Why (and How) a Small Business Chooses Project Management Software
Small business owners do it all: juggle responsibilities, shift roles without a hitch, and stretch every dollar to do more with less, all while keeping their heads above water and their businesses afloat. It's not surprising then that more and more small businesses are turning to project management tools to become more competitive, efficient, and profitable. What are the top PM Tool features small business owners look for, and how do they choose from the pack? A recent report by project management technology review firm Software Advice records survey responses from hundreds of small business owners: Why Small Businesses Turn to Project Management Tools Outgrowing old methods: 46% of survey respondents monitor tasks and projects manually. Yep, almost half of small business owners are tracking everything by hand: either through email, spreadsheets, or pen and paper, and they've realized they need a more sophisticated tool. With manual methods there's always the risk of human error, and even applications like Excel lack clear visibility across multiple projects and workers. Outsourcing: Small businesses are relying more and more on remote teams, contract workers and freelancers to contribute key skills and services with limited overhead costs. They need to be able to connect with their teams and manage work that's not being done in a central office, and that means one tool that everyone can use and access, no matter where they're located. Organization: 41% of business owners say they turned to a project management system to improve efficiency and accuracy. Without a central workspace, documents are easily misplaced, communication is scattered or inconsistent, and teams resort to guesswork when it comes to responsibilities and work progress. Quality suffers and tasks take longer than necessary as teams scramble to coordinate efforts and stay on point. What Small Business Owners Want in Project Management Solutions Small business owners look for tools that help them streamline processes, use limited resources efficiently, and ensure that every project they take on is profitable. They want a quick, easy solution that will get them up and running ASAP. Here's what's at the top of their wish-list: Cloud Services: All buyers who stated a preference wanted a cloud-based application over onsite software installation. Small business owners want quick solutions they can start using in a snap. With cloud services, they can sign up on a website and get started right away, without the expense and delay of onsite configuration. And with the rise in outsourcing and reliance on remote freelancers, cloud services allow virtual teams to log in and access a central workspace from anywhere, on any platform or device, any time they’re connected to the internet. Multi-Functional: 88% of survey respondents prefer software that incorporates several features over stand-alone tools. Almost all of them admitted having trouble tracking multiple projects across a handful of applications. Organizing all projects into one system makes it much easier to track progress across projects and team members — and create accurate reports. Time-Tracking: It’s the #1 requested single feature in a project management tool. Time is money, and seeing where every minute goes helps small business owners simplify processes and improve efficiency. After all, doing more with less means a higher profit margin in project management. Time logs also help with planning, since managers can look at past projects to accurately predict how long certain tasks will take, estimate the number of billable hours, and determine whether a project will be profitable. Do you own a small business, or work as a freelancer? How do you juggle your responsibilities, manage your team, and track all your work? We want to hear your top tips in the comments section below!
Why Every Team Needs Work Management Tools (Infographic)
Do you know how many minutes you and your team waste every day? I'm not talking about those "Oops, how did I end up on Facebook again?" occasions; I'm talking about the time wasted on inefficient work: Scouring through email looking for documents Accidentally using outdated information, causing necessary rework Waiting for someone to send you the information you need Answering "Can I ask you a quick question?" desk interruptions It's estimated that 25% of the average worker's day is wasted on inefficient work. That's huge. If you work an 8-hour day, that's 2 hours wasted every day. ...10 hours per week. ...520 hours per year. Do the math and you're paying the average worker for 65 days (over three months of work!) of "info gathering" every year. For every employee in your company. Shocked yet? Read more on the challenges teams and managers are facing in today's workforce in the infographic below: New work management tools are helping teams cut out these inefficiencies, so we can stop spending so much time on "info gathering" and start putting our time into actually getting work done. Whether you're a manager or a team member, it's time to help your company perform better. Try our work management tool free for the next two weeks, and challenge your team to get more done every day. Start a free 2-week trial of Wrike for your team now You can share this infographic on your blog. Copy and paste this embed code: Infographic brought to you by Wrike
10 Free Productivity Apps for Getting Things Done
There's nothing quite like the feeling of checking off your to-do items at the end of the day, knowing you were able to combat distraction and accomplish tasks assigned to you. But if you're like me, the distractions come a mile a minute, so the struggle to fight them off and focus solely on work becomes exhausting if you're not using the right tools. Fortunately, there is a great variety of free tools available for the picking. After having tested and used a bunch of them over the course of months (some even for years), I've distilled them down to these 10 distraction-killing apps that will help you: quiet down, avoid needless browsing, write without distraction, use audio to focus, and organize your work. Try them out and tell me if they work for you! Quiet Down! Hush (Mac): temporarily silences your Mac’s system alerts so you can work without getting distracted by popup windows or chiming notifications. This one's great for quieting your machine when presenting a deck at a meeting or for silencing the Mac for 30-minute work sprints. Shush (Android): does the same thing for your Android phone. Set the timer for 15 minutes or 2 hours or indefinitely, and when the timer runs out, your phone goes back to its default sound settings. No Browsing! TabZolo (Chrome extension): allows you to focus on only one Google Chrome tab, while temporarily hibernating every other open tab. One click restores everything you had open once you decide your work is done. It's a perfect tool if you work within your browser a lot and need to cut out the temptation to check Facebook or Gmail. Fluid (Mac): is a downloadable tool that can turn a web app such as Wrike (or Gmail, or Evernote, etc.) into a standalone OSX desktop app that you can place in the dock. It's almost like an internet shortcut in that one click launches the web app. This cuts down on the possibility of getting sucked into your Twitter feed (though you could always make a Fluid app just for Twitter). Tip: hide the status bar and the toolbar, so you forget you're actually using a browser — fewer chances of typing in a new URL. Write now! OmmWriter (Mac): is a beautifully-designed fullscreen word processor with built-in audio tracks and keyboard typing sound effects. (If you don't like the new-age music or sound effects, turn them off and use your own music.) While the older version was freeware, the current version is now pay-what-you-want (they do have suggested amounts). Although, you can still find the old free version via your favorite search engine. Dark Room (Windows): is a no-distraction writing app for Windows whose appeal lies in having absolutely no bells and whistles. Though, you better enjoy having green text on a black background a la The Matrix. FocusWriter (Mac/Windows/Linux): is an open source (free) writing tool available for Mac, Windows, and Linux! It can do everything Dark Room does, and pretty much everything OmmWriter does (no audio however and it isn't very appealing graphics-wise). But hey, stop complaining: after all it’s open source, and multi-platform. Headphones on! Coffitivity (Mac/Android/iOS): is a simple app that allows you to play three different versions of coffee shop ambience (basically the background sounds of a coffee shop). Some people swear it helps you focus and block out distractions. But if music is more to your liking, read on...8tracks (browser): is a website for listening to (or assembling) playlists of audio tracks of every genre of music imaginable. Do a search for playlists with tags such as "focus+work," "study," or "productivity" to find curated music that may get you in the flow. Or check out our two favorite playlists: Relax to Infinity and Welcome to the Grind. Organize it, process it! Wrike (browser/Android/iOS): our work management tool that can hold everything from your grocery lists to more gargantuan projects involving people from different departments, regions, and even countries. Organizing your work means your tasks can be prioritized, delegated, and assigned. It's also the best place to log all your ideas, and schedule all your project plans. making it the central hub for everything you have to do. What about you? Which apps boost your remote work productivity? Share your suggestions in the comments.
