To date, businesses have implemented various scheduling methods, right from manually filled excel sheets to smart software like timesheets and biometrics. These systems have only proved workable to record staff attendance but fail to impact various touchpoints of an operation like productivity, costs, employee satisfaction, and retention. At the end of the day, it’s about lowering internal costs and maximizing your profit. Let’s take a closer look at what some challenges your organization would face sans scheduling software:

Challenges faced in the absence of effective staff scheduling:

Resources are vital assets to any project and these are the signs you need better resource scheduling:

Non-conformance to deadlines:

While missing deadlines are not subjected to disapproval, frequently failing to deliver on time can be disconcerting. When your resources do not commensurate with the timelines, it hints at faulty planning. When resources are not conforming to a strategic schedule management plan, you will fail to reach task milestones on time.

No account for productive work:

While biometrics and timesheets only account for attendance and the time spent inside the brick-and-mortar office space, they do not imply the hours of productive work put in by your employees. Without insights on billable utilization, improvising future schedules that could lead to over or underbooking of resources is remotely possible.

Workforce burns out before task completion:

Without staff scheduling, you cannot guarantee optimal utilization of skill sets within your resource pool. Your employees reach saturation level and hit productivity slack before cessation. Scheduling conflicts down the curve arise when the right resources are not allocated to the right projects.

Imbalance within workforce dynamics:

Inability to foresee workloads causes you to miss conflicts that adversely impact various functions like team productivity, timeline, project completion, resource utilization, etc. If the same resource is placed on multiple projects simultaneously, he/she most likely won’t be able to do justice to either. Erroneous assumptions on a resource whose schedule is otherwise light but ends up tagged as slacking off, can be misleading. This fiasco arises due to the lack of complete foresight into an individual’s workload.

The aforementioned challenges consume time and cause delays in critical decision making pertaining to the maximization of billable hours for future projects. Let us have a look at some benefits of implementing employee scheduling software.

employee scheduling software inestimable benefits for you:

Team scheduling is indispensable in driving your project as planned. Employee schedule supports calendar management and enables team members a view of their weekly work distribution at a stretch. Their efforts and availability can be gauged to spot areas where the probability of under or over allocation of work is high. Workload can be aligned by redistributing tasks to the next available resource that matches criteria like availability, skills, qualification, experience and cost rate. Staff scheduling software is easily configurable to your current systems helping you plan projects better with lesser costs.

These employee scheduling benefits will reap profits in the long term:

Enterprise-wide visibility:

Employee scheduling enables a birds-eye view of your resources to match their skills, availability, preference, cost rate, and experience in accordance with the job requirement. Saviom’s Employee Scheduling software facilitates optimal utilization of resources to ensure uniformity of workload and autonomous teams. Gantt chart scheduler lets you track a project’s progress plan over time. And depending on the individual’s commitment to various projects, be it a project or non-project related, dynamic bookings can be made with a simple drag and drop option. Options to resize bookings using the drag handles to share a project’s workload among two or more available resources facilitate optimum utilization of resources. This not only increases productivity manifold times, but also saves on time.

Employee engagement done right:

Employee scheduling leaves no room for poor productivity levels. Your staff now works in full capacity with breaks in between mundane tasks that can be utilized to diversify skills and experience without compromising on the quality output. Optimal utilization is not just confined to hourly commitments, but extensive usage of resource skill sets. Overutilization of resources does not imply productivity and might fizzle out employee engagement in the long run. Underutilization on the other hand disengage employees by benching them despite having enough work to go around with. Staff scheduling software optimizes employee utilization to leverage productivity and engagement.

Transparent communication at every step:

Projects are like trains rolling down the tracks-which means once they are put in motion, it’s hard to stop. Stakeholders define the success of a project and consequently, project managers ensure that they are actively managed and communicated with to avoid the route to project purgatory. Stakeholders are not just looped in at the planning but also the implementation stage which empowers them with an unclouded view of the project resource plan. Implementing an employee scheduling app allows them to track staff engagement and productivity. Stakeholders can also influence decision making processes pertaining to resource requisitions, resource utilization, project vacancies and pipeline projects letting teams only focus on the actual work. To sum up, the best scheduling software calculates the resource information and exports their availability, utilization and non-billable hours as justified outputs.

