There are dozens of reasons why your PMS isn’t making the cut, including these common scenarios we’ll discuss in detail:
- Onboarding is difficult.
- Integration is clunky.
- User adoption is low.
- The system is buggy.
- Poor security.
- It can’t scale to your growing needs.
- It doesn’t deliver value for money.
Let us share a familiar story — it has been a while since you purchased your first project management tool, but its effects on your productivity haven’t exactly been tangible. Instead of running a system that plans and brings tasks to a successful end, you’re still stuck under a pile of sticky notes of to-do things. Not what you expected, right?
Well, no one said you can’t get yourself a brand new project management tools.
To the benefit of all seriously annoyed project managers out there, the software market is becoming more and more generous. Providers are coming up with tons of ideas on how to simplify corporate life, as well as fresh concepts that help set up an operational mode in the first place. Market leaders in project management tools, for instance, work on optimizing their tools for varying business environments, moving to a point where managers would be able to co-create their ideal working systems.
The project management arena has a lot at stake for clients who know what they want, and even more for those who know what they don’t want. With this in mind, there is absolutely no need to struggle with a product that does little but compromising your work and wasting your time. Namely, you should consider purchasing a new tool if facing any of the following scenarios:
1. You can’t recall the last time you complied with a deadline
The first and most obvious sign that your PM is bogging you down is the constant chase with time. Some managers fail to recognize this problem to a point where performance gets completely blocked, realizing that the tool that’s supposed to help them push their way through deadlines is actually standing in their way. The good news is – it is not too late to place a bet on prompt delivery!
How would a good PM system cut wasted time? To start with, it will sort out your data in a beautiful package and make documents easy to find. With all info accessible on a single instance, no team member will need to dig up databases to come up with a solution, given that everybody will be connected and able to provide assistance. Plus, a solid PMS system helps in planning and budgeting using automation and workflows, and can analyze current tasks against targets with drill-down analytics. Wrike, for example, recently enabled users to turn requests into projects directly from templates, and to have those confirmed right away. It’s a great project management tools that our experts found to be the best one currently available on the market. The vendor even offers a free trial that lets you try out all the key features first. You can easily sign up for Wrike free trial here.
Wrike
Try out Wrike with their free trial
Wrike is a great choice for perfectly templatized projects
2. Your biggest project is actually… onboarding new employees
Getting the team on board the PM took a lot of time and you needed to repeat the same process for each new user, compounding lost time in training alone. Some project management tools are so troublesome to adopt that new hires need more time to get them running than to complete an actual task.
Therefore, you need a system that is easy-to-moderately complex to adopt, making sure even users with limited technical skills can quickly get the hang of it. You should particularly keep this in mind with a large and diverse team, as that’s where a PM system should take most of the burden off your shoulders.
While speaking of this, exchange a dysfunctional PM with a system that actually documents stuff, so that new employees can look up files on their own. Some tools will even come with custom Welcome-on-board packages, and those do an amazing job integrating people within your community. The leader on our PM software category, Wrike, for instance, is often praised for helping managers build remote office culture, and certainly counts as a number-one choice for pulling off smart communication strategies including the onboarding process.
Wrike helps novice players on the team get their assignments done.
3. You can’t really make your PM work with other tools you’re using
In an age of cloud applications and open developer access one just can’t afford the luxury of running a poorly connected system. Transferring data and expecting employees to switch between tools for the simplest of tasks is another serious bottleneck you should be eliminating now.
During your purchase, you should take time to research adeptly the integration capabilities of your prospect system, as you’ll want it to synchronize with your email service providers, communication tools, databases, and help desks, to name a few. In case you can opt for a product that does support most of your software ecosystem, you’ve got yourself a deal. If not, keep an eye on open API and open source options, so you can configure and further expand integration.
4. It is nobody’s favorite system
How long did it you take to realize that your PM isn’t cutting it with the team and, at best, your staff were having a difficult time using it? Getting a new tool is the least you can do to make it up to them, as you can’t take back time and erase that painful learning curve.
Truth is, your crew has nothing against the complexity of the system in place, but rather its inefficiency. Since it won’t get the job done, they’d rather have it out of the way than bundling info within it just because. Another thing teams hate about dysfunctional software is the never ending need to update versions, or getting notified on features they don’t want or need.
In fact, if equipped with rather meaningful tools and assigned critical projects, this system can cause damage ten times bigger than the peril of not having a system at all. Wrike is again a great example to look at, as it assists team during implementation, and it comes with a very short learning curve.
5. If you get stuck…you’re stuck
The provider of your PM software is solely responsible for the bugs and glitches you will be facing, so choose such that knows how to assume that responsibility. It would surprise you how many companies fail to provide adequate support, which means it could only be you, and a system you don’t really get.
If buzzing up a team that is never there, go for a more reputed product. In the ideal case, you’d be testing support before you make an actual purchase, and have an agent brief you into the system before you present it to the team. To avoid getting on the waiting queue, choose a company that operates 24/7 and with several support channels, and give employees the chance to seek support via chat, email, phone, or any preferred method. Vendors should also provide a robust knowledge base; in many cases, all you need is the right resource to get over a bump. Take for instance this self-help portal that intuitively indexes resources by topic, features and even link you up to free consultation to boot:
6. It exposes your work to external threats
While it is true that one can’t have 100% data security on the web, there are still companies that invest serious efforts in protecting corporate data. The systems they provide safeguard information on several instances, and often suggest in-tool keys and precaution measures for the user. In case you’re not really clear on your app’s vulnerabilities, that app needs to go away.
So which is the best protected PM system out there? Hard to say, but there are several indicators that can get you moving in the right direction. For starters, you’ll want your system to let you govern permissions, and ideally introduce role based access to eliminate internal threats and enable complete transparency. Tailored access will also help you use your tool for projects out of the ordinary, for instance upper-management-exclusive ones; or such opened to external partners.
Next, you’d want the peace of mind that your data is blocked from unwanted access, which is most of the time achieved with expiration and password strength policies, lockout and specified authorization, HTTPS encryption, transfers to private cloud, and similar measures. When it comes to security, go for the most you can afford.
7. It doesn’t hold a place in your future plans
Scalability is another critical factor that distinguishes average from great PM systems. Whatever your tool may be, you should test its capacity to grow before you’re forced to conclude it cannot.
How to estimate scalability on an early stage? Given your role, you know better than anyone how diverse project-based operations can be, and you can’t expect a software provider to account for all of them. What you can do instead is to replace your tool for a configurable one, so that it can adopt the craziest project you can think of. Needless to say, you should deviate from all solutions that impose size and member limitations, even if that means paying more for a system than you expected.
As most of the top project management systems, Wrike adapts easily to the size and needs of your team
8. It is not worth the effort nor the money
Last but not least, take care of how much you’re investing. Poorly designed project management systems will not only eat up your nerves, but lead up to serious delays and therefore expenses. Most of them are not cheap to begin with, and tie you to long-terms fees and obligations not necessarily backed up by efficiency. Good systems, on the other hand, tend to justify the amount you invest in them, as they optimize resources and make accomplishment at least 25% cheaper on the long run. Beware – hot tags don’t necessarily guarantee quality, so base your decision on what you expect from a system.
Final thoughts
It is never too late for the right decision, so don’t hesitate to give a new project management system a chance. There are plenty of project management solutions today and at least one should cater to your most specific needs. Take some time to research solutions, test the programs that you like, and you will soon have the perfect PM system at your office. Or save yourself some time an check out Wrike which we believe is an excellent starting choice. You can easily sign up for Wrike free trial here.
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