#box smartsheet integration | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

projectmanagementtcom-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Project Management Software Compatible With Sales Force

New Post has been published on https://www.projectmanagementt.com/project-management-software-compatible-with-sales-force/

Project Management Software Compatible With Sales Force

Project management software compatible with sales force, is it true?

It is true that project management helps in achieving consistent brand communications and excellence in customer experiences.

If you wish to achieve the consistency throughout the customer journey, then you should use sales force for project management. Project management software compatible with sales force are much in trend these days due to its utility and benefits. By this, you can create customer stories by bringing together customer facing teams.

Project management software compatible with sales force and much more

This software helps in brining cross departmental alignment and individual departments also. Project teams in B2B can also use project management tools to incorporate sale force to track project time and expenses

Features to look for

Below are few features which should be considered during if you are considering project management software which is compatible with sales force.

It is good in listing tasks, sub tasks and milestones.

It has tools for managing and tacking tasks.

It has convenient views of project structures.

It has collaboration features.

It has document sharing capabilities.

It has the ability to report on task statuses.

It has interfaces to optimize mobile devices.

Strengths and weaknesses

Project management software compatible with sales force can be used for almost all the tasks. This can also be customized from end to end project management. Below points can be considered when you are reading about this topic.

Sales force can be used to create and assign tasks to one or multiple users.

Sales force doesn’t support managing tasks dependencies. So, when the due date is amended, dependent task stay unchanged.

All the tasks can also be bought together without even customizing the sales force.

There is a tool known as sales chatter which very important tool for collaborating on projects is. It includes activities and feedbacks also.

Project teams can also use out of the box document management capabilities in order to create and exchange documents.

Sales force provides a powerful drag and drop report builder also along with the feature of customized dashboard.

The app allows project team members to access the system at any time from any devices.

Short and long of it

It can be said that the sales team relies on the help of cross functional teams in order to close deals and support customers. So, sales team is needed to coordinate all the moving parts which results in completion of the tasks and better team work. When sale force is combined with and is compatible with the project management, then half of the work is done. It is easy to handle the task, manage people, time is reduced, cost is reduced and better control over the work is achieved. This was the deliverables are achieved and shocks are handled easily. This is an upcoming trend and gaining popularity nowadays.

TOP 50 SALESFORCE PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS AND SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS

1. Smartsheet for Salesforce

@Smartsheet

For cloud-based project and task management, Smartsheet is a solution that offers a combination of online project management and CRM. Track projects, task lists, and other work in Smartsheet while linking Smartsheet projects to key Salesforce customer records.

Key Features:

Import from Microsoft Project or Excel

Multiple levels of tasks

Single sign-on from Salesforce

Share project sheets and attached files with anyone inside or outside your Salesforce account

Cost:

Basic: $14/month paid annually – For individuals coordinating a project or tracking information, people, or tasks, unlimited collaborators, Gantt charts, and mobile access

Team: $39/month paid annually – For a team with 3 to 50 people coordinating work of all kinds, starts at $13/user, multiple creators, user management, and reporting

Enterprise: Contact for a quote – For enterprises from dozens to thousands, managing work of all kinds, single sign-on, automated provisioning, and dedicated account manager

WORK[etc]

@WORKetc_support

WORK[etc] is a Salesforce project management tool that integrates CRM, project management, billing, HelpDesk, and more into a cloud platform. With WORK[etc], teams collaborate and track projects efficiently.

Key Features:

Sync contacts and leads from WORK[etc] with Saleforce

Gmail integrated

Create sub projects and tasks that trigger when others are marked complete

Manage in 8 different real time project views including Gantt charts, project trees, and real-time activity streams

Cost: FREE trial available for 14 days

Starter: $78/month – 2 user maximum, 2,000 contacts, 3GB storage

Team: $195/month – 3 users included, each extra user adds $49/month, 10,000 contacts, 15GB storage, plus social media, email marketing, customer portal, accounting integrations, and more

Foundations: $395/month – 3 users included, each extra user adds $59/month, 20,000 contacts, 50GB storage, all Team plan features, plus contractor portal and deep reporting

TaskRay

@bracketlabs

Also available in the AppExchange and used by more than 500 Salesforce customers, TaskRay makes it possible for teams to quickly track, manage, and communicate. A shared to-do list with drag-and-drop features, TaskRay easily integrates with your existing Salesforce data.

Key Features:

100% Salesforce native

Use standard Salesforce tools to create unique workflows

Flexible framework for agile, iterative work practices

One simple view into project status, to dos, task owners, and due dates

Cost: FREE trial available

$15/user/month paid annually

$19/user/month paid monthly

Mavenlink

@mavenlink

Mavenlink is a software solution for integrated business and project management. For project and team collaboration, Mavenlink eliminates the hassle of silos and puts communication into one cohesive place. Mavenlink’s Salesforce integration is the icing on the cake.

Key Features:

Define team members, access limits, and fine project details

Robust resourcing tools

Project templates for recurring tasks and deliverables

Create custom fields for project numbers, client addresses, and other project details

Cost: FREE trial available for 10 days

FREE plan available – Contact for more information

Teams: $4/user/month with annual contract – collaborative task management

Professional: $29/user/month with annual contract – integrated financial management

Premier: Contact for a quote – comprehensive business management

Wrike

@wrike

Wrike offers advanced project management and collaboration tools for enterprise and small to medium businesses. With Wrike’s Salesforce integration, collaboration between teams is easy and productive.

