Walnut Creek, CA - American Reprographics Company, the nation's leading provider of reprographic services and developers of PlanWell construction document management applications, today announced the general availability of its project collaboration application, PlanWell Collaborate.

A cost-effective and easy-to-use web-based application that accelerates project team coordination and improves file sharing, PlanWell Collaborate replaces inefficient project management tools like FTP, email or spreadsheets. With PlanWell Collaborate, construction project managers can easily share documents, increase team accountability, and reduce delays without the complexity and steep learning curve associated with traditional project management software.

"Our reprographic services background gives us a first-hand view of how construction project teams use documents to communicate and collaborate," said Kumar Wiratunga, ARC's director of technology. "With few exceptions the process is either highly manual or overly complex, and accountability is frequently dispersed to the point where it is extremely difficult to track. PlanWell Collaborate was developed to overcome those difficulties and provide effective project collaboration with simple-to-use features that anyone can learn in minutes."

PlanWell Collaborate can be used independently or inside Microsoft Outlook to create a working environment that is easy-to-use, familiar and immediately accessible. Project communication and document sharing happens in real time inside a central project portal, so projects start fast and stay on track with current information. With no software to install and a cost-effective software-as-a-service pricing model, users can be added or removed from the project as their participation is required.

PlanWell Collaborate features include:

- Outlook Integration: Work entirely inside Outlook, reducing training and ensuring faster project starts
- Project Dashboard: Quickly view project status, tasks, documents and more from a single screen
- Team Networking and Notifications: Easily capture, view and catalog team communication in real time for better and faster communication
- Direct Publish: Upload files and large documents quickly and easily with tracking and automatic updates to project participants
- File Viewer: Quickly view and markup any file without software; revision tracking is automatic
- Check In/Out and Change Control: Track and control access to documents
- Project Calendar and Tasks: Get summary or detailed information from real-time calendars on deadlines, milestones and tasks
- Project Images: Track site progress and activity with project images for team members, stakeholders and clients

General Availability:

PlanWell Collaborate is available as software-as-a-service (Saas) for individuals, project teams and business enterprises of all sizes. Standard pricing is set at $25/seat per month.