Workforce to Complete Work Online
IRVINE, Calif., June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Mavenlink LLC, creators of Mavenlink.com, an on-line interactive workplace where people can efficiently work together and conduct business, today announced integrations into Google Calendar™, Google Contacts™ and Google Docs™. Mavenlink is available in the Google Apps Marketplace, Google's online storefront for Google Apps™ products and services.
The intuitive combination of Mavenlink.com with Google Calendar, Contacts and Docs allows Google Apps users to manage all their work-related events, contacts and shared files from within Mavenlink's platform.
"Google Apps -- including Calendar, Contacts and Docs -- are powerful and widely used tools for collaboration, scheduling and maintaining connections," said Ray Grainger, CEO, Mavenlink. "Embedding these tools in Mavenlink's application brings us that much closer to our goal of providing the single destination for the growing independent and project workforce to complete work online."
The Google Apps Marketplace makes it easy for more than two million Google Apps businesses to discover, purchase and deploy integrated business applications and related professional services. By integrating with user account and application data stored in Google Apps, these cloud applications provide a simpler user experience, increase business efficiency and reduce administrative overhead.
For more information, visit google.com/appsmarketplace.
About Mavenlink
Mavenlink is the first on-line interactive workplace created for today's networked economy. Its cloud-based, advanced and agile technology allows users to privately manage every aspect of their business relationships, from negotiations to payments and every step in between, more efficiently than ever before. Mavenlink provides the ability to collaborate on projects, create trusted networks and to conduct business using comprehensive and simple transaction tools. The result is an on-line interactive workplace environment that is fast, flexible and intuitive. It is so simple and powerful that it allows anyone to compete globally and effectively whether they are a one-person shop or part of a Fortune 100 company.
For more information, go to www.mavenlink.com
SOURCE Mavenlink LLC
Back to top RELATED LINKShttp://www.mavenlink.com
http://google.com/appsmarketplace
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