Keeping track of projects b/n China + US.

[false_Aest]

Hey Folks,

I'm looking for a bit of project management help here.

Usually I'd fly to Asia 2-3x between November and May to button up projects but this hasn't happened.
Added pressure on both sides of MFG has added to the difficulty and we're seeing things slip through the cracks on the MFG side regardless of how many times I remind or push for updates.

In the US we're using Google Sheets + Asana to keep track of stuff. It's working because we can track progress almost instantly. If there's questions we're using Slack or Zoom.

Unfortunately, I don't have that option when working with people in China.
Google is blocked.
Asana is blocked.
DropBox is blocked (sometimes).

I need to come up with a solution to track progress, sampling, tooling modifications, update ETAs, XF dates, etc. and it has to be better than emailing an Excel spreadsheet back and forth (I've tried it and it becomes a cluster right quick like).

Thoughts?

[weisan]

airtable or trello

Other than that, I got nothing else to offer here.

More importantly, you need a "counterpart" over there.

Good luck!

[slowpoke]

You're going to have to go with Microsoft solutions.

[dbnm]

Have you looked at Slack?

[Brusselsprouts]

Interned for a european consulting company in Shanghai during college. We used a VPN for most of our software tools.

Anecdotally speaking everyone I knew openly used VPNs at their companies and personally to correspond with their counterparts in other geographies which was shocking to me. Aside from using a VPN, I haven't been back for a long time to understand what collaboration tools are not behind a firewall (fortunately Slack and Zoom havent been axed yet).

[Blue Jays]

How about Microsoft Teams? Has your organization had luck using that tool?

[GonaSovereign]

Microsoft has a China Azure setup, so you can use MS offerings. Longer term, consider the benefits of manufacturing elsewhere.

[Keith A]

I have no experience with this tool, but a quick Internet search shows that Nutstore might work...
https://medium.com/@Jier/how-to-share-files-with-your-chinese-business-partners-9b63d5618dcd

[mt2u77]

I have used Sharepoint to work with colleagues in China. I'm not familiar with the IT side of things, but I'm sure it's fully vetted and above board.

[false_Aest]

Thanks for the suggestions ya'll!