Spotlight Software is a new technology startup in the Phoenix area. With their official launch this Friday, they will be offering a SaaS based program called Spotlight People & Project Manager that can be used to manage remote project teams, particularly in the software development industry.
They describe the service as “project management goes social”. Spotlight People & Project Manager will attempt to merge the efficiencies of Agile project management tools, with the power of social networking. The end result will be a cloud-based project collaboration platform with designs on increasing overall productivity, and decreasing the ‘time to market’ on projects driven by remote teams. Come Friday, you can check out their website here, and tell us what you think!
Spotlight was founded by Vincent Serpico, who operates as CEO, and was born from a need for effective communication, as Vincent also manages SerpicoDEV which relies heavily on remote development teams. With fragmented communication resulting in such high project failure rates, Vincent knew he needed to combine both project management, and a tool for fluid communication.
Vincent goes on to describe the final product of Spotlight People & Project Manager as,
[facilitating] communication among the team through a social network interface on top of a lean, agile task management system.
The interface will show a user’s contact information, tasks they are working on, tasks they have completed, and a real-time “status card”. The status card will be used in a similar manner to a personal Facebook wall. It will allow you to tell your team members when you are out for lunch, and give them a place to post questions directed to you.
Here is an example screenshot:
The cloud-based spotlight service starts at $29 / month, and is going live at spotlightppm.com this Friday, December 14th.