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Project Management would be the first and extensive functionality of the application. Projects can be sorted by various parameters, like your role in the project or its overall state. Clarizen provides very nice project progress overview, gives an option to create milestones, tasks and dependencies between them. It keeps track of deadlines and visually shows which projects and tasks are on track, which at risk and which off track. Besides the progress management, it also keeps track of budget in the same way. Clarizen also offers various reports including Gantt view and Collaboration view. Project road map gives a full visibility of the progress of each project. 


As for collaboration, is it also very well implemented, covering discussion on projects and tasks, adding notes, which can be private or public, file sharing (upload file or create new Google Doc file), and options to send emails to users working on the same project or other users.   

Besides these two functionalities, tasks are also very well implemented, making it easy to search for specific task using various filters or search box. Last but definitely not least would be the resources section, which gives you the opportunity to manage all users and groups, makes planning on putting employees on different projects as well as viewing their calendars and scheduling group events, meetings or conferences. In an addition to all these functionalities, there is a wide range of options for creating reports on each section.

Except standard tools for project management, Clarizen also offers three subsystems, which can be used optionally and cooperate with the main application. Since they are very interesting part of the solution, we are going to make a short summary of each of those:

Time Tracking subsystem
Time tracking subsystem gives an option to keep track of who is working on each task for how long. With its extensive functions, like writing comments to worked hours, separating regular and overtime hours and online Stopwatch, it really is a perfect tool for keeping track of what each team member is doing. Options to export all data into Excel or send them for approval to project manager makes it useful tool for managers. It is integrated with project management environment as well as project budgets, meaning, that the hours worked are automatically added to the project schedule and overtime is automatically added to budget of related project.

Expenses subsystem
Expenses subsystem makes it easy to keep track of both project related and general expenses. Reports can be easily created (even using pre-defined templates) and this subsystem is also integrated with the project management system.

Issue Management Subsystem
This subsystem allows users to manage issues, bugs, requests and risks that are related either to one of the projects, or to separate task. With the support of entire life cycle of issue or change request, visual representation of the current situation and its integration with project management, it is also brilliant tool.

Extras

What we liked about Clarizen is its integration with various other applications, including SalesForce, Intacct, ZendDesk and Calendar (Outlook or similar) which gives users the option to view tasks through their own calendar. From the new version (V4.5) Clarizen also offers integration with Google Docs, making it possible to add link to existing Google docs or create new ones and share those with other users through Clarizen.
Clarizen also presents a full set of customization tools, with which it is possible to define own business rules, workflow rules and actions that would suit the organization.

User Interface

The user interface is very nice, clear and absolutely intuitive to use. After logging in, you are taken to the main page, which summarizes all your projects and tasks, their state and importance and also new items (new documents, discussions or reports you have to approve). The way the main page is done really helps to save time and makes clear what needs to be done today.

Pricing

Prices vary according to the length of the contract, signing up for 36 months makes price per month lower then making just half year commitment. All prices are per user.
There are three basic editions: Professional edition ($24.95/user/month), Enterprise edition ($39.95/user/month) and Unlimited edition ($44.95/user/month). Editions varies by support, and especially customization, where the cheapest version includes only 3 custom fields, business rules and custom actions, while the unlimited edition includes 240 custom fields, 400 business rules and 300 custom actions and also includes Single-Sign-on and LDAP Integration. There is also an option to get just Time&Expenses subsystems for $10.95/user/months.

Conclusion

Clarizen is very comprehensive tool, perfect for businesses looking for complete solution for their project management and collaboration. With its extensive functionalities (expenses, issue management, time tracking) and integration with other applications, everything is available at one place, and that is definitely something that would save time. We haven’t found any specifications for supported mobile devices, maybe because this application is mainly supposed to be used from office and not so much on the go from your mobile devices.

What we liked

• Very nice user interface
• Shows clearly project road map and which tasks should be done today
• Includes all functionalities for project management and generates detailed reports
• Wide range of customization options
• Integration with other applications, we especially liked integration with Google docs

What we didn't like

• We couldn't find on the official website specification of supported mobile devices and availability in other languages. But it should be available in 10 languages and run on iPhone.