5 Essentials of the Best Marketing Project Management Tools
The right marketing project management tool means better communication, easy collaboration, and an organized team. But there are thousands of tools designed to help marketing departments with their hectic workloads, and each looks promising on paper. So how do you choose? Look for these 5 essential capabilities to quickly narrow the field and find the perfect tool for your team: 1. Easy Document CollaborationNo campaign is a one-person show. Between brainstorming, group writing and editing sessions, and several rounds of revisions, you need multiple team members to access and contribute to documents simultaneously with marketing collaboration software. 2. Convenient File Management & StorageMultiple copy revisions, design mockups, budget spreadsheets... marketers have a lot of documents to manage. Project management tools let you virtually paperclip related files together with the task they support, so you don’t need to search, resend emails, or verify that everything's up-to-date. 3. Free Mobile AppsCreativity doesn’t clock out at 6 PM. You need to be able to access your work whenever and wherever you want. Free mobile apps let you access your workspace from wherever you happen to be: at a client meeting, on the train, or over your leisurely Saturday morning coffee. 4. Visualizes Projects & PlansPlanning projects on calendars and whiteboards isn't ideal. A single change can lead to a domino effect of tasks that each need to be rescheduled, or may be completely forgotten until it's too late. Find a tool that lets you view multiple campaigns and projects at once, see how everything connects, and quickly make adjustments. 5. Real-Time UpdatesMeetings, presentations, reports, follow-ups — you barely have time to eat lunch let alone chase down teammates for status updates or to discuss changes to a task. You need instant access and visibility into exactly where your campaigns stand right now, so you can make sure your team is always focused on high-priority tasks. Marketing Collaboration Tools Buyers Guide For more help finding the perfect marketing project management tool for your team, download our free eBook:Collaboration Software for Marketing Teams: A Buyer’s Guide Free Checklist Download our checklist for evaluating project management software and find the perfect solution for your marketing team: Marketing Software Buyers Guide.xlsx
The Real ROI of Wrike
How much can Wrike save you in time, money, and productivity? To understand this fully, you’ll need to consider how much inefficiencies, process breakdowns, and poor collaboration can cost your business. In 2017, one study found that businesses lost an average of $11,000 per employee each year because of ineffective collaboration and communication. Yes, that means siloed email threads, outdated spreadsheets, lack of task accountability, and poor resource management can cost companies like yours thousands each year. Smart work management is critical as we enter the future of work. Research shows that many of us are looking for ways to maximize our workdays and eliminate the broken processes that make us less productive. In fact, 92% of workers say that having the tools they need to do their work effectively has a positive impact on their job satisfaction. An effective work management solution like Wrike doesn’t just make teams more efficient. It can speed up time to market, save critical project hours and budgets, streamline processes, and impact your company’s bottom line. The real ROI of work management solutions like Wrike is all about what they help you reclaim in hours, productivity, and even costs. How Wrike removes productivity roadblocks What are your team’s productivity killers? Does an unwieldy request intake process add hours to your workweek? Does the constant switching between apps make completing certain tasks time-consuming and inefficient? Optimizing request intake Making Wrike a centralized hub for information and collaboration has helped companies like House of Design save 1,100 hours annually. House of Design gave up “messy, overwhelming, and inconsistent” spreadsheets for work intake and started using Wrike requests. “Before Wrike, when up against the clock and determining which of his tasks to tackle, we’d speak to each engineer individually to understand which parts requests were critical. Spending hours of time and getting a dozen different opinions wasn’t up to our standards of efficiency,” Ryan Okelberry, COO of House of Design, explained. By leveraging Wrike requests, House of Design makes “strategic decisions” and reclaims 20+ hours each workweek. Here’s how: Get the complete story on tasks and requests by gathering information through a custom request form. Ask dynamic questions of your requester so your team has exactly the info they need to start (and complete) the request. Requests are then auto-assigned to the appropriate person or team, eliminating confusion over intake details and responsibility. Details such as due dates, subtasks, folder organization, and other custom information and automation can also be set up to streamline work. Streamlining feedback and cutting approval times There’s no getting around it. If you’re not using a work management solution like Wrike to streamline feedback and review cycles, you’re losing time in your approvals process. Whether that’s a messaging doc that needs approval, a design that requires feedback, or a webpage that needs to be proofed before it goes live. Take OSF Healthcare, for example, who used Wrike to get out of “messy” email inboxes and speed up asset approval by 50%. Similarly, Moneytree cut their average approval cycle from seven days to four using Wrike. Create an approval process that works for your team by using Wrike’s proofing features to reduce complexity and drive efficiency. Centralize and contextualize feedback in one location Mark up documents directly, so feedback is clearer Set approvers and make it simple to sign off quickly Collaborate with external stakeholders and incorporate their feedback No two teams are exactly alike. Wrike’s versatile proofing and approval features