The article “Collaboration Omission” dealt with issues of import which make the possibility of embracing a Microsoft Project alternative not only feasible but imminent for growing teams and collaboration inclined companies.
Before diving into the specifics of each feature Workzone possesses, it is important to understand the provisions which the ideal Microsoft Project alternative must include in order for it to be deemed the “apotheosis” of project management platforms.
Most management gurus repeatedly stress the underlying concept of transparency and simplicity in this supposedly Utopian tool. They tend to propound the fact that a roster full of complicated features is not the way to go if business wide adoption of an important software solution is concerned. Most vendors like to tote their spec sheets around as credentials. It is time to move beyond the features and dig into the benefits. That alone can give birth to a platform which is in sync with Web 3.0 demands and is a well thought of comprehensive product designed for both tech savvy and non-technical users.
- Transparency in all dealings – As discussed “Where is my 100th complicated feature?” asked no project manager ever! A surprisingly large number of project management platforms do not boast the presence of seamless collaboration and updates – the basic foundation of efficiency. To do lists are not available and even if they are a part of the modules, changes to them are not reflected in the master project plan.
- Reducing Administrative task loads – CRM expert Ron Fisher says that if administrative tasks are automated, employees can free up to 2 hours of extra time every week. In the scenario of project management it is the team lead who suffers the most trying to keep the master plan updated and competently handling the change requests from various partners and stakeholders.
- Email integration – Information tends to bypass important touch points when it is restricted to the confines of an email provider. An ideal project management tool should encompass this channel of communication and facilitate routine alerts and notifications within the system dashboard to ensure complete perusal of all relevant updates.
Workzone as a Microsoft Project alternative is a battle tested solution. It has been adopted and embraced by many large organizations because of the user friendly interface supported by an array of sought after and useful features.
Going by the nomenclature discussed above, the following features position Workzone as an ideal competitor of the MS Project alternative tag.
TRANSPARENCY AND COLLABORATION:
- Projects Dashboard – This allows a high level snapshot of ongoing projects across all accounts, departments, clients and campaigns. It is the anti-dote to the problem of performance review because it allows all related stakeholders to assess exactly how projects are progressing and the reasons behind delays and mishaps.
- Workload Reports – Boosting transparency within a project, these reports allow project managers to shuffle responsibilities ensuring fair allocation of resources and a well utilized team.
- To-Do lists – Companies become agile only when daily milestones serve to achieve long term enterprise goals. The staple of project management, To-Do lists help in this regard. Workzone’s lists are tailored to team members and auto emailed to ensure delivery. Further when these lists are updated the project plan also changes accordingly without requiring any intervention on behalf of the project manager. This is not only seamless collaboration at its finest; it is also an important provision to cut down administrative tasks.
- Project Requests – This feature allows team leads to create custom forms and co-workers to request projects online. A central discussion area is opened for each project and appropriate stakeholders emailed to make use of it. This eliminates multiple threads pertaining to a single project thereby allowing associated parties to glean insights about new occurrences from a single reliable data source.
- Group Calendar– Resonating to the high level collaboration of the Central Dashboard, the Group Calendar allows authorized parties to merge several project calendars into a master pool, schedule events, track attendance and send out notifications to concerned parties.
REDUCING ADMINISTRATIVE TASK LOADS:
- Status Alerts – These status alerts take the pressure off the team lead or project manager by ensuring that the progress of projects, phases and schedules are clearly delineated, updated and conveyed to appropriate stakeholders in order to eliminate the risk of deadline defaults.
- Project Templates – This feature allows project managers to save the layout of a project schedule as a reusable template which can be leveraged later.
- Time Tracking – Project managers can breathe easy as Workzone keeps track of the time worked on specific projects and milestones complete with a comparison between billed and scheduled hours to facilitate invoice creation.
E-MAIL INTEGRATION:
- E-mail Alerts – Workzone doesn’t neglect the important medium of communication and collaboration that is email. It in fact works in tandem with this channel mailing concerned parties and stakeholders of new documents to review and changes to approve.
As a Microsoft Project alternative Workzone hits all the check-boxes dutifully. Businesses are requested to research at their end as well in order to understand the stance Workzone takes on the streamlining of project management features. They will find ample proof to corroborate our claims.
If you feel we are a good fit for your enterprise, please connect with us at /request-demo/ to request a free demo.
