Client Revision Communication Tool

[apexmotion]

Hi,

How do most of you communicate with your clients? Do you use email? I'm looking for a tool where I could have a webpage that clients could log into and look at current revisions of images and make comments. This way all their comments and my comments are documented on one long web page. They should also be able to upload files to the webpage.

Has anyone heard of anything like that?

Rob

[Da_elf]

i did that once and my clients seemed like they couldnt be bothered with logging onto anything (morons)

[sv]

we've developed our own client loggin software that does exaclty this - it even shows stages and they can agree to sign a stage off so they can't go back and change there minds etc.

but as Da_Elf said, most clients we deal with can't be asked to log on or use a computer or do anything apart from see the final image, so we've given up.

morons.

[glorybound]

Client Communication

I use both Adobe PDF PRO and AutoDesk DWF markup

[GeoPal]

I have also tried using web based file sharing thing. What I mean is that sometimes clients or colleagues claim they didn't get the email, though you haven't got any bad email notification. That made me search for a small file listing, but with advanced features like download count and users/total,today,yesterday/ stats.
This way I could actually track if all the intended people were actually there and saw the content. But yes, like above said, some people find it frustrating to open a page and download a file (which according to me is much better than dealing with file attachment limits in emails and filling up fast your mail box/.

Best regards, George

[pixelstudio]

ah nice subject. i think these problems are very common for us all. i have also looked for a 'quick and easy' way to setup such a system

two option's basicly:
- build it yourself (cost loads of time nad cash)
- search for a free script.

The last one seems the best. but i have not found any that will do.
a couple things i would like.
- user login
- communication features (mail and webbassed)
- File upload for both (users can upload drawings, we can upload images)
- Nice and clean interface with not that much "peoha"

So i keep looking for this until i have found such a environment.
Maybe some1 has some recommadations ?

[peterguthrie]

Looks like its time for me to actually contribute to this forum

I've been using a website called conceptshare for about 6 months now and I absolutely love it. Its been very popular with my clients as well as they feel much more involved in the process. In fact, some of them seem to use it more than I do....

http://www.conceptshare.com/

There is a free option, but if you want more than 1 project on the go at one time then it costs $19 a month.

You can upload images, pdfs, dwgs (If you pay extra) and can link to websites. Then you and your clients can scribble over them, leave comments and chat in real time.

So far I havent found anything that works as well. According to their feedback forum they are planning some kind of Basecamp integration if you're into that.

Heres a screenshot:

[DrJan]

Nowadays we mostly use e-mail with PDFs or print images on photopaper when there's a meeting. People seem to like that alot.

There has been a period that we used a phpBB on our website but as said before, clients just didn't bother to log in. Out of about 50 clients that used the forum during that time, only ONE person bothered to post a message.
Then it started to become filled with spam so we got rid of it.

Peter's suggestion seems very interesting though. I might try that out some time...

[glorybound]

Share

I also use my site to communicate. I post files and when they login using their user name and password they see their files. Thsy can also upload using a net3ftp script via the site. Works out well... I also have Meebo (IM) built in so if we can chat.

[EricKlein]

I've tried:

http://www.octopz.com/

and

http://www.basecamphq.com/

and my own website with 'client areas'.

Right now I vote for the later. Basecamp is fairly nice, but there's a 30meg limit to uploads. Octopz is interesting, but that level of collaboration is only valuable sometimes...

Eric.

[instinct]

Octopoz and Conceptshare do look very nice, but that would never be an option here. Usual the data is simply too secret to be send anywhere else but inhouse servers. If they'd offer it as software that would be pretty nice tho.

Regards,
Thorsten

[EricKlein]

Octopoz and Conceptshare do look very nice, but that would never be an option here. Usual the data is simply too secret to be send anywhere else but inhouse servers. If they'd offer it as software that would be pretty nice tho.

Regards,
Thorsten

We have that issue too- IT is really pushing sharepoint as a solution...

Eric.

[instinct]

I havent taken a closer look at sharepoint, but if i recall right it is mainly office-targeted. And am not really looking into getting win2k3 servers and more expensive MS stuff now that we migrated most of our stuff to *nix finally :P

Regards,
Thorsten

[tricky]

We've built our own customised to our requirements. Its been a lot of work - both in time and money - but it is bespoke and means our entire image production workflow/naming structure is strictly adhered to.

It is sometimes a pain to get clients to use it, but the ones that do love it. If anything, it means more work for us as they can comment very specifically - even aproaching on being pedantic! But, it keeps 'em happy!

[schroeder]

We use Project-Open, and are quite happy with it. After an initial investment of time in the customization stages, it was up and running pretty smoothly. We keep a dedicated server inhouse to host it, and handle all the admin ourselves even though there is a hosted option through the developing parties. As an open-source solution, it's been extremely reliable and stable.

http://www.project-open.com/