CAN SALESFORCE PROJECT MANAGEMENT MAKE YOU MORE COMPETITIVE?
If you’ve ever run a complex project with multiple steps and people, you’ll know it’s tricky to keep all those elements under control. However, you might believe that a project management tool is an unnecessary expense and you can easily manage projects yourselves. Well, you might be managing them, but I’ll take a bet and say that it’s eating up a lot of your time – or someone else’s.
WHY USE SALESFORCE PROJECT MANAGEMENT?
The key reason is, with a flexible project management tool (built on a platform you’re using already), you can manage expectations about what can be delivered (and when), and ensure your project is delivered on time and to budget.
With Salesforce project management in Mission Control, you can set clear targets, track time spent on individual tasks, see at a glance how your project is tracking, and maintain quality.
This means happier employees and more satisfied clients.
CAN SALESFORCE PROJECT MANAGEMENT HELP OUR BUDGET?
To illustrate this, I’ll relate a short story (where the names of the businesses have been changed for anonymity).
A small tree-lopping company tendered to lop trees in several suburban streets in a major capital city. Their quote had to be exact – no variations – so a team visually inspected every tree before quoting.
After several months, their accountant noticed a discrepancy between incoming payments from their client and the actual time the loppers were billing.
Further investigation revealed that in the time between submitting the tender and the commencement of the work, a major cable company had run cabling through the suburb. This added extra complexity so each tree took longer to lop.
The lopping business applied to their client for payment for the variation in time spent, and underpayments they unearthed through an audit.
They got their compensation but the whole process took several years to resolve. Had the lopping business used project management software, they’d have discovered the discrepancies earlier and resolved the issues sooner.
SEE YOUR PROJECTS AT A GLANCE
To stay on top of your budget, and manage your resources more efficiently, it’s vital that you have a bird’s eye view of projects and the status of all tasks.
REDUCE STRESS WITH SALESFORCE PROJECT MANAGEMENT
If you don’t have a system set up with clear guidelines, it can be a challenge to keep your project on track. Project management software helps you to bring clarity so you and your employees understand priorities, workflow and budgets – no more last-minute panic.
HELP EMPLOYEES TO BE THEIR BEST
Make it easier on employees by helping them prioritize tasks. With the flexibility of Salesforce project management in Mission Control, you can reschedule tasks easily without disrupting the entire project schedule. This helps your colleagues or employees see at a glance what task needs to be completed first to keep the project on track.
KEEP ON TOP OF YOUR BUDGET AND INVOICING
Because all your project management is in one central location, it’s easy to identify when things are heading in the wrong direction. Task management and time tracking means you can manage your resources more effectively, and track billable time versus time spent on admin. Integrating project management software with invoicing means a more streamlined and accurate invoicing process.
COMMUNICATE BETTER WITH EMPLOYEES, CLIENTS AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS
The eternal complaint I read about is ‘lack of communication’. With centralized systems and anywhere, any time access, you, your employees and your clients can get answers to questions immediately, rather than needing to dump information into a spreadsheet (with the possibility of errors) and then analyze it.
BE MORE COMPETITIVE
With all that data at your fingertips, you can track trends, analyze activity and see how you can improve productivity. This means leaner, more accurate project bids that help you outclass your competitors.
KEY ADVANTAGES OF SALESFORCE PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN MISSION CONTROL
Think about how you’re running your projects now. Is there room to simplify through streamlining and centralizing all your activities? How could these features help your business’s productivity and profitability?
- Keep all your data (e.g., sales, service, projects) in one central location. This means a smoother workflow and a better client experience.
- Collaborate with colleagues through our built-in Chatter feature, which means almost instant answers to any queries you might have. Chatter also aids innovation through connections and discussions among colleagues.
- Manage your project any time, anywhere, with the Salesforce1 mobile app.
- Get up to speed quickly as the Salesforce project management tool will be a familiar UI for your team.
- Integrate your systems, which means cost savings through maintaining fewer systems.
- Get a 360-degree view of customer interactions – from your CRM right through to after-sales interactions, special projects and more. More visibility supports cooperation between your various teams (e.g. Marketing, Sales, Professional Services, Finance) for a more streamlined workflow and more leads captured.
- Leverage the power of the Salesforce platform such as security, workflow automation, cloud-based, APIs, AppExchange (e.g. third-party apps).
- Manage risks. Keep a track of any risks you may be concerned about that could impact the successful delivery of your projects.
- Learn from mistakes. No one is perfect and despite your best intentions and tools, some projects go off track. However, with the Salesforce project management tools within Mission Control, you’ll quickly identify where things went off course so you can anticipate the issue for your future projects.
- Empower employees and colleagues with the ability to update their tasks status and log time spent.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS IN SALESFORCE
From Mission Control in Salesforce, you have access to Gantt charts, Kanban boards, time tracking and more. You’ll gain real-time insight into your capacity and availability, simplifying the scheduling of your next big project and helping you to communicate clearer and more accurate timelines to your clients.
Are you ready to become more competitive? You can find out how Mission Control can help your business here.
