When it comes to running an agency, you’ll understand that projects and flexible client demands can be tough to manage. That, combined with the duty to manage employees’ time and ensure that deadlines are met, means that you could really benefit from using project planning software.
The right software gives agencies of any size the opportunity to manage multipleprojects from start to finish.Employee productivity is likely to be boosted as deadlines are made visible to all users. Thismeans staff are less likely to miss key dates to complete work.
In this guide, we’ve shared six notable benefits of using project planning software as an agency, and how the right software canreally help and support project management.
1. Budget control
When using a good piece of software, the project manager has eyes over how much is being spent against budget throughout the work. They can easily keep track ofall outgoings and expenditure, which gives them the complete picture of whether or not their project is on budget, as well as an understanding of where they can be saving money.
This software can also prevent money slipping through the cracks within projects. There is increased transparency across all finances. So, the project manager of financial team can easily identify when figures aren’t adding up, suggesting project reporting is inaccurate. This prevents incorrect figures being presented to the client, or your agency assuming profitability when it’s not the case.
2. Encourages collaboration
Quality project management software will allow you to share documents between all staff working on each project. You can add notes, drop-and-drag tasks into schedules and record the amount of time spent on each job, which helps to keep employees accountable and projects on-track.
This means that all your agency staff are aware of deadlines. Because this leaves no room for excuses, the software encourages employee collaboration if they’re unsure, or have questions, about one of their tasks.
3. Helps employees stay on schedule
As an agency, it’s likely that you’ll strive to always be ahead of deadlines. After all, your clients are expecting work to be delivered. Successful project management softwarewill encourage staff to stay on-task throughout the working day.
Keeping jobs, deadlines and notes within a central hub means that staff can see where the client’s project is up to. This is especially useful in circumstances where work needs to be passedfrom an account management team to the production team.
Some team task management systems also have alerts that will warn you ahead of deadlines. This notification pops up on the employee’s screen when it is looming, so there’s no excuse to miss it. mass communication apps have been proven to improve your employees’ abilities to stay on task and be aware of any changes in projects.
4. New staff are quickly brought up-to-speed
Working for an agency is an increasingly popular career choice – and for good reason. Not only do they offer new employees the chance to work on a number of projects within one role, but the creative environment allows them to quickly build upon, or learn new skills.
For that reason, you may find that you bring on new members of staff to grow your team and cater to your clients’ needs. But, if you have a new staff member on your team, you may find that it takes a while to get over the settling-in period.
If you’re using a project management tool, the software can be used to input all deadlines, instructions and guides for new starters within it. This allows new staff to be brought up to speed very quickly about what must be done so they can get to work as soon as possible.
5. Sharing information with clients
Working within an agency means that employees will sometimes be bombarded with important information. However, unlike emails that can easily get lost in busy inboxes, your agency’s project management software can act as a home forthese important details and related documents.
This means that your clients, or staff, don’t need to waste time going back-and-forth to get information from other colleagues. This will further boost employee productivity and your likelihood of hitting a deadline.
Using this software also allows your clients to make amendments, give feedback and have visibility on your project. These notes will be recorded and visible to all of those with access, which means it’ll limit the chances of work being returned due to miscommunication.
6. Helps decision making
When using this type of project management software, all details of your clients’ projects are in one central hub. If things are not going according to plan, or an issue crops up unexpectedly, the project managers can easily weighup all priorities to make crucial decisions and changes.
As you can see, using project planning software within an agency environment is key to boosting employee productivity. Once you’ve embedded the software and inputted all your key dates, details and deadlines, you’ll see a surge in the quality – and quantity – of work that you get done in no time at all.
