What Is Project Management Software?

Do you struggle to keep the ever-expanding list of your company's projects straight? If so, you're not alone.

Managing projects isn’t easy without a surefire way to organize your information and help your team collaborate. Properly managed projects are 2.5 times more likely to succeed, so you can’t afford to take project management lightly.

‌The good news is that you have plenty of options to help you keep your projects running smoothly. This article explores what project management software is, how companies use it and the benefits it will bring to your business.

• What Is Project Management Software?
• What's the Purpose of Project Management Software?
• Why Use Project Management Software?
• Who Uses Project Management Software?

What Is Project Management Software?

Project management software is a broad term referring to a wide range of programs designed to help people manage their projects. These products range from a simple checklist or calendar to help you organize smaller projects to robust tools that let you oversee the entire project lifecycle.‌

What’s the Purpose of Project Management Software?

Project management software is designed to help businesses and individuals track projects, tasks and schedules. It's a great way to stay organized and ensure that your team remains on task. You'll find a variety of features in different project management software platforms, but they typically share the following characteristics.

• High-level project overview
• Task management
• Reporting
• Time tracking

1. High-level project overview

Project management software is a great way to help all the pieces of your project function as a unit. If you have multiple departments working on the same project, a tool like this will help you manage those teams and ensure that everything is completed on time. All someone needs to do is sign into your cloud-based project management platform to obtain the latest updates and communicate their status.

2. Task management

When you’re managing a project, it’s essential to track all the individual tasks your team members must complete. With a project management system, you can assign tasks and receive notifications when they are completed. Some programs also let you manage due dates and deliverables to keep your team on track.

3. Reporting

Modern project management software has robust features that help you build reports and dashboards to display every project's status. It's a great way to keep your leadership team informed and see how long each major task is taking through a real-time view of your team's performance.

4. Time tracking

Automated time tracking is a vital feature of project management software, especially if you want accurate invoicing for your clients. With a software to track billable and non-billable hours, you can log the hours worked on each task and combine it with project and client data to generate comprehensive reports that help you make decisions about rates and improve profitability.

Why Use Project Management Software?

Features don't always tell the whole story about the benefits of a given platform. Here are just a few possible outcomes you'll see when your business starts using project management software:

• Better project planning 
• Ease of communication
• Faster project completion
• Better budgeting

1. Better project planning

If you're a business owner, you need to take a long-term view of your projects. The more you plan for the future, the more equipped you'll be to avoid common problems. Once you have a solid system in place, it will help your team work together and stay on target as they move forward. The high-level overview provided by project management software includes everything you need to build that system.

2. Ease of communication

Managing everything your team does is nearly impossible in a business environment without some kind of tracking system. With project management software, you can keep all your tasks organized, view client history and communicate with your team using messages and notes within a single platform. This eliminates much of the need for email or other tools, which means you're more likely to stay focused on the project at hand and avoid potentially damaging distractions.

3. Faster project completion

Many people find that project management software helps them stay on track and keeps their projects moving forward faster. The built-in features will get you where you want to be — and keep you there. Features like task management, collaboration and reporting provide everything you need to stay updated on your project's status and quickly pivot when necessary.

4. Better budgeting

If your projects are well organized and you know where all your time is going, it's easy to see how much they'll probably cost. Combine that information with billing data and you'll have an accurate estimate of the project's actual cost before you ever start.

Who Uses Project Management Software?

Businesses of all types use project management software to track their projects. These tools can help you stay organized and on target so you don't have to scramble to get everything done when deadlines come up. They work best for teams, but you can also use them to administer personal or individual projects. 

One field that consistently uses project management software is the professional services industry, in which a firm typically works with many different customers at once. Project management software offers a way to organize those projects in a single location and successfully collaborate internally and externally.

Strengthen Your Project Management Foundation

By now, you should have a better understanding of what project management software can offer your company. Not only will it organize your projects, but it will give your team structured processes. You’ll be more efficient, launch projects faster and improve your chances of success.

Accelo goes far beyond what a stand-alone project management tool can do for your business. Your team can monitor and direct all of your projects from start to finish, along with managing every other essential part of the client relationship in one convenient platform. Get started with a free trial or schedule a demo to learn more.