--- In going_independent@yahoogroups.com, "Mike Gunderloy"
<MikeG1@...> wrote:
>
> We went through a fairly long evaluation process and ended up with
> Standard Time - which is far from perfect but closer than anything else

My company was using XL spreadsheets to manage timesheets and we
underwent an evaluation of time tracking software. In the end, we
also chose Standard Time.

For us, it had the follwoing compelling features:

* a central SQL Server database
* a functional fat client and a web client
* Microsoft Project integration
* It handled both time tracking and light project planning

My group is spread out over the country and we do consulting work for
customers on their premises. We attempted to run the client over our
VPN, but the performance was not acceptable. We tried to use the web
client, but after using the real client, it was disappointing.

In the end, we enabled SQL Server merge replication on the DB and
installed MSDE on each person's local machine. We replicate between
the local machines and the main server every 5 minutes. This allows
all of our consultants to use the fat client against their local
database. If they are travelling or on customer site, they sync back
to the main DB once they connect again to the VPN. It has been a
terrific system for us.

We have been using Standard Time for 9 months so far. It has plenty
of quirks and I can give you a list of things that I would like to
improve, but I honestly don't know how we would work without it, which
is probably the best praise I could give. It is our full time
tracking tool and we use the project planning aspects a lot.

The other thing that I like about it is that since it is built on a
central SQL Server db (we run Secret Server on the same server), we
can extend the functionality of the
application by using db triggers on the tables and stored procedures.
Overall, it provides a nice platform for our work.

bvj

www.jandrconsult.com