General Information
Name: InLoox Now!
Vendor: InLoox, GmbH
Hosting options: InLoox is now! This is the cloud version. I was unable test InLoox desktop version because it required Microsoft Outlook which I did not have (Apple users take note).
39EUR 1 Month Contract
35EUR per Month on a 6-month contract
30 EUR per month for a 12-month contract
Languages: English and German
Currency: USD, as far as I know. Given that this product is German, I would be surprised if it didn’t have a setting to convert it to Euro.
Basic features of starting a project
InLoox, a fully-featured project manager tool, integrates with Outlook and works standalone. There are many versions. I’m now using InLoox!
It is easy to get started with a project. To create a project, click ‘new’. Note who the customer is, the team members involved in this project, and the current status. You can also add custom fields or notes.
You can add tasks (called Activities) and milestones to the Planning tab.
After you have completed your tasks, you can right-click to open a drop-down menu with an edit option. You can make further modifications there, including adding dependencies or resources.
Although I couldn’t see how the baseline was added, the tool has a Gantt chart view and a button to highlight the critical path.
InLoox Gantt chart view and project plan view, showing critical path buttonOther features include reports and budgeting
You have three options for budget reporting: time reports, planning reports, and budget reports. The budget feature is a bit odd. Although you can create an expense, I was unable to see how to add a cost to it.
My colleague looked at it and couldn’t figure it out. It is essential that you can add a cost to a resource in order to calculate the time and expense of the project. What’s the point in having so many budget features and reporting options?
We were honest and said that we lost interest in trying it after 20 minutes of random clicking.
Help and support
We should have contacted the support team. They responded quickly to my request for the desktop version and followed up via Twitter.
The help feature is exactly what you would expect: a searchable help, but it only works if the topic is actually covered. You can also access online tutorials and community forums through the Support Center.
The main problem was that the screenshots in help don’t look the same as the online version, but are likely of the desktop version.
Usability
It looks great – not stunning, but functional and packed with so many features it can’t have a clean user interface like some of the other tools I tested this month.
The verdict was that the interface was not intuitive from the beginning. It was difficult to switch screens and it was difficult to navigate between pages in the “sections”. You can choose to plan, budget, or manage your page. It is not possible to quickly navigate from one to another.
The software is easy to use if you give it the benefit of the doubt.
Main screen showing project setup and tabs at top. What about collaboration features?
You can set up email notifications or turn them off if necessary. It is possible to attach documents to tasks, which helps with collaboration. Although I haven’t tried the app version, it’s nice to know that it is available on my tablet.
Let’s sum it up…
It was not intuitive for me, but that may be because it is designed to manage large projects with multiple teams. It had all the features I’d expect from a professional project management tool. Budgets aside, I believe that it was user error. But you can check it out for your own satisfaction.