Submitted by: Androklis Mavridis
Nothing is certain but death and taxes. Add meetings and you have a killing triplet – that is if youre a manager. Yep, meetings are not an option. Meetings are vital and since the dawn of time essential for laying the foundations for good planning, work distribution and seamless project execution.
In the past, managers used to schedule a meeting for almost everything simply because they wanted to be assured that the engaged personnel had all necessary information, resources and a clear idea of what needs to be done. Luckily, in the era of collaboration platforms meetings have been gradually mutated from communication tools to get things done tools. Replace things with job, contracts, requirements, deliverables and so forth and you have an idea. As resources and information are dealt through wikis, video conferencing, document sharing, activity streaming etc. in a semi-automated manner, there is a shift from internal meetings (within the team) to external ones (with the companys customers, partners, suppliers etc).
The benefits from this shift are enormous:
1.At least cut in half the total time spent in meetings
2.Managers can now focus on external meetings
2.1Better prepared for customers/partners etc.
2.2Explore past information and statistics offered by the platform
3. All work (presentations/produced) for the upcoming meeting is shared and notified to the right people in a neat and fully organized manne
4. All post meeting information is shared and exploited instantly by the right people
5.Filtered information is used as feedback for marketing activities (campaigns, social media posts etc.)
6. Meetings and associated material are linked to tasks, events, contacts, accounts etc. increasing the overall traceability
7. Meetings activity history can be obtained easily for analysis and further marketing process improvement.
Did collaboration platforms changed managers life? It depends on the manager actually and its willingness to adopt and to adapt to something new and promising. If this is the case then definitely, its not a matter of old dog new tricks stereotype as true managers constantly re-generate themselves through projects and stay always fresh. I would rather reverse the stereotype and boldly state that senior managers quickly embraced collaboration tools and saw the full potential of work de-centralization and team members empowerment. Juniors are the ones that due to lack of self- confidence and combat experience have the tendency to approach projects with a centralized attitude.
Collaboration platforms have been designed and built around team management and workspace formation. So whether youre a junior or an old dog doesnt really matter. Your collaboration platform will eventually teach you how to effectively manage your team.
Speaking for Business collaboration tools, it’s a shame not to mention all these Project Management software that make our lives easier, but allow me to tell you a personal experience.
Recently I had a meeting with a client interested in online Project Management tools. Normally this is my favorite kind of meetings. Meet new and excited people already informed of the benefits of cloud (low TCO, no installations, no hardware required, minimal up and running time, etc) and talk about project management. So I thought that would be a very nice, productive and therapeutic session.
Well, it was nice and productive but not so therapeutic, at least for me. We walk over the desired goodies, you know all the basic stuff such as requirements, milestones, burndown charts, agile, Gantt etc. And then it hit me! The client start telling me her war stories from past projects that were causing problems not during but after their completion and delivery. Usually, the total absence of problems during projects execution is a strong indication that:
1. There is no problem with the project manage
2. There is no problem with the projects execution per se.
So where was the problem? As it turned out the majority of issues had to do with traceability. Traceability of development costs, mails, invoices, travel expenses etc. The company had strict ISO procedures to follow, and the quality department where giving hard time to PMs for keeping projects related costs and communications in a neat and well organized manner.
So, instead of discussing about various features for an online PM tool, we start arguing how a PM can be assisted in managing the projects documentation. To use a PM tool (cloud or not) that is not able to log every action that is performed inside the projects scope (along with the actions derivatives) is unacceptable. That is if you consider yourself a PM at least
Actually that need (to be able to log and document all project activities in an automatic, transparent and traceable manner) is behind the recent trend that most of the online PM tool vendors follow. That is to couple the traditional PM features with strong true collaboration functionality capable of handling and linking all projects communications, costs, resources spent etc.
Simply put, managers should be able to focus on the managerial aspect and the tool should do the boring stuff behind the scenes. This is what make project and quality managers happy.
About the Author: Project Manager of Comidor (
comidor.com
).Comidor is a cloud software suite for business collaboration and project management, that provides an efficient and affordable solution to organizations. Comidor eliminates communication bottlenecks and boosts productivity by increasing collaboration and activity transparency. With Comidor, managers have the right tools to cope with any project no matter the complexity or size, while the sales team can track leads, pursuit opportunities and optimize the marketing strategy.
Source:
isnare.com
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