We are also big advocates of the open source content management system WordPress as it empowers our clients to independently update the content of their websites. Frequent visits to the plug-in page mean we are often among the first to work with some great new options to extend the functionality of our client’s websites.

Once in a while we stumble upon something which REALLY shakes things up and forces us to re-examine our way of working. This was the case with LiquidPlanner, an on-line planning system which we were quick to integrate into our daily work routine.

Why LiquidPlanner?

For the past couple of years we obviously also planned our projects! We accomplished most of our work using a variety of tools such as Basecamp, Tick, Teux Deux and Google Tasks. Each of these systems has its obvious strengths and some are complementary. What we were missing was a holistic approach, allowing for more efficient project management, allocation of resources, planning, reporting and communication towards our clients.

Having devoted considerable time to this endeavour we came upon LiquidPlanner . A few things immediately set it apart from the competition:

• the ability to plan projects in a framework of a best and worst case scenario
• the automated calculation of the workload for the following weeks
• the option of allocating tasks to people outside of the organisation (including clients)
• the way in which production problems can be spotted, even weeks beforehand

Let us have a quick look at these items and why they convinced us to drop other systems in favour of LiquidPlanner.

1.Best and worst case planning

Every single project planning tool we examined used the same single principle: you estimate how long a task would last and then tell someone to do it on a specific day. LiquidPlanner understands how such an approach is often impossible in everyday working conditions. No matter how good your estimate is it often does not correspond to the reality of changing wishes, client perception or unforeseen circumstances. What happens it that the task is not completely done and “spills over” in the next day(s), thereby pushing other tasks further along the timeline you had so carefully “planned”.

LiquidPlanner differs in this approach by asking you to define - in minutes, hours or days – the best and worst case scenario for a given task. The best case scenario is the amount of time you hope the work can be done in. The worst case scenario reflects the time it would take if things progress in a far from ideal way. Obviously, in real life you would end up somewhere in the middle of these extremes. This is referred to by LiquidPlanner as the Expected duration of a task or the Expected date a taks, project or subproject will be finalised.

This is crucial for getting more accurate estimates for a project’s duration!

The best case and worst case estimates tie in nicely with the second core element which we at hooox find so useful in LiquidPlanner.

2.Automated workload calculation

Based on the values entered for task duration and the priorities you assign to tasks, LiquidPlanner will automatically suggest a planning for the following weeks, attempting to balance urgency with importance. This needs to be further tweaked by the project manager to achieve the best work schedule for all employees.

Nevertheless, it significantly reduces the time needed to get an accurate estimate of who should be working on what during the following weeks.

During real life projects a lot of time is often spent waiting for input from various sources. This brings us to the third item we want to discuss.

3.Allocating tasks to people outside of your organisation

Let’s face it: projects are not only slowed down by the work being done in your own company. Sometimes you are waiting for quotes from suppliers and need to put work on hold until you get hold of that information. Waiting for feedback or validation from multiple points of contact in your client’s companies can also be a time-consuming factor.

None of the other project management tools we tested offered a solution quite as elegant as the one which LiquidPlanner has integrated.

It allows you to create a Virtual Member for each person or company you need something from. Then you simply add tasks such as “Waiting for feedback on the first design” to such a Virtual Member.

By entering a best and worst case timeframe this allows you to get a clearer picture of how your project’s flow evolves and which outside party influences the duration of your project.

In the end, off course, every efficient planning system needs to be judged on its ability to alert you of impending problems such as missed deadlines. This will be our fourth and final topic in this quick overview of LiquidPlanner.

4.Spotting problems beforehand

In hindsight it is often clear what you could have done to prevent a project from slipping further and further away of its intended deadline. However, what you need is a system which can warn you about such upcoming issues at a time when you can still do something about them.

This is an area in which LiquidPlanner excels.

Some projects have a clear deadline, such as a corporate event or an official launch. These can be added in LiquidPlanner as milestones. The system also works well for “minor” deadlines, such as the promise one makes to send a preview or a status update of the work which has already been done. As a business you need to be sure not to miss these deadlines either as this can cause great frustration by the clients as well as by the business developers who have to break their promises.

As mentioned above, LiquidPlanner automatically calculates the best planning for all the tasks given the priority which you have assigned. While juggling multiple projects consisting of various interconnected tasks it can happen that you start piling so many tasks onto someone’s agenda that they simply cannot get everything done by the dates you had set as milestones.

