Products
Are you still using Microsoft Excel to manage your business? Excel is a fine tool. Everyone needs and uses a spreadsheet. And it's a good tool for data analysis. But if you're using Excel to manage your business, then you need to rethink that strategy.
So if you're still using Excel to manage your business, here are 3 really good reasons to move off it:
- An Excel spreadsheet is a static document. Usually, it lives on someone's computer. Even if you use the Office Online version, someone is the owner or manager of
that document and has to update all the raw data. What happens when the manager is out sick or on vacation?
Who has access to the spreadsheets? Who manages the business? When your business tool is shared your team has access to it at any time.
You - and more importantly the entire team - can access its functions on their workstations. You're no longer
chained to a desk or blocked by static documents. And since the team is directly accessing these functions, you are not glued to your workstation. Imagine what other
things you could do with your time?
- Excel is a great pivot-table tool. You can create great looking charts and reports, fairly easily. Only problem? Your data is stale. With an
application supporting your business, your data is always updated instantly and in real time, which gives you instant visibility into potential roadblocks or issues
that can derail your operation.
- When you manage your business, and open your team with collaborative tools, you're giving them the autonomy to work freely. That creates a more loyal team, which you can easily retain, and who will work harder because they buy-in to the day-to-day operation of your business. That means, you're not wasting time micro-managing people.
Excel is a great tool, but there are better tools to help you manage your business. We were using Excel for many tasks but grew tired of doing calculations in Excel and then copying data from one spreadsheet to another. In fact, it's why we started developing the products below - to help give you tools that help you keep your business on track.
Our project management applications have been developed based on practical experience and used by our Managing Director and founder, Michael, in the real world for many years. In fact we use them when running any of our internal projects, developing custom tools for our clients or when working on our suite of products.
Our other applications have been developed after significant research and consultation with businesses operating in those industries. Our focus is on assisting small business manage their information, which is one of the most critical factors in running a succcessful business. They are a natural progression from the applications that we have built for ourselves to manage our own business; they represent tried and tested approaches to business management.
Our tools for the most part utilise SQL Server databases to store all information; we don't believe placing sensative business data on the cloud or that an offsite hosted environment provides the security of critical and sensative information about your, or your clients', operation. With our solutions, your data remains within your own firewall and under your own management. You're not dependent on some other organisation to do the "right thing" by your data. If you have governmental clients, this is a vital consideration for them.
We are always looking to improve them. We listen to our clients and respond positively to their suggestions for improvement or enhancements.
Project Management
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Condotiero
Condotiero is an application that helps the project manager track a project’s progress to its budget, generate forecasts and calculate percentage complete. It interfaces with various Microsoft Office 2013 applications like Word, Excel and Project. The package assists the Project Manager to perform such tasks as estimating, scheduling, requirements management, risk management, defect & issue tracking, document control, status reporting and tracking & monitoring status against the plan.
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Almogavar
Almogavar is an application that helps manage Agile projects by utilising the power of Condotiero but focusing on what's essential for an Agile project. It's built around the SCRUM Body of Knowledge (SBoK). It records personas and epics, generates personas and epics cards, records user stories and their acceptance criteria, tasks and expenses, maintains product backlogs and sprint backlogs using a graphical interface, records sprints and the allocated user stories/tasks and facilitates project and sprint retrospectives.
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Artificer
Artificer is an add-on to Condotiero, and Almogavar, that assists performing the PRINCE2 Product Based Planning (PBP) technique. Artificer provides facilities for preparing a Product Breakdown Structure, Product Descriptions and Product Flow diagrams. But Artificer can also generate a draft project schedule using the product flow defined to partly sequence/relate tasks, and an Estimating Workbook which can be used to obtain approval for the project's budget.
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Surveyor
Surveyor is an add-on to Condotiero will assist the management of request and ideas for project. It serves as a queue for these ideas and performs an evaluation to determine project size, suggested project complexity and costs to take the idea to the next stage. It can generate a project assessment form which can then be used to obtain approval to proceed to the next phase/stage.
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Scribe
Scribe is an add-on to Condotiero for preparing Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) documentation. Condotiero holds the estimates for projects and these are important input into a CBA; they are part of the costs and may also represent part of the benefits (i.e. revenue).
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Soothsayer
Soothsayer is an add-on to Condotiero that assists team members record their forecast for the effort they have left on their allocated assignments. While this can be done through Condotiero, the project manager may not want team members to have to navigate through that comprehensive application. Soothsayer is a simple addon that a team member can use to simply see their allocated assignments and enter their forecast.
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Monarch
Monarch is an application that helps programme manager or portfolio managers manage programmes or portfolios. As per the above description, the programme manager or portfolio manager is selected from a group eligible to provide this type of management and hold this position for the duration of the programme or life of the portfolio. They may even perform this role on multiple programmes or portfolios. They exercise final responsibility of decisions and results.
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Constable
Constable is an application that provides a central dashboard for starting all of Castellan Systems' project/programme applications. It also provides a central point for importing all timesheet data, no matter whether it's for a project, programme or support project. As well, it provides Email and Instant Messaging facilities to keep the whole team in touch. Constable turns Castellan Systems' project/programme applications in a suite.
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Herald
Herald is an application that helps monitor an organisations project/sales pipeline and determines resources required when the opportunity is formalised into a project/sale.
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Steward
Steward is an application that helps the support team supervise the information generated by project(s) that contributed to systems in operation. Steward relies on the project teams utilising Condotiero and/or Almogavar to manage projects.
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ClockKeeper
ClockKeeper is an application which enables you to track, manage and control employee time and attendance for uncompromised cost management. But unlike most of similar systems, ClockKeeper has been built with the Project Manager in mind. The package provides all of the standard functionality that similar time recording systems do, but where it excels in in the assistance it provides the Project Manager to track of actual effort charged to their project and match it against their budget/estimate.