Project Management Software to Cope with Problems at Work
James Wilson, a producer from VegasBuzzz.com, made a great video, telling how Wrike helps him to run his online news business. The video was submitted to be a part of an intriguing Business@Work project started by Business Week. The project is in fact a discussion of how Business Week readers try to cope with problems they face at work. James suggested Wrike as an excellent solution for managing your time and boosting productivity. Thank you, James! We appreciate your recognition. You and many of our other customers give us inspiration for making Wrike the most practical project management software. Let us know if there are examples of Wrike customers being enthusiastic about our project management tool or software specs template, and we will write about them in this blog.
25 Top Collaboration Tools to Power Your Marketing Team
Marketing teams are constantly evaluating and adapting—which can make managing campaigns and working together hectic and haphazard. Tight deadlines, tighter budgets, and higher expectations means marketers are always on the hunt for new technologies to help them streamline and scale their efforts. The problem is, there are literally thousands of creative collaboration tools designed to help marketing teams perform better. Scott Brinker’s infamous Marketing Technology Landscape now includes over 5,000 tools, up nearly 40% from last year. So, we’ve compiled a list of 25 top marketing collaboration tools, based on reviews from real users. From ideation to execution, these marketing collaboration tools will help your team work better together. Brainstorming Apps Stormboard A real-time virtual whiteboard where your team can generate new ideas, organize, and prioritize them in one tool. Top feature: Every idea has its own comment thread, where you can riff off and refine ideas as a team. Pricing: Free for up to 5 users. $5/month for Startup and Business plans are also available at $8.33/month. Coggle This collaborative mind mapping app makes it easy for your team to visualize and organize ideas quickly and easily. Top feature: Every change you make to your mind map is automatically saved, so you can go back and make a copy from any point, or revert to a previous version. Pricing: Free for up to 3 diagrams. $5/month for unlimited diagrams and image uploads, $8/user/month for individual workspaces, data management, and branded diagrams. Notism Share, edit, review, and approve both images and video with this online app. Your team can see each others cursors, making it easy to collaborate and ideate with fellow marketers and designers. Top feature: Sketch directly on the work to spin off a new idea, and to make feedback more precise. Notism also features version control, so you can easily compare ideas and decide which to pursue. Pricing: $7.65/month for 5 projects and collaborators and 2 GB of space; $20.40/month for 15 projects and collaborators and 10 GB of space, and $41.65/month for 40 projects and collaborators and 40 GB of space. Brainsparker When your team needs a little help to inspire some imaginative thinking, try Brainsparker. The app contains 200 creativity prompts. Just shake your device to shuffle the deck and see a new thought-provoking word or phrase. Top Feature: Find creativity journals, templates, and training programs in the Brainsparker Gym and Academy for even more inspiration. Pricing: Free app for Android and iOS LucidChart Store and organize ideas with this easy-to-use mind mapping software. Great for matching your content efforts to your marketing funnel, visualizing your SEO strategy, creating video storyboards, or tracking all your email campaign tracks in a single view. Top feature: Dozens of pre-built flowchart templates make it easy for your team to get up and running quickly. Pricing: Starting at $4.95/month for single users and $20/month for teams. Campaign Management Solutions Wrike Wrike’s work management software helps you coordinate work across teams, collaborate on creative assets, and get better visibility into progress and performance. Top feature: Automated, custom Requests bring order to the chaotic work intake process, and ensure your team gets all the details they need up front to get the job done right. Pricing: Wrike for Marketers starts at $34.60/user/month, or start a free trial. ActiveCampaign This digital marketing automation tool lets you build campaign workflows to send targeted campaigns, nurture contacts, and streamline sales and marketing processes. Top feature: The software notifies you of any potential mistakes that could negatively affect your workflow, like forgetting to specify a time delay between two steps. Pricing: $17/month for up to 3 users and basic features, $49/month for up to 25 users and additional features, $99/month for up to 50 users and advanced features, $149/month for unlimited users and all features. Net-Results From lead generation and nurturing to email marketing and social media management, Net-Results makes it easy for your team to create, manage, and collaborate on campaigns, as well as measure results with shareable dashboards and reports. Top feature: Drag-and-drop builders let you quickly create responsive emails, forms, and landing pages. Pricing: Starting at $800/month for 10,000 contacts. Flow A simple teamwork app that lets your team prioritize to-dos, delegate tasks, clarify priorities, and collaborate with both teammates and freelancers. Top feature: The app’s simplicity makes onboarding your team quick and easy. Pricing: Starting at $17/month for a single user, with unlimited tasks, projects, teams, and file storage. Flow Pro pricing available upon request. Communication & Chat Apps *Everyone knows about Slack, Skype, and Google Hangouts, so we'll skip those tools here and feature a few other chat tools worth checking out. Microsoft Teams A Wrike project added as a tab in Microsoft Teams.When you need to outline a campaign strategy or discuss a new proposal, Microsoft Teams channels help your team not only talk about work, but get work done. Write quick chats, a full wiki of documents, or longer messages, complete with a subject and importance indicator. When it’s time to hold a meeting, create a new chat room to jump on a video call, share your screen, and take down minutes. Top feature: Integrations with Wrike let you create and manage projects within Teams. View tasks, update details and due dates, and view your project schedule. Pricing: Included with Office 365 plans, starting at $5/user/month. Flock Flock lets you chat with your team, connect Google Drive to share files, and host video meetings. Load your shared to-do list in the sidebar, add tasks, and assign teammates for a quick way to reference what needs to be done, who’s responsible, and how it all connects. Top feature: In-chat polling lets you quickly take your team's temperature, or hold a