To help you cut through the confusion, we’ve pulled together four tips for finding the best project management software for small teams. With these four elements in mind, you can narrow down your options and get more from the right choice.
While it seems obvious to say, you’d be surprised how easy it is to jump straight into research without thinking about your end goals. Looking for new software is an exciting sign of growth, but you could end up spending money on a solution that doesn’t work for you if you go in without planning ahead.
Set SMART goals and outcomes that you would like to achieve. Set benchmarks on how your business currently performs and how you’d like to see those improve. That way, you can have direct conversations with the sales rep and find out if the software can help you achieve those goals.
Learn more about SMART goals on business.gov.au
If you’re looking for the right tools for a small team, options that are easily scalable to your business make a lot of sense. Firstly, if you want to grow your business in the future, you want to be able to easily onboard your new team members to the software.
In a lot of traditional software, you find yourself paying for users even though they don’t use all the features. Even if you can’t see your team growing anytime soon, scalable options often allow you to save money compared to fixed-price software. You only need to pay for the team members that you have, or in some cases only the features you need.
Regardless of the size of your team, finding an option that can help your business make more money than you spend on the software is crucial. While you can’t be certain of what the ROI will be until you get hands-on with the software, it’s a good feature to keep in mind when trialling or demo-ing options and will help you not get swayed by flashy sales pitches.
Focus on how the project management system can help you maintain profit margins better, spend less time on none profitable work and get paid for the work you do.
Read more: Best ERP alternative for small businesses
Especially in small teams where there hasn’t been a change in the system before, getting buy-in can make a huge difference. At the end of the day, your team will need to be the ones using the tools every day and if they don’t see the value then they are more likely to not use them right.
Read More: How to keep manufacturing teams happy & why it’s important
Keep your team engaged and focused on why the changes are happening and how it will benefit them. Allow them to share honest feedback about the tools you trialling and make sure that they are properly trained. It will help boost their enjoyment at work and help you get more from your software investment.