With so many project management (PM) software products available in the market, you may feel overwhelmed by too many choices. Choose one wrong system and you run the risk of project mismanagement and reduced productivity. Here are a few mistakes most businesses often make when it comes to choosing a project management system, costing them losses worth thousands of dollars.
1. Choosing the wrong system
Some businesses do not pay attention to need analysis when it comes to buying a project management solution. They aren’t sure what type of solution and collaboration would work best for their company. As a result, they end up buying a system that isn’t best suited to their process, nor does it offer any help where the existing tools used by your company fail.
When you are willing to invest in project management software, start with a need analysis. Do you work with external vendors? Or are all of your projects internal? How does collaboration work within your organization? Are you using multiple spreadsheets for tracking cost and job status? Is project communication and planning a pain for you? How do you manage project communication? Is it through spreadsheets, emails, or any other documents?
Finding answers to these questions would help you get your hands on the right centralized project database and management system designed to accurately track projects, improve project reporting, and bill more efficiently and quickly.
2. Selecting a complicated PM software solution
Most organizations are under the impression that all they need is to look for a feature-rich PM system. Unarguably, choosing a system full of features will come in handy; however, too many features can be overwhelming and can make the system too complicated to use. What’s the use of investing in a system that comes with an array of useless features? Will you overpay for a project management solution that comes with features you do not need? Remember, the more the features, the higher the cost of the software.
Create a checklist of must-have, nice to have, and not required features. Prioritize the must-have features and look for a tool that does not require extensive training for the team to use it.
Look for a solution that has the best balance between robustness and usability. Look beneath the flashy user interface to get your hands on a system that offers the best user experience. The tool should be intuitive and easy to use and equipped with features that will facilitate project management in your company. Your team should be able to seamlessly and effortlessly use the tool and give you clear visibility into the progress of the project.
The software you choose should come with built-in custom fields so that you can create, name, and rename fields and categories.
3. Ignoring Free Trials
One of the biggest project management software mistakes made by some companies is not taking the pain to try the software before making the purchase. What works best for your competitor may not work well for you. You are investing in a PM solution to make tasks more organized and managed better than before. Of course, you do not want to spend your money on a system that brings you frustration later.
A cloud-based project management system is one of the most preferred options in the current business scenario for its overall ownership cost and ease of deployment. It makes validation easy and risk-free.
Don’t mind taking a test drive to find whether the tool meets your business expectations, such as collaboration, group chat, version control on documents, and quickly uploading and managing files and folders, among others. During the free trial, involve a team of 5-10 end users who will be using the tool in your company and request the vendor to provide you with a personalized demo.
So when you are wondering how to choose project management software, it is important to select a reliable platform that is equally robust and adept at performance and efficient in terms of storage and security and addresses pain areas that your company is faced with.
4. Not investing in a scalable solution
Most organizations invest in project management solutions that fulfill their current needs. They end up finding that the solutions are not flexible enough to meet their growing business demands, thus requiring them to make more investments in a newly updated solution.
The best project management software is one that is flexible and scalable and has the ability to grow with your business. Look for a vendor that lets you add more features as you grow and licenses for new employees.
5. Not checking software security, reliability
Security is unarguably one of the most critical factors that should be considered when investing in a software product. Unfortunately, some companies ignore the aspect and have to suffer the consequences of comprised systems later.
If you wish to avoid project management software mistakes while buying, do not forget to double-check check security and reliability of the product. It is crucial to check the vendor’s efficiency and reliability in backing up your data. Try to find whether they are using a secure hosted solution to backup customer data, without affecting present user operations. The project management solution should be available all the time. You do not want client projects to be on hold because the project management tool is giving you problems and the vendor’s customer support team is delaying responses to your queries.
If you are looking for a tool to better manage, monitor, and respond to projects, the ITQlick team can help you find the best project management product. Come in touch with us today and save yourself from repeating the project management software mistakes made by some other businesses!