vote on what to do. Pricing: Free for unlimited users at 10k message history. $3/user/month for unlimited messages, history, and integrations. Discord Designed for gamers, Discord offers voice channels: always-on phone calls that let you talk to anyone in your team at the push of a button. Keep your mic muted, then tap a key to start talking and join the discussion. Discord works on both your desktop and mobile device, so you can keep the conversation going from anywhere. Top feature: Quickly add a colleague from another team to your conversation with an Instant Invite link. Pricing: Free, or $4.99/month if you want custom emoji, GIF avatars, and larger file uploads. ChatWork If you frequently work with outside agencies or freelancers, it can be tough to manage all that communication via email. ChatWork makes chatting with people outside your company easy. Create a profile and you can message anyone else with a ChatWork ID, and access all your conversations from the sidebar. Top feature: See mentions across all your teams in one place, including a comprehensive to-do list. Pricing: Free for single users and up to 14 group chats, $4/user/month for unlimited group chats, $5/user/month for user and file management. Ryver Use Posts to organize ideas and conversations. Select messages, add a subject, and include a message with details, instructions, action items, or follow-up. Ryver saves all your Posts to a tab for easy reference. Top feature: Click the Set Reminder button on each chat and longform post to have Ryver send you a notification reminder. Pricing: Free. Unlimited users, teams, guests, search, storage, and integrations. Coming soon: Ryver Task Manager, pricing TBA. Digital Asset Management Systems Canto Flight Tag, search, collaborate and report on all your company’s digital assets. Make it easy for your team to follow established brand guidelines with a clear approval processes, copyrighting, and watermarks features. Top feature: Smart albums automatically assign images, videos, audio files, and presentations by type. Pricing: Contact Canto for plans and pricing details. MediaValet A central library that helps your marketing and creative teams easily manage, collaborate on and distribute marketing visuals and content, improving productivity and increasing ROI on marketing investments. With unlimited users, support and training, teams worldwide can access the content they need, whenever and wherever they need it. Top feature: Audio/Video indexing using Microsoft’s best-in-class AI to leverage searchable transcripts, text and object recognition and sentiment analysis for a game-changing search experience for DAM users. Pricing: Contact MediaValet to request pricing details. Bynder A central hub for all your creative assets that offers real-time collaborative edits and approvals, auto-formatting for channels and file types, and clear version control. Auto-tagging powered by artificial intelligence identifies thousands of objects within images and automatically generates the appropriate tags. Top feature: Create a shareable, interactive style guide with Bynder’s brand identity guidelines to ensure a consistent customer experience across all channels and communications. Pricing: Contact Bynder to request pricing details. IntelligenceBank Sick of searching messy shared drives? Categorize all your creative assets by file type, keyword, or metadata. Set permissions to specify which content individuals can access. Top feature: Custom brand guideline pages displayed within the app make it easy to keep guidelines up-to-date, and ensure your team knows exactly which assets to use. Pricing: $9/user/month for 10+ users, or $19/user/month for 10+ users and advanced features like workflow and approvals. AssetBank Upload, preview, and search for assets easily with AssetBank. You can create and share lightboxes both internally and externally, create user groups, and define what users can view, upload, and download. Top feature: Edit assets before you download, including cropping, resizing, reformatting, and masking. Pricing: $430/month for 50+ users and basic features, $700/month for 100-500 users and advanced features, or $1,120/month for unlimited users and all features. Widen A truly collaborative DAM that lets you view an activity feed of user uploads, downloads, shares and comments, plus comment threads, custom statuses, favorites, and ratings. Top feature: The Asset Engagement tool lets you see each asset’s popularity score, and quickly compare with your other creative assets to see what’s working best. Pricing: Start a free trial, or request a demo for detailed pricing information. Marketing Analytics Dashboards SEMrush What keywords are your competitors targeting? What are their ad strategies and budgets? SEMrush can help your team keep an eye on rivals and adjust strategies accordingly, so you come out on top in search engine rankings. Top feature: The keyword difficulty tool helps you pinpoint easy targets for your SEO strategy, or determine whether it’s worth investing time and resources overtaking the #1 spot from a competitor. Pricing: $99.95/month for 5 projects and 500 keywords, $199.95/month for 50 projects and 1,500 keywords, $399.95/month for 200 projects and 5,000 keywords. Cyfe Set up a series of dashboards for social media, web analytics, SEO, and more. View historical data alongside real-time reports, and add custom data sources as widgets. Top feature: Pre-built widgets make it easy to connect Google Analytics, AdWords, Salesforce, and dozens of other data sources. Pricing: Free version available; Premium starts at $14/month. Domo Bring real-time marketing data from your CRM, web analytics, PPC, social media, marketing automation, and financials into a single place. Give your team instant insights into metrics like ROI by channel, revenue and lead attribution, cost per acquisition, customer LTV and more, so everyone has the information they need to make smart decisions. Top feature: Get alerts via email or text message when key metrics need your attention. Pricing: Start a free trial, and contact Domo sales for pricing information on the Professional and Enterprise subscriptions. Moz Pro Get a complete picture of your SEO performance, including keyword rankings and research, competitor rank tracking, mobile rankings, backlinks, page optimization, reporting, and workflows. Top feature: Get actionable insights into website errors, competitive research, and SEO opportunities with the site audit tool, or use the Learn & Connect tab to access advice from industry experts and find SEO resources. Pricing: Starting at $79/month for 2 users and 5 campaigns; $119/month for 10 users and 10 campaigns; $199/month for 25 users and 25 campaigns, and $479/month for unlimited users and 100 campaigns. Kissmetrics Kissmetrics uses audience behavior analysis to help you find ideal customers—and keep your current ones. A blend of