Swiftlight offers a unique blend of a practical planning structure, high-quality “PowerPoint-like” graphics, and outstanding ease of use. Easier, less detailed and cheaper than Microsoft Project, and faster and more structured than using Excel or PowerPoint for planning, Swiftlight helps you to get organised, communicate clearly and save time in the process.

See the “Big Picture” in Swiftlight’s Timeline View

Our customers love Swiftlight’s visually appealing and flexible Timeline View since it helps them easily develop and communicate great-looking, high level plans, as illustrated in the example below:

An Example Timeline Output from Swiftlight

To see other timeline examples, click here!

Don’t Get Lost in the Detail!

Swiftlight provides 8 different “views” on your project, allowing you to plan at a high level (e.g. focusing on project objectives and the timeline) and also to plan at a more detailed level (e.g. creating to-do lists by activity), when you need. You can choose to use one, some or all of these views as suits the needs of your project and your working style.

To find out more about all of Swiftlight’s views, please take the product tour.

Exceptional Ease of Use = Get Going Quickly + No Training Requirement

The first thing our customers talk about is ease of use. With Swiftlight’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface and simple navigation, getting going is incredibly easy. Combine this with our free “3 minute” video tutorials and other support resources, and you’ll find there is no need for in-depth training. To see for yourself, why not get a free 30 day trial?

Other Key Features

• One click export of outputs directly to MS PowerPoint or PDF;
• Customisable colours, fonts, terminology, logos and more, allowing you to create outputs that are in line with your needs, tastes and your company’s branding requirements: see examples
• Links to / from MS Project: find out more

Is Swiftlight For You?

Swiftlight is designed to meet the needs of “general managers” (e.g. marketing or brand managers, senior executives, operations or planning managers, management consultants etc), as well as specialist project managers. In terms of project type, Swiftlight is particularly well suited to smaller, simpler “management” projects, rather than large IT / engineering projects, as illustrated in the graphic below:

Where does Swiftlight fit in the Project Pyramid?

• “Selected fit” for Swiftlight = valuable utility as a high level planning and communication / reporting tool alongside other project management software;
• “Strong fit” for Swiftlight = as a core planning and communication / reporting tool (instead of Excel / PowerPoint, MS Project).

“General managers“, for whom traditional project management software is often too complex and who may be using MS Excel and PowerPoint instead, find that Swiftlight is straight-forward and well suited to their needs. It provides a practical structure that is focused on the fundamentals, clear presentation-ready outputs, and it is 3 times faster than their existing tools – saving hours of precious time.

For specialist project managers, Swiftlight is not intended to be a direct replacement for MS Project (or similar tools) on larger, more complex projects. However, these specialist project managers and other users of MS Project find that Swiftlight is great in a number of situations:

• As an high level planning / communication tool alongside their more complex project management software (e.g. for a high level perspective on a complex project plan, perhaps using Swiftlight’s links to/from MS Project);
• For smaller projects;
• For fast development of high level timelines (e.g. for communication to senior executives);
• For providing a “big picture” view of a portfolio of projects.

To see how you can create a presentation-ready timeline in three minutes, click here.

Swiftlight’s Design and Features List

Swiftlight’s overall design is based on a practical planning philosophy, best practice project management principles and a belief in keeping things simple. We believe in:

• Being clear about objectives, deliverables and measures of success;
• Laying out a high level plan of activities, using milestones to highlight key deliverables and checkpoints;
• Managing the plan, and people, to specific deliverables and deadlines;
• Communicating, communicating, communicating – to maximize the chances of project success.

Swiftlight’s features include:

• A powerful Timeline View with different display options and intelligent auto-formatting features which allows you to build a great looking timeline very quickly;
• The ability to articulate objectives, deliverables and measures of success as well as activities, giving you a more holistic definition of the project plan;
• Eight different views – some of which are more “big picture” oriented, and others more detail oriented:
  • “Big picture” views: Timeline, Objectives and Scope, Activity Group Summary;
  • More detail oriented views: Action List, Action List over Time, Activity Group Detail, Contacts, Issue Log;
• Flexibility: you can use one, some or all of the views – as fits your needs and working style;
• Outstanding ease of use. Swiftlight has an intuitive graphical user interface that is easy to use and easy to learn;
• Clear graphics which make the timeline and other outputs very easy to read, and great for communication;
• WYSIWYG: Each view in Swiftlight is formatted like a page so that what you see on the screen is what you will get when you print out or export the page to PowerPoint or PDF;
• One click export of outputs directly to MS PowerPoint or PDF;
• Export of lists and tables to Excel in CSV format;
• Easy copy / paste of data from Swiftlight to Outlook, Word and other business software, allowing you to share data with others easily, or incorporate it into other documents;
• Customisable colours, fonts, logos and more, allowing you to create outputs that are in line with your tastes and / or your company’s branding: see examples;
• Review and reporting features that help you keep the plan up-to-date easily and quickly.
• Links¹ to / from MS Project allowing easier and clearer communication of detailed project plans, or high level planning in Swiftlight followed by detailed planning in MS Project. Find out more

¹ Beta functionality. Email sales@torridonsolutions.com for more information

When Can You Use Swiftlight?

Find Out More / Next Steps

• See how you can create a presentation-ready timeline in three minutes
• Take the detailed product tour
• Read more about Swiftlight’s benefits
• Download a free 30 day trial