Choosing the Right Project Management Solution in 7 Easy Steps

Project Management Solution enables organizations to plan, execute, and monitor projects with ease. The tool creates a transparent record of the team’s activity, helping managers track the resources in real time and enhance project delivery.

Today, companies rely on these tools for the smooth execution of business functions. It is estimated that 77% of high-functioning teams leverage Project Management tools. This makes it more important to find the right Project Management Solution for your company.

Interesting Facts

1. 70% organizations suffered at least one project failure in last 12 months
2. As per PwC survey, 77% high performing projects use project management solution
3. 73% business leaders believe reliability, ease of use, and ease of integration as top three requirements for PMS
4. 2/3 companies communicate with clients through a Project Management Tool
5. Organizations waste 12% ofvaluable resources due to poor project management.
6. Organizations that invest in good PMS spend 28x less money compared to companies with no PMS

How to Choose the Right Project Management Solution

The right Project Management Solution for you is the one that is tailored to your need. Every platform has its pros and cons, and this article will help you figure out the right one for your business.

Define Your Need

The first and foremost step is identifying why your business needs a project management system and the gaps in your current team. Every business has its unique reasons to go for Project Management Solution.

For example, a company might be tracking projects smoothly through Excel, but it now requires an automated platform that can update the progress of a task on its own and sends a reminder to team members if a deadline is approaching.

Similarly, the use business case in project management would vary from company to company and so would the need for a Project Management Tool. Some of the common challenges faced during manual project management are:

Lack of active internal communication across teams
Too many meetings with little progress
Disorganized project timeline and missed deadlines
Uneven work distribution in the team
Low resource utilization
Inbox with hundreds of unread project emails.

If you are facing any of these issues, move on to the next step of finding the right project management software.

Research the Best Tool

With your needs identified, the next obvious step is discovering a potential project management system. Here are some other ways you can find the right software for your business:

Talk to other project managers in the company or the industry
Ask colleagues what they preferred using in the past
Check software review websites
Check out industry recommended best project management tools

Feedback from your team members should be your top priority to understand what they liked in the past. Compare the features of each software to see the one which covers most of your company’s requirements. Once you have a few finalists ready, it’s always a good idea to get some feedback for the final choices.

Take It for a Test

Although you have figured out the Project Management tool that might be best suited for you, the next logical step is to test the software in day-to-day work scenarios. Many of the popular project management solutions come with a free trial, and even if they don’t, many platforms would be happy to offer you one if you ask.

Rather than just using the software to check the features, your team should use this system for a live project to check its functionalities in day-to-day scenarios. This gives a complete idea of how the system would behave within your organization and does its features serve the purpose within your requirement or now.

Get Feedback from the Team

After the completion of the trial, you should ask the pilot team for detailed feedback and make a note of it. Things you should ask during the feedback are:

Will the software make their workflow more efficient?
How much time did it take them to update the PMS?
What is truly great and truly awful about the product?
Is it easy to navigate for a new user?
Are you going to recommend it to other users?

Now compare your answers to the pain points you noted down in step 1. See if you have found a solution to most of your project management-related pain points.

Evaluate the Cost

The next step to choosing the right Project Management Solution is evaluating the cost of the platform. Usually, these solutions have paid plans based on the number of users.

Get an overall estimate of the tool and see how it fares against your budget and if you can justify the return on your investment.

Also, explore the payment method best suited for you – monthly, bi-annually, or annually.

Purchase and Implement the Right Tool

Once everything is locked, make sure you get it implemented at the earliest. Make sure there is a proper implementation structure in place, to ensure a smooth transition. Teams are usually resistant to changes so a well-curated plan would go a long way to ensure everyone is comfortable with the new system. Consider these things for your implementation plan:

Decide on a timeline. Think about whether you want to fast-track it or deploy it over time for certain business practices.
Ensure that your team has enough time and infrastructure to train on the new system.
Identify the members who are going to lead the transition and act as a point of contact for the team

Analyze the Post-Purchase Experience

After the implementation stage, the last step is evaluating the progress of the new project management system. Identify the areas that are still not serviceable by the new system.

Also, analyze the process you just followed and see if there were any blind spots or gaps in your selection and implementation process.

Once you have answers to all these questions, consider the return on your investment to ensure that your decision did help the business.

Case Study on PMS Software Implementation

If you are looking for a perfect case study about a company adopting a Project Management System, there is nothing better than RPI Consultants. To overcome its Project Management need, it adopted a PMS which further created new problems for the company.

This led to the company looking for a new PMS, which further solved its Project Management challenges.

RPI Consultants	RPI Consultants is a premier implementation partner, professional services provider, and industry thought leader.
Problem	RPI offers a wide variety of services to several different organizations. This meant RPI ended up using multiple solutions to aid in task management. This further escalated RPI’s communication and project management problems.
Solution	The company identified its project management needs and identified the software providers that could cater to most of RPI’s challenges. It identified Mavenlink as the ideal match for them.
Results	Mavelink’s PMS helped decrease 20% time spent on administrative tasks, increased the utilization rate by 5%, and gained critical insights from the dashboard.

Conclusion

Project Management System is a blessing for organizations of all sizes. While it solves many of your business problems, finding the right system for yourself surely is a task of its own.

Choosing from hundreds of similar appearing products can be confusing even for a domain expert but if you follow this guide to choosing the right Project Management Solution in 7 steps, you will end up with the tool which is perfect for you.