Blog

Getting Things Done

Category Archives: Cases

Penn State Ag Sciences College Selects Teambox to Get Things Done

Chris More is hands down my favorite Nittany Lion and he does not play for the Football, Basketball or Lacrosse team. No he plays for our Team and for that I cannot say more than he does in the case study we just published on our site.

A small excerpt:

“Prior to implementing Teambox, we used email groups as a method to send a message to the group to solicit a response. Anytime someone used email instead of Teambox, we asked them to create the message in Teambox. It quickly caught on and now my inbox mainly includes notifications to check out conversations in Teambox, which is a much more efficient and pleasant use of my time.

Another major benefit to the collaboration was the ability to look back at what was discussed or shared. Catching up on a conversation and joining an already started thread was much easier and logical using Teambox than sifting through emails.

When surveyed, the Penn State Team stated that the top three advantages of Teambox over previous communication methods are:

  1. Simple interface without every bell and whistle to confuse users
  2. Very limited training to get instant benefit
  3. Ajax interface”

Read the entire case study here:

http://teambox.com/l/penn-state-case-study

And thank you Chris, for giving us the chance to show you how we change the way people work and get things done!

zero2infinity soars with Teambox

Ever wondered how our planet looks from above? Beyond the noise of the city, far away from the ground, past the atmosphere where we’ve always lived.

zero2infinity takes passengers somewhere over the rainbow, way up high. They are launching into the experiential travel business with a revolutionary Near-Space vehicle that will offer breathtaking views of our planet, so far only available to a privileged few.

You will be able to see the blue Earth and black Space from the comfort of a pressurized gondola being lifted by a balloon. This is the safest way to do it, while being environmentally friendly.

“We have already flown a nano-bloon, the first prototype which took high definition pictures and video”, said Jose Mariano López-Urdiales. “We will soon be flying a small mammal, then a larger mammal, and finally human beings.” Commercial flights are planned to start in 2014. The picture above is from a flight of their prototype, nano-bloon, carrying the Spanish soccer team’s jersey after their victory against Germany in the semi-final match of the 2010 World Cup.

Jose Mariano Lopez-Urdiales

“Starting up such an innovative project can get pretty hectic, managing contacts and work. It’s overwhelming!

Teambox really helped us getting everything in order. We always comment on tasks to keep everyone up to date on our status”

We asked Jose Mariano, which are your favorite Teambox features?

Files: “Before, we would email files to the whole group. This was especially troublesome when multiple people are working on the same file. You have to make sure that you edit the most recent one. Teambox lets you upload files. This way you always know where to find them and which one is the most recent.”

Replacing email: “You can alert other people to a task other than the person it’s assigned to. Simply by typing @ and the person’s user name in the task. It is really useful if you think the person you assigned the task to might need help.”

Tasks by context: “With our iterative design process, it was easy to confuse documents between the different iterations. In Teambox both tasks and documents are separated into Projects, saving us the time we would spend sorting through files until finding the correct one for a specific prototype.”

bloon-viaje-globo

Learn more about zero2infinity’s project

Testimonials: How we won the World Cup

Teambox being a Spanish company, we couldn’t resist to uncover the little known secret our team had for the World Cup.

“For a team, it’s important to stay aligned and move as one”, said Vicente del Bosque when asked about what led them to the final victory.

That’s why, for weeks, they’ve been using Teambox as their secret weapon. “Frankly, MSN wasn’t cutting it anymore”, observed the players.

“For a team, it’s important to stay aligned and move as one.

Teambox just felt like a natural fit.

I gave tasks to the players, and prepared each game beforehand with Pages.”

Q: How do you use Teambox?

Vicente: Well, I love sending tips to the team. And it’s been so easy to have them reply and just share their point of view.

We use mostly Pages to plan the tactics and work over them, and Tasks to give tactic tips to each player.

vicente-en-teambox

Q: What’s your favorite feature?

Vicente: Well, it’s not mine precisely, but players just love accessing Teambox from their cellphones. I still use it from my good ol’ Thinkpad…

Q: Any problems adopting it with the team?

Paul, the octopus, was very square about Excel, but we finally made him see how better life is when collaboration goes social!

excel-teambox

Learn more about Teambox’s project collaboration!

(This is obviously a joke)

Featured user: Lulu Kitololo

Lulu Kitololo describes herself as “a storyteller and ideamonger”. Storytelling not in the traditional sense, but using art and design for expression. She’s an african designer living in Manchester.

I’ve worked with a wide range of clients including NGOs, multinational corporations, SMEs and individuals. I really enjoy working with start-ups and individuals – it’s so rewarding to help give shape to somebody’s vision and express their passion for their product, service or talent. I worked with a sustainability communications agency, Futerra, for several years and since then, I work on projects that promote positive change.

Workspace1

“It’s great to have one place to store all my projects, ideas, plans and schedules.

I use Teambox’s conversations, pages and task lists to ensure that all my notes, thoughts, questions, ideas etc. are catalogued so my memory is under less pressure!”

Latest works include Crowning Glory, a series of collage pieces that illustrate interesting relationships people have with the hair, and To Mama With Love. The latter was a non-profit project that raised over $16.000 for Mama Lucy in Tanzania, who’s building an orphanage for kids in her village.

Q: How do you fit Teambox in your workflow?

“I started properly using Teambox a few weeks ago and I seriously feel like my focus and productivity has been totally transformed for the better. It’s great to have one place to store all my projects, ideas, plans and schedules.

I used to jot notes to myself down in various notebooks, on my phone and on random loose bits of paper. Not a very good system when you’re trying to consolidate everything.

I use the conversations, pages and task lists to ensure that all my notes, thoughts, questions, ideas etc. are catalogued so my memory is under less pressure!

I recently joined a creative agency, Asilia, as Partner and Creative Director and we’re working on developing the business. Teambox has been a perfect tool for us, especially as we live in different cities. It’s allowed us to collate our ideas and tasks and allowed our email inboxes a bit more breathing space.

Q: What’s your favorite Teambox feature?

I’m admittedly a bit of a control-freak so my favourite feature is the task lists. It gives me peace to see a complete list of what needs to be done, by whom and by when, all in one place. The calendar and gantt chart features are just the icing on the cake.

Show a Mama you love her this Mother_s Day. Change the world. #ToMamaWithLove

Thanks, Lulu! Visit her website for more.