Clicking Away: A Virtual Solution to Project Management

Project management has entered a new era in the last few years. It is less about planning and organizing and more about collaborating and communicating. At the heart of this is using sophisticated online tools that will give disparate teams the power to organize, manage, and track their projects from anywhere. Project management tools will behave just like your social network where you communicate, plan events, and collaborate with friends and family through your Web browser. Your project team members are now just a click away!

 

In early 2005, we set up our Web design and development company in Mumbai, India. Having recently moved back from the United States with a good number of clients, we were ready to start working on several Web design and soft ware development projects. It was when we began juggling multiple projects and clients – and needing to stay focused and clear – that we began seeing the need a centralized management system that is easy to use (even for non-technical people). We researched online tools but either they were too simplistic or too cumbersome and expensive to use. With globalization, virtual teams were becoming more and more popular. We saw the chance to fulfi ll the need for a simple, powerful, and aff ordable collaborative online service all backed by personalized customer service. This is how DeskAway was born. It would be a central place where teams could track the progress of their projects and people from anywhere. We worked out of direct feedback from our own clients and it was a product that was developed on the basis of actual need, as opposed to imagined need.

 

DeskAway is a monthly, subscription-based online team and project collaboration service that helps individuals, small businesses, and teams within larger organizations to organize, manage, and track their projects from a central location. With the number of growing small businesses, increased broadband penetration, distributed teams, and 24/7 mobile work culture, it solves the problems associated with distributed collaborating teams managing multiple projects and people. For example, e-mail spam, multiple file versions, lost fi les, task accountability issues, lack of work transparency, insufficient project reporting, predictability, clarity, and management overview are all problems that it efficiently tackles.

 

A screenshot of DeskAway

 

We used our own tool to overcome some of the common challenges that take place when working on projects with multiple people across continents. These include:

 

We found that revised deadlines and altering project scopes are common in any project. Th ings keep changing and team-wide, multiple notifi cations were in order. Instead of emailing updates gave everyone in the team access to project updates and revisions at the click of a button. Everyone involved could immediately see a change to a project deadline. Real-time changes and updates to projects could be easily tracked online using email notifi cations and RSS.

 

GLOBAL TEAMS – MULTIPLE TIME ZONES

We are moving toward a global 24/7 work culture where at any given time, work is continuing in diff erent parts of the world. When multiple time zones are involved, it is important that everyone in the project understands what is at stake and where the project is heading. People need to trust other people in their team whom they have never met but are working together on a shared goal. With DeskAway’s easy-to-use online interface, teams cannot only update their status to let other people know what they are currently doing, but can also put up details of themselves that will help others understand and know them better. 

 

OPEN COMMUNICATION

As it is rightly mentioned, projects

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are about people. There is so much to say, so much going on in a project. DeskAway is built so that all of the communication is easily captured. Instead of emailing a fi le to fi ve people and then getting feedback from them (that’s another five emails!), wouldn’t it be easy to just share the file with the people involved and then gather comments and feedback on that same page? With an inbuilt project message board, and a streamlined process of commenting on tasks, files, and documents, we find that communication remains in place, and is quick and effi cient. With the search functionality, it is easy to pull up old information within seconds.

 

TOO MANY TOOLS

When we started our service business, there were just too many tools to choose from. Some of them were too easy to use and the others were really complicated. It is important to choose a tool that you and your team feel comfortable using. A tool that is simple, powerful, and aff ordable as you add more projects. With DeskAway, you can try out the free plan and if it adds value to your team, you can seamlessly move to the paid plans.

 

ATTRITION

Team members come and go but what is important is that the knowledge they generate needs to be retained somewhere. This is where a collaborative solution comes into play. When everyone works through a central project collaboration system, the knowledge bank is retained within the company or group, leaving you free of problems of data loss and improper handovers.

 

DELEGATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Most often, work is delegated either through word of mouth or through email. Th is opens up a host of problems when working in teams as not only do people have to dig through their inboxes to fi nd a particular task, but also none of the team members know what the overall vision and goal of the projects looks like. With a centralized project collaboration system, there is greater transparency, goal-oriented teamwork, inbuilt processes, and work that can be tracked at any given point in time.

 

An easy-to-use online soft ware for project collaboration not only makes communication within your workplace more streamlined, but it also helps your company lower costs, increase effi ciency, and provide your team the right tools to grow your business.

 

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About the Author

SAHIL PARIKH is a Web entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Synage, a Mumbai-based pure-play SAAS venture. His dream was to pioneer Software As A Service (SaaS) in India and build a product that would provide value to thousands of businesses around the world. Email him at spparikh@synage.com.

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