Hosted tool gives immediate help to small development teams

CollabNet Inc. Monday unveiled an on-demand service to help small software development teams quickly gain access to hosted integrated project management and collaboration technology.

The CollabNet OnDemand service will provide collaboration capabilities to development teams of five to 60 members within 24 hours of purchasing a subscription for the tool, CollabNet said. The hosted product provides users with a central repository, software configuration management, an issue tracker, task management, role-based access control and a reporting dashboard.

The new on demand model allows teams to focus on software development without having to worry about the administration, security, maintenance and costs associated with managing development projects, CollabNet said.

"Traditional development tools were designed for local use, and connecting distributed teams always required the purchase of additional IT services to make it work," noted Bill Portelli, CEO of CollabNet, in a statement. "As a result, we are seizing the market with solutions that are easy to adopt, are accessible via the Web [and] bring closer collaboration for teams in different locations."

The CollabNet OnDemand pre-configured private project workspace includes:

-- A central repository for managing project communication, documents, and development assets;

-- development tools that include issue and change tracking;

-- a task manager to improve project management, task visibility, clarity and workflow; and

-- a file release system that enables users to publish files and groups of files for selected audiences.

A free trial being offered to every new user on any project. CollabNet OnDemand is regularly US$50 per user per month.