Key Features:

Real-time workspace ideal for collaboration

Project management on the go with iPhone and Android apps

Manage resources and deadlines centrally for team alignment

Cost:

FREE – for small teams who need basic task management, up to 5 users, unlimited collaborators, 2 levels of projects

Professional – for teams who need project planning and collaboration, 5 or 15 users, unlimited collaborators, storage space from 5GB, and unlimited levels of projects

o 5 users: $49/month paid annually

o 15 users: $99/month paid annually

Enterprise: Contact for a quote – for teams who need customization, reporting, and advanced security, 5 users and up, unlimited collaborators, storage space from 100GB, and unlimited levels of projects

Clarizen

@clarizen

Clarizen is the Salesforce project management tool that brings social collaboration to powerful project management. Through Clarizen’s Salesforce integration, Salesforce users have the ability to create and view the progress of projects, milestones, and issues directly from Salesforce.com.

Key Features:

Salesforce users can access work items and view their status without logging in to Clarizen

One click opens projects directly within Clarizen

Customize reports

Cost: $250/month

Workfront

@Workfront_Inc

Formerly AtTask, Workfront is an enterprise work management solution that improves productivity, collaboration, and visibility and brings more to the table than a typical project management tool. Workfront provides a centralized solution that unifies team processes and communication, helping team members to work more efficiently and creatively.

Key Features:

Requests flow directly into your queue

RESTful APIs designed to allow integrations with Salesforce

Access work in the cloud and out of the office with iOS and Android mobile apps

Cost:

Collaboration Licenses: Unlimited users, contact for a quote – Ideal for any internal or external team member, track progress and collaborate on requests, and view status reports and project dashboards

Work Licenses: $30/user/month – For team members who need work management, advanced capabilities, and flexibility, includes all Collaboration features, plus manage work with mobile apps, track and submit timesheets, and create and complete work items

Plan Licenses: $60/user/month – For team leaders who need comprehensive project, program, and portfolio management with complete visibility and control, includes all Collaboration features, plus create and manage projects from start to finish, design and distribute status reports and create custom dashboards, and manage resources and capacity planning

Enterprise Plus Upgrades: Contact for a quote – Upgraded functionality for organizations that require enterprise-grade security and support, upgrades include configurable sandbox environments, data encryption at rest for maximum security, and top-of-the-line support for peace of mind

Aprika Mission Control

@aprikabusiness

Mission Control, a cloud-based project management system, operates on the Force.com platform and integrates with several editions of Salesforce. Effectively manage your organization’s projects with all of Aprika Mission Control’s features, including Gantt charts, document management, and more.

Key Features:

Mission Control console

Projects, milestones, and actions

Virtual project whiteboard

Assignment and reminder notifications

Chatter integration

Project Template ‘Deep Clone’

Drag n’ Drop Gantt Charts

Time Tracking

Expense Tracking

Resource Capacity Scheduler/Calendar

Risk Log/Risk Chart

Burn Down Char

Cost: FREE trial available for 14 days

AU$20/user/month

VeoProject

@veoproject

VeoProject is an advanced web-based project management and collaboration tool that integrates with Salesforce and helps users organize tasks, issues, messages, and shared files. VeoProject also connects projects to Twitter and Google apps.

Key Features:

Access project management features and tools within Salesforce

Existing Salesforce users are imported as VeoProject users and resources

Assigned tasks in VeoProject are visible in the Salesforce My Tasks pane

Updates in Salesforce automatically update in the original VeoProject project plan

Cost: FREE trial available for 30 days

Team Pro III: $85/month – 250 project documents, 10GB disk space, SSL encryption, and Twitter, Google apps, MS Outlook, and Salesforce integration

Enterprise: $195/month – 1,000 project documents, 40GB disk space, SSL encryption, and Twitter, Google apps, MS Outlook, and Salesforce integration

DreamTeam

@dfsoftwareinc

The leading project and portfolio management (PPM) application available on the AppExchange, DreamTeam stores all project data in your Salesforce account. DreamTeam offers project and document management, resource management, collaborative calendars, time and expense reports, portfolio reporting, and project workflow.

Key Features:

Visualize project status with detailed Gantt charts and portfolio reports

Organize hierarchical folders and versioned documents

Launch, edit, upload, and share files directly from your desktop

Cost: FREE trial available for 15 days

$40/user/month

Central Desktop

@centraldesktop

With Central Desktop, teams have control over their projects, even if they are on different continents or in different time zones. “A complete, enterprise-sized collaboration platform,” Central Desktop is a dream come true for organizations looking for a way to share files, launch meetings online, or manage projects in one integrated system.

Key Features:

API-based integration

Break projects into phases

Assign individual tasks

Monitor project status and shift due dates

Clone existing projects

Cost: Central Desktop Premier: $25/user/month with annual contract – Unlimited users, unlimited workspaces, 50+ GB storage

LiquidPlanner

@LiquidPlanner

LiquidPlanner is an online project management software solution that is flexible and easy to use. LiquidPlanner’s Salesforce integration connects sales and project teams, allowing them to stay up to date on project status and their customers’ needs.

