project management

I was one of the unfortunate ones to purchase FC PlanPlus v 1.x. Being an IT (Information Technology) person by trade, I was dumbfounded how a time and task management company could have put out such as lousy product with v 1.x. FC did not have the staff or plan to support it and I ended up sending it back for a refund.... Fortunately V 2.0 has addressed every one of the problems I reported and it looks like they have finally gotten it right... At least for the versions of the OS and Outlook I am using... I am running XP pro with Outlook 2003 hooked to Exchange server. The install went without a hitch for both the PC and my Pocket PC. The FC Plan Plus home page is a must. I finally have all the screens I use on one page. No more having to open a note to document my phone calls, then having to jump to calendar to enter a meeting request, or go to Mail to look at my e-mail etc. I can stay at the home page and do it all!!!. I can also print my pages with just about any layout I can think of (saving me from having to buy daily pages every year). On the printout I have all my notes, tasks, appointments, etc. I encourage all of you seriously thinking about buying this product to download the 30 day eval and give it a try. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. NOTE: The eval is 90 meg (has to load .net framework) so be patient. I would have given it a 5 star if ALL the added features of PlanPlus would have transfered to the Pocket PC... As it is now the Mission Statments, Goals, and Compass do not transfer: only the Daily Record and Prioritized tasks go over (along with the standard mail, calandar, etc from Outlook...) All in all I think this is a great product and hightly recommend it for the serious planner...

I have never written a review of a software product before. I felt compelled to write one about FranklinCovey's PlanPlus For Microsoft Outlook 2.0 because I hope to that it will dissuade people from wasting money on this product.

Until I bought this product, I had no beef with the company FranklinCovey. I have been using their paper planner for the last 6 years. I had hoped that PlanPlus would simplify my life by allowing me to use planning tools while in Outlook. In reality, I have had nothing but trouble with the nearly impossible installation, the buggy product, and the infuriating tech support.

It started when I tried to install the product on my laptop. I worked with their tech support online (they charge if you want to actually speak with someone). I went through quite a few tech support people, many of whom seemed to repeat the same mantra of "uninstall/reinstall" which I did countless times. I really had to push them to get them to help me. When they were stumped and they said they would research the issue and get back to me and of course they never did. Eventually I got someone online and I would not let them go until we resolved the installation problem. After 5 days of working at this, it was finally installed. To my horror, it slowed down outlook so significantly that I decided to uninstall it.

Around the same time I was dealing with problems with the install on my laptop, I was trying to also install this on my desktop PC. I worked with tech support for about 3 weeks off and on. Again, they were stumped. They kept repeating the phrase, "We will get back to you at the earliest." I never heard back from them. Now I wonder what they meant. Was it the earliest ice age? The earliest millenium? They kind of left it open for interpretation. It's been several months now and I have wasted so much time on this. I was never able to install the product, I kept getting an error message and the installation would stop.

I can't return the product because they don't accept returns on software if it has been opened. All I can do at this point is vow never to buy another FranklinCovey product again and encourage others to reconsider their plans to purchase this product. If you are a diehard Franklin Planner user, like I was, I would recommend that you stick with the paper planner - it's far less buggy and you won't have to deal with an indifferent tech support that will "get back to you at the earliest."

I wouldn't risk it based on the reviews here. The first version ruined my Exchange profile - now I can't have tasks in Outlook -EVER. FC Support is worthless. So ironic that a company that puts so much emphasis on integrity and excellence put out such an incredibly shoddy product. I'm sorry - I can't trust a company that would release such an incredibly bad product.