analytics and automation, Kissmetrics helps you understand customer behavior and trigger automatic actions to nurture relationships. See where you’re losing prospects, improve retention, and view trends in customer behavior. Top feature: Pre-built behavior reports provide meaningful customer insights, right out of the box. Pricing: Starting at $500/month. Bonus Drumup Drumup is a social media management and content curation tool that helps marketing teams discover trending content and drive customer engagement. Its social employee engagement and advocacy platform lets you broadcast marketing content to your fellow employees, making it easy for them to share to their social networks. Top feature: A built-in gamification module lets you run monthly contests and display leaderboards to keep colleagues sharing your content. Pricing: Start a free trial, or contact the DrumUp team for detailed pricing information. Choose the Right Marketing Collaboration Tools for Your Team Looking for a new marketing collaboration tool? Get advice for selecting software that will help your team work faster, communicate better, and accomplish more with our downloadable evaluation checklist. Sources: SEMrush.com, searchenginejournal.com, oliveandcompany.com, capterra.com, zapier.com
13 Productivity Tools & Tips for Small Business Success
When you're a small- or medium-sized business, you typically have less manpower to get all your work done. This means you need all your employees to be as productive as possible to make sure you meet all your quarterly goals. Here are some tips and tools to write into office law to help your employees make the most of every day without spending a fortune: Tips for Creating a Culture of Productivity 1. Have a mandatory meeting-free day It's all too easy for employees at companies of any size to get bogged down by a day full of meetings — which means you have no time to complete tangible work. Make it company policy to have one mandatory meeting-free day across every team, so all your employees have at least eight hours per week to really focus on what needs to get done. And make sure "No Meetings" really means NO meetings: no gatherings in the conference room, around desks, or on Skype, and no one-on-ones. 2. End meetings on the right note Productivity coach Errette Dunn suggests ending every meeting with one question: "Who will do what by when?" Asking this ensures that everyone leaves the meeting knowing exactly what to do next, so you won't have to reiterate what you just discussed at a later time. 3. Always break big goals into bite-sized pieces It has been shown by Harvard researchers Theresa Amabile and Steven Kramer that workers are more motivated by several small accomplishments than one big accomplishment. Whenever you kickoff a big project, make sure you've broken every to-do down into "small wins." Ideally, no task should take longer than one work day to complete. 4. Regularly review lessons learned To continually improve your processes and make work more efficient, make sure every team is regularly reviewing lessons learned on their projects. Share what worked, what didn't, and decide how you will implement that knowledge for future work. 5. Train your employees in the GTD methodology The acclaimed "Getting Things Done" productivity methodology created by David Allen is a great way for your employees to organize their incoming work and daily to-dos. The principles of GTD help workers prioritize what should be done today, defer what can wait until tomorrow, and maintain focus on the task at hand. 6. Keep creative juices flowing with side projects When you hire team members because they are inspired, creative, and innovative, you want them to keep that spark alive. Allow them a set amount of time for "unnecessary" creation every week. This work on creative side projects for the business will help them keep their creative juices flowing. 7. Embrace work naps A quick 15-minute snooze can be far more effective than a third cup of coffee or another candy bar. Let your workers take quick naps. If you have a spare meeting room, maybe set up a small couch and a timer, so people have a place to retreat and recharge. Boosting Productivity with Betters Tools & Setups 8. Invest in technology that makes knowledge accessible There is nothing more obstructive to productivity than not being able to access the files or information you need right when you need it. To break through the information silos and end the chain of "Can you send me the latest version of this document?" messages, invest in a work management software like Wrike, or document management software like Box or Google Drive. Better technology will help your team complete work faster, with fewer roadblocks between steps. 9. Cut out email for internal communication Email is one of those tools that easily sucks us in and eats up hours of our day, without us even realizing it. To make sure your team is getting all important work-related messages without the temptation of going down the email rabbit hole, set the standard to use a different tool to communicate internally. Rely on a communication app like Google Hangouts or Skype to send critical messages to team members. If someone tries to send an email, tell them they need to move their message to your preferred communication method. 10. Delegate repetitive tasks to the robots with automation technology Never assign a human to do a machine's job! In today's quickly-growing field of automation, you can remove a lot of your team's busy work. Apps like Zapier and IFTTT help you connect all your tools to automate work, and there are a plethora of automation software options for marketing, sales, development, and more. 11. Set up your office space for success Add color or posters to the walls to inspire creativity and focus. Pay attention to the direction the monitors in the office are facing. If employees work facing a popular walkway, it can be distracting. Make sure people who need a quiet space to get work done have access to that space. 12. Buy productivity gadgets for the office There are tons of new productivity toys to help workers focus in the way that suits them. Let them pick which gadgets will help them focus and feel happier at work: standing desks, productivity time tracking, elliptical desks, noise-canceling headphones, smart cushions to monitor posture, and more. 13. Stock the office with healthy snacks Soda and candy may seem like an easy, cheap option for keeping a pantry of snacks for the office. But high-sugar foods cause crashes and ruin productivity. Spend the few extra dollars to stock healthier snacks like vegetables, nuts, low-sugar smoothies, and complex carbs that won't send your workers on a roller coaster of sugar highs and lows. What tips & tools do you use to help your employees stay productive? Share your best productivity tips and tools for small businesses in the comments!