Key Features:

Share important information seamlessly

Real-time visibility into the entire project process

Stay on top of status, milestones, and delivery

Cost: The LiquidPlanner App for Salesforce is FREE to LiquidPlanner subscribers

Standard: $29/user/month based on annual plan, 10 user minimum – Project visibility, improved collaboration, and intuitive task management

Professional: $39/user/month based on annual plan, 10 user minimum – Comprehensive portfolio management tool that tracks and prioritizes resources

Enterprise: $49/user/month based on annual plan, 10 user minimum – For larger organizations managing complex projects and shifting teams, includes world-class customer service

Viewpath

@viewpath

With Viewpath, you get powerful online project management and collaboration with anyone from any organization. Utilize the collaborative, real-time tools and features with this cloud-based solution and rest easily knowing team members are on the same page.

Key Features:

With Salesforce integration, bring predictability to your customer-driven projects

One of the top-rated project management solutions on the Salesforce AppExchange

Align project tasks and resources to get one complete project picture

Cost: FREE team trial available for 30 days

Starter: FREE – Basic scheduling and organizing tool for individuals or project managers with a small team of collaborators

Team: $15/month – Powerful features include cross-project resource allocation and reporting

Professional: $25/month – Powerful project management with filtering, custom labels, private branding, and more

Enterprise: $35/month – Unlimited snapshots and project resources, premier support, and more

Taskfeed

@TaskfeedApp

Striving to help teams become more efficient, Taskfeed gets users organized in Salesforce. “A modern and lightweight project management tool that everyone can use,” Taskfeed allows users to plan and collaborate as a team.

Key Features:

Work around your Salesforce opportunities, leads, campaigns, projects, and more

Fast, easy, and in real time

Brings team task boards to Salesforce fully integrated with Chatter to help deliver projects

Cost: Contact for a quote

XenonPMO

@TekOptimize

With XenonPMO, organizations get an easy-to-use project management solution that promotes best practices. One of the most configurable Salesforce project management tools, XenonPMO was built with the needs of project, program, and portfolio managers in mind.

Key Features:

Set program-specific milestones and phases

Gate processes/milestones with entry and exit criteria

Leverage dashboards for visibility

Communicate through Chatter

Mobile functionality

Cost: Contact for a quote

JobSuite

Track projects simply with JobSuite and enjoy the convenience of its intuitive interface, full line of features, and web-based system. Join some of the largest Fortune 500 companies as a JobSuite customer and start managing projects with this Salesforce project management tool.

Key Features:

Organize data under campaigns and jobs

Quickly and easily generate Creative Briefs with user-defined templates

View tasks on job schedules, calendars, reports by client or campaign or role, or more

Get custom reports using the new Report Builder and share with everyone or save in your private folder

Cost: Contact for a quote

Milestones PM+ @passagetech

For organizations that need native project management or advanced project management, Passage Technology’s Milestones PM+ is a smart choice. Organizations get the flexibility of a customizable project management solution that provides a free core package and options for paid professional services when they choose Milestones PM+.

Key Features:

Get visibility into all of your programs, projects, milestones, tasks, time, and issues within Salesforce

Customize to incorporate your own methodology or elements of an agile, traditional (waterfall), or hybrid methodology

Keep schedules on track and log risks and decisions

Commercial support from Salesforce

Cost: FREE package; Contact for upgrade quotes

Avata Enterprise Project Management

Avata Technologies, designed especially for product development teams, empowers everyone from product developers to marketers to collaborate throughout planning and executing new product releases. Avata’s Project Management solution fosters efficiency and productivity as a Salesforce project management tool.

Key Features:

Convenient views including Gantt charts

Personalization of each project

Customizable reports, dashboard, task, and project details

Fine-grained security down to task attributes

Cost: Contact for a quote

EPMLive

@EPMLive

A cloud-based project management and collaboration platform, EPMLive helps organizations plan, track, and manage all of their work. EPMLive’s Salesforce app integrates the CRM capabilities of Salesforce with EPM’s project and work management software, allowing for true reporting and maximum efficiency.

Key Features:

Multiple scheduling tools to plan tasks for on-time delivery

Centralize information for real-time updates and statuses

Manage schedules with varying levels of rigor and complexity

Offers a variety of scheduling methods and tools to meet project managers’ needs

Cost: Contact for a quote

Project Pulse

@Configero

From Configero, Project Pulse is an enterprise-scale application that “optimizes resource utilization and revenue management, delivering a birds-eye view of the complete project lifecycle, from sales to delivery to finance.” Organizations choose Project Pulse when they want to keep everyone, from sales to delivery to finance, up to date on the project.

Key Features:

See the entire project lifecycle

Foster communication between sales, delivery, and finance

Built-in revenue and resource forecasting

Cost: Contact for a quote

Celoxis

@celoxis

With Celoxis, organizations get enterprise project management software to manage complex project portfolios and processes. Plan, delegate, collaborate, and streamline project management with Celoxis.

Key Features:

Project tracking

Resource management

Time and expense management

Reporting and analysis

Cost: Celoxis Project Management App for Salesforce is FREE for Celoxis customers

SaaS: $24/user/month with available duration and volume discounts – 99.99% uptime, free client login, 2GB/user/month shared disk space, and more

On-Premise: one-time payment of $450/user with available volume discounts – Major and minor upgrades, free support for the first year, and more

Project Management Beacon

Project Management Beacon for Salesforce enables organizations to effectively manage projects for all cases or just selected cases. Available on the AppExchange, Project Management Beacon is easy enough for anyone to use, yet comprehensive enough for collaboration.

