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The 2023 project management market is rich with options. But only some are worth the investment and time you’ll take to board your team. We reviewed the current best ones and compared them to help you pick the best one for your project.
The various types of software mentioned here have different focuses or functions. With in-depth reviews to follow, here are the main points to compare:
- Bigtime software is especially effective to manage projects that require financial integration.
- Monday software will also track projects and resources, with reporting, but it doesn’t have financial integrations. It’s also useful for any size of team, from small businesses to large enterprises.
- Confluence software is for any type and size of team whereas many others are only for large teams.
- Netsuite Openair software offers project management and reporting, with accounting and finances being a strong point. It’s geared toward the services industries. However, it was very expensive.
- Aha software focuses solely on product development.
Why do You Need Project Management Software?
All teams require project management software to function efficiently. Without this tool, the many-pronged arms of a project can lead to dropped tasks, missed deadlines, and general misdirection. Project managers know that project management software helps keep various sections connected, on time, and aiming toward the same goal.
What to Look for in Project Management Software
In order to streamline your team’s workflow, you will need to identify software that:
- Can meet your needs, solve challenges and address constraints. Everyone has different priorities. Workflow, communication, scheduling, and budgeting are common requirements.
- Has pricing within your budget.
- Suits the size of your team, and can scale up or down as you grow or decide to downsize.
- Allows integration with other apps.
- Permits guest access.
- Has permissions and review capabilities.
- Offers sufficient security.
You can try out free demos with your team, or compare them based on your primary needs.
We’ve taken the hard work out of the research for you, and given you the top-trending project management software to choose from.
Bigtime Software
Bigtime software is a Professional Services Automation that allows you to track and manage your operational metrics. You can ascertain the time, expenses, and billing for many projects in one go. Furthermore, you can check on the task’s status, and who is working on what section of the project.
Users can easily view project timelines, and determine project deliverables at a glance. This will enable you to determine bottlenecks, and ensure projects are completed timeously. What’s more, it’s possible to track the overall progress of multiple projects at once.
You may also determine what opportunities are open to you with features such as custom reporting and resource allocation. Additionally, it’s linked to invoicing and payment processing, allowing you to get paid faster.
Overall, this resource helps you stay in control of complicated projects, while also helping you manage your bottom line.
Bigtime software is often used by:
- Accounting teams
- Architecture and engineering teams
- Consultants
- IT services
- Legal teams
- Marketing and creative teams
- Government contractors
Pros
- Integrates with QuickBooks and uses Gantt charts
- Has very good technical support
- Enables easy payment
- Increases productivity
- Creates actionable financial insights
- Has a mobile app
Cons
- Creating many tasks isn’t intuitive
- Workflow dashboard could do with improvement
- No color-coding
Monday Software
Project Management Software Monday suite and can track projects and resources, look at the usage of time and collaboration, and include reporting. For example, users can attach reports to cards. They can also mention teammates and comment on issues. It allows you to input and views various data types, such as people, status, text, timeline, dates, tags, and more.
Furthermore, you can create your own workflows from scratch and use customizable forms to create new tasks.
It has a visually clear project reporting dashboard, where you can collect data from multiple sources and allows you to record the progress of the project. The team may use what’s most comfortable for them: Gantt charts, Kanban boards, timelines, and calendars while accessing identical data. This will mean that each section of the team doesn’t operate by different parameters or standards, and can collaborate to create data that is shared with all.
The downside is that it doesn’t offer integrations for invoicing and accounting, but it still allows you to track invoices, timelines, and hours.
Monday.com allows you to integrate with Slack, Gmail, Google Calendar, Gira, Github, Dropbox, Trello, Typeform, or others via Zapier. It also has a developer’s arm, where you can track bugs in the software you develop.