5 Ways Collaborative Work Management Software Can Help You Build a Better Client Experience
An investment in improving client experience has guaranteed returns. While it’s true professional services firms face an uphill battle trying to differentiate themselves, the client experience is completely under your control. Learn how work management software can help you improve that experience.
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
7 Questions to Help You Choose the Right Marketing Software
ebManaging a marketing team is not for the faint of heart. You start feeling like you need an extra arm, eyes in the back of your head, and the ability to read minds and forego all sleep just to keep up. While it won’t help you grow an extra limb or stay up all night, using a good project management tool means you won’t have to. You’ll get better communication, easy collaboration, and an organized approach to managing your marketing team. But with so many marketing tools to choose from, deciding between your options can be tricky. Ask yourself these 7 questions to find the best marketing management app for your team. 1. “Will my team actually use it?” You’ll only reap the benefits if your team actually adopts the software. They need to see that it will improve their daily work in a real way — making it easier to see what teammates are working on/responsible for, giving them a central place to communicate, complementing their personal work styles, and so on. Make sure whatever software you choose is easy to adopt and fits in with your team's current habits, standard processes, and other favorite tools. 2. “Can multiple departments use it?” No team works in total isolation. Easy handoffs, clear communication, prioritizing tasks, and coordinating projects with other departments requires a tool that's flexible enough that everyone from marketing and design to accounting and IT can easily use it for their daily work. Look for a customizable tool that allows teams to create their own workflows and folder structure. When everyone's using the same tool, communication and collaboration across teams is much easier and more efficient. 3. “Does it support transparency & clear communication?” Being recognized for your efforts isn’t a trivial matter. When people feel their work is going unnoticed and unappreciated, they aren’t as engaged and don’t put forth as much effort to go above and beyond. Positive feedback helps build good habits, strong teams, and thriving companies. As a manager, when you always know exactly who’s responsible for which tasks, where work stands, and what the results are, you can share successes with execs, keep projects aligned with new business goals, and get credit for your team's accomplishments. Look for a collaboration tool that notifies you of project updates, and allows you to create "favorites" or easily track your high-priority projects. 4. “Is organization flexible?” You can't be efficient if you can never find what you're looking for — and neither can the rest of your team. Find a tool with an organizational structure that makes sense for your group, or better yet, one that lets you tailor your folder structure however you prefer. Also make sure you can change the view to show the precise information you want to see, so you can quickly make sure important projects are progressing as planned or easily alter your schedule. 5. “Can you generate custom reports?” Keeping spreadsheets updated, accurate, and organized takes a lot of work. Complicated formulas, data accidentally entered into the wrong cell, tracking who made which changes and when, and trying to find and fix errors is time consuming and frustrating. And yet you need to account for how you’re allocating resources, demonstrate your team's efficiency, and pinpoint any areas where numbers aren’t meeting expectations to discover the root cause and most effective fix. Make sure your project management tool creates reports in real time so you always have the most up-to-date information, and that reports are easy to share or export. 6. “Does it easily (and securely) allow for external communication/users?” Working with contractors, clients, freelancers, or volunteers has become a routine part of daily work for most teams, and yet so many are still resorting to email when it comes to communication. Attachments are too big, easily lost in old email threads, or get caught in spam filters. Keeping track of every piece of feedback or updated attachment in conversations 15 messages deep creates even more work, and it's all too easy to miss an important comment or request. Many project management tools allow you to temporarily invite external users who only have access to certain tasks or projects, making it easy to discuss progress, get timely feedback, and make updates quickly and accurately. 7. “Does it integrate with other tools we use?” While you want to be selective about the number of apps you use, no one tool will meet every one of your needs. And you shouldn't have to give up the tools you love and rely on just because your team needs a better way to work together. When your task management tool integrates with your other favorite apps, it's easier for your whole team to fit it into your established workflow so it doesn't slow anyone down. Get the Complete Buyer's Guide to Online Marketing Tools Download our free eBook for more advice on selecting the right collaboration and task management tool for your marketing team, plus a printable checklist to help you quickly evaluate your options.
Conversations with the Work Apps You Love (& Hate)
When you think about it, today’s technology is pretty incredible. We can talk to anyone, anywhere in the world within seconds. We can access a near infinite amount of information in the blink of an eye. We can store countless documents without filing a single sheet of paper and access them instantly. But that doesn’t mean these apps solve all of our problems—in fact, they sometimes create new ones. These imaginary conversations exemplify the love/hate relationship we have with our favorite work apps. And while they can cause quite a few headaches, our fixes can help provide some relief! 1. Organization FIX IT: Finding the file you need shouldn’t be such an endeavor, but when attachments get buried in lengthy email threads or duplicated into multiple conflicting versions, trying to find the right one gets frustrating fast. Attaching work files directly to the related task in a work management tool keeps information organized and easily accessible. 2. Tracking & Reporting Work Progress FIX IT: Managing work through spreadsheets is time-consuming, overly-complicated, and needs constant attention. Use a tool designed for managing projects that updates in real time, so you don’t have to input changes manually or risk making decisions based on outdated, incomplete information. FIX IT: Use work management software that automatically creates visual reports you can easily share with execs, clients, and stakeholders, without messing with finicky tables and graphs. 3. Communication FIX IT: Clear communication is key to preventing misunderstandings, wasted time, and work that needs to be redone. Technical glitches and assumed intentions just lead to greater frustrations, so establish a formal channel for work conversations and feedback, and leave the informal chats and "watercooler" conversations to your instant messaging apps. 4. Remote Collaboration FIX IT: Anything involving live cameras and microphones is a recipe for awkward moments, which are not only embarrassing, but distract your team and derail productive meetings. A collaboration app keeps all team members aligned and up to date on work status and top priorities no matter where they're located, so you can skip the time-consuming video calls and status meetings. Fix Your Work Tool Frustrations for Good Know any great workarounds for these annoyances? Share them with us in the comments below! Then start a free Wrike trial to easily communicate, collaborate, organize, and track work progress with your team.