Key Features:

Allows accounts, budgets and budget allocation, projects, tasks, and resources

Gantt charts and dashboards for task progression and cost and resource measurement

Information center with informative dashboards shows dynamic statistics on project progress

Cost: FREE

Tenrox

@Tenrox

With the Tenrox Project Workforce Management – Project Management Module, your organization is able to keep project teams, resource managers, and executives on the same page at the same time with all projects. The Tenrox Project Management module has three key components: Project Planning, Project Workflows, and Process Management. Better yet, Salesforce users can tap into Tenrox’s cloud-based project management software and simplify, automate, and streamline project and service delivery with Tenrox PSA on the AppExchange.

Key Features:

Configurable project billing and cost accounting processes

Visual workflow-driven processes

Export Tenrox Project KPIs into Salesforce

Access Tenrox reports within Salesforce

Cost: Contact for a quote

Work-Relay

@WorkRelay

Organizations that choose Work-Relay for their Salesforce project management tool actually get a process, project, and resource management solution all in one. Best suited for companies that run complex business processes with large-scale, process-driven projects and short-duration, high-intensity projects, Work-Relay is a 100% native Salesforce application.

Key Features:

Plan, maintain, and get complete, real-time visibility into project status

Access a single dashboard for urrent and scheduled work that includes a clear designation of priorities

Maintain a central portfolio of projects

Choose to stagger projects based on priorities and resource availability

Cost: Contact for a quote

Sciforma

@Sciforma

Sciforma is flexible, easy to use multi-platform project management software that is customizable. With a plug-in for Salesforce integration, Sciforma helps businesses manage multiple projects from multiple clients and prioritize efforts to optimize company results.

Key Features:

Strategic project and portfolio management with idea identification, ranking, capacity planning, and more

Functional project and portfolio management with project, resource, risk, and budget management

Calendar, demand, and issue management, plus time tracking

Cost: Contact for a quote

Replicon

@Replicon

A 100% cloud-based integration, the Replicon CRM Connector for Salesforce provides greater pipeline visibility from Salesforce within Replicon. With Replicion, sales teams enable their services teams to schedule resources and plan projects more effectively while delivering accurate project cost estimates to sales teams and prospects.

Key Features:

Pipeline projects are auto-created in Replicon from Salesforce before deals close so project managers can add resources and ensure correct staff lock-in

More accurate project pricing

Improved forecasting precision

Streamline project and business processes

Cost: FREE trial available; Contact for a quote

Cloud Coach

@cloudcoach

Specializing in enterprise-class project management and productivity software, Cloud Coach is built for businesses looking to invest in their success. Cloud Coach’s comprehensive tools and Salesforce integration are a match for organizations looking for project management, internal meeting efficiency, and more.

Key Features:

Standardize your project processes by creating templates

Create projects within your workflows, whether from your sales processes or from a Salesforce marketing campaign

Group tasks into milestone groupings/phases

Manage change requests and approvals

Maintain risk and issue registers

Cost:

Productivity User: $29/user/month billed annually, 10 user minimum – Drive enterprise-wide productivity

Project Team Member: $39/user/month billed annually, 10 user minimum – Deliver projects as a team

Project Power User: $79/user/month billed annually, 10 user minimum – Manage projects and services automation

Portfolio Manager: $129/user/month billed annually, 10 user minimum – Deliver portfolios and programs

2Xoffice

@2Xoffice

Help your team adopt project management software more easily with 2Xoffice Project. With the same user interface, dashboard reporting, and security that Salesforce users are accustomed to, 2Xoffice Project is 100% native to Salesforce and makes implementation a snap.

Key Features:

Project scheduling

Enterprise collaboration

Use Gantt charts to illustrate project milestones and meet implementation deadlines

Project alerts

Stages and checklists

Project templates

Resource alignment

Cost: Contact for a quote

Genius Project

@GeniusProject

Genius Project offers a variety of project management solutions, from SaaS, to hosted, to Lotus Notes based, that are designed to get your organization working more productively. With Genius Project, companies get enterprise project management software that is tailored to their needs and quickly integrates with Salesforce.

Key Features:

Use Genius Planner, the software’s own Java-based Gantt charting tool, or Microsoft Project – it’s your choice

Resources Module ensures optimal results and minimized bench time

Experiment in a sandbox environment with Genius Simulator

Cost: Prices differ based on billing duration

Standard: $19.95/user/month billed annually – For small project teams, 10 user packs, standard configuration, project and task management, and more

Professional: $29.95/user/month billed annually – For any team size, complete suite, minimum 10 users, all Standard plan features plus tailored configuration and setup, unlimited tailored workflows, and more

Enterprise: $39.95/user/month billed annually – Tailored to your needs, 50 user minimum, all Professional plan features plus hosted on-premise option, Genius Connector for integration, and more

AffinityLive

@affinitylive

A project management platform, AffinityLive offers easy, yet powerful project management. Get collaboration, reporting, and project insight on any device, plus seamless integration with Salesforce when you adopt AffinityLive as your project management solution.

Key Features:

Interactive Gantt charts

Real-time scheduling

Save milestones, tasks, and entire projects as reusable templates

Stay up to date in real time on projects, their status, and delivery teams

Cost: FREE trial available for 14 days

Plus: $16/user/month billed annually or $19/user/month billed monthly – For growing teams

Premium: $34/user/month billed annually or $39/user/month billed monthly – Get maximum flexibility and automation

Function Point

@functionpoint

Designed specifically for advertising and creative agencies, Function Point is an easily used, all-in-one, cloud-based productivity system that allows teams to do more. Function Point also works for internal marketing departments that want to streamline their business and work more efficiently, especially those that currently use Salesforce and want to integrate Function Point quickly and easily.

