BITSoftware / Blog

Two of the most prestigious research and consulting companies in business software (Gartner and Forrester Research) predicted an increased activity in the cloud computing area for 2012-2013. Increasing sales, diversifying offers, the appearance of new „clouds” (public or private), are just few of the aspects on which Gartner & Forrester experts bets.

Therefore, the biggest player in cloud-computing area (Google) could not sit passively in the face of such opportunities. And is preparing to launch GDrive, desktop and Google cloud synchronization solution. What GDrive is, which are its competitors, and if there is a similar solution on the market are just some of the questions asked by Internet users.

GDrive is not a surprise product. People talk about it for almost five years. Lately, however, rumors said that GDrive release is a matter of days, maximum weeks. And even Google`s CEO, Larry Page, manages the project.

The „GDrive” name comes from Google Drive and is a cloud-storage service that would rival one of Silicon Valley’s hottest start-ups, cloud-storage provider Dropbox Inc. In other words, GDrive is Google’s „DropBox”. With the advantage of being fully integrated with the famous Google Applications (Gmail, Gtalk, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Groups, Google Sites). Like Dropbox, Google’s storage service is a response to the growth of Internet-connected mobile devices like smartphones and tablets and the rise of cloud computing. And things will work like this: you create a folder on your HDD, whose files will be uploaded & synchronized in real time with the cloud. GDrive will allow you to store photos, documents and videos on Google’s servers, so that they could be accessible from any Web-connected device. And will also allow you to easily share them.

A leaked screenshot of the service has indicated that when Google will reveal the final version of its Drive service, users will automatically be furnished with 5GB of free storage, rivalling offerings by Box.net and SugarSync, and eclipsing the default 2GB storage limit of Dropbox’s increasingly popular service (the company allows you to add more space via social sharing initiatives etc).

The initiative is a first step made ​​towards further centralization of Google Group services under the GDrive name. Which could become a dangerous competitor for the current leader, Dropbox, but mainly for his old rival: Apple Technology and its iCloud.

Sources: The Wall Street Journal, GigaOm.com, www.top10cloudstorage.com, talkandroid.com

As we announced a month ago, SocrateBI solution is composed of several modules, so we will continue to talk today about PCAM (Project Controlling Analysis Module), addressed to companies working on projects.

Need for controlling emerge especially from the companies need to be more successful, the main goal of controlling being to increase efficiency. Sometimes, even with a project management solution implemented and an internal project management team, some projects fail to meet objectives. Why? Because many companies use empirical data analysis tools, which do not provide automated alerts or real-time information to ensure that the user has the information needed to make the appropriate correction.

With SocrateBI`s Project Controlling Analysis Module, your organization gains insights on the project realization in term of planning, budgeted and realized. The module has been designed to offer information on one hand about the number of hours spent on different activities, tasks, phases and projects, and on the other hand to see at a glance if the projects are over budget or the number of planned hours exceeded. PCAM provides an integrated view of data with an intuitive flexible display that can be personalised to every business user, and your team can easily integrate and display data from ERP.

With SocrateBI’s Project Controlling Analysis Module you can:

- determine available projects, spent, working hours, time until the end of projects.
- monitor the time spent by each employee on project and drill to phase, task and activity.
- overview of OHE planned and realized by Project Type.
- monitor Project Fulfillment in terms of cost, committed, planned and invoiced amounts.
- discover correlation between planned to start and started projects as well as planned to end and closed projects.

SocrateBI’s Project Controlling Analysis Module, built on MicroStrategy platform, provides more than 23 performance metrics and over 10 key reports to help companies control the project’s fulfillment, time spent by employees, planned versus finished projects.