Why are Resource Management Tools Crucial for Project Managers?

Did you know that many organizations still depend on legacy tools for scheduling resources and project management? As per some studies, 71% of companies still use spreadsheets for collecting data. This becomes tough to maintain and also consumes a lot of time. A robust resource management solution solves all problems posed by spreadsheets and manages the existing resource pool optimally. Another study shows that around 60% of projects are completed within the fixed budget, and only 50% meet the delivery timelines. So, what, according to you, is missing here? One of the crucial parts of project management is scheduling and managing resources efficiently, which is challenging. A resource management tool helps right from the planning stage to the execution and delivery stage. Like, resource planning, allocation, project planning, time management, change management, and more. It also helps organizations to become competitive and stand out from the rest of the industry.

What is a Resource Management Tool?

Resource management tools help project managers in demand management, resource allocation, and resource management in each project’s lifecycle. It’s not an easy task to maintain the details of all project budgets, resources, competencies, etc. Also, it’s difficult to know that which resource is assigned to which project? And how is the project doing so far? This is the stage where resource management tools can help in a big way in project management. These tools enable project managers to sail through various stages of the project. If resource management, project planning, team collaboration, time tracking, and finance and billing are under control, you can manage your projects flawlessly.

How do Resource Management Tools Help Project Managers?

Automated Planning

When it comes to the resources, it’s best to opt for a configurable resource management software that manages to update itself automatically from time to time. It can also track your resource supply and demand chain continuously. Also, it helps you with forecasting future needs. Such a tool also helps in identifying skill shortages and if there is any training requirement. This further offers real-time visibility into a firm’s resource capability and capacity.

Allocate Skillful Resources to the Right Project

A resource management tool weaves in all vital information such as resources and projects into one resource plan. Just use filters to choose the selection criteria like specific skills, qualifications, expertise, experience, location, availability, cost, etc. Then, in a couple of clicks, you can assign the best-fitting resources to the appropriate opportunities. Such a project management tool also keeps all proficiency information updated to match skillset capability with a suitable task. Resource management tools also enable a fair distribution of resources across multiple projects. This ensures the ‘best-visible-best-fit’ approach as opposed to the ‘first-visible-first-fit’ way of resource allocation.

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Improved Performance on Projects

Improved resource management process also reduces the risk of missing timelines that you’ve committed. It can cost you a client if you miss some important project milestones. But using a resource management tool can improve your resource utilization and ensure that you have sufficient skilled people available for all projects. The trick lies in finding the right balance as that has a considerable influence on the bottom line.

Enhanced Accountability

Tracking the timesheets, resource costs, and payroll can be tiresome and time-consuming. Imagine if you have a comprehensive view of all your team members, then you can quickly improve accountability. A resource management tool records all utilization and time-related information that helps project managers to access, evaluate, and analyze this data easily. The right tool like eResource Scheduler ensures that your human resource costs are accounted for. This further eases the process of managing payroll data, invoice processing, and billing systems.

Capacity Planning and Management

A project management tool has an inbuilt capacity inventory that helps you pull-out the resourcing data you need. You can act on the resource inefficiencies with required skills that acclimatize to new market opportunities. Therefore, an organization can keep attracting both new and repeat businesses. Capacity planning and management also gears up your organization for any market uncertainties. If there are any hiring mismatches, project managers can do new resourcing in the best possible manner so that continuity in capability is maintained throughout.

Stronger Forecasting

An online resource management tool connects the project budgets with the plan. This is a better way to forecast and calculate your resource availability and then plan for the long term. With such a plan, you can easily check which resources are entirely booked in the near future and who are the ones having some capacity to take on additional tasks. Hence, an accurate forecasting can be done.

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Cost Savings

A project management tool offers resource loading views that point out the phases of overload and under-use. This enables bringing considerable improvements in utilization levels and also saves the cost of the contract employees. Wondering how? Imagine if you could forecast the time-period when you would have additional work and need more people. A resource management tool will help you avoid hiring in haste and would enable you to manage your capacity to the fullest, which leads to huge cost savings.

Better Team Collaboration

Besides multiple resource management benefits, project management tools are created with an intent to improve team collaboration. These tools enable people to collaborate on various projects by discussing tasks, dependencies, timelines, outstanding work, etc. You can keep everyone in the loop and ensure that the project team knows their task lists and priorities. Even the stakeholders can check the status and milestones with the help of dashboards and comprehensive reports. This way, your resources stay aligned, re-work is reduced, and everyone is focused on fast-paced delivery of the projects.

Real-Time Data and Analysis

By using a good resource management tool, you can monitor your projects in real-time. If you have several resources aligned on one project based on different locations, having a centralized system is essential.  Such a tool offers you visibility into how your resources are performing and how they are being utilized? You can do real-time analysis and find out any under- or over-allocated resources in case of mid-project changes. You can also estimate if there is a possibility of any delays and then adjust your timelines in advance.

Automated Meeting Scheduling

Another important calendar feature you get with a resource management tool is automated meeting scheduling. What if you could do away with the long email chains with your clients? Imagine if you could fix a suitable meeting time in just a few clicks. Or propose several meeting times to your client and select various time slots in your calendar. Your meeting invites with all the proposed timings would be sent automatically to your customer, who can opt for a suitable one from the options suggested. Finally, both the parties would get a confirmation email, and the meeting is added to both your calendars.

eResource Scheduler – The Best Tool for Resource Management

Enbraun’s flagship product, eResource Scheduler, is a very user-friendly and beneficial resource management tool. By using this tool, the project managers can design and execute viable resource and project schedules to fully maximize their utilization and profitability. eResource Scheduler comes with a scalable design that lets you modify the configuration to easily handle your company’s resource scheduling requirements. Its drag and drop interface makes resource planning, scheduling, and management a quick task. So, if you want to tap the highest potential of your resources and design the best resource plan, try eResource Scheduler. Book a free trial soon and check out all the benefits of this award-winning tool yourself.