Key Features:

Business intelligence dashboard at a glance

Full-service CRM for sales and business development

Real-time financial reports

Syncs all projects, tasks, and timesheets

Build schedules from system templates, automatically assign work to teams or individuals, and use built-in timesheets and milestones

Cost:

Small: $29/user/month billed annually or $34/user/month billed monthly – 5 users minimum base package

Medium: $29/user/month billed annually for first 39 users or $34/user/month billed monthly for first 39 users

o $19/user/month billed annually for 40-99 users

Large: $29/user/month billed annually for first 39 users or $34/user/month billed monthly for first 39 users

o $19/user/month billed annually for 40-99 users

o $15/user/month billed annually for 100+ users

Daptiv

@Daptiv

An on-demand project portfolio management solution, Daptiv is a global leader of project portfolio management solutions and was recognized as a leader in the Gartner 2014 Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Based IT Project and Portfolio Management Services. Daptiv improves strategic planning and business execution with its solutions and professional services; plus, companies turn to Daptiv to improve productivity and efficiency.

Key Features:

Create and refine project templates that cover all aspects of the project management lifecycle

Powerful project collaboration tools for project stakeholders

Identify risks, monitor project performance, and fix problems quickly

Cost: Contact for a quote

Financial Force

@FinancialForce

As the number one cloud ERP solution on Salesforce, Financial Force provides financial management, professional services automation, human capital management, and supply chain management. What sets Financial Force apart from other project management tools and software is that it puts the customer at the center of project management so that teams collaborate and work more efficiently to provide more value to clients.

Key Features:

Collaboratively manage project tasks with customer portals

Create customer or project communities to work more socially

Configure projects at the field level and create custom fields and views

Cost: Contact for a quote

Projector

@ProjectorPSA

With Professional Services Automation software from Projector PSA, organizations track time and expenses, plus manage projects and schedule resources more easily. With the Project Management Module from Projector, companies are able to plan, track, and deliver projects on time and on budget. Integrating Projector with Salesforce couldn’t be any easier with its Salesforce.com Pre-Built Connector.

Key Features:

Use Salesforce data, and Projector will show you consolidated views of booked and pipeline business

Capture time and expenses

Define how and when information is imported when you automatically import accounts and opportunities with the Salesforce.com connector

Cost: FREE trial available for 30 days; Contact for a quote

Kimble

@KimbleApps

Designed by industry experts, Kimble is comprehensive enough to manage an entire professional services business but is easy enough for nearly anyone in the organization to begin using. Kimble provides holistic management by integrating sales, operations, and delivery elements while reducing process complexity and boosting efficiency. Available on the AppExchange, Kimble is highly configurable.

Key Features:

Enter project work breakdown structures against the sales opportunity

Perform top-down and bottom-up resourcing of opportunities

Produce project status reports

Cost: Contact for a quote

GreenRope

@GreenRope

With GreenRope’s integrated project manager, teams accomplish more and remain organized. Coordinate sales, support, operations, and clients with GreenRope, plus simply use email addresses to keep everyone up to date with specific projects.

Key Features:

Detailed notes and project updates reside in one place for easy, quick access

Team leaders assign tasks to team members and even clients

Assign tasks and deadlines, plus keep deadlines in a central location for all to see

Track project and task information, including hours spent

With the GreenRope app, quickly sync, target, engage, and convert leads with email marketing and advanced automation – the GreenRope-Salesforce Connector syncs Salesforce campaigns with GreenRope groups

Cost: FREE trial available for 14 days

Starter: $149/month – 1,000 contacts, unlimited users, unlimited emails

Pro: $169/month – 3,000 contacts, unlimited users, unlimited emails

Premium: $199/month – 5,000 contacts, unlimited users, unlimited emails

Powerhouse: $249/month – 7,500 contacts, unlimited users, unlimited emails

Magificent: $299/month – 10,000 contacts, unlimited users, unlimited emails

Supreme: $449/month – 25,000 contacts, unlimited users, unlimited emails

Leankor

@theleankor

Improve team performance and collaboration while saving time and money with Leankor,’s visual project management solution. Get everyone on the same page by providing them with the same picture of work.

Key Features:

Enables aggregation of critical information from Salesforce

Visually manage sales, marketing, and service operations

Assure data security and privacy with Salesforce

Workflow rules, calendar view, and reports and analytics

Cost: FREE trial available for 14 days

Personal: $10/user/month/5 licenses – Full business version with all features enabled

Professional: $19/user/month – Unlimited Kanban boards, portfolio view, targeted collaboration, workflow analytics, Salesforce integrations

Business: $24/user/month/5 licenses – All Professional plan features, plus document management, calendar view, time management, analytics, and more

Smarttime

@Apracor

Get the most out of Salesforce by tracking projects with Smarttime, available on the AppExchange. Access all of your metrics at once with the simple dashboard and stay on top of your budgets with the built-in reports.