make it easy to create a review process that works for your team size and workflow. Cost savings, automation, and reclaiming billable hours As the team at Tipton Communications explains in their customer case study, “before we adopted Wrike, we were losing somewhere between 5% and 10% of billable hours to unnecessary project administration: chasing project statuses, getting people to fill out forms, looking for documents, etc." They’re certainly not alone. Over a third of managers say they spend three to four hours a day on administrative tasks. That includes processes that could be automated or otherwise made more efficient. Automation has been heralded as a critical component of work management, but what does that mean in practical terms? For telecoms company Arvig, automation of some HR processes unlocked significant time savings to the tune of an estimated 900 hours a year. In addition to that, Arvig also estimates an average cost reduction of 20% per project just by optimizing their resource allocation with Wrike. From automation to resource management, Wrike customers can optimize the way they work, reduce costs, and take back more of their time. Curious about how much Wrike could save your team? Check out our savings calculator to see where your productive hours are being lost and how Wrike can help you get them back. The ROI of Wrike: 360° work management that saves more across the board When businesses choose Wrike, they can address the inefficiencies that cost them time, money, and productivity. In their individual case studies, our customers told us how they reclaimed significant costs and hundreds of hours of productive time through features like our request forms, proofing and approvals features, automation, and resource allocation. Choosing a versatile work management platform like Wrike empowers teams to deliver value across any area of their business — from operations and creative to HR, sales, and marketing. Want to learn firsthand how Wrike can save you more by reducing complexity and removing productivity roadblocks? Try our free two-week trial and join the 20,000+ companies who trust Wrike to do the best work of their lives.
The Ultimate Guide to Project Management for Accountants
Welcome to the modern financial professional’s guide to project management for accountants. In this article, we’ll go in-depth into the benefits of using project management methods for every aspect of project-based accounting. We’ll also teach you what the challenges are and how to choose the best tool for your team. Why is project management for accountants important? In accounting, the goal is always to serve the client or group to the best of your ability. And if you’re not already using project management to do so, you aren’t reaching the full potential of your services. Project management is key for managing resources such as time and budgeting. It’s also an effective way to ensure on-time delivery of paperwork, processing, and payments. For large accounting firms, the balancing act of managing many different accounts and personnel all at the same time is quite complex. But with project management, accounting teams are empowered to be proactive rather than reactive in their methods. In everyday life, this translates to establishing a consistent process for tracking, approving, and updating all active files. Everything from timesheets to taxes can be streamlined with the right project management tool. Not only does this produce better results for your clients, but it also gives you a competitive advantage over firms that rely on outdated methods. How does project management benefit accounting firms? Project management for accounting firms goes beyond simply organizing files (although that is a benefit too). It’s a way to transition from the hourly model to a more customer-centric one. Instead of limiting your assistance to budgeted hours, your team can deliver clients better results without exceeding scope or creating extra work. It’s also handy for setting expectations, even during times of crisis. With the right project management tool, accounting firms can plot out project phases, assign tasks, and create a visual timeline of events. This all accurately reflects when work will be completed when put together. Project management for accounting firms helps with operations too. Managers can create reusable templates for common forms and task types. Team leads can manage and approve important materials. And the rest of the team can efficiently communicate with one another within individual tasks on your chosen project management software. What are the challenges of project management for accountants? One of the biggest challenges of project management for accountants is letting go of timesheets. Timesheets are a measure of billable hours, but they’re not an effective measure of effort and duration. Project management, however, does take these two factors into account. When creating tasks in a project management tool like Wrike, managers can easily add an estimated level of effort to each one so that assignees have an idea of how to schedule their time. As for duration, project managers have a bird’s eye view of all active projects and individual personnel schedules, making it easy to provide accurate turnaround estimates. Accounting firms then use this information to create a fixed and change order pricing model based on a more accurate representation of the project’s value. There’s an opportunity for growth and development with this method you simply cannot get from the timesheet system. For example, if the estimated effort for a task is wrong, managers can do a lot to improve productivity on both an individual level and for the organization as a whole. That includes coaching an individual on how to complete a task more efficiently, resolving workflow issues so that they don’t come up again, and adjusting effort expectations on similar tasks in the future. Put simply, overcoming old habits like timesheets is the biggest challenge, but there are many micro and macro rewards for doing so. How to implement project management in accounting First, take stock of your resources. Consider