800,000 registered users in the Projectplace cloud

Significant milestone reached, driven by heightened interest in social collaboration tools

Projectplace, the European leader in online project collaboration, recently had its 800,000th user join its service.  The milestone is proof of organisations increasingly adopting the Social Business strategy, embracing those tools and leadership models that support transparency and knowledge-sharing from a multitude of sources.

Pioneer in the cloud
Projectplace was one of the very first to offer cloud services already in 1998. The company was determined to combine the power of social interaction and communication with a project-centric approach in the cloud.

“When Projectplace started with online collaboration tools, there was scepticism about services in the cloud, but today people have really seen the benefits. In fact, more and more organisations are choosing to organise their projects in the cloud,” says Johan Zetterström, CEO of Projectplace.

The company has experienced double-digit growth, year on year, since its start-up in 1998. In the past 12 months, an additional 100,000 users have registered with Projectplace.

Interest in cloud services is growing exponentially and The Global Cloud Computing Market Forecast: 2015-2020, a recent market report by Market Research Media, concludes that the global cloud-computing market is anticipated to increase at a CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate) of 30 percent, reaching a whopping $270 billion by 2020.

Projects - temporary social systems
Since its inception in 1998, Projectplace is continuing to experience steady growth in interest for project collaboration online - part of the Social Business. With offices located in seven countries and a user base spread across some 150 countries,  users benefit from being able to log in from anywhere on any online device. Company’s expanding user base is clear proof that more and more organisations are managing their operations in projects.

“In our view, projects represent temporary social systems. Organisations that engage their employees in a structured project format that helps them become more social while working towards a common goal is highly beneficial,” continues Zetterström. “Organisations have everything to gain by raising the bar on organisational transparency, productivity and efficiency.  I’m delighted that many organisations today are aware of the exceptional advantages that social features bring in helping increase transparency. Mobile apps with social features also enable employees to work effectively from anywhere, any time.”

UK expansion to drive growth in 2013
In Europe, Projectplace is leading the development of project collaboration tools in the cloud.  And it plans to continue its rapid expansion. The company is currently recruiting staff in sales and development for all of its seven offices. One of the markets where the user base has increased markedly in the past year is in the U.K.

“The U.K. is a great market for Projectplace services because many people there have flexible jobs. With job-sharing or working from home, you can benefit tremendously from online collaboration using mobile apps,” explains Zetterström.

The use of cloud services is being actively encouraged in the public sector. The UK government is currently driving a G-Cloud initiative. It lists checked and vetted distributers of cloud services from which various public sector organisations are allowed to choose.

Projectplace figures among the approved distributors listed on the G-Cloud website. What’s more, The National Health Services, the largest employer in Europe, is already a Projectplace client.
Projectplace has also recently opened a sales office in the U.K. and further expansion plans in 2013 include the U.S.A. market. The next major milestone is reaching one million users.

User number 800,000
Most activities and tasks can be organised as projects; even potential crises plans. The recent 800,000th registered user is an employee of ABB, a global leader in power and automation technologies. The ABB division CSIS (Country Staff Information Systems) uses Projectplace to run their virtual “incident room,” with project members located all over the world.

“Projectplace tools are not only very easy to use but are also extremely intuitive. To be sufficiently prepared for potential incidents, we need to have our project up and running in a matter of minutes; by then,  there is no time to train people how to use the tools,” explains Mats Granström, IS Information Manager of CSIS.

Granström says that the other major factor in signing on to the Projectplace service was the matter of security. In order to ensure the highest level of availability, ABB needed the incident room to be hosted outside of their own infrastructure. Projectplace proved to be the perfect complementary tool.