If you are a marketing agency, then, of course, every week and every month you have many projects to complete. You might use Excel for managing your projects, but deep down you know spreadsheets are not sufficient anymore. Kids these days call it ‘old school’ and there’s an obvious reason for that: Compared to so many project management softwares out there, Excel has very limited functions, which makes your team’s work much complex and difficult.
So, what are you waiting for? Now, is the best time for your marketing agency to switch to using tools that are more suited to professionally manage projects, that will save you time and help you easily collaborate with your team. Here are some worthy benefits of online project management software that will help you leave the world of Excel behind.
1. Accessibility
Think for a moment. How many times have you needed to look up for something in your documents, but you didn’t have them with you? With online project management software, your team won’t have this problem anymore, as such tools make it easy for you to access your files anywhere, anytime. Let’s face it, your team spends a lot of time online, so these online tools are just another way for them to efficiently work together in online platforms. With the help of user-friendly interfaces it becomes much easier for you to learn and use the system.
Another benefit is that online project management software destroys time, space, and any geographical barriers, so you give your team the opportunity to access project schedules and files wherever their mobile life takes them – in the restaurant, on the beach, on the road to vacation, in the loo – well you get the gist.
2. Real time information
With project management software, you can gain easy access to your files, so there’s no excuse for not keeping everything up to date in real time. Complete timesheets, update tasks, and record status on the go with the help of these online tools. Is one of your team members in a meeting with your customers? Be contact with him/her with the help of project management softwares and see how’s everything going.
Another benefit offered to you is that there are also reporting features to help you get information about the progress and status of the project for the given day, not what happened last week or month.
3. Team collaboration
Most marketing agencies work with virtual teams, so online meetings and communication is a must nowadays. Online project management tools are able to include some collaboration features. Now you can create discussions, send important messages, create email alerts, share files or chat with your team members. In addition, this also means that you can record and save discussions, which will give you the chance to review later and see why particular decisions were taken.
Finally, why not send a quick message to your team member to find out whether he/she is at the office and is able to make a phone call? This will help you save a lot of time and will prevent your team from being tied up in endless meetings.
4. Integration
In today’s world, if you want your agency to stay ahead of the game, you need to make all of your systems work synchronously. Systems that are not integrated may results in increases in cost or resource consumption. Online project management software has the ability to get integrated easily with other products, such as Google Doc, Salesforce, Intaact and so on.
5. Managing project costs
Do you want to review the costs of your project when your accountant is on holiday? There is no need to wait for him/her, as online project management software includes tools that can assist in managing project costs. You can make calculations and see the final costs whenever you want and wherever you are.
Security, full back ups, collaboration features, instant access to project files: It’s all about online project management software. If you have difficulties in managing your projects with spreadsheets and email, why not give it a try and use such effective tools?
Real life example:
Transitions Optical, an international company that enhances vision with eyewear and lenses was using Excel and MS projects for their work processes. As the team grew, the need for maximized communication and collaboration was becoming vital, not to mention having endless Excel docs all spread out, which lead to not having centralized data and lack of project overview as a whole.
“For Excel there is the problem of collaboration on the projects we manage – we had one Excel file for each project. So it was a challenge for the project lead to be able to see the big picture of all projects he or she has been managing in one spot.”
The company required a tool that would:
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Combine all data in one spot and enable them to let go of countless Excel docs
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Boost collaboration and communication effectiveness
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Access data anytime, anywhere
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Have a precise understanding of expenditures
After examining over 10 project management tools carefully, the company settled with Easy Projects and reported:
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Easy Excel integration with imports and exports
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Ease of use
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Successful collaboration between team members
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Single view of all tasks and assignments from the same dashboard
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Custom form and custom fields building for requests
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Close to ideal cost calculation
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24/7 accessibility from anywhere
As a bonus tip, check out this video to learn how much time you can save when using the right tools for the job -)
If you have experience in using such softwares, please share it with us in the comments below.
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