employee availability, project operations costs, and other related materials. You’ll have a chance to organize and prioritize these in detail later within your project management tool. Then, choose a data tracking system that includes time. In project management, time is a resource, not a product, so it must be used wisely. Managers can use historical time-tracking records to determine how long a task will realistically take and then schedule it accordingly. Next, decide how you’ll manage customer change requests and the ever-changing rules, regulations, and tax codes all accountants must deal with. Other productivity obstacles such as stakeholder requests, unforeseen roadblocks, and everyday inefficiencies get in the way of even the best-planned timelines. To ensure promises are kept and customer expectations are exceeded, accountants should use a visual representation of their project timelines to come up with flexible solutions. Ideally, this will happen before issues arise. Either way, having a project management plan will make teams agile enough to handle common accounting issues without derailing their entire assignment. Finally, choose a project management system for accountants that fits your needs. A specialized tool is helpful for dealing with unique issues that only financial teams face. What features are essential for project management accounting software? Like any profession that deals with professional services management, accounting teams need a project management accounting software that can achieve big picture goals. With the right project management accounting software, firms and individuals can easily maximize milestone billing, streamline processes, and impress clients. Here are some features to look out for: Custom template options Visibility into all active projects Time and resource management Communication tools Data tracking and forecasting Easy to use dashboards and visual charts As you can probably already tell, the best project management accounting software is a comprehensive one. It should serve as the foundation for all of your work. Teams will use it to plan, manage, and finalize deliverables. You’ll also use it for invoicing and other services you provide to clients. In a nutshell: Look for a tool that can act like a Swiss Army knife for your entire accounting business. How to choose project management software for your accounting firm So you’ve found a few great platforms with similar features. Now how do you choose which project management software is best for your unique business? The answer is simple: consider your goals. For most accounting firms, the point of adopting a project management software is to increase productivity. Consider whether or not the solution you’re interested in will expedite everyday deliverables. Can you really see your team using this tool to communicate with one another and stay on schedule? What about external clients? If you’re like most accounting services, your work is dependent on forms and information you receive from outside sources. The right project management software will give collaborators easy access to files while also protecting the privacy of other, unrelated projects. And if you’re getting closer to crunch time, it’s important to consider how your project management software will work side by side with your other tools. Make sure you check out what app integrations are available for each tool you consider. Doing so now will help your team smoothly transition while keeping up with current workloads. Last but not least is privacy. No matter what your goals may be, data privacy is a big concern for every accounting firm. Project management software is yet another outlet that needs to be as secure as possible. So if you have a number of solutions to choose from, make sure you prioritize the ones that make privacy a key feature. Why Wrike is the perfect task management software for accountants Accounting firms are busy all year round, not just at tax time. Wrike offers accountants support for ongoing projects, one-off requests, and heavy workload seasons all in one platform. How? By empowering teams to manage their internal processes as efficiently and effectively as possible. Here are some of the unique features Wrike includes to solve problems for project management for accountants: Wrike Blueprints: If you offer a variety of different services and price points, Wrike Blueprints can help you outline tasks for each one, structure the projects, and track all plans across every service. Microsoft Integration: Combine tools you already know and use with Wrike to automate your team assignment process. Create automated triggers that respond to completed Microsoft forms by creating a new file, adding the new customer data to it, and more. Zendesk Integration: Add Zendesk to Wrike so that all customer tickets that are assigned as tasks are recorded and added to individual to-do lists if and when the chosen employee has availability. Wrike Spaces: Create custom hubs that serve as a communication and document sharing platform for individual clients right within Wrike. That way there is full transparency without compromising the privacy of your other clients and projects. Wrike Resource: Balance workloads realistically and effectively within Wrike. You can track the time it takes to complete certain tasks plus how much availability individuals and teams have to take on new work. Ready to streamline operations and increase client satisfaction? Get started with Wrike’s professional services guide and a two-week free trial of our project management software.
Why Your Creative Team Isn’t Using Your Project Management Software
Getting everyone on board is crucial to project management platform success. Here are five reasons your creative team isn’t using your creative project management software, and what you can do to increase adoption.
5 Simple Yet Powerful Must-Have Project Management Features
If you’ve decided to invest in a tool, you want to make sure you’re purchasing the right one. Check out these simple yet powerful project management elements to look for when searching for a project management tool.