RACI Improved: Structuring Responsibilities with the Help of Project Management 2.0 Software
In one of my recent posts I wrote that using project management 2.0 software helps project manager guide his team’s work, delegate some of his initial duties and allocate roles and responsibilities so that they are clear to everybody on the team. Project management 2.0 tools also let one apply some traditional methodologies of structuring responsibilities more effectively. Let’s take RACI as an example. Originally a RACI diagram, or RACI matrix, is used to describe the roles and accountabilities of various teams or people in project delivery and operations. It is especially useful in clarifying responsibilities in cross-functional/departmental projects and processes. The RACI diagram splits tasks into four participatory responsibility types, which are then assigned to different roles in the project. These responsibilities’ types make up the acronym RACI. Responsible (R) - offer commitment, skills, and contributions that shape a project’s final outcome. In short, this is the “doer”, who actually completes the task. This person is responsible for action/implementation. There can be several people responsible for one task. Accountable/Approver (A) - a person ultimately answerable for the correct and thorough completion of the task. There must be only one Accountable specified for each task. Consulted (C) – those who are consulted before the final decision or action is made. Informed (I) - those who are kept up-to-date on progress. Your clients, for example. Applying the RACI method provides maximum benefit when responsibilities are not clear, for example, when a project team is formed by members from several organizations, who report to different managers, have no imposed governance model and have a hard time achieving objectives on time. I agree with Michael L Smith and James Erwin who say that trying to complete a big project in bureaucratic environment without clearly establishing roles and responsibilities, is like trying to parallel park with one eye closed. RACI’s core advantage is that it helps to avoid potential responsibility uncertainty. However, despite all the benefits, the RACI model does have some disadvantages. Data collection cycle and information exchange flows may be too slow. Project management 2.0 software can help eliminate these drawbacks and speed up the communications. With project management 2.0 software, everybody can clearly see who is accountable for each task. Visibility brought by emergent structures makes it possible to keep all the responsibilities clear for everybody on the team. Emergent structures brought by the second-generation tools let have the full insight into what each RACI team member is working on. For example, A can easily follow the work of Rs. At the same time, project work can be easily adjusted to changes in the environment, by reassigning roles, changing work-breakdown structures and task flow in seconds. This flexibility helps to bring iterative and incremental practices into project management without giving away the control. Second, it is very easy to plug in responsible, consulted and informed people. Project management 2.0 software lets all the members of the RACI team work in one flexible Web-based collaborative environment. Teams can collect all the relevant information in one place, thus minimizing the time of information exchange. Everyone on the team will be able to access the data anytime he needs it without pulling information out of his colleagues. This means that team members can collaborate seamlessly, building work structures with less central control, assigning tasks and defining roles. For example, if there are several Rs assigned to one task they can work together, keeping all the relevant discussions, files, notes, links in one place that can also be accessed by A, C and I. Last, but not least, thanks to many-to-many structures, each member of the team his own perspective of a project. Each team member becomes more productive because they can follow their own portion of the work and see its relationship to the project as a whole. The RACI method, when combined with project management 2.0 technologies, allows teams to become more agile and react to changes going on inside and outside the organization at a faster pace. RACI is not the only methodology that can be made more efficient by the second-generation tools. You are very welcome to provide your examples in the comments.
How to Convince Your Boss You Need Better Collaboration Tools
You're reached that point where email and spreadsheets just don’t cut it anymore — that point when the lost attachments and noisy communication of email, as well as the need for constant manual updates on spreadsheets, have moved from being useful to being inefficient. You’re convinced that your team would benefit from proper collaboration tools, but how do you convince your boss? You need more than a list of cool features that you can’t live without. You need justification for serious investment, with points that can be presented to higher management and maybe even executives. You need to prepare a case for how your current tools are stealing resources (think: time and money) from your organization’s bottom line, and keeping it from achieving high level business objectives at a faster pace. Here are three benefits to point out to management when you need to convince them that your team needs more efficient collaboration tools: Prove: Email/Spreadsheets aren't Efficient Collaboration Tools If you’re not using a project management software or collaboration tool, then you’re probably coordinating projects via emails, spreadsheets, phone calls, and face-to-face meetings. While each of these are useful, none of them are robust enough to efficiently manage deadlines, complex to-do lists, collaborative feedback, and team member workloads. Action:Craft an argument around how formal collaboration tools can reduce the inefficiency of your current system. You can reference studies on how time is wasted when searching through emails, or when there are too many meetings (see Salary.com's 2014 Wasting Time at Work Survey). Look for stats about how much time workers spend interacting with email (28% of their work week, according to McKinsey Global Institute). Delve into your current struggles with emails that don't provide proper context (which project is this about?), and miscommunications stemming from email threads where multiple people weigh in at the same time, often with conflicting instructions. Cite specific instances when one of your projects broke down due to an email or spreadsheet error. Demonstrate: How Collaboration Tools Make Past Successes Repeatable You’ve run successful campaigns and projects before, sure. But do you still have the data connected to those victories? Do you have baseline information on how long production took for the last product release so you can improve the process this time around? With all your project info in project management software, its ability to record time spent and lessons learned will give your group the ability to document, examine, and duplicate successful programs. Action: Look at the programs your team needs to repeat or find a specific project that was managed using your current system. Research that project's info (e.g. how long production took, how many people worked on it, etc.), and track the amount of time it takes you to generate a report that you can show your boss. Then try to do the same using a free trial of a collaboration tool like Wrike. Track how long it takes. Present the two reports side by side and contrast ease of use, availability of data, and time spent. Real examples provide real support. Evangelize: Advantages of Better Collaboration Tools Finally, discuss the advantages of a collaboration tool: visible task lists help reduce the number of meetings, it’s much more difficult for tasks to fall through the cracks when projects are organized and visible, reports can be more easily generated when all project data is in one system, team members are more accountable for their work when they see their tasks and deadlines in black and white, etc. Think about what a collaboration tool would mean for you and your teamwork. Action: List the benefits that a collaboration tool like Wrike can give your team. Focus on the advantages the software gives your team. You can also read case studies of current customers within your industry who are using the software you’re considering. If their use cases are the same, give these to your boss as proof of how a collaboration tool can help your team. How will you convince your boss you need a better collaboration tool? Share your wisdom and your past experiences in the comments below! Download our free eBook for tips on finding a more efficient tool:Why Managers Need to Break Up with Email and Spreadsheets Related Reads:Top 9 Project Management Tool Features on the SMB Wishlist8 Lessons in Increased Productivity from Wrike CustomersHow I Use Online Collaboration Tools to Run a Marketing Team
Kill Your Inefficient Tools and Processes Before They Kill Your Company
We've compiled 6 of the most common threats organizations face because of inefficient tools and processes, along with specific ways to fix them based on our experience with over 19,000 leading organizations worldwide.
