Blog
February 27, 2024
Today, I’m excited to announce Hansoft is now named Helix Plan!
This name change has been a long time coming, and I believe it not only better reflects where our product stands today, but it also helps us align with the future direction of Perforce. Having worked with Hansoft for over a decade, I’ve had a front row seat to the incredible journey our team and product has been on.
In this blog, I’ll take us back to the beginning of Hansoft, share why we’re now Helix Plan, and where we’re headed as a product.
A Bit of Hansoft History
About twenty years ago, the idea for Hansoft was started as a side project by a game developer and producer working in Uppsala, Sweden. They were using Microsoft Project and Excel for a game development project, but quickly realized these weren’t tools designed for managing large-scale software projects.
With a mission to make project management easier for game development studios using the Agile method, they developed and released the first version of Hansoft. The company officially launched in 2005 and was profitable from day one, signaling the demand for a tool that could support increasingly complex projects for large and distributed teams.
I joined the team in 2013, back when we were still a small start-up, as a Partner Relations Manager with the goal of expanding the business in the APAC region. Over the years, I’ve held different roles in marketing, sales, customer success, and now product.
In 2017, Hansoft was brought into the Perforce family and became part of the larger mission to solve the hardest DevOps challenges. Since then, it’s been amazing to see us grow from just a small team in Sweden to a now international and distributed team.
I’ve also witnessed how Hansoft has transformed as a product, evolving from providing basic support for specific planning methods used in isolation to now having the ability to track complex projects across a mix of Agile, waterfall, and lean development methodologies. Subsequently, we have taken on the much-needed role of an enterprise planning tool that provides a single platform for decision-making at the project, program, and portfolio levels.
Back to topWhy We’re Now Helix Plan
As Helix Plan, today our name reflects both who we were and who we are now. The same mission that first drew me to work for Hansoft is the same mission we’re still built around. We’re just as passionate about improving project management as we were on day one.
The new Helix Plan logo was designed to show that we’re able to support projects from beginning to end, changing to an open circle to represent how Helix Plan helps you reach your planned destination. Now, with the power of Perforce and the backing of a suite of world-class products, we can better serve you, our customers throughout every part of your project planning cycle. Helix Plan is fully incorporated into the Perforce Helix Core ecosystem with key integrations with Helix Core and Helix ALM.
In addition, we’re making this name change to Helix Plan to align with an ever-evolving market, where planning and communication are becoming increasingly complex. To combat these challenges, we’re ensuring Helix Plan provides high-level and low-level visibility for technical projects, supports more diverse and distributed teams, and enables forecasting and scoping for larger projects.
To best support you in this environment, our Helix Plan team is continuing to refine and deliver features. This new era for Helix Plan evolves around:
- Our New API: Fitting into a wider DevOps ecosystem is a key focus area for us. Our Helix Plan GraphQL API enables new integration (such as our recent Helix ALM integration) and new web client features. These features will make it much easier for you to build your own integrations.
- Alignment with Perforce Products: We will change our versioning of Helix Plan so that the version now indicates when the product was released.
- Global Presence: With our team distributed around the world and customers driving large-scale, distributed planning in Helix Plan, we will continue to make updates in relevant feature areas. For example, we will focus on improvements in time tracking, performance, permissions, and other key features to succeed globally.
📘 Related Resource: Helix Plan Product Brief
Back to topWhere We’re Heading with Helix Plan
I’m looking forward to rolling out more features in the following year to help your team turn plans into reality. On the horizon, you’ll see more integrations with the Helix Core ecosystem, a more developed API, and a new web client.
On behalf of the entire Helix Plan team, we are grateful for your continued support of our journey, and we are dedicated to continuing to help your team innovate and scale to reach new heights.
Get Started with Helix Plan
If you haven’t already, download Helix Plan today to start planning, collaborating, and delivering with confidence. You can get started with Helix Plan free for up to five users.