Meetings kick off on time and get over quickly:

If breakfast meetings are easily eating into your lunch-time, it’s a clear indication that static spreadsheets are failing to achieve strategic resource scheduling. The discrepancy in data makes resource allocation a Herculean task. Employee scheduling nullifies any ambiguity in resource data exchange between teams. Choosing an instinctive, steadfast staff scheduling app enables faster and fruitful meetings which means that reaching a consensus for resource allocation takes lesser time without jeopardizing the quality output.

Booking generic resources fulfill foreseen demand:

Opportunities tapped for pipeline projects can be used to book generic resources ahead of time. Slice and dice allocations to make changes to existing bookings lets you create a placeholder for the exact resources that will drive a probable line of work. This not only ensures total availability of resources beforehand, but also leaves no room for surprise down the line when the slot gets confirmed and the resource gets notified of the revised team calendar. Accordingly, they can start with the groundwork in advance just in time for project activation.

Now that you know what are the advantages of deploying employee scheduling software, it is time you experience it for real!

Sign up for a free trial of Saviom’s ERM software with in-built employee scheduling and manage your workforce with elan!

Data drives decisions. When you have access to all sorts of information, you simplify the decision-making for managers and stakeholders. There are 2 major benefits of documentation that substantiate it: one; that it ensures every task of the project is completed and two, traceability which means leaders can track who is assigned to what task and their progress.

Project management aims at streamlining project planning and preventing project bottlenecks. It juggles around various attributes simultaneously such as project tasks, resources and project schedule. Project managers need to be on their toes to align tasks with client needs and meet deadlines. That’s when a project documentation template comes in handy. It encompasses every project detail from project tasks to the progress of the task.

A project documentation template led by excel lets you input every project detail that entails to project’s progress and deliverables. Let’s have a look at the components of the template:

Project name

It begins with the basic details to know what project you’re working on. When you are working on multiple projects, just typing out the project’s name will bring the template in front of you.

Project manager

Knowing who’s leading the project is crucial for the stakeholders and clients. In other words, who is taking charge of the project and leading matrixed teams. Hence the project manager’s name is important to be recorded on documents.

Basic details

This is the section where you can record each and every task undertaken at various stages of the project. From conceptualizing to releasing the project, every step of the project can be explained further and bifurcated into sub-tasks. For example, when you initiate a project, you draw all the finances, list out prerequisites of the project and chalk out the project structure. All of these steps are recorded under this section which increases the project’s traceability making it easier for managers.

Progress

You can input your task’s progress using any scale. For instance, if it’s in percentage scale, you can view the progress in percentage bars using conditional formatting. Documenting a task’s progress helps you stay on track and take corrective measures if otherwise.

Allocated resource

It’s imperative for project managers to know who’s the allocated resource for a certain task to track his/her progress and manage the schedule. Hence recording resource details are crucial when documenting a project.

Department

The department of the allocated resource makes it easier for project managers to collaborate with them. They don’t have to put an extra effort to look across departments and waste time. Moreover, to cope with unplanned leaves, you can update the sheet with substitute departmental resources who can take up the task.

Project completion date

One of the most important aspects of project documentation is the completion date as it gives clarity if the project is on track. If not, managers can recuperate and stay on schedule to meet the deadlines.

All of the above-mentioned details help the manager channelize critical thinking and think through every aspect of his project. Not only that, but a project documentation template is also a memory repository that lets you manage details that are likely to be missed when not reported. Furthermore, decision-makers, clients and stakeholders are well-informed about the project’s progress and changes made if any. However, updating this template will become complex when you have multiple projects in line. So to simplify it, subscribing to a project management tool will work wonders and will increase the efficiency of your project management cycle.

What’s determining a product’s shelf-life today is its affordability and type of features that can be added. Capabilities with the option to scale up at no extra cost is perceived as beneficial in the long run. At the end of the day, the software trial that you’re signing up for should let you experience the full range of features that works according to your business. After all, no one wants to be racked with buyer’s remorse in times of uncertainty.

The extent of configuration, or in other words what all comes with the software you’re in the market wields considerable influence on your final decision. From plugins and portals to custom analytics, decision-makers want the freedom to configure the software. Let us dive deep into the merits of having it done for you beforehand!

What is Software Configuration Management?

