The way people work has changed, and the practice of project management is suffering from a major usability gap that needs to be addressed. Most enterprise project management software solutions offer a lot of heavy lifting for project managers, but they lack a convenient experience for team members. When apps are difficult to understand or tedious to use, adoption amongst teams suffers, project information is delayed or inaccurate, and intended efficiencies go out the window. But how can project managers ensure usability for teams while maintaining the dynamic capabilities they need to succeed? The solution lies in automation and integration that will close the gap between a smooth user experience and essential project management functionality.
Automation is redefining the culture of our society. Think about how robotics has revolutionized the manufacturing industry, or how self-serve kiosks have completely transformed experiences in airports, fast food restaurants, grocery stores and more. As technology proliferates across industries, automation is becoming commonplace. It makes our lives easier, increases efficiency, and escalates our expectations of user experiences in all areas of our lives--especially the workplace.
Unfortunately, many businesses are still stuck in the technological equivalent of the Middle Ages. Email and spreadsheets are still popular means of managing projects, and even if an enterprise solution has been adopted, it is often cumbersome to learn, inflexible, and difficult to get employees to commit to using it. These difficulties give way to operational drag, processes that waste time and prevent people from getting things done.
The average company loses more than 25% of its productive power to organizational drag, which is a cost businesses shouldn’t be willing to pay. Innovations in technology have given us much better ways to run our projects and processes.
Messaging platforms and cloud technology are driving the next wave of transformation in the way we work. Consider young adults entering the workforce: They have grown up on social media and instant messaging. Platforms like Facebook and Snapchat are their new normal, and it’s time for businesses to adapt.
Tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Microsoft Office Online offer a combination of instant communication and collaboration that today’s workforce has grown to expect. Slack and Microsoft Teams are essentially the workplace equivalent of Snapchat. These innovative tools are taking off because they are more efficient, just like email was better than the telephone and snail mail in the 90s. And the productivity gains are substantial. Slack users claim a
25% reduction in meetings and 48% reduction in email. Dropbox Business users have seen an average of
6% productivity gain amongst sales teams and 2,722 productive hours gained per 100 users in collaborating with customers, vendors, and contingent workforces.
So what does all of this mean for project managers?
At Project Insight, we’re conscious that collaboration tools are the way of the future. Our latest development,
VirtualPM™ for Slack, is leading the project management automation charge by leveraging the power of artificial intelligence. Our VirtualPMs sync project communication from PI® to familiar business communication tools like Slack.
Team members can choose which VirtualPM they want as their "project manager" in PI®. The team of VirtualPMs consist of eight "project managers," each with their own personality. Once VirtualPM is added to Slack, team members receive daily updates on work assigned, can update their statuses on projects, and can even add time to a project.
A quick look at updating a project status using VirtualPM for Slack
A quick look at commenting on a project using VirtualPM for Slack
Most importantly, our VirtualPMs automatically cull all the data managers normally spend 80% of their day collecting. Since VirtualPM takes the busy work out of data collection to build their insights--managers can focus on the real work of leading, planning, and strategizing.
The best part is you can add VirtualPM to Slack for free and it's available for all three PI platforms.
Click here to add our app to Slack now!
On that note, we believe that teams should be able to “Work Where They’re At™,” meaning within the apps they already know and love. Gone are the days where project management software providers can be prescriptive about how users will interact, transact and get their work done. Our APIs and automation capabilities enable team members to send project updates from familiar apps like Jira, Visual Studio, Slack and more, while project managers still enjoy the benefits of a powerful business management platform.
I’ll be back soon to dive deeper into the cultural shift we’re seeing in project management and how Project Insight supports it. In the meantime, visit our
Customize and Integrate page for a full list of the apps our system integrates with, or discover our full suite of solutions
here.
Questions or comments? Feel free to share them below!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Steve West serves as the CEO of Project Insight (PI®), a Business Management Platform that provides performance tools and blended reporting capabilities for enterprises, small businesses, and entrepreneurial teams. Since 2002, Steve has been at the forefront of elevating project managers’ capabilities in addition to providing key insights for stakeholders. In 2017, he co-developed VirtualPM™, a patent-pending artificial intelligence bot used to capture essential information, create efficiency and engagement within a company. From this, PI® was named Best Project Management Solution by SIIA in 2017.
Outside of software, Steve embodies a “work hard, play hard” attitude spending much of his free time swimming, surfing, and with family. Steve holds multiple Masters World Records in swimming (breaststroke), and often competes in US Masters Swimming events throughout the year.
Prior to PI®, Steve architected solutions (ecommerce, intranet, project management, etc.) for Fortune 2000 and small companies alike. Steve holds a dual Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and Communications from University of Michigan.