The clever thing about LiquidPlanner is that you can spot this a lot sooner than you can with other project management tools, often few days or even weeks in advance. As soon as you start changing the priority of tasks or start adding new tasks the system will compare this new data with the milestones it needs to adhere to.

Should it notice that you are pushing the Expected finishing time of tasks beyond their initially set deadline a red flag is raised and you are warned on the dashboard of LiquidPlanner.

This feature brings with it more peace of mind, both for the project manager, as well as for the employees and the client.

Although real life is infinitely more complex than any system could hope to fully grasp, the planning tool in LiquidPlanner can help you avoid nasty surprises in your production workflow and can significantly contribute to spotting future issues early on.

This allows you to search for alternatives: re-allocating tasks to other team members, searching for other means of getting the work done or even communicating openly and up-front to your client about re-assessing deadlines.

Conclusion

A project management and planning system is only as good as the data entered. At hooox we are fully aware that a technological solution, even one as polished and powerful as LiquidPlanner, can never be the one and only cornerstone of your work day.

Nevertheless we are convinced that projects run a lot smoother if there is a fast and effective way of getting a bird’s eye view over all the running projects.

The planning based on a best and worst case scenario, the automated workload calculation, the allocation of “waiting for”-tasks to virtual members and the ability to anticipate production problems before they become a huge stress factor in your organisation have led us to adopt the LiquidPlanner system.

We look forward to integrating it further into our workflow and diving into the other features contained in this polished web application.

Ken Lawrence – Project Manager at hooox

We believe in a world of flexible partnerships in which we are not an outside agency but a partner actively advising your company and helping you implement our recommendations. Our role resides in making this entire process happen as efficiently as possible in light of the targets which have been set.

We did our homework. The results of a market survey we are working on are promising and confirm our predictions about the readiness of the market for this approach.

More info

Returning from Cannes with our suitcases stuffed with brochures we carefully took the time to go through them.

In no particular order we present the things we stumbled upon which we find inspiring for our future work.

Barcelona data sheet
Or: how to make pages full of graphs and statistics less boring. We like the elegant font and the effective use of red, white and black.

Lyon
We like their choice of paper with a rough texture. It makes for a refreshing break from the typical glossy paper. Moreover, they used an interesting posterformat to be able to show a large map with information.

Strand East
Short text which goes right to-the-point all wrapped up in a small and handy format with colourful branding.

Skolkovo
A double spread with a powerful image is far better than many of the other pages which bombard the reader with dozens of smaller images. The brochure also features some intriguing 3D images.

Copenhagen
A fun and no-nonsense brochure on rough-textured paper.

King’s Cross
An impressive book with gorgeous photography and a few delightful design elements.

MIPIM Architectural Review – Future Project Awards 2012
We loved quite a few of the impressive 3D images as well as the lovely 2D style in an ad for Earls Court.

Hudson Yards
For such a large and ambitious project they used a pretty small leaflet which folds out to a poster. We liked the info-graphic style way of representing the future target group.

That’s it for our quick overview of the tonnes of paper we dragged back from Cannes

A word of advice: it might seem fast and easy but it is far from it! As Steve Jobs said: “Simple can be harder than complex”.

The various elements which contribute to the success of a project’s communication were analysed in detail during hooox’ presentation, entitled “Turning bricks into brands”. Marketing can be seen as an asset instead of a cost. The importance of segmentation and brand positioning were shown thorugh a series of concrete case studies. Finally, the role of social media and the broker were discussed.

It could be concluded that the world of real estate marketing and communication is a continuously evolving. Everyone was convinced of the need to further professionalise this aspect of real estate.

In 2011 the launch of Street View in Belgium spurred us towards thinking of new applications. Integrating it with a project’s location on Google Maps seemed the most logical. However, using Street View to show the interiors of future projects was a lot more innovative.

Be sure to check this blog for further updates about this technology as well as for news about the use of gaming engines in real estate marketing.

hooox - Street View applicatie

Hooox was the only Belgian company participating in the State of the Art Academy days. The world’s top 3D studios were present at this unique training event: The Neigbourhood, Uniform, RSI-Studio, HayesDavidson,…

Our 3D team had the opportunity to pick the brain of world renowned 3D artists for architectural visualization such as Peter Guthrie, Ronen Bekerman and Piero Mazzoli.

Guthrie discussed his workflow to create those typical, perfectly composed photographic images. Bekerman talked about the newest advances in the field of realtime 3D as well as the impact of social media. Finally, the link between visualization and photography was the topic of Mazzolli’s presentation.

The event ended with an open debate on the future of this creative world both on a national and international level.