Key Features:

Simple time booking on multiple projects

Extensive built-in reporting

Travel expense tracking module

See projects, employees, or overall performance at a glance

Cost: FREE

EnTransform PPM

An integrated suite of Project Portfolio Management, resource management, management reporting, and collaboration application, EnTransform PPM includes role-based access to best practices. Available on the AppExchange, EnTransform PPM is a native to Salesforce project management tool that is easy to use and fosters collaboration.

Key Features:

Monitor overall enterprise project portfolios, resource utilization, budget, forecast and cost analysis through dashboards

Manage schedule and deliverables with automated creation of sprints and backlogs, based on Agile Scrum methodology

Create and maintain resource history, information, availability, and forecast

Set up projects, phases, sprints, deliverables, and more with one click

Cost: FREE trial available for 14 days

$50/user/month

OneEighth Project Lite

Help your team stay on top of projects with one click in OneEighth Project Lite. This project management tool, available on the AppExchange, helps users quickly start and stay up to date with projects of any type.

Key Features:

Reliable and secure, completely built on Force.com

Lightweight and flexible, OneEighth Project Lite runs on the sales cloud or Salesforce platform

Project objectives, budgets, costs, members, roles, tasks, timelines, and more

Cost: $16/user/month

Ajile

@StratitudeInc

Ajile provides complete agile project management in the cloud with its app available in the Salesforce Cloud. With a powerful platform to manage projects developed with Scrum methodology, Ajile helps project teams work in collaboration.

Key Features:

Manage releases by creating user stories

Manage tasks using Scrum methodology and deliver projects on time

Communicate and collaborate with Chatter

Role-based home pages

Drag and drop tasks

Cost: FREE trial available for 15 days; Contact for a quote

Cloudbyz

@cloudbyz

Project portfolio management, application portfolio management, and financial portfolio management from Cloudbyz results in visibility into entire project portfolios for more appropriate and informed business decisions. Available on the AppExchange, Cloudbyz is an integrated solution built on the Salesforce 1 platform.

Key Features:

Work request management

Benefits and costs evaluation

Change and release management

Cost: Contact for a quote

CloudMax

The CloudMax software platform allows users to configure it for flexibility and ensures team collaboration. With CloudMax on the AppExchange, users adopt the rapid deployment model and handle change management quickly and easily.

Key Features:

Successfully deliver rapid deployment framework and meet compliance requirements

Tracks the complete SDLC lifecycle

Chatter enabled

Cost: Starts at $500/company/month

Done

@KineticGrowth

Done by Kinetic Growth offers Salesforce task and activity management with collaboration features. The tasks tab allows users to see, edit, and track all Salesforce tasks in detail.

Key Features:

See Chatter updates while tasks are in progress and post to Chatter without opening each tasks

Uses standard Salesforce tasks, so it works with tasks you already have

Find existing tasks on objects you own

Define best practices and automatically create tasks with Task Templates

Create tasks with fewer clicks

Cost: Contact for a quote

GliderPMO

@GliderSystems

Manage budgets, costs, schedules, and dependences between projects with GliderPMO. This online project management tool helps project, portfolio, and program management offices (PMOs) and their stakeholders to easily and efficiently handle all of these tasks.

Key Features:

Single repository so everyone has the same up-to-date information

Track and manage dependences between work packages

Team members work together on the same set of records and documents

Highly configurable with a point-and-click interface

Keep everyone in the loop with Chatter

Cost: FREE trial available for 30 days

PMActive

@diamosoft

PMActive seeks to simplify project management for project managers and teams by providing the tools necessary for supporting the entire project lifecycle. Deployed on Force.com, PMActive is a great project management solution that does not include any hardware or software costs because it is cloud based.

Key Features:

One View gives project managers a consolidated, concise view of essential project information

See consolidated status of all projects

Stay apprised of upcoming tasks

Identify priority tasks and identify problem areas

Cost: FREE trial available for 30 days; Contact for a quote

QuickBase

@IntuitQuickBase

With Intuit QuickBase, organizations can solve their business problems quickly with Project Management solutions. Teams work more productively and quickly from any location with QuickBase, and they can integrate QuickBase with Salesforce quickly and easily.

Key Features:

Customizable and flexible

Access information at any time on any device from anywhere

Personalized notifications and reminders

Cost: FREE trial available for 30 days; Contact for a quote

Arxxus

@arxxus

A Salesforce strategic partner, Arxxus helps organizations handle their services and program schedules with their native project management app. Manage all of your pojects from within Salesforce with Arxxus.

Key Features:

Project and task planning

Resource management and effort tracking

Interactive user interface for schedule creation and Gantt visualization and modification

Cost: Contact for a quote

Axosoft

@axosoft

Axosoft is a solution for agile project management that helps users effectively manage their software development projects. With Salesforce integration, Axosoft has the tools and support your company needs to manage projects efficiently and effectively.

Key Features:

Get data for making educated decisions

Daily Scrum to see what each team and team member has completed, current work, and issues

Fully customizable workflows

Cost: FREE trial available for 14 days; Contact for a quote

Changepoint

@_Changepoint

ChangePoint’s Project Portfoliio Management software enables businesses “to have an informed understanding of their environment and resources and in turn they can communicate this, and any subsequent decisions, to stakeholders.” With ChangePoint, organizations get a single solution that addresses the project lifecycle and ensure portfolio visibility. Changepoint’s Salesforce.com CRM adaptor connects PSA and CRM, making it an even better solution.

