Asta Connect, a new collaborative task management tool for project teams
Asta Connect, a new collaborative task management tool for project teams
LONDON: Eleco plc, a specialist international provider of software and related services to the built environment, is proud to launch Asta Connect: a new collaborative task management tool within its award-winning Powerproject solution.
Asta Connect solves the challenges of short-term, on-site planning, collaboration and daily activities progress by connecting project teams with the overall master construction schedule, capturing commitments and delivering key insights on the projects to empower decision making.
Asta Connect enables trade contractors, project managers, contract managers, trade and Site Managers (last planners) to centrally coordinate daily and weekly work plans. It also assists them in understanding their roles and responsibilities, collaborating on agreed tasks, viewing their progress, and seeing the impact of their actions on other disciplines through a simple, visual interface.
Asta Connect is designed to simplify the adoption of Lean Construction first pioneered in the 1990s, to improve construction design and planning reliability and coordination between trades. With construction projects adopting lean practices being 3X as likely to be ahead of schedule and 2X more likely to be under budget (Lean Construction Institute) there’s good reason to get started.
David Simpson, Global Product Manager, Elecosoft, said: “Our customers are increasingly adopting Last Planner and Lean principles in their projects. The benefits of fostering collaboration and driving accountability, is reducing waste and avoiding unnecessary expenditure on rework. We are therefore pleased to support this trend by launching Asta Connect to provide a critical online gateway for multi-stakeholder collaboration while supporting the industry’s shift towards lean principles.
Asta Connect users can import project plans from master scheduling software like Powerproject or create a new master schedule within the Asta Connect programme to connect everyone involved with the overall objectives of the project. Digital whiteboards enable project stakeholders to visualise short-term works, improving workflow, generating buy-in from all project disciplines and being a digital platform provides key data insights to empower decision making and support continuous learning and improvement.”
Jonathan Hunter, CEO, Eleco, commented: “Customer centricity is core to our strategy and over three decades we have been working with the most experienced and talented construction planners in our industry to shape and develop our planning solution, Powerproject. Most of those experts use the name Asta when referring to Powerproject, which was the original company name prior to its acquisition by Eleco in 2006. 2023 is a year that we celebrate 9 years of being voted the best Project Management and Planning Software in the UK and to demonstrate our attentiveness to customers as well as our portfolio approach, we have chosen to reintroduce the Asta brand with the release of Asta Connect.”
Asta Powerproject version 17 released
Asta Powerproject update is now released with new modules and online services
Elecosoft, the specialist international software provider, is further enhancing its award-winning Asta Powerproject planning and project management software, with its latest release (version 17) bringing greater collaboration and sharing capabilities.
Available to Asta Powerproject subscribers, key updates include:
Protecting your work
The new autosave feature automatically saves progress at regular intervals with the default autosave setting of 10 minutes. Users can customise timings to save their work more or less frequently.
New project timeline feature
Including a new project timeline control panel, allowing customers to create key task overviews for each project. Programme managers can also add drop lines and call out priority tasks to ensure projects stay on track.
Activities within tasks
Uers can now break down a task into several activities that can be progressed individually and checked off when completed. Project managers can weight each activity’s importance to track overall task progress as individual actions are completed. This simplifies the structure of the overall programme without losing the fine detail.
Real-time collaboration
Compatibility with a brand-new module that allows project teams to work on a programme together in real time, benefitting from instant digital feedback on projects. This upgrade will help companies to enhance collaboration and prevent miscommunication within their projects.
Global governance library
Compatibility with the Asta global library management module to simplify company standards, save time and improve data accuracy and reporting. Centralising project templates will help organisations that use Asta Powerproject to manage workflows and ensure project compliance, as any changes will be automatically applied the next time a project is checked out.
Introduction of meaningful associations
Teams can assign and differentiate project tabs in various colours to make workflows easier to visualise.
In addition to upgrading its market-leading planning and project management software, Elecosoft is enhancing how it rolls out future software updates to ensure Asta Powerproject customers benefit from the latest functionality.
Asta Powerproject subscribers will receive a notification alert when new features are available, which they can automatically deploy via an installation wizard if this has been enabled.
Automating installation will enable Elecosoft to shorten release cycles for Asta Powerproject subscribers, and customers can expect to see their ideas rolled out faster.