PBWorks continues vertical path with project edition
Today, PBWorks (formerly PB Wiki) introduced a 'projects' version of it wiki service. Priced at $20 per user per month with no fee for guest/parrtner users, the service is aimed at a broad swathe of project based businesses such as advertising (campaigns), consulting, accounting and marketing. One use case example might be the development of an advertising campaign with a client where the copywriting is undertaken collaboratively in the PBWorks workspace.
The idea is that this version brings together the management and 'doing' parts of project execution in a single place. Chris Yeh, the company's VP enterprise marketing explains: "You can think of this as bringing together the best of Microsoft Project with something like BaseCamp. We think this will allow improved client satisfaction at the business end while providing project people with better coordination at modest cost."
As part of the release, PB Works has beefed up user management so that guest/partner users can be allocated to workspaces. There they can interact with any object that is in the project workspace but they don't get access to the full network of people that might be working on multiple projects. Search has also been improved.
PBWorks uses the concept of milestones as a repository where you can see tasks, notes, links along with the conversations that are occurring within the task. Tasks can be rolled up into larger milestones and you can assign specific tasks that you can tie to workspace pages or leave as independent action items.
As one of a number of wiki providers, you have to ask whether the vertical market strategy is one that has genuine longevity. PBWorks believes the addressable US market in consultants alone is just shy of 1 million. The legal and accounting professions each have around 1 million people in their networks. "Of course there is a risk but I believe we're early enough that we should be able to knock down enough bowling pins to make for a viable market. In this type of market, it is a lot easier to convince people who are used to valuing their time. Similarly, these are markets that are well used to word of mouth so that should keep our customer acquisition costs very low," says Yeh.
The combination of just enough functionality to reduce or eliminate the management aspects coupled with highly attractive access costs will make PBWorks an attractive alternative to more mature offerings. How far it can spread remains to be seen.