About iObeya

Curious about what iObeya is? This article introduces you to the core concepts and features that make iObeya a powerful tool for digital collaboration and visual management.

What is iObeya ?

iObeya is a digital platform that enables teams to collaborate visually and manage their work in real-time, no matter where they are. Inspired by the traditional Japanese "Obeya" room, which is a big room used for visual project management and team collaboration, iObeya brings this concept into the digital age.

Designed to support Lean, Agile, and other collaborative methodologies, iObeya allows teams to create and manage visual boards: Kanban board, Planning board, Hoshin Kanri matrice and more, online. By digitizing Visual Management System, iObeya makes it easy to organize, track, and update work visually, improving communication and coordination across teams and departments.

Why use iObeya?

In today’s fast-paced, increasingly digital world, effective collaboration is more crucial than ever. iObeya helps bridge the gap between traditional, face-to-face teamwork and the modern need for digital connectivity.

By providing a virtual room where teams can visualize, organize, and manage their work, iObeya enhances communication, aligns teams on shared goals, and drives productivity.

Who is iObeya designed for?

iObeya is designed for anyone looking to enhance their team’s visual management and collaboration capabilities. It is particularly beneficial for teams practicing Lean, Agile, and other visual management methodologies.

Whether you are in product development, project management, operations, or any field that benefits from visual planning and collaboration, iObeya provides the tools you need to succeed.

Dig into iObeya features

• Virtual Rooms and Boards: design and customize digital rooms/boards for project management, strategy deployment, daily stand-ups, and more.

  About Room

  A room in iObeya works as dedicated space where you can gather your team, projects, and resources in one place. Consider a room as a space allocated to a specific project or department within your organization.

  

  Rooms help keep your work environment organized by grouping related boards together:

  • Rooms can represent different projects, teams, or departments, so you can organize workspaces within your organization.

  • Each room can have specific access settings, so you can control who can enter, view, or edit the content within.

  • Rooms serve as the central hub where team members can collaborate, share ideas, and manage their tasks.

  About Board

  A board in iObeya is a space where the actual work happens within a room. It is a visual canvas where you can schedule tasks, brainstorm ideas, and track project progress.

  

  • Boards allow to visually present tasks, ideas, and information. You can use cards, notes, charts, and other elements to map out your project.

  • Track tasks, set priorities, and monitor progress on boards. You can represent each task or idea as an individual element that you can move, edite or comment on.

  • You can tailor boards to fit your specific needs:

       For example:

  • Kanban board: iObeya supports kanban boards for managing workflows and visualizing work in progress. Teams can set “Work in progres” limits, track cycle times, and manage effectively.

  • Planning board: for Agile teams, iObeya provides planning boards where you can manage sprints, backlogs, and user stories. You can directly conduct sprint planning and review sessions within the platform.

  • Hoshin Kanri: iObeya includes tools for Hoshin Kanri (strategy deployment), enabling organizations to align their strategic goals with day-to-day operations.

  Note:

  • Think of rooms as containers that hold various boards related to a specific project or team. Each room can contain multiple boards, so you can navigate between different aspects of a project.

  • Within a room, boards serve as the actual workspaces where you can plan, track and execute tasks. Multiple boards within a room can represent different stages of a project or different categories of work.

• Real-Time collaboration: teams can work together in real-time, adding and moving elements on the board, just like in a physical room.

  • Multiple users can work on the same board simultaneously, with changes visible in real-time. This ensures that all team members are always on the same page.

  • Users can leave comments and annotations on boards and specific elements, facilitating clear communication and feedback.

• Templates and customization: iObeya provides various templates to get you started quickly, with the flexibility to create and customize your own.

• Integration with other tools: seamlessly integrate iObeya with tools like JIRA, Excel, and more, to enhance your workflow and keep everything in sync.

  • For more advanced needs, iObeya offers API access, enabling organizations to build custom integrations with their existing software infrastructure.

• Security and permissions: manage who has access to your rooms, ensuring that your data is secure and accessible only to the right people.

  • Secure cloud hosting: iObeya is hosted on secure cloud servers that comply with international standards for data protection and privacy, ensuring that your data is safe.

  • On-Premises deployment: for organizations with stringent security requirements, iObeya can be deployed on-premises, providing full control over data storage and access.

Understanding the key terms and concepts in iObeya helps you navigate the platform more effectively and make the most of its features. Familiarize yourself with iObeya’s terminology.

iObeya licensing

Because our licensing model is based on iObeya rooms and not users, the cost of using iObeya depends on the number of “rooms” you use on the platform.

Each room can support up to 200 users working together. This room-based licensing model encourages teams to collaborate within the same room without increasing costs per user.

You can deploy iObeya in 2 different modes to fit various organizational needs:  

1. Cloud deployment

2. On-premises deployement

iObeya’s flexible licensing options are designed to accommodate a wide range of organizational needs. Reach out to discuss your needs and get a quote tailored to your organization.

iObeya Cloud

This deployment mode provides iObeya as a service (SaaS): the infrastructure is managed by iObeya itself.

iObeya Cloud provides 2 primary plans tailored to meet the needs of different types of organizations:

• Team+ plan

  • The Team+ plan is designed for small to medium-sized teams that need a robust visual management platform with essential features and collaboration tools.

  • The Team+ plan operates on a multi-tenant infrastructure. This means that several iObeya customers use the same iObeya instance to access their iObeya rooms. However, each customer’s data is protected and isolated from others, ensuring that there is no risk of unauthorized data access across tenants.

• Enterprise plan

  • The Enterprise plan is designed for large organizations that want to deploy an Enterprise Visual Management System at scale, offering advanced platform configuration and administration.

  • Unlike the Team+ (multi-tenant) plan, the Enterprise plan operates on an entirely dedicated iObeya instance to each organization. This means that the instance is reserved exclusively for a single customer, guaranteeing better performance, advanced security and total control over the environment.

Subscribing to either the Team+ or Enterprise plan grants access to trial rooms.  

For full feature details and current pricing, visit our Pricing page.

iObeya On-Premises

In addition to cloud hosting, iObeya provides the option for on-premises deployment. iObeya is installed and managed on your organization’s private cloud and infrastructure, which is ideal for organizations with specific security, compliance, or data residency requirements.

For full feature details and current pricing, refer to the Enterprise plan on our Pricing page.