Features InLoox PM for Outlook

Supervise expenses, returns and deadlines of your project portfolio effortlessly. The graphically displayed project dashboard in InLoox PM shows you key data and developments at a glance. Budget overruns and missed deadlines can be identified in advance, making it possible to react in time.

Fully integrated in Outlook and Exchange, InLoox PM is a real-time project information communications center which is available to all authorized users. InLoox PM enhances Outlook with powerful project management features.

During the planning of multiple projects running parallel InLoox PM supports you with a timeline view, which adjusts to your individual requirements. This way, you can coordinate your projects graphically.

With the powerful full text search you can quickly search through all projects in Outlook. The full-text search feature allows information to be found in a hurry, e.g. during a telephone call or in advance of a meeting.

InLoox PM behaves exactly like Outlook. Organize, sort, and group items as usual - by assigned responsibilities, deadlines, project type, priority, etc. Define complex filters by combining different logical operators (equal, unequal, greater, less and many more) with a very intuitive visual surface.

InLoox PM facilitates the planning and coordination of your projects. Get a visual overview of upcoming tasks and the utilization of resources. Planning reliability is increased with InLoox PM, while maintenance is reduced by way of consistent integration into Outlook.

InLoox PM adapts flexibly to the project planning methods used in your company and is able to map even complex planning models. Choose between forward and backward scheduling and incorporate planning chains true-to-reality by using dependencies, constraints and different calendars.  

Edit planning elements directly in the line in a comfortable and time-saving way. Multi-selection and multi-edit options provide additional convenience. InLoox PM enables you to layout your project plan with individual colors, e.g. to highlight departmental responsibilities or priorities. Sort, group or filter your project plan according to your information needs – so, you keep a clear view and can easily handle even large project plans.

Create working time calendars in InLoox PM according to your individual needs. So, you can incorporate different working time models, such as shift work or part-time work and enter working times, holidays and duration of work at different company locations into InLoox PM.

You can easily exchange project schedules between InLoox PM and Project. InLoox PM users do not need any additional software - neither is Microsoft Project necessary. Thus, you generate project files without any previous knowledge respectively read existing data in and use them - in a very simple user interface.

Manage resource capability and work load more effectively with the visual resources overview. It integrates both project work packages from InLoox PM and appointments from the Microsoft Exchange free/busy service. This way, you always have an instant and complete overview of all project resources like – be it team members, rooms, or tools.

Clarify tasks and responsibilities with work packages. Assigned team members know exactly what to do, and when to do it. Work packages are in synch with the project schedule and can also be linked to Outlook appointments and tasks. Giving feedback about the progress into the project schedule couldn’t be easier.

All expected internal costs for resources are calculated automatically. Fixed cost rates are kept on file by InLoox PM according to cost center or activity. Supplementary and special costs are added by the project manager. Regular plan/actual comparison are carried out automatically. Cost planning is therefore based on project time planning. As a result, you have conclusive costing.

Enter the skills of your team members into InLoox PM PM, such as language skills, special industry knowledge or certifications. So, you can easily localize employees with the required skills inside your company, contact them directly and deploy them systematically according to their skills at the suitable project position.   

Collect and organize ideas and information within your project visually. You’ll always have all ideas, concepts and drafts at a glance.

Format mind map nodes in InLoox PM PM in a fast and easy way. You can not only interlink the key words within the mind map to each other, but also with the time planning and with project documents. You can also create documents directly out of the mind map. InLoox PM PM then stores the document automatically in the document storage. So, you can access the project plan and the respective project documents directly out of your mind map.

The Mind Maps can be transferred conveniently to the project time plan. The result is a seamless planning process – from the first brainstorming to implementation.

Templates enable to reuse the mind maps and for example at the push of a button, download in other projects. Export the mind maps in a graphic or other form, in order to insert it to PowerPoint, Word or e-mail.

Forget tedious typing when keeping track of individual working times. InLoox PM can also transfer key data from Outlook automatically – for instance from appointments, tasks or e-mails. This facilitates the consistent and complete documentation of activities for purposes such as billing.

