omniplan

OmniPlan is yet another exquisitely well designed organisation tool from the experts at Omni. Aimed specifically at project management, OmniPlan includes all the functionality you need (think: task management, scheduling, resource allocation, visual timelines, data sharing, critical path management) and none of the rubbish you don't need. It's all wrapped up in a simple and clean user interface and it's suitable for all sorts of different project management situations. This latest beta version (1.5 beta 2) includes improved date navigation, as well as various usability, stability and bug fixes.

Following on the first part we gave you last week, here is the second bit of our interview with Ken Case, a founder of the Omni Group.

iT: How threatened do you feel by the rise of online applications (like Google apps) and how do you think it will affect your business model?

KC: I'm not sure whether you're asking about online applications which are written with native tools and leverage the Internet (like Google Earth), or web applications which are written to run in web browsers (like Google Spreadsheets) and store their data online. But perhaps my answer to either question is basically the same, so it doesn't really matter: either way, we're talking about online technology being leveraged to build software solutions.

All software solutions are built by leveraging some set of technologies. At Omni, we happen to focus on leveraging Macintosh technologies, though we're certainly no stranger to online apps (which I've been writing since the mid-'80s, before founding Omni) or to web apps (which we built a lot of during Omni's consulting years in the late '90s). Most technologies aren't exclusive, and we may well make more use of online technologies in future versions of our applications. But what we've decided to focus on are Macintosh technologies, and we've done this because we feel they make us the most productive.

So do we feel threatened by online applications? No more than by Windows applications, or Java applications: none of those approaches to building software seem as appealing to us as the way we're building our software now. And we'll continue to be on the lookout for technologies that can help us be even more productive.