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ProofHQ launches smarter way to manage proofing & approval

Press release from the issuing company

London, August 26, 2008 – ProofHQ today marked the official launch of its new web application that is changing the way teams manage, proof, and approve creative projects and documents. The online collaboration tool offers a simple and flexible way to address the chief pain points associated with reviewing, commenting, and approving designs, photos, artwork, documents, and other content – to enhance collaboration, reduce project management headaches and speed up time to sign off.

Unlike other proofing applications, ProofHQ easily fits into each organization's unique workflow needs. Users can embed a 'Miniproof' into blogs and wikis, expanding collaboration and integration across social media applications. With ProofHQ, it's possible to share a design file on a company wiki, personal blog, client site, and ProofHQ page – and comments made from reviewers at each location seamlessly appear alongside one another. As a result, team members can review comments and create discussion threads across multiple locations.

To get started, a designer or project manager simply uploads a design file or document to ProofHQ – and the Uploadr tool even lets users drag and drop files (up to 75 Mb) right from their desktop. ProofHQ automatically creates a web-optimized, Flash-based proof to share with reviewers. Members of the review team can collaboratively review the proof online – adding mark-ups, creating real-time discussion threads around other's feedback, comparing versions, and ultimately making a final approval decision.

Project managers and designers can refer to ProofHQ's project dashboard to instantly see the status of a particular proof – and check which team members have reviewed, commented on, and approved a proof.

"The proofing and approval process is one of the most common activities for agencies and designers, yet one of the most un-automated. The majority of creatives still rely on email attachments to manage proofing with clients and internal teams. This leads to a range of challenges and inefficiencies – including struggles with file attachment sizes and the need to manually reconcile comments among multiple reviewers. Although organizations of nearly every type experience these challenges, we decided to focus on solving the problem specifically for agencies, designers, print, and production," said Mat Atkinson, co-founder and CEO of ProofHQ.

Atkinson continued. "ProofHQ is as simple to use as sending an email, but offers enhanced tracking, collaboration, audit, and automation capabilities. Most importantly, ProofHQ is portable and flexible enough to adapt to a company's workflow, instead of forcing an organization to adapt their processes to the software. After all, the end goal is to make it easier for everyone to get things done"

As a web-based application, teams can start using ProofHQ instantly – without the expensive and complex system integration and custom development requirements typical with traditional enterprise applications. Additionally, ProofHQ can be integrated into project management applications, such as Basecamp.

In private beta since January, ProofHQ has already created an enthusiastic user base consisting of thousands of creative professionals, design firms, print production, and enterprise organizations.

"With ProofHQ, we can give our customers the added value and convenience of accessing their proofs over the Internet – without the worry that large files will clog their email servers. Each client has their own workspace on ProofHQ to keep all their proofs organized, and we can even upload their logos for added personalization," said Angie Jacks, ProofHQ customer and graphics manager at Worrell Corporation. "From a designer's perspective, ProofHQ saves us significant time in client review and project management. In just a few clicks, I can upload a proof from my desktop and see at-a-glance which proofs are still open and which have been approved."

ProofHQ offers tiered monthly and annual pricing plans based on the number of end users, number of proofs, and storage per month – including a free account for users who need only five proofs per month. Anyone can sign up today for a 14-day free trial for any sized plan.

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