Team members can track their personal working times precisely to the minute by using the integrated stop watch. As soon they start to work on project-related tasks, they can start the stop watch. After having stopped the time tracking, the working time can be assigned directly to the project. So, they can fully concentrate on their tasks and still exactly document their working time.

Project teams are able to post costs and working hours in a very simple way. The system assigns the effort to the project plan automatically and stores a separate cost record. Recording actual hours couldn’t be easier.

Completed tasks will be automatically updated in project plan. The project manager can see, without a need for further reconciliation, whether all persons involved in a phase have completed their tasks and take appropriate measures in good time.

Compare planned and actual time and expense values on a real-time basis. View single activities, resources or even entire projects – you won’t lose deviations of your project anymore.

InLoox PM organizes your file or SharePoint Server. Every project offers access to related documents. E-mails, Microsoft Office documents and other files can be saved in the corresponding project folder directly via Outlook. In addition, files can be marked with tags showing, for example, their status.

InLoox PM now supports visual hierarchies and Outlook-style views. You can choose whether you want to see all documents at once or only folder contents like Windows Explorer displays them.

InLoox PM creates project folder according to the rules that can be centrally configured. Predefined subfolders can be created automatically (optional). The file system is therefore clear structured and well organized for users.

InLoox PM accelerates your work with project documents. The document preview enables you to have a quick look at your project documents without even having to open them. Send documents directly out of the InLoox PM PM document storage as e-mail and use synergetic effects in interaction with Microsoft Outlook.

InLoox PM interconnects project plans, time tracking entries, mind maps and documents. Create project documents directly out of the time planning, time tracking or mind maps or establish a shortcut to a stored document. InLoox PM stores newly created documents at the same time in the document storage. So, you have a central collection of all project documents and at the same time a complete overview of the elements in InLoox PM that the respective document is linked to.

InLoox PM saves storage space and avoids duplicate records simultaneously. As the software works with file and object links, documents are not saved in Microsoft Outlook and Exchange Server.

InLoox PM clearly defines project budget by planned and actual expenses and revenues in minimum time. The templates are freely definable and allow you to accelerate project costing.

Only authorized users have an access to budget planning. InLoox PM assigns the correct permission for creating or sharing budget to the person assuming a given role like project management, department management or executive.

InLoox PM continuously compares planned and actual expenses and revenues. The level of detail that your budget is broken down into is completely up to you. Budget overruns are highlighted in color, making it easy to identify unplanned additional expenses. The graphic representation gives you an instant overview of your budget status. Budget deviations can be identified in advance, making it possible to react in time.

Control the development of your project costs. InLoox PM automatically generates graphic of financial flow based on budget, time planning and project time tracking. Different graphic and tabular representation gives you an instant overview of your budget status.

InLoox PM enables to create, send, and follow up project-oriented offers and invoices. Also, ongoing Billing is possible based on project time tracking. Automatic billing numeration avoids forgetting any expenses or charging them twice.

InLoox PM improves the flow of information between project participants and decision makers with professional e-mail templates and boilerplates. During the composition of a new email, InLoox PM automatically provides all available templates and boilerplates, saving a lot of time in the process.

Forget your routine work. With InLoox PM, you can write e-mail, register working hours, and file project related documents – all these with one step.

Design e-mail templates and boilerplates, which adjust to your individual requirements as well as to the company’s internal workflows. A variety of templates and data fields are available for you.

Quick-Access-Panels linked Outlook tasks, appointments, emails and contacts directly to work packages, milestones, projects and contact persons in InLoox PM. InLoox PM automatically synchronizes all important information

Calendar items are connected to milestones and activities of project planning. You shouldn’t even open a project, in order to gain real-time information about project planning. Project planning changes as appointment changes, are automatically synchronized.

InLoox PM provides you with rapid and comfortable assignment of e-mails to the project document storage – directly out of Outlook. Besides, you are able to swiftly create a file structure with folders and subfolders out of the quick access panel. A linkage is displayed if a message has already been assigned to a project.

InLoox PM automatically connects Outlook contacts with correspondent projects. So, Outlook book already contains information about contact person. This helps to know which role he has at which project be it as project manager, team member, customer or partner.

At the push of a button, the highly flexible report designer issues reports such as project summaries, budget lists, expense reports and plan/actual comparisons in a variety of file formats like Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, HTML, PDF and many more.