Pros
- Integrates with many apps
- Focus on collaboration
- Easy to tailor workflow or board to own needs
- Helpful color-coding to track progress
Cons
- No accounting or invoicing integrations
- Too powerful for small teams
- Gantt charts only available for mid-level pricing
Confluence Software
Confluence software is a project management suite or team workspace with dynamic pages. In other words, people can add to the pages and give updates or ideas and comments. It, therefore, enables good collaboration.
It’s for teams of any size and types, up to 10 people. The software allows unlimited spaces and pages and permits the integration of third-party apps. Confluence software also empowers you with a communal calendar.
You can find templates—from product requirements to marketing plans—so you can formulate best practice targets. Furthermore, use Confluence to collate and collaborate on documents, and create knowledge bases.
There is a page tree so that you can easily find work. Additionally, you can track the history of each page.
However, there are some issues with integration. If you try to connect to Office 365, Slack, and Zoom, you often have quite a number of challenges. This may be an important consideration for your team if you already use these resources.
Pros
- Can be stored in the cloud
- Integrates with many third-party apps
- Enables dynamic pages
- Best practice templates
- Teams of any size and type
- Unlimited pages
- Fewer meetings and emails
- Flowcharts and diagrams for all users
- Works for multiple teams
Cons
- No financial reporting integrations
- Poor integration
- UI could improve
Read More: A Guide to Select a Project Management Software for your Business
Netsuite Openair Software
Oracle’s Netsuite Openair Software is a multifunctional package. It includes:
- Project management
- Resource management
- Time sheet
- Project accounting
- Expenses tracking
Openair is particularly geared to the services industry, and it may not function well outside of those parameters.
However, Netsuite Openair Software integrates well with Microsoft products, such as Outlook, Projects, Excel, and more. Some users may find the following integrations valuable too:
- SAP
- QuickBooks
- Accpac
- Peachtree
- Epicor
- Microsoft Dynamics
- Proprietary accounting system
- Oracle financials
- JD Edwards
Pros
- Good support
- Cloud-based working
- Multi-task, multi-team software
- Integrates well
Cons
- Extremely high cost
- More support is required for some
Aha Software
Aha Software is the number 1 product development software. You create a vision, then use SWOT, lean canvas, Portas 5 Forces, segment profile, or 10Ps as your strategic planning templates. You can establish where your product fits into the market, and how it competes. You’ll also establish the problem that it solves and what makes it distinct.
With Aha software users get to know customers by creating buyer and user personas. This helps companies understand on a deep level who they’re building for and why what they have to offer will serve customers well.
It’s possible to create profiles of your competitors, including areas such as revenue customers and rate of growth. Users can use a threat scorecard on issues such as:
- Product breadth
- Ability to execute
- Strength of vision
- Market Awareness
The next step is to put that data onto a matrix to see how you compare with those competitors.
Additionally, the software lets you set objectives and KPIs, and measure how successful you’ve been. After that, you can use Initiatives to determine which tasks to prioritize and then make budget and revenue projections.
Pros
- Can visualize all steps of product development
- Ability to analyze the competition
- Set and measure objectives and KPI
- Integration of third-party tools
- Direct capturing of ideas into product
Cons
- No mobile app
- UI needs updating
- Doesn’t align with Jira
Conclusion
Looking at the various project management tools, we can see that they all have different emphases. Each is rated highly in its respective specialization, but it’s difficult to say one is better than another. Instead, you can only conclude that one is better than another for specific functions. It’s those functions that determine which you’ll use for your specific needs.
It may be especially important to determine whether it’s cloud-based or not because some businesses don’t have sufficient storage capacity on their own servers.
Whatever project management tool you choose, request a trial first so that you can see practically how it functions, and how it suits your team. It’s better to try out several than find out months down the line that you chose the wrong one.
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This content is brought to you by Anne Victoria.
Photos provided by the author.
There’s another project management tool that is worth taking into consideration when making comparisons. It’s called kanbantool.com and it allows to analyze employees’ performance using data, which is helpful if you want to increase their productivity.