Software configuration management refers to how well a system takes changes while still retaining its integrity. In other words, new functionalities added to the existing set don’t result in data loss or erroneous transmissions during transitive periods.

Configuration is done via artificial intelligence applications to enable the system to reach a desired state of performance while remaining power-efficient.

The minimum requirement for standard configuration is to have both a web and database server. This lets your web browser request pages from the server, enabling fast load times. The number of machines hooked to this server can be accordingly upsized should you plan to expand the pool of users getting on to the tool. It is possible, albeit a little slower if the absence of these requirements is mitigated with a credible hosting partner. Custom configuration ensures the application is performance-driven and in a running state. Some of the benefits of insisting on it include

1. Universality

Configuration management systems store your data in a central location, making it easier for you to find what you’re looking for. Moving from static spreadsheets to a more dynamic system of records lets you view, update and restrict access to data with security rights. Put simply, your data is visible only to you as per role and seniority in the organization, enabling you to reach decisions without concerns of it being doctored.

Universality facilitates a seamless migration of data from previous information systems and slots it into the right places. It captures your enterprise and comes with prebuilt templates that can be populated according to the parameters entered into the system.

2. Reduced ownership costs

Configuration and customization are often mistaken to mean the same, but the distinction lies in the pricing value. Besides custom dashboards, product updates, user manuals, and training tutorials are all part of the package.

Customization invites additional expenses for the changes requested for and effort hours of the deployed engineer. Configuration, on the other hand, leads to an overall cost reduction of system ownership. Any accompanying software upgrades come free because the underlying code and architecture remains unchanged, allowing you to get more value out of your purchase.

3. Personalization control

Wouldn’t it be great if you got exactly what you asked for?

That is the most obvious benefit of software configuration management tools. It puts the user at the very center of building the tool. Saviom, for example, takes a business’ configuration requirements into consideration and lets owners take charge of personalizing it further.

Weaving this versatility into the tool from the start ensures that your business isn’t left behind in a disruptive landscape. Personalized dashboards let you plug and play with components. Even better, you can have any number of dimensions to generate the reporting format of your choosing. That is, the data you view is contextual to your action, outcome, and decisions.

4. Delivery at scale

We’re conditioned to be risk-averse. Change comes with its own set of risks, from displacing teams to switching up processes, roles, and duties. As such, leaders would be concerned about the impact it has on delivery and whether your resource pool would be able to keep up.

With portal configuration, you get to select only those screens, dashboards and sections you require, letting you scale up and shape your industry for organization-specific needs without external help. Better still departmental teams can converge on one platform and be able to mark work as done, in progress or unfinished which enables continuous delivery in line with time-criticality.

5. Insightful analytics

The custom analytics dashboard within an enterprise-grade resource management software comprises multidimensional sort bys. It divides the enterprise into distinct viewing panes, with the facility to search and apply role, team or project-specific dimensions.

While history can only tell you what went wrong and right, forecast analytics help you take back control of the situation. You can unify resource and project workflows to generate intelligence on skills availability, utilization levels and the capacity in effect. This drill-down can be weighed against the load and hours of work, ensuring the decisions you take in the future to maximize profitability. For instance, if you’re running low on skills and have an influx of work, the net availability and capacity would dip, signifying the need for corrective action. Or, an unfavorable variance between actual and booked hours can be revised for future work, thus driving up the billability.

6. Quicker recovery

Custom configuration facilitates quicker recovery from critical events. For instance, if one of the offices dispersed globally experiences downtime or is offline for an indefinite period of time, other offices can switch to a replacement server.

In the meantime, a copy of this data will persist on the server in the form of a backup, for later use. The risk of a data loss during the migration of system information is then greatly minimized. No one will lose track of what they and their officemates were/will be working on, given that relevant files, records, screengrabs, and exports are on hand to help bridge the gap. Additionally, recurrences of downtime can be avoided by upgrading that server on which the application is running. This way, more users can be added to the pool while getting the expected level of speed and performance.

Now that you know what configuration entails, isn’t it about time you experienced it for real on an instance of the tool? Sign up for a full-length trial pack of Saviom’s products and let our product experts do the rest!

Identifying each project’s Key Performance Indicators (KPI) is the first step towards creating the project metrics to score its overall performance.

When all parameters are compiled into a project management dashboard, it’s easier to see what is working and what needs to be corrected. In other words, you know the actions you’ll need to take, thus making informed decisions concerning the execution of future work.