Report designer issues reports of any level of detail, e.g. by single activities, whole projects or for the whole company. Consolidation, aggregating and filtering are available for detailed reports and only for authorized users.

You have a wide range of different types and templates like schedule, budget overview, plan-actual comparison, cross-projects time sheets, memos, status report, cover letter, billing and offer templates. From the first moment you have the right tool for your project daily routine.

The report designer included in InLoox PM permits to customize the layout and appearance of reports without a need of programming skills. Design the templates by preset structures and criteria according to your wishes.

The well-proven role and account-based security architecture allows you to assign permissions without much administrative effort. Responsibilities are thus clearly defined, at the same time making sure that only authorized users gain access to sensitive data.

Role permissions are defined according to the function carried out by each person involved in the project, be it as project manager, team member, customer, partner or any other activity. InLoox PM then assigns the correct permission to each person assuming a given role.

User account oriented permissions apply to all projects. This allows, for example, company management to look at all current and concluded projects, whereas practical responsibility remains in the hands of the project manager and team.

InLoox PM  accesses the Active Directory and Exchange accounts so, that the user accounts are created and stored only once. The inclusion of freelance employees, trainees or suppliers is no problem.

The InLoox PM authorization master record is finely structured and freely definable. The system allows the assignment of specific read-only or update permissions, for example to separate those for planning elements from those for the recording of activities or budgeting.

The InLoox PM contact manager gives users the possibility of creating an “InLoox PM contact” for each project member, even if they are not available as Outlook or Exchange contacts. So, external project partners and stakeholders without their own Windows user account in the corporate network are able to logon to the project management platform. An Active Directory or Exchange account is no longer necessary to have full access to InLoox PM.

InLoox PM enables project managers to provide InLoox PM contacts with the necessary authorizations. The InLoox PM contact can be, for example, allocated as a resource in a project and be notified of upcoming project tasks. InLoox PM offers a contact view and InLoox PM address books that allow users to manage InLoox PM contacts in an easy and comfortable way.

InLoox PM can thereby be used with full functionality without Microsoft Exchange Server and can, also, be combined with alternative groupware servers. Administrators can activate or deactivate the InLoox PM contact manager in the InLoox PM options, according to their individual requirements.

InLoox PM is multilingual and was designed especially for the use of international project teams working across national borders. Local character sets, units of measure, date and time formats are all supported. Regional and local adaptations are supported, be it a matter of numeric formats, date formats, units of measure or currencies. The free-of-charge InLoox PM resource editor allows the translation of the entire user interface, including all messages, formats, screen layouts and forms, into any language. All ISO 639-1 codes are supported.

InLoox PM blends into the IT environment of your company. The user system requirements are low. InLoox PM supports a number of database systems of widely varying performance levels and for different installation scenarios and can thus be accurately tailored for secure and efficient operation.

The inclusion of remote branch offices and freelance employees to the project management is very simple. InLoox PM supports secure Internet tunnels („Virtual Private Networking“, VPN), dial-up connections („Remote Access Service“, RAS) as well as data exchange and replication between servers (Replication, Clustering) located in different places of your company.

InLoox PM is designed with Windows Terminal Server, e. g. in conjunction with Citrix, for robust operation. Reduce your IT infrastructure costs by the operation of the project management solution. InLoox PM fits seamless in the large terminal server-frames. Numerous reference customers prefer InLoox PM for many years.

Use InLoox PM when disconnected from the SQL server, for example for sales staff in the field or for giving a presentation at the customer's office. Thanks to offline functions and automatic synchronization and Microsoft SQL Server InLoox PM is useable without connection to network or internet.

InLoox PM workgroup and enterprise servers are able to access databases from various manufacturers, including Microsoft SQL server, Oracle und MySQL server Database system requirements are small. Hosting and Application Service Providing are fully supported.

InLoox PM adapts to your company – not the other way around. Define own fields and views for optimizing your workflows. Customize your templates for reports, project plans, mind maps, and message boilerplates to your Corporate Identity. Translate application mask or adjust software terminology to your company policies. Data bank architecture enables you to create interfaces to other systems, in order to integrate and consolidate databases.