Experience the benefits of project management software

What is project management software?

Project management software is a digital tool to plan, execute, and monitor projects. 

Project management software keeps all of your project-related resources and conversations centralized, so that your team can efficiently deliver projects that stick with your budget and timeline. 

1. Improve collaboration

We know we need to work with others to meet our goals, yet effective collaboration doesn’t come easy for most of us. In a study of over 1,400 participants, 86% of employees and executives said lack of collaboration is one of the main reasons for workplace failures. There are varying communication styles, different approaches to organization, and so many other factors that make collaboration challenging. 

Project management software gives teams greater visibility into what their colleagues are working on, what deadlines are set, how their individual tasks fit into the overall project process, and more. All of this contributes to the greatest benefit of project management software: better and easier project collaboration.

2. Centralize communication

Your team is struggling to communicate with disorganized email threads, direct instant message pings, and comments that get lost in the shuffle. 

That’s bad news (and a big time-waster) for your projects. A number of studies show that communication is one of the most common and frequent causes of project failure. When team members have too many places to check for information, wires are crossed, deadlines are missed, tasks are forgotten, and confusion builds. 

Project management software keeps all of your communication — from timelines and status updates to feedback and questions — in one single place that’s easily accessible to everyone. This breaks down silos so that everybody can not only share knowledge, but effectively manage how and where they share it. 

3. Streamline task management

For your projects to be delivered successfully, team members need to know which tasks they’re responsible for and when they need to have them completed.

Unfortunately, research from Gallup found that only half of employees know what’s expected of them at work. Unclear responsibilities and directions from managers are a big piece of that; working within numerous apps and tools only adds to the mayhem. 

If a team member is assigned a task in one tool but they spend more of their time in another platform, they’ll miss that important notification. Managing your projects in one piece of software patches those holes and also breaks your biggest most overwhelming projects into individual steps and action items. 

From there, you can assign those tasks to the correct team members with a deadline so they’re aggregated in one place, and people will get notified of their new to-dos.

4. Create a single source of truth

While estimates vary, the average worker spends between 1.8 hours per day to 2.5 hours per day searching for information. And when they do find it? There’s a risk it might not even be the most recent and relevant details they need, which wastes even more time finding the correct info.

Your project management software will be your repository of project-related information. Documents, assets, updates, timelines, meeting notes, and everything else should be stored in your software. (Here’s a handy template for meeting notes to keep track!) Doing so ensures it’s accessible, organized, and searchable. Team members can find what they need without wasting a ton of time digging for the truth. 

5. Boost efficiency

Add all of the above benefits together, and you get the best benefit of all: your team can move work forward faster. A lot faster. 

With project management software in place, your team is communicating well. They know what’s expected of them and what they should get started on next. They can easily locate the information they need.

Working together like a well-oiled machine significantly cuts down on lost time. In fact, research from Deloitte found that teams work an average of 15% faster when they collaborate. Projects no longer drag on and on because your team is equipped with the resources they need to crank out high-quality work at an impressive pace.

6. Track progress

You don’t want to deliver just any project. You want to deliver a project that stays under your budget, honors your timeline, and meets its original goals.

Those important elements are easy to lose track of when you’re up to your eyeballs in project work, and it’s a slippery slope. If you don’t keep a close eye on those limitations and expectations, you’ll struggle with schedule, budget overruns, and wasted effort when team members need to re-do work to get the project back on track.

Yikes. It’s no wonder that a mere 2.5% of companies complete projects successfully. A separate survey from Geneca found that 80% of respondents spend half their time on rework.

Project management software organizes your work so it’s simpler to track things like your spend and deadlines. Additionally, you can generate reports to monitor progress as you move forward — rather than realizing too late that you’ve missed the mark.

Take a breath and let project management software help you

It might be a hard pill to swallow, but you know it’s true — the way you’re currently tackling projects isn’t working. Sure, you get them done (eventually…) but it’s not what you’d call a streamlined or stress-free process. 

You aren’t alone, and that’s why the popularity of project management software continues to increase. In fact, 77% of high-performing projects use it to reap all of the benefits we just outlined.

If you want to leverage project management software to help you and your team, make sure to:

• Source team opinions: For the software to work its magic, people need to use it. Involve your team members in the process of testing out free trials and evaluating different features so they feel involved in the process and feel confident in the final product. Plus, you’ll gather some valuable insights.
• Provide adequate training: No matter how intuitive a piece of software is, getting started is always overwhelming. Offer tutorials, resources, and other educational opportunities so people know how to use the tool correctly.
• Keep all of your project-related information there: This might take a little getting used to (and a few friendly reminders), but your software does no good if only some of your project information is there. People will still need to scroll, search, and dig for what they need in different apps. For the best knowledge sharing, you need everything all in one place.

Ditch the messy spreadsheets and endless email threads, and you’ll deliver winning projects without all of the stress and confusion. Once you get up to speed with your project management software, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.