Project management software takes project managing to a whole new level.
Project managers and other service professionals just love project management software, because it is an essential tool in professional service business.
They need to manage complex processes such as resource planning, customer management, and billing. Not to mention their need to track and optimize employee utilization and streamline processes. Without proper software, these professionals may find themselves drowning in an endless sea of spreadsheets, post-its and paperwork.
All they need is a software that uses automation to increase visibility, eliminate inefficiencies, and track progress from start to finish. The software can help them keep everything organized while planning and running projects, in a way that is accurate, predictable, and profitable.
The project management software is one of the most useful tools that can help your business become as competitive as possible. It simply sets your company apart from the rest service companies. It is a comprehensive solution that addresses service business needs and can make your company more productive and profitable.
Below are top uses of project management software.
Planning
The most important feature of a project management solution is automation of project planning. It helps project experts establish a solid foundation for their projects, providing tools to scope out the milestones, key deliverables, and roles before executing.
Scheduling
However, the project schedule may change from the original plan due to an unexpected event or adjustments of the project. This means you might need to prioritize tasks to keep your project on track. The project management software can help you with this, as most have a basic calendar and time tracking to manage your project time. Therefore, you are able to register time on work items and take people’s work schedules into account.
Managing
One of the most useful functions of project management software is to help you manage tasks and track them. This means you can define, assign, set the deadline, and get an alert when it’s completed or veering off track. You can follow the progress of the project in terms of completion, but also in terms of time and cost. In many cases, managing and tracking is the only thing many project managers are looking for.
Budgeting
You can set the budget and time estimates for each task. What’s more, you can check in real-time the time and budget allocated to your project, including staff costs.
Resource allocation
This software ensures that people are working on the right things at the right time to maximize efficiency. It breaks down the completion of tasks, the person responsible for each task, and allocates staff and resources to complete the tasks.
Read more: How to boost your service business profitability with resource management software
Collaborating
Collaborating with team members and senior management is important to any project. This feature is designed to help service professionals working on a task to achieve their goals.
Communication can happen among participants who see each other every day or they can be scattered around the world.
Usually project management softwares have strong tools to share and store documents, and communicate over the cloud through various channels. Therefore, service professionals can easily post comments and concerns as well as communicate with external stakeholders. In addition, all activities, such as documentation requirements, technical data, and historical data, are retained and can be easily retrieved if necessary.
Issues
Complex projects might encounter issues that will compromise deadlines or deliverables. Problems can be service issues, bugs, malfunctions, or gaps that occur during or after a task or the project. This software helps you track problems and identify the source so you can resolve the issue.
Choosing the right project management software for your business
Now you know the top uses and benefits of the project management software. You also know you need a software to help you organize and collaborate on your projects.
However, choosing the software depends on many factors including the type of project, your team, and your management style. So, the big question is, which software to choose for your service business?
Today, project management tools have expanded their combination of functions and features, further complicating the buyer selection process. In addition to more advanced project management features, the comprehensive software includes functions such as scheduling, resource management, and financial management.
Therefore, there are purely project management software with some features attached, while some others are comprehensive service business ERP solutions. For example, PlanMill has an ERP solution that has a project management system. While it takes care of your project challenges, it also does so much more. It is a comprehensive solution that helps you manage business processes, customers, time, expense, and finance – in one package.
Project management software explained on Wikipedia