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QuarterMaster
The Quartermaster Corps is responsible for supplying materials to an army in the field. QuarterMaster performs a similar role for projects, allowing the Project Manager to request resources and helping the Resource Manager supply those requests.
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Librarian
Librarian is a powerful tool that allows the Project Manager, and the whole team, keep track of project documents with its built-in Document Management System (DMS) The project manager can therefore easily locate documents when required. It maintains a register, which meets PMI & CMM requirements, but also allows for the recording of their hard copy location. It can also track import project communications, including the details of who send it and who was the receiver.
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RAIDer
RAIDer stands for RAID Register. RAID is an abbreviation of Risks, Actions, Issues, Defects. RAIDer helps the Project Manager record and track them. It supports Risk Analysis workshops and the preparation of Risk Management Plans including Risk Watch Lists and Action Plans. It tracks defects in all phases of a project and import defects from review documents.
Business
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Chancellor
Chancellor is an application that helps manage employees as required by the business, including their details records, leave, performance appraisal reviews and training plans. It manages the recruitment process to fill in vacant positions.
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Merchant
Merchant is a Supply Chain Management application. Supply chain management systems span the activities of procurement, product lifecycle management, supply chain planning (including inventory planning and the maintenance of enterprise assets and production lines), logistics (including transportation and fleet management), and order management. Merchant is a partner application to our Employee Management Systems (EMS), Chancellor. It's been developed to work along side Version 4.0 of Chancellor and together form a strong solution for any business.
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Cofferer
Cofferer allows each team in the IT department to identify their projects for inclusion into the budget and their costs; it also allows them to define their operational costs. It can present the budget graphically and produce documentation to circulate for review and approval.
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CeladorEN
Celador is a Hospital Information Management System (HIMS) that assists medical and nursing staff manage the operations of a hospital; from ambulance calls, doctors' clinics, inpatients & outpatients, wards & beds, surgery bookings, medical procedures, lab testing, medication, catering, inventory management, budget planning and accounting. This is the English language version.
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CeladorES
Celador is a Hospital Information Management System (HIMS) that assists medical and nursing staff manage the operations of a hospital; from ambulance calls, doctors' clinics, inpatients & outpatients, wards & beds, surgery bookings, medical procedures, lab testing, medication, catering, inventory management, budget planning and accounting. This is the Spanish language version.
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Caterer
Caterer is a Supply Chain Management application for businesses or individuals providing food and drink to their clients’ events. Supply chain management systems span the activities of procurement, product lifecycle management, supply chain planning (including inventory planning and the maintenance of enterprise assets and production lines), logistics (including transportation and fleet management), and order management. Caterer can partner with our Employee Management Systems (EMS), Chancellor. It's been developed to work along side Version 4.0 of Chancellor and together form a strong solution for any business.
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Tabernero
Tabernero is a Supply Chain Management application for restaurants, cafes and any other type of business preparing and serving food to their clients. Supply chain management systems span the activities of procurement, product lifecycle management, supply chain planning (including inventory planning and the maintenance of enterprise assets and production lines), logistics (including transportation and fleet management), and order management.
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Innkeeper
Innkeeper is a Property Management System (PMS) for hotels, motels, B&Bs and any other type of business providing accommodation and other services to their clients. A property management system is a solution for successfully managing the day-to-day activities of your hotel or vacation rental. From reservation, housekeeping, maintenance, analytics to billing and reporting, a PMS reduces labour and time-intensive activities
Frameworks
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Foundations
Foundations is a comprehensive, practical framework to build on, to which an organisation can incorporate onto their existing processes to meet their needs, that's why we've called it Foundations. We recognised that there are areas which may be unique to an organisation, like the Bid Management or Development processes. But then again, neither of those two processes are actually Project Management. Foundations also provides procedural support to the requesting, acquiring and management of resources required via projects.
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Vendor
Vendor is an add on to our Foundations Project Management Framework. It provides a vendor selection process, and templates, which can be used when you need to select a vendor to provide a service. This partly satisfies the requirements of the "External Supplier Management" process in the Project Management Framework. The process provides 5 steps to help you select the right vendor for your business. This process document will show you how to analyse your business requirements, search for prospective vendors, lead the team in selecting the winning vendor and provide you with insight on contract negotiations and avoiding negotiation mistakes.
Web Templates
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Taberna
Taberna is a fully functional restaurant website template that can support our Tabernero application. It has email, cart and payment (through PayPal) integration.
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Mercado
Mercado is a fully functional marketplace website template that can support our Merchant or Caterer applications. It has email, cart and payment (through PayPal) integration.
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Posada
Posada is a fully functional hotel/motel/B&B website template that can support our Innkeeper application. It has email, cart and payment (through PayPal) integration.
Miscellaneous
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Quiniela
Quiniela is an application that helps run a tipping competition around major competitions like the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Champions League, La Liga, English Premier League, NRL, AFL, NFL or MLB, just to name a few. And yes, we use a Microsoft Access database instead of something more industrial like SQL Server; if you're using Quiniela at your workplace, your DBA team may not be too keen for you to put this database in one of their nice SQL Servers.
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Almoner
Almoner is an application that helps manage the fund-raising activities of a Not-for-Profit Organisation (NPO) and tracking their expenses, be it running expenses or financial assistance provides to other as per their charter.
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CastellanTools
Castellan Tools comprises 10 distinct tools: Remove DSN Links / Relink Database; SLQ to VBA, Access Database Health Check, Database SQL Generator, Data Dictionary, Set Database Properties, Unicode Character Map, Colour Calculator, Ribbon Assistant, Base64 Encode/Decode and Start Application using Microsoft Access Runtime.
