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Task Management Software Buyer's Guide
Table of Contents
- » What is the definition of task management?
- » What is Task Management Software?
- » How does Task Management Software work?
- » Is it worth investing money in Task Management Software?
- » Features of Task Management Software
- » Benefits of Task Management Software
- » What are the points to focus before choosing Task Management Software?
- » Questions to ask a vendor when buying Task Management Software
- » How to Choose Best Task Management Software?
- » Pricing of Task Management Software
- » Conclusion
An efficient management of task yield desirable results. However, it gets difficult when you get to work upon more than one task at a time. Multitasking calls for simultaneous coordination of a number of processes with each other. For instance, you are not only required to create the tasks and schedule them for timely completion but also required to allocate the right sources to the team members for easy completion of the work. Not just that, it gets imperative to keep a track on the ongoing progress and to report the same to the higher authorities from time to time. Definitely, they are not as easy as they sound. It takes a lot of pressure and constant persistence on a daily basis. In this regard, a Task Management Software can be considered as the best options that can not only automate the task management work for you but can also increase the working efficiency of the workers to a different level.
» What is the definition of task management?
The task management definition describes it as the process of segregating an entire day’s work into organized, achievable tasks. When we say task management, it always refers to its complete lifecycle: starting with task creation to its assignment to its follow-ups and status tracking to finally reporting its completion. It’s a great way to be productive for you as an individual or as a company.
» What is Task Management Software?
It is a software application that can assist you to efficiently handle the task from starting to ending. It combines a number of tasks into one comprehensive platform so that team members can access them remotely. Through various tools, you can quickly finish a task at hand without going through tedious and mundane manual efforts.
» How does Task Management Software work?
A team project management software manages your tasks in a systematic way. It creates tasks and schedules them as per the given deadline. Your employees receive the required resources through the application. If it requires, the daily task planner also integrates with third-party applications to provide ease of working. Also, it manages the documents, keeps the deadline in check and reports the progress towards the end of the day.
» Is it worth investing money in Task Management Software?
Clients love when you perform with quick turnaround time. It only brings you repeated business but also brings new referrals through positive words of mouth from your clients. That is possible when you have everything planned and organized while dealing day to day tasks. Now, if you are a small company with few members, managing the same might be easy. However, when the number of clients and employees exceed more than 20, it would definitely be a tiresome affair. Here, if you try to manually focus on keeping the efficiency of the team in check, you lose chances of closing other lucrative business deals at the same time. However, with a daily task organizer application by your side, you can easily leave the responsibility on to the shoulders of an automated software while bringing focus to other key business activities. Hence, unless you are a solo freelancer or a small size company, you need to have an ideal project task management software by your side for sure.
» Features of Task Management Software
The Task management software had been initially created with a motive to help businesses and companies manage the work pressure around tasks by devising innovative and revolutionary ideas. This includes creating, managing, assigning, and sharing tasks between the approved members which is done by the single software. Hence, to understand the working of the task management software, let’s have a brief discussion on the various features working together in the software.
› Plan and Track Projects : The software serves as a single gateway for completing various aspects involved during task management. Almost all task management software aid the customers to plan, create and manage the tasks, thereby reducing wastage of time as well as finances. As all the steps are automated, the team can focus more on planning and executing tasks properly. Similarly, the software also facilitates easy tracking of the task progress assigned to employees or groups.
› Easy Sharing : As the team task management software also allows easy sharing of tasks, the operator or admin can assign tasks to the employees in real time. Thus, employees can gather to make groups for easy collaboration and co-operation opportunities, while everyone in the group is also updated on the task’s progress. This encourages a good competitive environment amongst your employees ensuring that the employees remain in the track.
› Scheduling Reminders : Remembering the tasks at the right time is not achievable regularly at the right time. This is here; the team task management software comes as a saviour. As discussed above not only they help in managing tasks, but also aid in scheduling reminders in the same software. Furthermore, the members involved in the tasks can also be notified via reminders in real-time.
› Expanded Workspace : The software allows you to run multiple projects at the same time under separate workspace that keeps you away from confusion. You can customize the workspace and add elements to them as per your choice.
› Task Comments : You will not only be able to assign your team tasks but also can infuse comments whenever you want to keep them informed on any new idea or suggestions. You can create a conversation window and pull down participants to create a private discussion invisible to other participants.
› Third Party application integration : You can easily upload or download files to your dashboard from third-party cloud storage applications such as Google Drive, and DropBox with just a single click. That saves you time from doing the same from a separate window.
» Benefits of Task Management Software
The task management tool comes with a wide range of benefits which helps execute the tasks within the stipulated time as well as with 100% authenticity. Reducing the total time required to streamlining the processes, the software has created many wonders for the businesses and the companies. So, let’s study the plethora of uses the task management system provides to its customers.
› Reduces time wastage : Time is money for every company and business. To help achieve maximized profits with greater success, various task management systems come with newly devised facilities and tools which help complete the task within a shorter duration of time. Hence, the employees can focus more on executing the tasks properly rather than churn their head on the processing methods.
› Aids in Communication : The task management systems also aid in maintaining a proper communication channel both internally as well as externally. As documents and files can be shared readily through the platform, effective communication between the stakeholders, partners, and even the employees is ensured.