Key Features:

Seamlessly integrates critical processes and data needed for effective management

Adapts to fit your needs

Support and develop your organization’s business, process, reporting, and security needs

Cost: Contact for a quote

Source: http://www.docurated.com/all-things-productivity/top-50-salesforce-project-management-tools-and-software-solutions

#Project Management #sales force #software

0 notes

cecillewhite · 6 years ago

Text

Podcast 19: Customer Education 101 – With Dave Derington of Azuqua

WELCOME TO EPISODE 19 OF THE TALENTED LEARNING SHOW!

To learn more about this podcast series or to see the full collection of episodes visit The Talented Learning Show main page.

EPISODE 19 – TOPIC SUMMARY AND GUEST:

On our previous episode, we talked about the increasing popularity of customer success programs among high-growth companies – especially software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors. But what role does customer education play in this process? And what does effective customer education actually look like?

Today, we discuss these questions and more with Dave Derington, Director of User Enablement at Azuqua, a cloud integration-as-a-platform (iPaaS) provider that makes it easy for anyone to set-up automated digital workflows across business applications.

Dave is also committed to empowering customer education professionals everywhere. Together with industry colleague Adam Avramescu, he recently co-founded the CELab Podcast as a knowledge-sharing resource for anyone interested in this discipline.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Every business can benefit from educated customers. Yet customer education traditionally hasn’t existed as a dedicated function.

Recently, organizations have started seeing value in customer education programs – especially subscription-based software companies.

Because customer education programs are a relatively new concept, they’re often cobbled together by resourceful pioneers with limited instructional design experience. But new communities of practice are emerging to offer knowledge sharing and support.

Q&A HIGHLIGHTS:

Welcome, Dave. First, could you tell us about your podcast, CELab – the Customer Education Laboratory?

Absolutely. Well, we fit into the extended enterprise learning space by focusing on the customer education segment. But we define that a bit more sharply.

How so?

As my CELab partner, Adam, and I see it, customer education is a part of all organizations. But there’s definitely a gap.

For example, I previously worked at Gainsight, where we talked about customer success all the time. But 10 years ago that function didn’t even exist by name.

REPLAY THE WEBINAR NOW!

It’s the same with customer education. We know it’s been there and we’ve talked about it for years, especially in the software industry. But with CELab, we’re really interested in the leading edge of customer education. We want to move this profession forward. That’s the spirit behind the podcast.

Great idea to fill that gap with a community by and for customer education pros…

A lot of us find ourselves kind of falling into this field. In my case, I was an educator. I was a trainer. That helped a lot.

But startups run fast and lean. Many like me find ourselves in roles where we have to help customers succeed, yet content and infrastructure may not even exist. We know education is essential. But unlike corporate training professionals who are instructional designers by trade, many of us don’t know where to start.

So this is an open resource for anyone who wants to understand the fundamentals of customer education?

Yes. Our mission with CELab – the Customer Education Laboratory – is to take kind of a scientific approach to connecting practitioners with each other and with communities like yours. We’re tightly focused on bringing people up-to-speed and helping them understand what they need to do to be successful in customer education.

Excellent. You’ve brought your expertise to customer-oriented positions at multiple SaaS companies, including your current role Azuqua. Tell us a bit about that…

Good question. How do we define our job roles? Actually, HR directors at both Gainsight and Azuqua had the same question. I’ve written those descriptions for myself.

How did that happen at Azuqua?

My role is defined as user enablement. That’s a little broader than customer education. And I like that because an Azuqua user can be a customer, a partner or an internal employee. Regardless, they need to learn and learn fast. So my responsibilities are pretty clear.

First, I have to set the direction. When I started, we had no training. We had documentation and some material, but I needed to figure out what we needed, fill the holes, develop a training rubric so we could get a program together and start providing a foundation to bring users up-to-speed quickly.

Big job…

Yep. It’s a broad job description. Plus I’m in marketing, which may seem weird. But I love it because the scope of responsibilities in a startup is broad and it shifts daily.

Every quarter I define OKRs and targets because I’m not just in a box developing content. I’m also doing large-scale programs or social campaigns or I’m talking as an evangelist at events.

Yeah, that’s big and broad and fun. So to clarify, could you summarize what the Azuqua platform does?

Totally. So, if you’re familiar with Zapier or IfThisThenThat (IFTTT), these are great applications that allow you to set up point-to-point automated actions.

Right…

Azuqua goes even further, with an enterprise-grade platform or iPaaS (integration platform as a service). This means the platform is in the cloud and it allows you to connect anything to anything else, as long as an app can talk to it.

In other words, we help you easily connect, manipulate and move information where it needs to go, so you can act upon your data.

So it’s a central point of integration?

In the past, organizations developed and managed their own tech integrations. But we’re helping companies steer away from having to do that. Why should you build your own integrations when we have connectors for all the major business apps, and we’re connected to 250 others? Imagine the permutations…

Impressive…

Think about MuleSoft or Boomi, which connect business applications with an integration cloud that removes data silos. Azuqua is basically like that. It’s a powerful yet more cost-effective alternative. And it’s a lot of fun.

So among the 250 application connectors, which are most popular? Salesforce? And what else?

Absolutely. You can connect Marketo marketing automation data with Salesforce CRM and Slack for work collaboration or Trello for project management – whatever you need. There’s an app library on our website. We also offer a portfolio of common use cases. But the point is to save time and resources.

Examples?

REPLAY THIS WEBINAR NOW!