Smart Ways to Manage Your Team's Resources with Wrike
Sometimes the perfect project plan fails because of poor execution: budgets swell with unexpected expenses, and the team needs extra time to deliver the goods. Having real-time transparency into the allocation of your project resources will help you make project-saving decisions faster, and improve your estimation and execution on future projects. We're sharing our advice to help you figure out which resources are overloaded or need higher capacity, monitor overruns that are eating into your margins, and identify critical project areas. Use Wrike's resource planning tool for professional services to implement our tips and manage your resources effectively: 1. Track all resources in one table Wrike's Table View is familiar to all spreadsheet users, and it provides you with a comprehensive overview of your project state. Use it to plan a new project from scratch, view available or unavailable project resources, and build up-to-date reports. You can customize your project view by reordering and hiding/unhiding columns for your various projects. All data in our Table View can be exported to Excel so you can share it with your executives, clients, or stakeholders in a familiar format. 2. Keep accurate time logs Tracking time spent on tasks is tricky since people often forget to update their records. Wrike's timer takes this administrative task off everyone's shoulders: whenever someone on your team starts working on a task they simply click the timer to start tracking the exact number of minutes they work. This data is aggregated into the Time Spent column in Table View. To add it to your project overview, click on the gear icon. If you're using Wrike Enterprise, create a Custom Field for "Estimated Time", fill it out in the beginning of your project, and compare it to the actual number hours spent working. This side-by-side eye-opener will help you make more accurate estimations on future projects. 3. Adjust your team's workload If some tasks are at risk to run over schedule, Wrike's Workload view will help you adjust the team's workload to ensure they are delivered on time. You can see which team members are overloaded with multiple important tasks at once, and identify whose schedule has more capacity. Once you've identified risks, rearrange tasks to balance the workload and bring more resources to critical areas. Detail and Track Project Resources with Custom Fields Wrike's advanced customization options for Enterprise enable you to track resources specific to your projects. Use Custom Fields to control your expenses, estimate risks, and more. 4. Get control over your budget Create Custom Fields for estimated budget and actual cost to quickly spot which activities required extra expenses. This will help you adjust your budget for additional projects. 5. Estimate risks Spotting potential risks in advance will help you deliver results on time, even if the worst case scenario comes to light. Add a special "Risk" Custom Field with "High", "Medium", and "Low" values in the dropdown menu. If assignees feel that a task is likely to go over budget or schedule, or thinks something will impede progress, they can set the risk for this task as "High". When you go to your project Table View, sort your tasks by your Risk column, go through the list to diagnose the problems, and take preventative action. You can also keep these important tasks in a Dashboard widget to ensure they won't fall through the cracks. Wrike makes managing resources easier Using these Wrike features to manage your project resources makes planning projects, tracking progress, and coordinating your team's work more accurate and stress-free. If you're already using other Wrike features to manage your project resources, please tell everyone about it in the comments. Note: Custom Fields and Analytics graphs are available as part of our Enterprise subscription. Try our Enterprise version for free to test drive these features.
6 Questions to Ask When Evaluating the Best Software for Project Management
We get it: there are so many details to consider when evaluating the best software for project management. That's why we've assembled a list of questions to ask yourself when choosing the right tool to manage your work.
How to Evolve From Using Prehistoric Tools to Using Wrike
We've recently talked about the inevitable "Work Dino" in every office — those outdated tools or processes we use that are no longer as effective as they once were. Like using email to manage projects or spreadsheets to track task status, and holding weekly or even daily status meetings to talk about progress face to face.
Key to Adopting New Project Management Software from Day 1
Yet Adrian McDonagh, Managing Director at the U.K.’s leading Internet recruitment service, EasyWebRecruitment.com, was able to find a solution that was thoroughly adopted by his team of 15 people from the first day of use. Does he know some kind of secret? Well, this secret is simple: successful adoption is not about the tool. It’s about your team being able to use it. Adrian knows that when you look for a new software solution, it’s important to pick an application, which ties in with the technologies your employees already use and love. This lets you sneak the new system into your team members' hands while providing a familiar interface. So if you don’t want to put additional training pressure on your staff, find a system that fits the existing workflows and integrates with apps that your team members already know. This was exactly what Adrian did when he offered Wrike to his team to use for project and task management. “Our major challenge with all the project management systems was adoption. The team was already working very hard, and we did not want to add something to their day that would take a lot of time and training to get to grips with, or add to their administrative burden. It was completely different with Wrike. I was pleased to see that, once I showed the team how simple Wrike was, even the more skeptical members of the team were quickly convinced, ” says Adrian. What became the key to 100% Wrike adoption by the EasyWebRecruitment team? Read the whole interview with the company’s managing director to find out.
