Project Success: How the Right Project Management Tools ​Can Help

All roads lead to Rome, or so the saying goes. Much the same, all challenges, frustrations and bottlenecks in project management can be traced back to one common denominator; inadequate tools. 🔧

Whether it’s the lack of collaboration or version control challenges that comes with using spreadsheets, or working with cumbersome off-the-shelf solutions, the consequences of resource-related challenges in projects can be severe. Bringing your projects to life requires the right resources (and people). 

Teams may face problems as early as the planning stage when setting project timelines. 

For example, your company may find it difficult to manage deadlines if it does not use a timeline tool like a Gantt Chart or Calendar. Teams lack visibility of project tasks, as well as the direction they need to carry out their work effectively as a result of this inadequacy. 😿

This article diagnoses some of the resource challenges faced by Project teams and how Gridfox can solve them. 

Off the Shelf Struggles 

“Off the shelf” software is very appealing because it works immediately, straight out of the box. The downside is that you may get some features or functions that you do not need. A major drawback of the software is how rigid it operates, too. 

Project teams will usually have to adapt their processes to work around this tech, which prompts bottlenecks and will inevitably limit your business’ growth in the long run. 👎

Focus is a key requirement of project management. The ability to see and use what you need is key to staying on track with a project. Therefore, if you’re opting for an off the shelf solution, the chances are you’re going to be held back by its rigid makeup and lacking functionality. 

Stuck with Spreadsheets 

So many firms have been trapped using spreadsheets for so long because choosing software can be a frustrating process. Faced with the pitfalls of off-the-shelf software, businesses turn to the other obvious choice; spreadsheets. 

Findings from our whitepaper reveal that spreadsheets are being used to track almost every mission-critical task in small businesses, with 98% of respondents using spreadsheets to manage business information. Over a ¼ use the software to track projects, which highlights their dominance within project management. 🤯

However, while spreadsheets appear simple to set up and use, they can quickly become unreliable and, worse still, a threat to security. Look no further than some of the disasters that they have caused businesses everywhere. Financial catastrophes, data losses and infrastructure risks, just to name a few. 

In an area like project management, where collaboration and teamwork is essential,  spreadsheets are highly inept. There’s no real-time editing available, which leads to major headaches when it comes to version control. 🚧

When you’re managing a project with many moving parts, a spreadsheet isn’t the best tool. As the project grows, the problems will only get worse, and Excel’s capabilities will no longer be sufficient.

Gridfox: The Secure Solution

Avoid these workflow woes by staying clear of spreadsheets and off-the-shelf software. The alternative? Gridfox. 

Gridfox is a work management tool that provides a flexible, secure, and scalable solution to your resource problems. Better still, Gridfox can be customised to fit with your project management strategy. Everyone will benefit from Gridfox’s highly customisable interface, which allows users to create, adapt, and scale their platform to fit the needs of the project team. 🎨

It is critical to give team members access to the right features as the project develops in order to ensure optimal functionality and to eliminate bottlenecks. With the ability to customise visual elements such as gantt charts and data dashboards, users can view data in a variety of ways. 

The security of project data is also easily controlled. Gridfox allows project administrators to control project users and permissions. With the users tab at the top of your project, you can control whether a user is an admin, edits the data or simply views it. 🔒

These permissions give project managers and teams visibility into their work and prevent overlap between assigned tasks.

Stacking up these benefits, it’s clear to see how Gridfox provides a neat solution to the traditional software standoff. Power up your project management with a tool like gridfox - one that is scalable and secure, whilst still providing you all the functionality as you require. 🙌

So whether you want a classic project management tool, a place to manage your webinar events or an agile project tracker, Gridfox has you covered. 

Get started with one of our project management templates here.