As we move into the final stages of development, we’re truly excited by the direction version 4 has taken. To date we’ve spent countless hours working over and over (and over!) the specification, starting with some core objectives for the release, working toward mini objectives for each module, then setting a three-page specification in stone, before even taking on a single screen!

As you can see from the screens below, there is still a level of sophistication, however we’re attempting to make Copper as simple as ever for customers. These shots probably don’t do the product justice, we’ll unvieling a usable demo to Enterprise Inner Circle customers soon.

Given the significant expenditure, we’ll be releasing this product as an Enterprise version in December, and depending on traction we’re hoping to roll it out to all customers in 2nd Qtr 2009. Of course if you’d like early access to the product the best option is to purchase or upgrade to an Enterprise license via http://www.copperproject.com/buy/

Shown here is the current iteration of the Springboard, the Files, and Contacts. Not shown here is 90% of the awesomeness just over the coding horizon. Much love from us to all those who continue to support a great product. What else would you like to see?

– Ben Prendergast

Hello all,

We’ve been busy beavers working on this next version of copper, but I can tell you we are now at iteration 8 of our designs. In case you were wondering (and even if you weren’t), that equates to around 22 pages per iteration (including spec and screen designs), and every page is reviewed for around two hours before the next iteration.

So, in total we’ve reviewed 176 discrete designs over 352 hours, and have consumed somewhere in the vicinity of 200 Caffe Latte’s. The current archive of designs in paper form is an inch thick, and the digital design mockup is 17mb. While that sounds like a lot, the result is a design footprint that is actually reducing in size! Which of course means we’re on track to providing you with the quickest, cleanest, most intuitive online project management software ever produced. Big claims, we know. Big clams, too.

Some of the major changes? Highly integrated AJAX elements to keep clicks/page-loads to a minimum, user-preferences on all views, three fantastic new functions for finding/contributing to project information, vastly improved springboard/projects view, gantt timeline, permissions system, file managment, and a positively inspired new reports module and budgeting infrastructure.

And it looks amazing on iPhone too, we have one mockup cut to DHTML already (thanks to newfound godsend designer Jonathan Nicol) and it is _the business_. Onward and upward for us, but I just wanted to shout out and say thanks for your support, and keep flying the Copper flag while we march to the finish line.

– Ben Prendergast

Well, I’m back in wintry Melbourne, after sunning myself in San Francisco, New York, and yes surprisingly even London.

Lots of fantastic progress on where the company and product-set is headed over the next six months, some fantastic meetings with partners/customers, and some real directional consolidation which makes me smile.

In amongst the business side I also met John Lennon’s one-time girlfriend, Travis and I had a private (accidental) David Byrne concert, and John McCain drove past and waved (I’m not sure that’s enough to sway Travis’ vote though). On that note, if anyone is working for the Barack Obama campaign get in touch for a complementary account.

This week we’re continuing with:

1. Version 4.0 development
2. We’ve launched a new support system
3. We’ll be launching a 3.6 update to Corporate/Enterprise accounts
4. We’ll also be launching a new Features section which will combine the Tour and Guide sections to make learning/using Copper even easier (get us some feedback on that please!) and
5. We’ll continue the push for getting a 100% quota on the Inner Circle offer (currently at 40%).

I’ll post back in a week or two with new screens to pour over, but for now if you have any interest in where we’re headed keep an eye on this blog, our twitter account at http://twitter.com/copperproject, or just get in touch at info@copperproject.com

– Ben Prendergast

Just a quick post, we’re continuing on development of 3.8 and 4.0 respectively, so there will be a minor update to current Corporate/Enterprise in the next month. Version 4.0 is now funded 25%, and we continue to seek Inner Circle participants

We’re also about to release a new Tour page, this will include a lot of existing information from the Guide, as well as frequently asked functionality questions. This is all neatly sectioned and contained so it should be easier than ever to find answers to questions you have about Copper (and why its better than XYZ product!). We plan to add video how-to’s to this section over time.

However, we’re also on Tour during June! So if you’re in San Francisco, New York, or London, Travis and I will be visiting these cities between 6th-17th June, and if you’d like to meet up for lunch/dinner/drinks/coffee just get in touch! We think this is a great opportunity to put names to faces and just get amongst you guys while we’re in development mode.

Email me at ben@copperproject.com or Travis at travis@copperproject.com for more details.

– Ben Prendergast

– Ben Prendergast

This week we continue with design and development of the next version, and we’ve also started on a minor update for the current version.

However, a few opportunities have come up to simplify the next version by potentially removing features. Well, not so much removing features, rather removing redundancies that exist within the software.

So, we have a few questions that we wanted to throw out there to the customer base so that we can make better decisions about these key changes. We’re really looking for an economy of movement/function in this version.

So here are seven quick questions, you can reply via the comments here, or by emailing info@copperproject.com

1. How does your company use Files? Do you view the files tab in clients? Do you view it in Projects? Do you only upload files that relate to tasks?
2. How does your company use Contacts? Are you using the related contact feature in the task commentary?
3. Would you prefer the Project and Task % complete to be automatically based on hours Estimated vs Logged, or continue as a subjective % estimation on each update?
4. How many resources would you typically have on a task? and what’s your max resources on any task?
5. Do you have a single charge rate, charge rate for each client, charge rate for each role, charge rate for each user, or charge rate for each project?
6. Describe your ultimate report, think laterally, what would you most like to know about your business?
7. In general, what is the most time consuming thing you do with Copper? Don’t solve the problem with ‘it would be nice if’, rather, just tell us in words what you spend the most time doing.

Please shoot through your thoughts via email or by commenting on this post, it all helps. Version 4.0 is shaping up to be an amazing piece of software, we know you’re going to love it. And yes, if you’re keen on contributing or want an amazing discount there are still spots available in the Inner Circle.

Until next week.

– Ben Prendergast