Autotask Launches Web-Based Productivity Suite for Small & Mid-Size Project-Driven Companies; Increases revenue through better time tracking; streamlines management and collaboration.

RENSSELAER, N.Y. -- For the first time, an affordable and comprehensive suite of web-based tools is available to help small- and mid-sized project-driven companies run their businesses better. Autotask helps organizations whose operations are characterized by intricate, people-intensive processes to capture more billable time, manage projects with greater efficiency, streamline operations and collaborate more effectively.

In announcing Autotask, President Richard Frederick said, "In the past, small to mid-size project-driven businesses - such as software companies, Information Technology firms, VARs, consulting firms, and small to mid-size professional service providers - have been underserved or priced out of the market dominated by enterprise software providers like PeopleSoft, SAP and Oracle."

He adds, "On the flip-side, stand-alone project management and time tracking tools fall woefully short of handling the myriad of ancillary activities surrounding a project - such as sales and proposal before and customer support afterwards - so users have to improvise to close the gaps."

A recent survey of early users conducted by Autotask indicates real and substantial productivity gains among its first 100 customers. On average, customers report saving an average of 80% in recording and reporting time-entry and billing functions, and 15% average increase in billable time captured.

"With Autotask, now anywhere that we enter data - whether it's for CRM, project management, service desk, or billing - it all goes into the same place and we can access it from anywhere " said Shabbir Safdar, Chief Technology Officer of Mindshare Interactive Campaigns, a public affairs communications firm located in Washington, DC. "Nothing falls through the cracks anymore - and for a company like ours, time is literally money - and we always have a real-time snapshot of our business."

Autotask provides a fluid, flexible suite of robust software tools for managing every aspect of the project-driven business process: sales and customer relations, contracts and billing, project management, timesheets and resource management, help desk and issue tracking, and reporting.

These tools each stand on their own as single, powerful "point solutions," but are also totally integrated allowing data to be entered once and shared across all functions. Customers report that Autotask cuts costs by streamlining business processes and boosts revenue by more accurately tracking billable time.

The Autotask suite features:

--Customer Relationship Management -- provides a single integrated view of prospect and customer information, including all the notes and history, contacts, opportunities, project status, installed products, service tickets and ongoing communication. Integrated sales tools help track leads, monitor gross margin and follow deals through the pipeline. Autotask Quote Management accelerates CRM workflow, speeding quote generation with support for discounts at both quote and line item levels. Because Autotask is integrated, when a prospect becomes a customer, essential contact information is immediately available for project management.

--Project Tracking -- helps monitor and schedule projects, assign resources, build project teams from roles, billing rates and allocation codes and track time against projects. With real-time status reports, managers can quickly assess project profitability and margin. Autotask also offers the ability to give customers controlled access to project data if desired. Project management tools and the comprehensive data saved in project histories can readily be used to generate faster, more accurate estimates for sales proposals.

--Project Portfolio Management -- helps project managers understand what's due, what's done, what's overdue and who has time. Tools include cross-project reporting, project performance, project P&L, earned value, cost analysis, and real-time project status. Managers can track utilization by location, department and resource; monitor billable goals per resource, and analyze and chart trends. The result is more control and fewer surprises.

--Contract Management and Billing -- automates the tracking and ultimate billing of all project and service related costs and can reduce billing costs by 50% for many customers. Autotask supports Fixed Price, Time and Materials, Milestone and Percent Complete contracts, Prepaid Retainer and Block Hour billing methods. The Vendor Forecast Report gives resellers and distributors an estimate of the products that will be sold in a given date range.

--Time and Expense Management -- captures more billable hours while accurately tracking billable expenses to clients, reduces double entry and saves up to 80% of the time it takes to process paper based systems. Time entry by Autotask users automatically updates timesheets, workload reports, project schedules, project budget reports and the schedule on the project manager dashboard, making it easy to get a handle on billable vs. unbillable hours and productivity issues. Many customers report a 15% increase in capturing billable time.

--Customer Service and Support - consolidates and handles all internal and external support calls and trouble tickets from entry to resolution. Autotask projects and service tickets work together produce combined reporting on task assignments, billing information, account history and resource availability. Autotask provides comprehensive support for Help Desk, IT Service Management, Project Work, Work Order Management and Field Service Work as well as request processing for drawing sets, bug tracking and other assignments

--Extensions - AutotaskConnect for QuickBooks electronically transfers payroll information, mapping Autotask resources and payroll time categories to QuickBooks employees and payroll items. AutotaskConnect(TM) imports projects and project plans created in Microsoft Project directly into Autotask, while preserving task linking and task dependencies. Autotaskinside(TM) for Microsoft Outlook(R) seamlessly couples key Outlook and Autotask features without the need for Microsoft Exchange Server or third-party software.

Pricing and Availability

Autotask Standard Edition is currently available at www.autotask.com (or by calling 518-720-3500 ext. 223). Companies can begin to manage business processes more efficiently using Autotask for as little as $1 per user per day.

About Autotask Corporation

Autotask (http://www.autotask.com), headquartered in Rensselaer, NY, provides business management and project tracking solutions delivered as a web service on-demand. Autotask makes it easy to manage and track people, projects, time and costs by connecting project teams to business teams for better business decisions. Founded in March 2001, Autotask now has about 100 customers with several thousand users across 28 states and Canada, including leading software developers, consulting organizations and technology based services companies using Autotask products. Autotask was recently named the 2004 Rising Star by TechConnex.

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