PC-T-Card - A Wall-planner on your desktop
Cambridge Technology Consultants have developed a multi-user software application to succeed the T-card wall planner.
The availability and data processing abilities of desktop computers would seem to make them ideal for organisational planning. However, there are still situations where the wall planner is a superior management tool, providing visual representation of the current state of projects/processes and being very simple to operate.
Physical wall planners do have some inadequacies however. They can only be in one place at a time, usually screwed to a wall, precluding use from another room or building. The size of each card limits the amount of information that can be stored. On a large planner, finding an individual card can be time consuming, especially if it is not where it's expected to be. Shuffling a tall column of cards to insert one at the top can also be time consuming, and there is no automatic record of who moved a card and when.
CTC has solved these problems with the introduction of 'PC-T-Card', a PC application which combines the benefits of a T-card wall planner with the extra functionality computer applications can provide. The size of the planner rack is virtually unlimited. Each card can contain up to 10,000 characters of text, formatted to user defined templates, which can be searched using the find feature to highlight an individual card in a busy rack. The user views the entire planner or zooms into sections as required. Each card can be freely dragged to a different location, with the Auto-Shuffle feature moving other cards down the rack to make room. Double clicking a card allows the user to read or edit its text. New cards are created by double clicking in an empty slot, copying or using the menu system. Adding, editing and moving are all recorded in the individual card histories.
Multi-user versions of 'PC-T-Card' allow the same planner to be simultaneously used in many locations, extending the benefits of a T-card system beyond a single wall. The planner can be accessed and modified from anywhere on the network. Changes to user-specified columns are highlighted with a pop-up message or an icon in the Windows Tool Tray whilst the application runs hidden in the background. The complete planner is updated four times a second.
Following a successful international beta trial, we have now released version 3 of PC-T-Card. To order your free evaluation version, time limited to 30 days, with your name and contact details.