20 Top Productivity Apps For Your Mobile Device
Ever since the first smartphone hit the market, mobile devices have become an ubiquitous presence in our lives: entertaining us during idle moments, keeping us connected to our network of friends and family, and, more recently, serving as a valuable tool for work and productivity. In our recent mobile productivity survey, over 850 respondents shared how their mobile devices enhance their ability to get work done, especially after hours or while working remotely. In spite of headlines stating that mobile devices encourage workaholic tendencies and always-on expectations, 70% of respondents said that their mobile devices either improve or have no negative effect on their work-life balance. And 45% of those who work frequently via their mobile devices say they use 5 or more apps to help them be more efficient. Here are 20 top-rated productivity apps for iOS and Android that will make your mobile device your best asset for getting more done and improving your work-life balance. Best Mobile Productivity Apps for iOS 1. Workflow This Editor's Choice app automates processes like getting directions, calling an Uber to get to your next calendar event, uploading the last photo taken to Dropbox, etc. ($2.99) 2. Duet Display Developed by a team of ex-Apple engineers, Duet Display lets you use your iPhone or iPad as a second display. Connect your device to your Mac with a lightning or 30-pin cable for a lag-free second display that preserves the touch screen functionality. ($7.99) 3. HabitList This app takes Seinfeld's "Don't Break the Chain" productivity approach to help you create and keep better habits. It tracks how long you've kept streaks going for a variety of daily tasks, from "work out" or "drink 8 glasses of water". ($3.99) 4. Pomodoro Timer Customizable timers let you set the length of your work sprints and breaks, all using a clean, beautiful interface. ($1.99) 5. Streaks Chosen as a Best of 2015 app, Streaks helps you form good habits by encouraging you to complete a chosen set of tasks from your to-do list every single day. ($3.99, also available on Apple Watch) 6. Super Notes Take notes, recordings, photos, and set reminders with this free app. Color-code your notes by topic, sort by date or category, search, and sync with your devices or cloud storage. (Free) 7. CamScanner Pro Use your phone's camera to scan receipts, notes, invoices, business cards, etc. Invite others to view and comment on your scans, make annotations, add custom watermarks, set passcodes to view certain documents, and sync across devices. ($4.99) 8. Interact Create and manage groups from your contacts list and easily get in touch with entire teams via message, email, and phone. ($4.99) 9. Forest Forest is a soothing app that encourages you to focus on the task at hand. Keep the app open for 30 minutes to plant and grow a tree. Close the app to check Facebook or Instagram, and the tree will wither and die. ($0.99) 10. Dragon Dictation This voice-recognition app allows you to quickly take down notes or compose messages, without having to type them out on a tiny mobile keyboard. (Free) Best Mobile Productivity Apps for Android 11. 7 Weeks Habit & Goal Tracker Based on the bestselling book, The Power of Habit, this app helps you develop good habits and break bad ones in just 7 weeks. A simple, color-coded design makes it easy to see just how far you’ve come. (Free) 12. Mindly Brainstorm, organize your thoughts, and plan a project with visual mind mapping. Attach notes or images to any element in your mind map, choose color schemes, sync to Dropbox, or export your mind map as a PDF. (Free) 13. TeamViewer Get secure remote access to your Windows, Mac, and Linux devices. Full keyboard functionality, real-time sound & video transmission, and two-way file transfer make it easy to access your files or provide live support to clients and colleagues. (Free) 14. Pocket Save articles and videos you find on the web to read later or offline, on any of your synced devices. (Free) 15. SleepCycle This alarm clock analyzes your sleep patterns to wake you at the best possible time during a 30-minute window, so you start your days feeling fresh, not groggy. ($0.99) 16. Twilight Twilight automatically filters out harsh blue light from your device’s screen to combat eye strain and help you sleep. (Free) 17. Shush! Ringer Restorer Ever silenced your phone for a meeting and then forgotten to turn it back on again? This app lets you set a timer to automatically restore your ringer volume after a set period of time (say, the length of the movie you're watching). (Free) 18. Pushbullet Push files and links between your Android devices, send and receive SMS, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger messages, and have mobile notifications pop up while you're working on your computer. (Free) 19. ASTRO File Manager Find and manage all your files, whether they’re stored on an SD card, internal storage, Dropbox or other cloud storage, or on your networked PC, Mac, or Linux device. (Free) 20. Notification Toggle Customize your Android's swipe-down status bar. Quickly switch to WiFi, Bluetooth, silent mode, and adjust screen brightness, or create shortcuts to your favorite apps. (Free) How do you use your mobile device to improve productivity? What would you add to our list? Share your must-have productivity apps with us in the comments below, then check out Wrike's free mobile apps for iOS and Android. To discover the latest trends in mobile productivity, including the top benefits, favorite features, and major challenges of mobile work, download the full results report of our Mobile Productivity Survey 2016.
Collaborative Work Management: The Ultimate End-to-End Marketing Solution
Marketing teams need a centralized work management system that will consolidate the martech stack, streamline bloated processes, and consolidate information to create a manageable go-to-market workflow. The solution is collaborative work management.
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.