A project KPI report template records actual and forecasted financial statuses and lets you compare expenses incurred against profits generated. This way, you can keep tabs on yearly budget goals, and whether any remaining costs will have to be recalled or repurposed according to the projects’ priority. The first of many questions you’d have concerning a KPI report sample is;

Read More
The Definitive Guide to Resource or Workforce Scheduling and Planning

What does a KPI Template Dashboard contain?

A KPI template in excel comprises of data on departmental projects, which include the type of activity under a particular project, percentage of completion, and financial status. This can be further broken down to;

Project Name: Simply put, the name of the project a department takes up which is an indicator of the resources to be sourced ahead of time.

Budget: This relies on cost estimation techniques within the project budget plan to attach a cost to each department.

Net Expenses: This indicates the expense of each department incurs when carrying out the project.

Revenue: This column displays the goals for profits to be generated and the actual profits realized.

Profit Margin: The profit margin is the difference between actual and estimated profits made, indicating the extent of expenses recovered after the project is delivered.

Key performance indicators templates contain a project management dashboard that supplies information on the tasks within a project. It compiles progress and gives an indication of the project’s priority – whether low, medium, or high.

While it doesn’t record the actual reasons behind task delays, it lets you assess the project from a broader perspective. You can then plan and fit in work such that high-priority tasks aren’t left unfinished for extended periods of time.

What’s more, a KPI dashboard template lets you extract this data and convert it into the graphical format of your choosing. From a bar-graph that indicates progress statuses for each task to line graphs that establish how closely a project is following timelines, the ideal KPI tracking template arms you with sufficient insights to reach project decisions.

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The Complete Glossary of Resource or Workforce Planning, Scheduling and Management

Basics of a project management KPI template

A KPI summary lets project managers set realistic goals for individual project teams regarding their work performance. After all, the right skills can not only fast track work but also keeps workloads optimal. The product revenue breakdown tab in a KPI dashboard excel template holds the following information:

Product revenue – Spread across the calendar year, product revenue captures the financial returns each departmental project has produced.

Revenue Breakdown – the annual revenue for each department is expressed as a percentage.

Wins / Losses: This is a percentage indication of how many projects performed favorably, or unfavorably as the case may be.

Time-to-Market: Any firm’s time-to-market strategy tells you the time remaining, or the number of days for product release.

Given how important it is to have these KPIs in a central location, it is not surprising why a lot of time and energy is expended when creating a project KPI report template. Download it today to see how the particulars mentioned in this post work within the template!

Documentation of the various activities is therefore considered to be a critical process for the project. As a part of the assessment stage, noting the level of progress, is mandatory before taking any decisions which affect the future of the project.

Using a tool at this stage helps to get the basics of project management, which can help you ease into a resourcing tool in the future.

Having said that, let’s take a look at the different parts of a project status report.

Project Status Report Particulars

An ideal project status report would include details of the different tasks to be completed as a part of the project. It should also have details of the different resources working on the project. This can include the department they’re attached to, billable skills and location of the project.

A good example of the project status report is the one which can answer which steps are to be taken in the future. Based on whether specific tasks are delayed or have been completed in time, better decisions can be taken for the future.

There are many versions of status report template available online easily. A simple search online would show that these templates are abundantly available. However, they might vary depending on the type of project that has been used for the template. For this reason, we have created a template which is adaptable to any kind of project.

With a precise recording of when and how the tasks are completed, it would help these stakeholders take better decisions in the long run.

The necessary parts of a project status report template include:

Task details

This is the list of detailed tasks and deliverables that are required to be completed as a part of the project. They may be divided into multiple stages, such as the conceptualisation, planning and activity stages. Tasks can also be aligned based on their priority so that the resources can be alerted. The priorities per task can be set from high to low, ensuring the right resources are deployed to keep track of timelines. The more detailed this section of the report is, the better will the project details be captured.

Planned dates

The planning stages of the project is extremely critical and of the most importance to managers, stakeholders, and even the clients. This is because it decides the actual timeline of the project, and highlights when the project will be completed. The planned starting and end dates would highlight the actual time for each task and sub-tasks to be completing, depending on the type of report.

