Projectmates Construction Software Blog

Projectmates Administrators

There are 3 types of administrators in Projectmates: Site Administrators, Project Administrators, and Co-Administrators.  Knowing the differences between the three can help you when deciding who should get which status.

Site Administrators:This administrator has the highest level of access in Projectmates.  The Site Admin can access any project or user on the system.  They have the capability of permanently deleting projects, changing the look and feel of Projectmates, and granting other users access to Portfolio, Bids/Planroom, Campaigns, and Site Admin areas.

Project Administrators: Each project will have a designated user who is the Project Administrator.  The Project Administrator has full access within that project.  He/She will have the ability to add users and roles, create threads, and assign rights to users in that project.  The changes that a Project Administrator makes to his/her project will only effect that single project. Project Administrators also have the ability to delete or park their own project.  When a new project is first created the Project Administrator will default to the user that is creating the project; however, this user can be changed later.  There can be only one Project Admin per project.

Co-Administrators:The Project Administrator of a project can assign one or more Co-Administrators to help manage the project. Co-Administrators have nearly the same access as Project Administrators.  They too can add users, threads, and grant permissions in the Project.  The differences being, a co-administrator cannot assign other co-administrators or change the project administrator.  They also cannot delete or park the project. These capabilities are reserved solely for the Project Administrator.

Note: The three types of administrators described above do not affect the permissions that a user has to individual threads within a project.  The rights associated with viewing and creating new items in a threads are dependent upon a user's ROLE in that particular project.  That being said, any of the administrators above have the ability to change their role in a project so that they have the appropriate rights to threads. 

Training Your Users

Many users struggle when they are beginning to use Projectmates because they haven't yet been trained or they do not know what is expected of them.  In many cases, Projectmates Administrators end up receiving numerous support calls or users become exceedingly frustrated and do not use the system.  Many of these issues can be avoided by creating your own personalized training and help documents that users can access at any time. 

For our clients with their own server(Total Control and Installed Solutions), I recommend creating a separate Project entirely dedicated to Projectmates Training and Support.  If you are an asp user (i.e. you login to www.projectmates.com) you can simply create a separate tab in an existing project for storing your Projectmates training documents. 

Even though Projectmates comes with detailed, user-friendly help guides, every company should create their own brief help documents specific to their processes.  Simply download the Projectmates guides and edit them to suite your needs.  For example, you may be able to eliminate the section related to Prime Contracts if you are not using that particular module. You could also separate out each module's help information so that you have separate files for RFI help, Schedule help, Change Order help, etc. Also, make sure to add information that is specific to your company.  For instance, you may need users to enter a specific number into the RFI Internal Tracking Number field in Projectmates.  Be sure to explain these types of procedures in your documentation.  Then, upload these documents into your newly created Projectmates Training and Support Project.   

Once this is done, users should be able to easily find a Help Guide specific to their needs that outlines what is expected of them.  These documents could be written files or recorded video presentations.  You could also setup a discussion or RFI/Issue Tracker thread for responding to users questions or posting FAQs.  It would also be a good idea to include links on the Project Home Page where users can link to the Projectmates' University page where they can view and download pre-recorded training seminars created by Projectmates' Training and Development Staff.

Keep in mind that as soon as you add a new user to your system, they receive an email from Projectmates welcoming them to the site and giving them a link to login.  When adding a new user it would be a good idea to also send out your own email (create a template for this) that lets them know exactly what they are expected to do in Projectmates.  Also include information about your new Projectmates Training and Support Project so users know how to get support and training!

Getting Started

So you've just signed up for Projectmates.  Congratulations! You're one-step closer to low maintenance project management!  You're probably now wondering, 'What's Next?'

Below are 5 simple steps to getting started with Projectmates.

Step 1 - Installation:  If you have purchased Projectmates as an Installed Solution, you will need to get your server ready and register your Projectmates URL.  If you are a new Total Control client, we will do this for you.  For all of our new clients, we will install Projectmates and design your Portal, or Login, page.

Step 2 - Admin Training:  Projectmates' Implementation and Training team will train your administrators and conduct interviews with key players to get a feel for your company's processes in order to get the most out of our software.

Step 3 - Create a Template Project:  Creating a Template is a crucial step in Projectmates Implementation.  This template will contain all of the tabs, menus, and user permissions that will be common to all of your projects.  Once this is done, creating new projects will be as simple as copying these settings from your template and adding the appropriate users.

Step 4 - User Training:  Now it's time to train your users.  This step may consist of several small trainings targeted to specific groups of users.  For example, you could have separate trainings for your various departments or for outside vendors.  Although Projectmates has very detailed and user-friendly help guides, it is also a good idea to create your own training materials and help guides specific to your company's practices.

Step 5 - Launch:  Now you're ready to launch your projects.  You should first do a 'soft launch' with a single project with only a handful of users.  Work on this project for a few weeks and document any concerns or issues.  Our Implementation Team will be in constant communication with you to address any concerns and, if necessary, process customization requests. Once all issues have been resolved, you can launch all of your future projects in Projectmates.

Logging Into Projectmates

Does the following text look familiar to you?  "Compatibility Testing... If you can see this text for more than a few seconds the test has failed..." How about "Invalid username or Password"?  If so, then you've probably encountered a common problem while logging into Projectmates. While, for some of us, this task requires very little work on our part, for others, it can require several changes to our Internet Settings.

For those of you that have received an invalid username or password error message:  First, make sure that you do not have CAPS LOCK on as Projectmates' passwords are case sensitive.  If you do not remember your password, you can click the "Forgot your password?" link to retrieve it.  Simply type in your username, and your password will be emailed to you. If you have forgotten your username or you did not receive this email, contact your Site Admin, since you may not have a Projectmates account, or your information may have been changed.  Your Site Admin's contact information can be found on the login screen.

If you have successfully entered your username and password for the first time, you will be taken through a Projectmates Compatibility test to verify that your Internet Settings will work with Projectmates.  If you've followed the directions on the screen and are still unable to move past that test, here are a few additional tips. 

You may also want to watch our E-Learning video on Logging Into Projectmates.  Just click the image to begin viewing!

Once you have completed Projectmates' Compatibility test, you will be logged into Projectmates, and you should not be required run this test again.