We're approaching the 1 year anniversary of OnTime 2006 (V6.0) release, which was November 14th, 2005.  For the past year, we've been working on some important enhancements that help teams ship software on time.  Much of our time has also been focused on developing OnTime 2007.  This is my first announcement about OnTime 2007, and I’m very excited to offer this sneak peak.  I believe Axosoft has just raised the bar considerably in the defect tracking / software project management world. 

Free OnTime 2007 Web Hosted Beta Signups!

Lets start with the best part first.  You can signup for OnTime 2007 Web Hosted right now, but before you do, watch this video that does a great job of capturing what OnTime 2007 is all about:

OnTime 2007 is 100% re-written from scratch to take full advantage of the latest AJAX and .NET 2.0 technologies, providing a rich user experience and helping users be more productive than ever before.  Here are some of the highlights of what's new:

• 100% Re-written from Scratch to take full advantage of AJAX, Atlas & .NET 2.0 technologies
• New 4-pane UI (similar to OnTime Windows Edition) with independent data updates for fast response times
• New Incident Tracking capabilities to provide HelpDesk staff the same application and database that developers and testers use.
• New Alerts System that allows users to define “triggers” that cause email notifications based on specific field changes or when items meet a certain filter criteria. For example, you can set up an alert to be notified by email if a defect has been in the system for more than ‘x’ days and has a priority greater than or equal to ‘y’.
• New Customers and Users tabs that allow you to view customers and users hierarchically (just like projects) and instantly view Defects, Features, Tasks and Incidents associated with them.
• New Screenshot Paste Feature that allows Windows users to run a click-once application to paste and edit a screenshot directly in the Web browser...no need to save the screenshot elsewhere first.
• New SQL-Side Data Paging for optimum performance regardless of database size.  This new enhancement makes even extremely large databases with well over 100,000 items snap the data you want quickly onto your screen.
• Unbelievable number of new UI enhancements including:
  • Drag-and Drop column sizing and ordering
  • Right-Click context menu
  • Dialog windows that “float” on top of the main page
  • Continuously updated mini-dashboard
  • Edit on the fly in the details section without opening the item
  • Instant screenshot review
  • Add/remove columns on the fly
  • Search for Projects, Users and Customers quicker and easier
  • Hundreds of other enhancements

We think this is all extremely exciting stuff and I'm sure you'll agree. 

So where's the signup form?

OnTime 2007 Web Hosted Beta Instant Signup

Some details about this hosted beta:

• The beta accounts will default to 5-users and will remain free for 3 months.  If you need more than 5 users for the beta test, contact sales@axosoft.com and we can make proper arrangements.
• After signing up for this beta, the system will automatically create a new OnTime 2007 Web installation for you and you will receive an email with login information within 1 minute.
• Right now, we're testing OnTime 2007 Web beta in the hosted environment only.  We expect to have an installed version (as well as the OnTime 2007 Windows and VS.NET versions) by mid-December.
• We've created a discussion forum for beta users to discuss and comment on OnTime 2007.  We will be monitoring this forum very actively during the beta test phase.  (to access this forum, you must be a member of the Axosoft User Forums - a free signup)
• You can read some of the FAQs about this beta here.

I'll be posting a separate article on pricing, features and the various editions of OnTime shortly.  Stay tuned and keep us informed on your beta experience.