Actual dates

These are the actual dates when different tasks are completed. They show the actual timeline for the tasks and when they are completed. Depending on the timeline of the project, you can opt for monthly, or even weekly status reports. When compared against the planned dates, it gives whether the project is on track or not.

Budget and expenditure details

This would include the expected and actual expenditure on the project. An expected figure is marked in the project management plan, which helps get an idea of the total cost of the project. As the project progresses, an expenditure overview can be made at every stage of the project. This would help in identifying whether estimates have been made correctly or not.

Task status

This would give a brief overview of the project task stages. Stages would ideally include whether the task has been completed, delayed, in progress, or has not started on time. This gives an indication of where the project bottlenecks are, and it can be avoided accordingly.

Owner and assigned resources

This would indicate who is in charge of the project stages. In case of any delays or queries, the person in charge can clarify questions for the different stakeholders. The assigned resources are the list of resources responsible for completing the tasks.

Project risk details

This is an important part of the project management status report. It would include a description of the different risks in the project. This would include a list of the key risks and dependencies, their probability, impact, details, and the person in charge of risk management. The estimated and actual dates for the project risks would help manage how much time was actually covered to complete the tasks.

This section can be populated in two different ways. Assumed risks to the project can be listed out with their expected probability and the impact it is going to create. Another way is to populate the section as the project progresses.

Keys and legends

The legend for the different categories will be highlighted in this section. This would include the different stages of project completion, risk probability, and the impact of the risks.

The project status template can be a useful reckoner to take stock of the progress of the project. It can especially be useful when there are complex projects to handle. However, issues may arise when you have many of these complex projects to handle.

It is in such cases that a resource management tool would come in handy. It would also help in maintaining a single interface among multiple stakeholders, leading to a unique information source.

Project timeline template in Excel can come in as a much-needed support when you are overburdened with work. By entering details such as resources, dates and other details, you can get a clear picture of the status of the project.

A simple search on the internet would reveal a large and confusing array of project management templates. However, it is best to keep things simple when you’re thinking of using a project management template for the first time. And the easiest way to create a project management template in Excel.

Read on to know how you can go about making your first template.

Project Timeline Template in Excel

The ideal project management timeline template would look like a simplistic version of the project management dashboards that are usually available online. Most importantly, the project manager and other key stakeholders should be able to make sense of the timeline and the data that they are looking at.

The main idea behind a free project timeline template is to streamline tasks and their details, and put them in one place. The different resources that are allocated for the projects are also visible in one sheet, which makes it easier to keep track of them. With the planned project start and end dates, and completion percentages, you can also mark how much of the work gets done. As a result, you can make better decisions concerning the reallocation of resources to certain tasks.

Let’s take a look at the different heads that are there in the Excel-based project management timeline template.

Serial Number

This is critical to mark out the different steps that are required in the project. Your project may be divided into different stages, especially for long-drawn out assignments. Every task and their sub task, should be numbered for clarity.

Event

This records the different assignments to be completed under the project. Depending on the level of importance of the tasks, you can stack them accordingly, using the “Group” function under the “View” column.

For example, a particular stage would have different tasks, and each task would have different sub-tasks. Tasks will be stacked together at a level lower than Stages, and Sub-tasks at a lower level than Tasks. They will be coloured accordingly as well.

Assigned To

This section will have the details of who is in charge of each of the events in the project.

In larger projects, there will be assistant managers for each stage of the project, who will be in charge of their own set of resources, and to carry out the different tasks. Listing the resources out makes it easily visible for stakeholders. As a manager, you would easily be able to identify who to contact in case of bottlenecks.

Start and End Dates

This would indicate the planned start and end dates for the execution of the different stages, tasks, and sub-tasks of the project. You can keep updating revised dates as and when they change once the project commences.

Duration

The duration of each of the stages of work would be automatically calculated once each of these tasks have been assigned start and end dates. Once all tasks and subtasks have been listed, you can gauge if the duration is ideal or not. Based on the discussions with your resources, you can make changes accordingly to your schedule.

Completion Percentage

This is the section which would be populated as the project progresses. The amount of work completed, and the start and end dates, you can enter a completion percentage for each of the tasks. This would be based on the amount of work completed by the expected end date for the activity.

Once you know the percentage, you can decide to allocate more time to unfinished tasks or assign more resources to the tasks which are falling behind on the timeline.

