Businesses are under more pressure than ever before. As the UK economy heads into a recession, time and money are expected to stretch further, meaning enterprises of all sizes may need to streamline their operations.
Project management software is one crucial tool to enable this — automating time-consuming processes, clarifying workflows and improving overall business productivity. But with so many applications on the market, you might not know where to begin.
Whether you’re looking to switch over or select your first project management tool, these are our four top tips for choosing the right one for your company.
Although there is an overlap in the kinds of features you can expect from a project management tool, some are better equipped for certain business functions than others. For example, Asana has a native chat feature for in-house communications, whereas Monday.com does not currently offer an equivalent.
We recommend that you compile a list of your project management requirements to ascertain which tools will be the best fit for you. One way to do this is to survey employees across all departments for the top features that they’d be interested in, as well as the constraints of the company’s current SaaS tools.
Consider polling interest in common features such as:
On the topic of software features, one important consideration to make is whether there will be any SaaS duplication if you select one tool over another. This happens when an organisation’s software portfolio proliferates out of control, resulting in a number of applications being used within the company for the same purpose.
SaaS duplication typically emerges when department heads are given control over which software they’d like their team to use, but fail to communicate with other departments. This may result in multiple different tools being used to manage projects, causing wasted expenditure and confusion, for example, if the subtasks belonging to one common project are split across multiple applications.
To avoid this, you should take measures to gain visibility into the entire SaaS stack used across your organisation. Software management company Vertice recommends making a record of:
This documentation, they advise, enables you to “take control of your SaaS stack and reduce your costs”, minimising the number of unnecessary subscriptions hiking software spend.
Once you have an idea of your organisation’s needs and the tools that you’re already using, you can shortlist some project management vendors. But beyond just what they offer on paper, consider enquiring about trial software and sampling the tool in action with a couple of members of each department.
This way, you can assess which software package is the right fit for your team. Naturally, it might take a little time to get accustomed to a new suite of features or an interface that you haven’t previously used, but it’s better to invest this time and energy now rather than be locked into a subscription that fails to serve your company’s needs.
However, according to SaaStr, many vendors intentionally won’t offer a free trial. They explain, “this is common with many HR apps for example, that often have no value unless the org is populated with lots of data”. However, this is generally not the case for project management software, with core features such as task management that are easily trialled. If you find that a particular tool on your shortlist doesn’t publicly offer a trial, enquire directly with the sales team or ask about a live demonstration.
Now that your sample groups have had the opportunity to try out some different options, it’s time to ask which they prefer. Liaise with department heads about team sentiment as well as how staff performance was affected by the addition of each app in a number of their daily tasks.
Consider how well they get on with key components such as the interface, workflow, and vitally, integrations with other apps. This is where a good project management system will come into its own — the tool should ideally be able to work in tandem with as many of your existing SaaS stack as possible, such as cloud storage services like Google Drive or communication channels like Slack.
It’s crucial to gauge opinion because software onboarding, training and implementation take time — anywhere from three to 18 months is typical. Surveys, interviews, live demonstrations and Q&A sessions can help to elucidate which tool will be most readily adopted by your workforce and become an integral part of the team’s day-to-day operations.
Follow these tips and you’ll be set up with a new project management tool in no time. And once you’re up and running, you can start to reap the benefits of improved business collaboration and productivity — you’ve earned it.
