By Lyndsey Hall
If you are running various projects across your firm simultaneously, you may need some type of project management tool to help you to keep track of progress, manage emails, deadlines and so forth.
What is project management?
Projects are a specific type of work. Every project has a start and end date, and a deliverable. For example, launching a new service is a project and building a new website is a project. However, cash collection is ongoing work. In theory, you could manage cash collection from each client as its own “mini-project”, but if the turnaround time is quick and only a few people are involved, using full-scale project management software for that would be overkill.
Why do I need project management software?
Businesses tend to turn to project management software because they’re overwhelmed by working via email and spreadsheets. The right project management platform can help to reduce email traffic, although that won’t happen overnight. It takes time for employees to learn the software, and for your firm to figure out how best to use it for current and future projects.
The very best project management tools are designed to help teams handle common problems, such as managing deadlines, workload, etc. These tools can also generate reports that give managers insight into which team members have too much or too little work to do. Many of the most popular project management tools can track time spent on projects and integrate with invoicing and billing systems.
Which project management software is right for my business?
Choosing the right project management tool for your business is key. Tools such as Teamwork Projects, Zoho Projects, TeamGantt and many others offer a free trial of their systems so you can see if they will fit with the needs of your firm. Most can then be purchased either as online software as a service (SaaS) or you can host the software and all your data yourself on your own servers with an enterprise license. The version that you choose largely depends on whether your business hosts data in the cloud or on its own servers. The SaaS tools tend to cost between £20 and £50 per user per month.
The enterprise pricing varies depending on the number of users, etc. but the total cost will tend to be a one off license fee and the upfront costs are therefore higher.
Which project management software does your business use, and would you recommend it to others? Leave a comment below or join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedn.
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