Online Project Management Review

Once your company reaches its tipping point and can no longer efficiently manage projects with patch-worked solutions, it is time consider a capable project management solution. Some companies report as much as a 30 percent increase in production after they begin using a top project management service. These services provide project managers with powerful project portfolio management (PPM) tools, shareholders with real-time statuses and assist team members with efficient collaboration tools. The best online project management services work with your current technologies, such as Salesforce, Outlook, Microsoft Dynamics, Sharepoint, SAP ERM, CRM, Oracle and Netsuite, either out-of-the-box or via advanced programming interfaces (APIs).

These project management services provide a way for project managers to efficiently organize and manage complex projects from start to finish via request, resource, asset, budget, task and risk-management tools. The most capable solutions also provide tools for teams to communicate and ways for clients to view reports and statuses. Most services also provide a variety of hosting options, including online or on-premise, so that IT managers can choose how they want to deploy the software.

If you are looking for a software as a service (SaaS) solution with a high adoption rate, consider Clarizen. For a highly compatible solution that can be hosted online or on-premise, check out Genius Project. If you are searching for a professional yet powerful and flexible PPM solution, consider Daptiv PPM. For additional information about project management solutions, see our articles on project management software.

Online Project Management Services: What to Look for

When evaluating project management solutions, we looked for services that can comply with traditional project management methodologies that also include convenient technologies and extreme flexibility. We looked for project management services that can efficiently handle projects from the project request through to the after-completion evaluation. We considered integration, collaboration tools, mobile features, reporting options, types of user licenses, adoption rates, expense and time tracking, scheduling, issue tracking and more to discover the best project management solutions.

Below are the criteria that we used to evaluate online project management services:

Project Management Tools
Top online management solutions can support traditional project-management ideologies, yet are flexible and incorporate emergent technologies. For example, they should be able to easily handle traditional methodologies such as Waterfall, Agile, PRINCE2 and Chain methods, and have the ability to create proprietary processes. We also evaluated whether the project management tools can handle all basic functions such as request management, budgeting, issues, risk assessment and task management. The best products also provide extensive reporting options and easy ways to share those reports with stakeholders and other interested groups.

Resource Management
We evaluated the tools available for project managers to manage and allocate resources, including team members, external resources, generic resources, documents and physical assets. In addition, this criterion includes the tools for tracking expenses and timesheets. We also looked for advanced search tools for filtering resources so that project managers can find resources that not only are available, but are also at the experience level and price that fits projects' requirements.

Collaboration
Although this comparison focuses on project manager tools, we briefly looked at how team members can interact and what tools there are for clients to monitor projects. Collaboration tools include features such as discussions or streams, social networking type tools, file sharing and announcements. We also looked to see if the services offer free tools for non-paid users, such as report viewing and read-only accounts.

Ease of Use
High adoption rates are directly related to ease of use. If the software is difficult to use, it may not be used, which will directly affect the return on investment (ROI). In addition, the project management software may not be used to its fullest capacity. We looked for convenience features such as project templates, customization options, import tools, automated functions and more to determine how easy and convenient each project manager is to use. The service should also provide ample training through webinars, documentation, videos and even one-on-one training to help your team learn how to use the service quickly.

Integration
Most companies looking for a project management solution already have systems in place that they want to continue using, such as accounting, payroll and HR systems. They may be using Google Docs, Outlook, Microsoft Project, Excel-compatible reports, Salesforce, help desk solutions and calendars. We looked for project management solutions that provide out-of-the-box integration as well as APIs so that developers can develop desired integrations. Since most team members expect mobile tools, we considered the types of mobile apps each service offers and whether they provide a mobile version that can be accessed from any mobile device, including tablets.

Stop leakages, obtain visibility and quantify production efforts with a powerful project management solution. They greatly increase efficiency by centralizing requests, resource availability, issue tracking, communication, document management and scheduling – giving everyone involved greater clarity and better direction.

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