› Reducing the Expenditure : The daily task organizers are hardwired to carry out the various essential functions all within a single software. This aids in cutting down the operational cost as well as the expenditures of the company as they do not need any user interference and are completely automated. Thereby, a single person can also verify and track the software’s activities which tackle the need for hiring more staff.
› Real-time Accessibility : Numerous daily task organizers enable their customers to track and verify the progress of the tasks assigned to different working groups of the company. It also helps the operator to check the activities of each employee along with the time taken by them to complete the assigned tasks. This data can then be used to re-train poorly performing employees, thereby, increasing the chances of work productivity.
» What are the points to focus before choosing Task Management Software?
Hiring a work management software undoubtedly offers a number of benefits to the hiring company, but there are some points worth remembering before one goes for a daily task planner. Hence to help you with your journey we have hand-listed some of the crucial points. Check them out now.
› Company’s Needs : As important is hiring a daily task planner for your company, similarly important is to ensure that the software fulfils each and every requirement of the company. Hence, to achieve this step, one has to note down all the requirements which can then be compared with the myriad of options available in the market. Furthermore, it also helps to cut down the long list of software, while enhancing the chances of landing with the perfect software for you.
› Budget-Friendly : This step is one of the most crucial points worth remembering while choosing work management software. Each software has its own set of strengths and weaknesses and similarly is priced by their developing companies. Hence, to save oneself from having a huge dent in the pocket, one must be careful enough to choose the software which comes under the budget.
› Unlimited Attachments : This is where most buyers get tricked by the vendors. Few task management software comes with limited attachment feature, even under the premium package. After you attach files beyond certain GB quota, they start putting an additional charge on per MB basis. Make such things clear beforehand as they may remain as a headache till the subscription period gets over.
› Exclusive Permissions : The task management software will have a number of features and if the admin wants can decide who can get the privilege to what extent on using them. The exclusive permission feature is very useful when you want to run a controlled environment.
» Questions to ask a vendor when buying Task Management Software
1. How does task management software allow the management of resources?
2. What kind of project management capabilities does the software offer?
3. Which capabilities do the software pack in for effective collaboration?
4. Is the task management software scalable to cope up with our increasing future demands?
5. Does the tool offer a customization facility? Which features can be personalized, and to what extent?
6. How safe is my data in the software? What are the security standards that you implement?
7. How would you rate the software when it comes to ease of use?
8. Does the software support time tracking functionality?
9. Can I access real-time data/status of various tasks as well as reports?
10. Does the software offer simple integrations with other popular organizational software?
11. Do you provide prompt help and support? In what ways? What are the terms of support services, if any?
12. Do you provide training? How would be the learning curve?
13. Is the price all-inclusive?
» How to Choose Best Task Management Software?
The chances of landing with the best task management software may seem impossible and scary to many as the market is filled with a huge bunch of software to choose from. Each software varies from one to another depending upon the facilities and tools availed as well as their pricing structure and hence, it becomes very crucial to find the best task management software which completes the tasks for you. So, let’s learn the numerous ways to ensure that you get the best result.
› User-Friendly Interface : The most common reason for the popularity of some project task management software is their simple working procedure. Not all employees in a company have prior programming knowledge or coding skills, hence, a user-friendly interface serves as a more effective way. This is because the software allows anyone and everyone to work on the software without posing any obstacle.
› Compatibility with Existing Tools : Numerous project task management software also supports other business tools which are definitely an add-on for any company. This provides smooth operational efficiency, where the users do not have to worry about re-hiring extra tools.
› Protection against Hackers : Each company has its own set of confidential information which when exposed can have a drastic impact on the company or business. As the tasks undertaken by the company have similar importance, protecting them against hackers is also a rising issue. Understanding this situation, many software companies have devised updated and advanced team project management software which has an in-built two-factor authentication system or an activated firewall. This helps in tactfully preventing any forceful or unauthorized intrusion.
› Instant Customer Support : A task management software is nothing without a 24/7 customer support service which excels in providing instant and customer-specific solutions within real-time. It helps in increasing the trust factor which helps attract newer customers which can then be used to acquire newer tasks and projects.
› Reviews : While choosing a good team project management software one should also give prior importance to the reviews and the comments left by the previous customers of the software. Generally, the reviews contain various information on the software’s quality of service as well as the frequency of the service request availed during the working period. Afterward, the badly performing software can be separated from the good ones and one can move ahead in the journey.
» Pricing of Task Management Software
Depending upon the facilities and tools availed the pricing structure of each software differs from one to another. While the lowest hiring price of the team project management software can be as low as $7/month, the highest rise in the software has been found to reach a maximum of $299/month. However, it is always profitable to go with a free basic version of the software you have chosen initially to find out if the software successfully manages to impress you or not. Afterward, you can just close your eyes and go with the premium plan to maximize our company’s profits.
» Conclusion
As of now, you must have understood the importance of team task management software for your business. Choosing the right task management tool will surely depend on your type of industry and size of business. Also, you must consider looking for factors such as collaboration and delivery options while shortlisting a task management system. Make sure your vendor has a mobile compatibility option added into your kitty. No doubt, you will be offered lucrative last-minute deals but never go for a low-featured work management software that hardly satisfies your needs in the long-term. So, the best advice would be to select the application on its usability and then go for negotiation instead of doing the reverse.