In some cases, organizations may get by with apps or old-fashioned project management techniques for a while. However, there are limits to these methods unless you want to risk major mistakes, unnecessary delays, and a plethora of problems. They may appear as you add projects, clients or employees. You may also want to give your employees more flexibility by making your workplace more agile, in which cases you’ll have no choice but to use the most advanced project management tools. Here are four signs your business needs project management software.
Communication Failures Are Common
Poor communication between team members and clients hurts nearly a third of all projects. Yet project management tools give everyone a common frame of reference and resource for exchanging information. Changes are clearly communicated to everyone, and the impact they have is obvious. No one has to ask what others are doing or what they themselves are supposed to do. You can monitor availability when someone is ahead of schedule and divide work among them when someone else falls behind. However, you can still protect data, restricting it to only those who have a right to know.
You’re Forgetting Things
If you have a lot of work or many different employees working for you, it is hard to keep up with it all. And that’s reasonable. After all, everyone’s memory has limits. Unfortunately, you’ll hurt your business every time you forget critical information or essential tasks. Fortunately, project management software and project management AI tools can help you and everyone working for you to be informed about deadlines, to-do lists and everything else they need to know to do their jobs. You won’t forget to pay your vendors or collect payment from clients when projects are complete.
You’re Always Short of Time, Money or Both
If you or your team feel like work is slowing down, it could be because they don’t have enough information on the project or its progress or lack what they need to get it done on time. The best project management software allows project managers to create reasonable labor and cost estimates without overloading key resources. You can’t afford to make guesses, because insufficient resources ruin almost a fifth of projects, while unrealistic schedules ruin roughly one in ten. Unrealistic budgets plague five percent of projects.
Project management software can also help you make the most of limited time and resources. Dedicate people to work that matters, and let the rest go. You’ll also be able to determine when you need additional money or talent working on a task to get it done in time. Nor will you make the mistake of double-booking someone while another team member is under-utilized.
Conversely, good project management software will allow you to know what a reasonable amount of time or money is required to get something done in the desired time frame based on prior data. You will also be able to watch the flow of money. In many cases, you could identify potential fraud as it happens and deal with it immediately.
You Can’t Keep Clients
Nearly ten percent of projects lack stakeholder buy-in, though poor and unrealistic project requirements affect this. Good project management software will enhance collaboration, speed up work, improve communications with clients, and give you hard data to make decisions with. Many tools allow your clients to monitor progress without having to ask for a status report. You’ll also have tighter control if you need to make changes. Then you’re less likely to experience unplanned delays and cost overruns that drive away clients.
Conclusion
While Excel spreadsheets may be good enough for some, project management software is essential for mid-sized organizations. Growing businesses and those with many clients can’t afford to do without project management software, either.
