Calculations are easy to make. For some, they are just a matter of seconds, but for others, it may take quite a few minutes. With the advent of scientific calculators and excel sheets, everything became easy.
Are you wondering why we discuss mathematical calculations here?
It is to understand the convenience of using tools.
Similarly, resource management tools make it easy to plan and schedule projects. The software helps you plan the project depending on the availability of the resources.
Resource management software allows the project managers to track the workloads of the resources. Let us see in detail the relevance of resource management tools and the benefits they help you draw.
Table of Contents
- What is resource management?
- What is the need to manage resources?
- Challenges in resource management.
- Why do you need resource management tools?
- Resource Management Tools: A Complete Guide with Benefits for 2021.
- Conclusion.
What is resource management?
Resource management refers to planning, tracking, and optimizing resources per the demand of projects. This activity involves checking the resource’s availability, scheduling start and end dates, monitoring workload, and managing resource interdependencies on different projects.
Doing all this manually can create discrepancies. Hence, it is favourable to use a resource management tool for the benefit of projects.
What is the need to manage resources?
Resource management clarifies the picture of the availability of resources. It then allows you to find out who can be booked and when.
A project can fail without resources. It will be just a plan without actually moving any bit. When you manage resources, you must carry an idea about their current workloads and capacity. When you have this information, you will be better able to streamline the project’s output.
In short, with the resource management aspect, you spot resource shortages and resolve conflicts. When you manage resources, you are capable of doing these:
- Set realistic targets and chart out the flow of tasks.
- Plan work efficiently, thereby increasing the output quality of the organization.
- Commit the project deadlines to the clients after evaluating the resource capacity.
- Evaluate which role ropes in more profits and revenues for the company.
- Decide your bandwidth to hire new talent.
Resource management benefits your company with scaled performance and more revenue. However, practising this on your own can be problematic, making you lose track of projects. So let us first consider some challenges that you might face in resource management.
Challenges in resource management
Putting resources to use can come with some challenges. The simple idea of managing resources is to allocate jobs that don’t interfere with other projects. Here are some challenges in resource management:
- Unpredictable risks associated with the resources like health issues, sudden quitting of job, etc.
- Resources lack skills, and being assigned some projects can be a waste of time.
- At times, resources are working on lower priority jobs than required. A project manager should track the project development to check it faster.
- Having no realistic view of incoming project demands can push you to put resources on less prioritized jobs.
- Abrupt shifting of resources due to sudden demands in the projects.
Challenges are unexpected, but a project manager like you must always be prepared to handle these. Use resource management tools to align your goals with the actions. Let us look at the reasons in detail.
Why do you need resource management tools?
Resource management tools make you better able to set a hierarchy of tasks when you are managing projects. Some of the reasons why you need resource management software include:
- It allows you to streamline the actions for the projects and analyze which ones are dependent on each other.
- The resource utilization software tool gives you a clear eye on all the employees deployed on the project.
- The resource management tool provides the project managers idea of resources’ availability and schedules.
- You get live updates on the resources’ status. Based on this, you can analyze the organizational capacity to absorb projects.
Resource Management Tools: A Complete Guide with Benefits for 2021
The task of managing resources when you have projects in hand needs proper guidance. But if you maintain a checklist and know exactly what to do, you are all set. To begin with, resource allocation, make sure you follow these guidelines. Maintain these tips as your checklist:
- Make sure that no resource is idle or overloaded with work.
- All the resources in the company must have a balanced workload.
- Everyone should get an equal opportunity to spread depending on their skills and projects.
- Not a single employee should be occupied at two places simultaneously.
- All the resources are made clear with their jobs and duties.
- Everyone can see the latest project updates with permissible access to the resource management software.
- There should be two-way communication open to maintain balance within the organization.
Benefits of resource management software
Here are the benefits of resource management software:
- The software tool helps you to manage the projects efficiently.
- You get a clear idea about the occupancy and schedule of the resources.
- The resource management tool provides you with a clear picture of what is lacking in the project. It gives you a clear idea of what you can do immediately to abide by the project deadlines.
- You are equipped with insights about resources and decide whether or not to scale the projects.
Top 5 resource management software tools to use in 2021
Here are the top 5 resource management software tools to use in 2021.
- eResource Scheduler
eResource Scheduler is a powerful resource management software. It is a cloud-based software with Gantt chart view features. The reports through the software deliver essential data and allow project managers to make informed decisions.
- Forecast
Forecast is a resource management software. It offers a to-do list for project tracking and scheduling and time tracking for improved team management and monitoring.
- Float
Float is a simple resource management software for agencies and enterprises. Its staff scheduling calendar allows you to keep track of appointments, visualize team workload, and allocate assignments.
Project managers may use team management features to identify who is available and who is not.
- Mavenlink
Mavenlink is a resource management software that helps task and personnel management, accounting, business analytics, and collaborative work, assists professionals in IT organizations, agencies, and consulting firms in planning, managing, and optimizing resources.
- Harvest
Harvest allows you to schedule your resources and keep track of their workload. In addition, you can use the information from both platforms to improve your estimations and schedule.
Managers can use timesheets to track employee performance, billable time, overtime, and project progress by turning them into reports.
Conclusion
A resource management tool helps you keep track of the people you manage, the projects they’re working on, and their availability and timetables. With real-time updates and multiple user access, you can plan the projects confidently. As a project manager, you better understand the company’s pipeline and make more informed decisions.