Gantt Chart

This is the pictorial representation of the overall project timeline. The coloured bars show the time taken for each of the tasks. Depending on the overall distribution of tasks, you can reallocate resources or adjust the time accordingly. This chart would also become a ready reckoner at meetings.

Now that you know the data held within a project timeline template , you can start using this Excel-based guide for different projects. Once the complexity of projects increases, you can consider upgrading to a resource management tool.

Besides being highly customisable, an application that comes with a business intelligence dashboards offers deeper analysis on your staff utilisation and project management in the long run.

But as the years roll on, advancements in the digital world has resulted in businesses wanting to plug efficiency loopholes with sophisticated alternatives. And an enterprise resource management tool is one such product that combines the best of project and workforce management.

Given that a project plan falls into place with the right resources (in terms of human and technical competencies), selecting the right tool is the key to running your firm effectively and efficiently. It comes down to the tool’s ability to align its offerings and promised benefits with enterprise-wide objectives. More importantly, it should let you respond to fluctuations in resource capacity, shifting demands and consumer needs, thus justifying the costs undertaken to procure it.

And what better way to go about this than with an infographic depicting how Excel and Enterprise Resource Management systems compare? Scroll on to see (and read)which one checks all the right boxes for you!

1. Static Versus Dynamic data updates

While excel can hold data across several spreadsheets, not everyone can keep track of changes made to this data at the same time. A time-suck then ensues from consolidating and reconciling data, while risking new actions overriding prior decisions.

A major project roadblock presents itself when you’re unable to instantly retrieve resource and project details. To begin with, Excel can’t pinpoint under or over-allocated resources, project progress, milestones reached or even update you of the critical tasks completed versus the ones pending. So while you can apply mathematical formula to record billable efforts and hours, Excel is of little help when it comes to scheduling critical resources onto upcoming work such that their availability, utilization rates on past and in-flight projects as well as the skills in active and/passive use are all factored in.

ERM, on the other hand, streamlines information from the resource database into a centralized source of truth. Not only can multiple users access and update data in real-time but they can also generate reports that are both accurate and reliable. Further, it adjust schedules against available hours such that all resources are optimally booked.

2. Conditional versus unconditional visibility

In the broad spectrum of project resource management, visibility isn’t given its due credit because of the default assumption that it exists unconditionally. This, however, isn’t the case with excel, which contains data siloed in multiple blocks.

And while both excel and ERM tools have expandable storage that stretches to accommodate new entries, the search for the right resource(s) for the right work in excel is hindered due to scattered details. For instance, the very person you’re looking for would exist but information concerning past efforts, utilization rates on ongoing commitments and available hours remain murky. By the time this information is received, you lose precious hours and invest in external hires. In the meantime, existing potential remains untapped, widening the gap between benched staff and project vacancies.

ERM’s visually interactive scheduler makes it the clear winner here. Besides giving you a high-level view of resource charts to determine the status of inflight and upcoming work, it lets you drill down to resource deployments for multiple projects. Its drag and drop functionality extends to re-assigning over or under-booked resources such that all available hours are optimally allocated.

3. Simplicity and flexibility

Excel enjoys popularity even today due to its simplicity, from acquiring team licenses to serving as a rulebook for report templates.

That being said, Excel reports are inflexible, rendering it near-impossible to introduce tweaks in the input. The ‘garbage in-garbage out’ rule applies here when wrong, incomplete or inaccurate data entries propagate all the way through to the output.

A resource management tool, however, is a departure from tradition owing to the level of customization it offers in line with changing business requirements. It generates multidimensional reports that let you drill down to individual elements of interest. Enhanced levels of granularity aid in making informed decisions when exploring feasible routes on prospective opportunities. This configurability extends even to secure access since it limits the visibility of confidential information. The tool validates users by role, location and seniority, ensuring that data stays protected.

4. Real-time Forecasting Analytics

While excel lets you manage current work to a certain extent, it’s difficult to track project performance on several projects running in parallel. Moreover, it can’t create a project pipeline that informs you of shifting demands. Time is money, and running out of time leads to dropping the right projects altogether.

A resource management tool determines if your existing capacity (quantity of available staff) and capabilities( the skills they possess) is sufficient to staff ongoing as well as future projects. This lets you restructure your workforce around truly market-ready competencies that your resources can upskill to, well ahead of the curve.

