A business whether small or large scale executes various projects, plans and tasks along with people. Organization of these things require a solution that is accurate and profitable. This solution is project management software, that specializes in handling project plans, time management, resource management and change management. This tool can offer businesses a competitive edge over its competitors and the rest of the industry.

When it comes to handling a project, four factors come into play

1. Project scope:  It is the size of the project that is defined here. The scope is the gap between the thought process to the point where the project is accomplished successfully. Any changes in time, budget or resources is bound to get reflected in other parameters of the project.
2. Resource management:  People, material and pieces of equipment constitute what we define as resource management. These are the list of things or people used to achieve the goal.
3. Time management:  This factor is of primary importance where the goal has to be accomplished in the stated time frame.
4. Financial planning:  Financial planning involves the management of funds while executing the processes to make a project successful. Here, “contingency allowance” is kept aside to meet the financial requirements. This is for cases when the project’s financial budget goes beyond the stipulated financial frame.

The organizations that don’t use project management software tend to use up their time in handling all the tasks by themselves. This leads to less profit and more hard work. Here, the employees have to work hard to meet all the project requirements where certain processes can be automated with project management software. If certain tasks can be automated, the same employees can focus on the bigger goals leading to successful project eventually. Project management software is available in different sizes and shapes. You can get customized software for your organization that fits your business process, business model and your business functions. Look at the reasons below as to see why you need project management software.

1.Collaboration

Each member of the team is assigned a task or a group of tasks to accomplish when a project has to be realized. To make sure that everyone is on the same level of understanding and project planning phase, project management software keeps all the team members connected. For a query to be answered, or a problem to be resolved, the team members can communicate with each other through the project management software. This, in turn, reduces time while the team members look for answers. With the said software, file sharing, timeline updates and project status can be shared with the other teammates to work in tandem.

1. With file sharing facility, you can share contact details, calendars, documents, with the team members working on the project. With this software, access to certain things in the system becomes quick.

2. Team communication happens over the software through built-in messengers that allow quicker responses to emergency queries and issues.

3. Customer data exchange is imperative when your project is client-focused. You can link invoices with the said customer and it also makes it easy to look for customers whose invoices are due.

4. With the team dashboard, sharing the progress of the work becomes easier and everyone can see the progress of each team member on the dashboard. Graphs, visual metrics and charts can be shared using the dashboard. This helps you get a thorough understanding of the summary of where the project’s development stands.

2. Time Scheduling

Without a systematic approach, it is difficult to keep track of time when a project has to be completed in a certain time frame. The productivity of the employees suffers as they don't have any idea which tasks to take up, in the absence of a systematic approach. With project management software, you can manage the timelines and deadlines along with the project priorities without losing out on the important tasks. It also prevents overlapping of similar tasks.

1.  Task priority defines the high priority tasks which should be finished first. Hence, you don't have to reschedule the entire project when you lose track of the time.

2.  Shared team calendar allows all the team members to see their deadlines, which define the status of the project. It also lets you see the covered milestones and the ones that are yet to cover.

3. Time slot management lets you manage the slots of the time for each member for the rapid progression of the project. This leads to saving a lot of time and finishing the tasks in the predefined time frame.

3. Resource Management

Project management software is efficient in managing the resources deployed to accomplish the project. Effective resource management is imperative to make sure that the resources are used efficiently to realize the project accomplishment. With this software in place, you will have a clear idea about which tools you need to use along with their availability. This ensures that no time is wasted in procuring the tools and no money is wasted while you buy the tools without the knowledge of the availability of the tools in the organization.

4. Tracking the Budget

Each project comes with its price, contingencies and profit margin. A project manager aims to keep the cost of the project low while reaping the maximum profit out of it. Hence, to manage the expenditure, you cannot have a simple excel sheet.

1.  The budget report gives you an understanding of monthly and weekly expenditures when you are working on a long term project. This helps you track your project's budget and lets you see if the budget shoots up in the middle of the project.

2. The budget dashboard lets you display the expenditure in the forms of a graph and visual representation. You can also let the team members see the budget status by offering them access to it.

3. Automated invoicing saves a lot of time. Manual invoicing is cumbersome, time-consuming and prone to mistakes. Automation of these processes saves time and lets employees focus on other high valued tasks.

5. Documentation

Some organizations still use pen and paper to maintain the documentation for the project in question. But this type of traditional ways is prone to errors and mistakes. And these errors can propagate into the project execution leading to faulty project development. A project management software can salvage you from these issues.

1.  Centralized data storage lets all the team members see the documentation that includes expenses, bills sent to clients, project resources, upcoming calendar events, customer information along with planned and accomplished goals. These things are available at one place for access.

2.  Quick access eliminates the requirement to access different spreadsheets for different purposes. Every data is centralized where you can provide access to certain or all the parts of the data to the team members as and when required.

3. Project reporting is handled efficiently as the team leader can view the progress of each team member on the project. Hence, quick identification of the problems is possible to easily find the solution. The data also includes metrics like completion percentage of a certain task, schedule variance and planned versus the actual value of the project.

These points help you understand why project management software is imperative to any organization. With digital automation entering every aspect of the business, automation of possible departments and functions of the organization has become significant. Not to mention, automation leads to increased ROI for the organization.