CRM in Project Management: Finding an all-in-one solution
As a user that engages in projects every day, we believe that you want work to feel frictionless. The last sentiment you want to take from working on one project to the next is the feeling that your hair could fall out at any moment.
It’s especially poignant in smaller businesses. More often than not, the team is only you. And that feeling isn’t fully escapable when you work with others either.
But the stress of managing multiple projects frequently comes from documenting the requests and changes by clients. Some business software solutions will help with managing the projects, but neglecting logging your client interactions is a slippery slope to a relationship breakdown.
That’s why you can nail two birds with one stone by using your CRM as a Project Management tool.
How a CRM helps in Project Management
For any well oiled machine, you need the right parts and tools to bring it together. Project management requires huge amounts of planning. Successful projects use data to calculate required resources, time needed for completion and contingencies to cover any requested changes, as well as juggling communications with stakeholders from every direction.
When it comes to communication, CRM software is one of the best resources available to businesses. While it’s typically associated with sales and marketing, key strengths of CRM centre on building relationships, be it internal or external.
Your CRM logs all back and forth with your clients, including emails, calls, messages and notes, and link to the appropriate contact.
This also includes automating processes that you currently input manually, like sending out email reminders to clients that you’re awaiting feedback from or approval from an internal stakeholder. Automating grunt work means less time writing chasers, and more meaningful project progress.
But the real benefit that makes them an all-in-one solution for your project management needs is that modern CRMs now incorporate systems that offer complete control over project management without the need for additional software.
This includes full breakdowns of project items, time tracking, resource management, documentation, communications, automation of process, integrations with necessary external systems and much more. It works regardless of the type or methodology that you use to run your projects.
Any teams or businesses managing projects, no matter the volume, can organise and work within a single platform. A single source of all truth is not to be underestimated as a tool for accountability, and a CRM can combine any and all project management needs with reliable, secure communications.
Finding the best option for a CRM for Project Management
As we’ve already mentioned, most quality, modern CRM systems will come with a suite of tools to bring your projects into one platform. This means that your options for all-in-one solutions will be more dependent on your budget than the spread of choice.
However, the project team at enable.services have worked with various CRMs over the years to hone in the best practices for enable’s use case. This ranges from smaller projects to extensive testing to ensure the solutions that we offer fit our client’s needs fully.
We would recommend that you follow this methodology to get a flavour of the structure and flow of each option.
Concept a small project that is typical of your business, and then dedicate some time to scope each of the CRMs on the market for features that fit your requirements. Then, take out a trial of each, and create the project from concept in each one. Continue with them as long as they are viable for your client project management needs, and then analyse the results at the end of initial testing.
The more you narrow down your options, the more extensive you can test to confirm that a system is right for you. We at enable gravitate frequently to two options for any CRM needs, depending on the size of the company that we work with and the projects that they contend with.
For start-up and small businesses, EspoCRM’s feature set is extensive, but the experience is kept minimalist and easy to use for scaleability. It comes with customisable templates built-in for waterfall and agile development of projects to get you started quickly, while it also generates portals that can be used by clients to request any and all changes and documentation.
As for larger businesses, SugarCRM, which we at enable utilise to manage all client projects, is a robust CRM that prioritises offering the best user experience. Granular level record logging, time tracking, automated document generation and process flows all aid projects that make your work faster and easier.
We offer demos that show how each can fit into your style or workflow processes. Simply get in touch with us to book one.