5. Communicative Collaboration

Excel focuses on data entry but not on who is/was on what, and when.
When project teams are unable to communicate instantly with each other across the enterprise, their ability to collaborate and pass on lessons learned during knowledge sharing is hindered. Besides, task updates become difficult to track, which further results in a vital project detail being dropped.

Resource management tools once again emerge successful owing to the fact that they integrate with other systems and plug in schedules, timesheets and expense reports. They prevent repetitions by marking completed work, while highlighting undone tasks on high-visibility projects. Your teams can then stay informed of what everyone is on and optimize time between sequenced tasks accordingly. This lets them maintain robust productivity scales throughout the duration of the project.

No-one likes taking sides, but what else lets you manage a high-visibility project portfolio like an intuitive resource management tool does?

As a part of the managerial process, spreadsheets are getting increasingly misused, since they were never really conceived to serve nuanced purposes. When stretched beyond their capacity they can cost you time, resources and an overall reduction of efficiency. If you, as an organization are plagued by poor levels of efficiency, it is a good idea to replace spreadsheets with some of the dedicated tools we have listed here:

Financial reporting

Why not?

Financial reports consist of large scale, sensitive data and storing such data in spreadsheets comes with risks like file corruption or significant exposure to external threats. Since multiple versions get invariably created, having to shunt between them in order to correct errors is both inconvenient and time consuming. Spreadsheets, moreover do not to scale up like your organization does. Thus, you will notice that the same set of tasks get more and more complicated as your team expands.

What are the alternatives?

Deltek Costpoint lets you manage project accounting, labor management, manufacturing and business intelligence solutions at one go. Software like SlickPie (free tool) and idu-Concept offer great budgeting and accounting solutions as well!

Recording Purchase orders

Why not?

Imagine mixing up between the orders you received or placing orders for the wrong set of raw materials only because you entered the wrong serial number in the spreadsheets. Large scale logistic errors that concern international shipments, not only lead to a financial drain but can also cause a breach in credibility. Given the fact that such errors are unavoidable while dealing with a multitude of purchase orders; you will do yourself a favor by opting out of spreadsheets. Choose an exclusive procurement software that does not suck time and lets you to outline requests and approvals.

What are the alternatives?

Procurify, for example, offers a clear audit trail and real-time visibility into your company’s spending at all times. Aestiva Purchase Order, Apptivo Work Orders are dedicated software too.

Database

Why not?

Spreadsheets are not equipped to serve as enterprise-wide databases. While a designated database allows you to assign authority for individual users to alter information in varying degrees, with spreadsheets, getting data alterations right between multiple owners can be very cumbersome. Additionally, spreadsheet users have to analyse and build reports from scratch which can get very redundant.

What are the alternatives?

If you do not want to opt for big players like Oracle or Microsoft, a software like Teradata could be an affordable solution to all the database woes you may have. You could also opt for software like Zoho Creator or Sisense.

Editorial Calendar

Why not?

Spreadsheets’ limitations in forging collaboration between multiple users or allowing seamless error rectification can be massive deterrents in building successful editorial calendars. Content segregation get tedious and increases the chances of publishing wrong content. If you are an organization that is heavily invested in content marketing, you will need a dedicated editorial tool with calendars, dictionary and alerts.

What are the alternatives?

While Hubspot is one of the most popular tools for automating your marketing and editorial calendars, you can also opt for solutions like Coschedule and Autopilot depending on your budget and requirement.

Resource Management

Why not?

From time sucks that add up to a major “invisible expense” to snowballing logistical problems, spreadsheets pose very serious threats to resource management. Given how even the slightest of schedule changes can play havoc if miscommunicated, you are multiplying the risk by opting to use spreadsheets. Further, requirements can change and making sure that the right person is allotted a right task is instrumental to quality delivery. Spreadsheets are not designed to forecast workload and force you to resort to last minute hires/fires as demands vary.

What are the alternatives?

Bid adieus to your scheduling nightmares with our intuitive tool, Saviom. We not only make scheduling effortless and quick, but also help you maximize your utilization levels and cost-efficiency.

Spreadsheets are ideal for personal use or when minimum collaboration is required. Although investing on customized software for specific purposes may sound like a capital intensive approach, the increase in productivity levels will testify the fact that opting out of spreadsheets is the way forward in the digital age.