4 Ways Collaboration Tools Boost Team Performance
Distance is no longer a barrier to collaboration. Online collaboration tools make it possible for us to work with colleagues thousands of miles away. They enable us to be more mobile, accessing project information wherever and whenever the need arises. But the same problems that hamper collaboration in our physical workspaces have followed us online. Communications that used to get lost in a pile of papers now get buried in our inboxes; important data that disappeared into a dusty file cabinet is now lost in chaotic folder hierarchies and duplicated in multiple versions. Miscommunication still occurs, feedback and assignments still get lost in the shuffle, and we’re still crunching numbers and updating spreadsheets to glean meaningful insights from work data. Collaboration tools offer a solution that lets your team take advantage of the real-time benefits of online collaboration, while side stepping the disorder that comes with working via email, spreadsheets, and instant messaging. So what are some ways you can improve your team's performance with a collaboration tool? 1. Improve quality Working alone means you work with one set of ideas — your own. By collaborating, you can build on the collective abilities of your team to create the best idea, or test a few different plans to find the optimal solution. Collaboration tools give you a designated place to "brain dump": everyone involved in a project can list their proposals without being talked over (as is often the case during ideation meetings), while still being inspired by their teammates' ideas and discussions. Once the team reviews the full list of creative possibilities, they can start working right away to turn the chosen idea into reality. No thoughts get lost in inboxes, and no quiet voices are accidentally ignored. 2. Increase velocity Collaboration software brings every resource, every idea, and every person into one collective space. Your team won't have to waste time searching emails for important attachments, waiting for status updates or approvals, or chasing down a colleague for help. Every piece of the project, from the initial idea to the final release, can be created and completed in one place and accessed round-the-clock, so people can connect to work information wherever they need to, or whenever a new idea strikes them. Your team can collaborate how, when, and where they want, without waiting for regular business hours or the next in-person meeting to move forward. 3. Reinforce accountability If you've studied high-performance teams, you know that public accountability is a trump card in the game of project progress. People are 33% more likely to accomplish a goal when they write it down and tell others they are working on it. Collaboration tools give your team members a way to publicly commit to their tasks and goals, so they can share their progress, ask for assistance, and complete projects with full transparency. Plus, when everyone on your team knows not only what they're accountable for, but also what their teammates are accountable for, the waste of duplicated work disappears. 4. Spark innovation It still holds true: two minds are better than one. When a collaboration tool allows you to look around and discover the new projects your colleagues are working on, that insight can spark innovative ideas for current or future projects. "I see that Lucy is working on our new feature.... Wait, what if we spun that in a different direction? I'll suggest it." Collaboration tools give people access to information that can fuel creativity on a daily basis, instead of limiting those breakthrough "A-ha!" moments to weekly update meetings or accidental watercooler conversations. Collaboration tools also free ideas from the limitations of organizational hierarchy. Company-wide visibility means new ideas and initiatives can come from any employee, not just the executives. Proposals that may have been buried, or never formally submitted to begin with, are now circulating freely to grow and attract notice based on merit, not on limited access to decision makers. Your team is your greatest resource Ultimately, your greatest resource is your team. By providing tools that help them collaborate with less stress and greater efficiency, you’re enabling them to focus on the results of their efforts — instead of getting mired in the process. After all, a good collaboration tool smooths the flow of work for everyone. It reduces the number of lost files, facilitates the ideation process, and cuts down on time spent waiting for feedback or instruction. Most importantly, it helps their ideas get noticed, so your team can fulfill its full potential.
6 Benefits of Collaborative Work Management
"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." — Henry Ford The old way of working — where meetings aren't rescheduled, employees clock out at 5PM, and input only comes from select individuals — is dead. Companies are quickly recognizing that meetings can be a waste of time, mobile devices are improving productivity, and that two or more minds are often better than one. Welcome to the world of Collaborative Work Management. This style of work management strongly emphasizes the importance of collaboration and communication. Generally, collaboration tools are used to create a central location where all communication can be easily accessible. Here are the six major benefits of successful collaborative work management: 1. Collaboration is possible, regardless of location No, you don't always have to be within a 10-foot radius of one another to work together. Remote workers can be engaged too. Collaborative work management tools are great for supporting even your remote employees, including them on team projects, and tracking their productivity over time. 2. Collaborative work management tools provide a central location for communication Rummaging through email for the latest files or trying to track down that one conversation you had about a particular project can be frustrating and time consuming. And with so many teams now dispersed across continents, virtual project management tools are essential to efficient collaboration. Having a tool that allows you to keep the latest files, comments, project requirements, goals, and deadlines all in one place eliminates the need for "search parties" and allows your team to focus on more important tasks. Start your free 2-week trial of Wrike, the top-rated collaborative work management tool. 3. Increased visibility and transparency keeps stakeholders up-to-date Having a system where all project updates are visible helps stakeholders see the latest project status at all times. This helps set expectations and gives stakeholders the opportunity to jump in if necessary. It also increases accountability among the team and allows members to go back and see if and where mistakes were made and prevent them from recurring. 4. Saves time by eliminating meetings and spreadsheet management Because everything is documented in one tool, status updates and to-do meetings are made obsolete. By eliminating unnecessary meetings and spreadsheet updates, more time can be devoted to important decision-making and problem solving. 5. Allows for greater agility when demands change Sometimes plans change, and that's OK. However, being prepared for it can be tricky. Collaborative work management provides flexibility to adjust plans accordingly without endangering hard deadlines. And with everyone in-the-know about changing priorities or milestones, revisions won't come as a surprise. 6. Inspires collaboration and innovation across the team Most importantly, a culture of collaboration inspires teams to work at a new level. There are always new and refreshing ideas floating out there, and sometimes all it takes to get the ball rolling is to ask (or @mention) the person next to you. Here are additional resources if you're interested in learning more about collaborative work management or collaboration tools: Collaborative work management tools: Collaboration Software for Marketing Teams: A Buyer's Guide and Forrester Vendor Landscape: Collaborative Work Management For The Enterprise Building collaboration: Building a Collaborative Team Environment and Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams Successful collaboration:What Makes Collaboration Actually Work in a Company? Do you use collaborative work management techniques within your team? Tell us why or why not in the comments.
