I ran into Atlas President and Co-Founder Michel Bayan while at CES 2013 today, and he was kind enough to show my an intriguing time management platform his company is working on.
Michel explained to me that when setting up an appointment or meeting, finding a time that works for everyone involves too much back and forth via emails or texts. Then of course, with everyone on different calendar platforms, it sucks up even more time.
Many solutions require you to share you calendars with others, causing privacy issues for many, especially if they aren’t in the same enterprise. Also, there doesn’t seem to be a simple way to delegate tasks to anyone. Enter Atlas, which will be available on iOS and Android.
Atlas contains 3 core feature sets:
1) The Calendar: Allows integration with any calendar, you can view and manage your iCal, Outlook, and Google calendars. All through one interface. Appointment negotiation allows you to schedule an appointment, no matter what platform the recipient is on, by suggesting multiple times for an appointment or meeting. The recipient can check each time using the Atlas interface, and select the time that works best for him or her.
2) Tasks: Easily see whom you are responsible to, and who is responsible to you. Set due dates and reminders, sync the reminders on all devices, works with iCloud and Google users.
3) Contacts: A unified address book includes contacts from your phone, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Invite anyone to an event, or delegate a task to them directly from their contact card. See who else is also on Atlas, and add contacts to groups in your address book.
Michel showed me an early version of the app, and while there are rough edges to be addressed, this looks like a promising app.
I’ll be keeping my eye on this project, and will keep you informed on its progress.
If you’d like to get on the list to possibly be part of the upcoming beta, just visit their request page.
