Does Your Project Management Software Cover All Your Bases?

When you think about project management software what comes to mind? Do you think of a huge dinosaur of a program that runs on your central servers and consumes far more of its fair share of both computing and human resources? If you do, then it’s time for you to learn about some of the newest advances in project management software tools.

It is true that it used to be that in order to have a fully featured project manager software system a business had to have access to heavy computing power and lots of information technology resources to support it. Fortunately, the Internet has made those days a thing of the past. Today it is possible to access fully featured project management software directly on the Internet. That means that you don’t have to commit huge amounts of capital resources to purchase the technology nor do you have to hire additional staff to keep your system up and running. Instead, you can access your project management software online anytime. It works when you work and it can handle everything you can throw at it.

Traditionally, project management software has been designed to follow the production process from acquisition of parts and pieces down through the completion and delivery process. Systems have been designed to handle all sorts of hard goods as well as services. This has proved invaluable since it enables your team to make sure that the operations process is controlled and works the way it is supposed to.

In recent years, the process has been taken a step further. The latest advances in project management software are to include the full life cycle of the product including sales and billing. That means that today’s software incorporate not only the nuts and bolts of operations but the front end customer relations management (CRM) pieces along with billing and accounts receivable.

If you think about it you start to wonder why it took so long to include these features. By including customer relationship management software you can make sure that you are getting the most out of your sales and that your customers are truly getting what they need. By aligning what your customers are buying with their history with your company you can ensure that your business development team is not missing the opportunity to work with them to expand or adjust your sales strategy. By including billing in the process you make sure that you are giving your customers attention after the sale and that you are managing your cash in a way that makes sense.

When you begin to consider your options for your project management software make sure that you are looking at the entire picture. Your web based project management software needs to cover you cradle to grave. In the past this wasn’t even an option. Fortunately, we have lots of options these days and getting a full featured system is possible for every company no matter what the size. If you don’t have a system, now is the time. If you already have a system, perhaps it’s time to look at an upgrade.