Project managers of a certain vintage may find themselves, as I sometimes do, reflecting on the old days – as in a bygone era when rotary phones ruled the earth, when personal computers were neither very personal nor computed all that much, and when project management software was little more than clunky gaant charts and an extraordinarily annoying animated paperclip offering un-asked for advice. Ah yes. The good old days.
Well, no, not really.
Okay, while it’s fun to wax nostalgically and imagine that things were better “back then”, some things are SO much better now. Take cloud-based project management software, for example. It’s a (better) world apart from the old fashioned stuff, and here are 7 reasons why:
- Accessibility. Online project management software demolishes time, space and geographical barriers, while giving distributed project team members the opportunity to access the project wherever their mobile life takes them – in the air, in a Starbucks, on the beach…you name it.
- Cost. Online project management software offers inexpensive per-user licensing. Business of all sizes can get on board without having to invest in massive (and often prohibitive) up-front software or infrastructure costs.
- Flexibility. Online project management software is designed to fit an organization’s needs as those needs change. There’s no need to guess how many software licenses to buy.
- Support. Online project management allows users to contact the experts who created the software in the first place, vs. trying to get answers from an overworked and under-resourced in-house IT department.
- Speed. Online project management software can be up and running in minutes. Not weeks, days or even hours. But minutes. (And yes, I’m sure there are some wizards out there who can get set up in seconds, too.)
- Integration. Online project management software integrates easily with other products, such as Salesforce, Intaact, GoogleDocs, Zendesk and more. Having project management software that plays well with others is enough to bring a tear to any project manager’s eye.
- Updates. Online project management software is designed to be updated as new, enhanced versions are released. So the dreaded “nobody can use the software today because we’re updating the project management version” memo that you may have been forced to send out can be shredded — permanently.
Really, when you add it all up like this, the benefits of online project management software when compared to conventional project management software are SO immense that the comparison almost seems unfair. It’s like comparing a smart phone with a rotary phone. Sure, they’re both phones. But the former can land a plane, while the latter can dial a number…albeit v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y.
So yes, while I’ll still fondly remember some things from days gone by (anyone remember record albums?), there are others that I’m happy to welcome into my professional world. Online project management is definitely at the top of that list.
