User:Catalepsky/Sandbox

Websystems, inc

History

Websystems was founded in 2001 by Daniel Raymond, a software developer from Quebec City, Canada. Its first product, FreeTaskManager, was released in October of 2001.

In 2003, Websystems released its online software directory, web-based-software.com. While originally built to create traffic to its flagship product, FreeTaskManager, web-based-software.com quickly became popular with software vendors and buyers alike.

In 2003, FreeTaskManager was renamed to AceProject and relaunched.

Websystems’ team grew from a single-person company to a small, distributed team of 5 in 2007. In 2008, Websystems opened its first office in Quebec City, and grew to 9 full-time employees.

Infrastructure

Websystems’ structure is flat: everybody answers to the President. There are no team leaders and everyone is expected to work together as a team.

Websites

Websystems has two main websites and a third corporate presence.

The main websites are for the products, AceProject and web-based-software.com:

The third website is merely a placeholder for the domain:

http://www.websystems-inc.com/

Blogs

Go Ahead, Manage Go Ahead, Manage, was launched in March 2008, along with a user forum. Go Ahead, Manage focuses on project management

The blog's home page

Products

Websystems has two products: AceProject and Web-based-software.com.

AceProject

AceProject was originally named FreeTaskManager. It started out as a simple task management system where one could create tasks and assign them to someone else. FreeTaskManager was renamed to AceProject in 2003. It is now sold as a web-based project management system.

AceProject can be installed on the customer’s server. It can also be hosted on Websystems’ servers, as a subscription-based service.

When self-hosted, Websystems allows its clients to modify AceProject to fit their needs. When hosted on their servers, Websystems also permits customizations, to a limited extent.

AceProject is a classicASP (vbscript) application built over a Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL database.

The product page

Web-Based-Software

Web-based-software is an online, software directory.

The directory's home page

White Papers

A white paper was presented in November 2008 at the DSI 2008 Conference, entitled: Using AceProject to Improve Student Learning in MIS Courses. The paper was co-authored by Melinda K. Cline from Georgia Gwinnett College and Karine Simard from Websystems, Inc.

This research explores the use of AceProject as a teaching tool in undergraduate MIS courses. AceProject allows students to gain hands-on knowledge of project management (PM) software currently used by major corporations and universities in 21 countries including AT&T, Black & Decker, E*TRADE Financial, Kaiser Permanente, Pearson Education Technologies, and IBM Canada. Findings suggest AceProject may be effectively used to stimulate student interest in PM and enhance student learning.