One of my favorite use cases is from Aramark. They needed to streamline their RFP response process. After using Azuqua to connect multiple apps, including Dropbox, Salesforce and Smartsheet, they sped up their sales process and are saving 40 hours a week of manual processing.

Nice. So you primarily train two external audiences – customers and partners. Is the educational approach different for each?

Yeah. This is a meaty problem. When training people, I have to think about all kinds of stuff. It’s not just teaching them how to use the product, but helping them understand conceptually how it helps them accomplish what they’re trying to do. And there’s is a bit of differentiation between the two user scenarios.

Let’s start with an end user…

OK. You buy, you sign-up for a free trial, and you start working with the product. Ultimately, you want a lot of self-serve type content, because you might not want to pay extra for training.

You could join me every Tuesday at 10 o’clock on Twitch. I do a product demo with a use case and it’s free, so you can learn a lot about the product that way. Or you could visit Azuqua Academy online anytime to pick and choose training from one of our various tracks.

And how is partner training different?

I really want those people to have a complete educational experience. Everything. So we may offer them a full series – 100 Track (the basics), 200 Track (more advanced), and 300 Track (for expert users). But customers can also self-select into what they need, and we don’t force them into any particular curriculum.

But I’m more into just-in-time type training, where you get what you need in the moment. We’re working on a lot of automation to help detect moments when a customer may be struggling with a particular connection. I can look for indicators that detect when you’re having an issue. Or you can notify me and I can create a flow that delivers relevant real-time help.

And the media? It sounds mostly like webinars and live streaming. Do you also do pure online or video activities…?

It’s a mixed-mode approach. I like to develop a video and a document that includes everything in the video. I also offer hands-on material if you want to do the work and skip the other stuff. And if we need to go deeper and answer specific questions for a partner, then I may develop and deliver live training for that.

Which content do you develop first?

Typically it’s easier to do instructor-led training first and then back into on-demand. But frankly, because we have such a big self-serve market, I had to do on-demand first.

Again, it speaks to the fact that customer education must address many different use cases, and in a fast-moving company sometimes you need to work outside of standard methodologies. You have to do what works for your customers and your team.

What’s your typical design process?

Generally, I start with a document and work through it with subject matter experts iteratively, in an agile way. Once I get the content squared and tested, I share it with a limited number of customers. Then I publish it.

What does your learning tech ecosystem look like?

You’ll love this. I built my own learning management system from scratch, accidentally. I know there are hundreds of LMSs today. And companies like Skilljar and Thought Industries offer great platforms for customer education.

But I decided to build-out our Academy just using HTML. In fact, we use GetHub to develop our training live or in a platform, just like a developer would. It’s weird, but kind of cool.

So I just have HTML right now, but the backend is very simple. I prototype with Google Forms, and then our product surfaces all that. So I can see when someone completes a quiz or an activity. My whole ecosystem is built with inexpensive off-the-shelf tools.

Interesting. And it’s in the spirit of your company to tie together free tools…

REPLAY THIS WEBINAR NOW!

I love LMSs and I have a strong need for them in some settings. But for startups that need to move fast, you may not have the time or budget. In this case, by the time I engage with a vendor, I’ve got everything laid out, so we can replicate it in an LMS and take it to the next level.

No doubt. So customer education professionals seem obsessed with measurement – probably because that’s how you get funding and justify your worth. What are your thoughts on that?

This is a sticky question. Metrics. Data. It’s one of our biggest challenges. I tend to look more at consumption and adoption.

Primarily, I’m concerned with getting materials in place, making sure people start to consume that content, looking at where they struggle and covering gaps.

And for the long term, I need to focus on adoption. Who’s consuming training? What accounts are they associated with? Do we see an uplift for organizations that use training versus those that don’t? If so, I can share that message. “When you use training, you can expect x% increase in success with this product.”

How do you move the meter on adoption?

I would encourage your listeners to get a pencil and paper and start outlining ways you can add value to your company’s bottom line. Because I’m at a high-growth company, I can contribute value with an onboarding program that helps drive users to the training they need in-the-moment, so they can quickly overcome roadblocks in their path.

Then I can begin correlating this with customer adoption and success. For example, how much more time do trained users spend with the product than those who haven’t completed training? These can be squishy values, but it starts to paint a picture.

FOR MORE QUESTIONS AND COMPLETE ANSWERS, LISTEN TO THE FULL PODCAST NOW!

Want more insights? Watch our on-demand webinar:

The Competitive Advantage of an Externally Facing LMS

REPLAY THIS FREE WEBINAR NOW!

There is tremendous diversity among the nearly 700 learning management systems available today. And when customer education is a top priority, it pays for organizations to choose an LMS designed specifically for that purpose.

What exactly are the business benefits of choosing a specialized learning management system (rather than an employee-oriented LMS) to support customer learning initiatives?

Join John Leh, Talented Learning lead analyst and CEO, and Terry Lydon, VP of Training Operations Projects at Litmos, as they explain the value of choosing an externally focused LMS. Specifically, they discuss: You’ll learn:

How to quantify the benefits of customer learning

Which factors set a customer LMS apart from employee-focused platforms

What case studies reveal about the value of customer learning technology

How to find the best LMS for your customers’ needs, and

5 areas of innovation unique to customer LMS solutions

Replay this free webinar now!

Need Proven LMS Selection Guidance?

Looking for a learning platform that truly fits your organization’s needs? We’re here to help! Submit the form below to schedule a free preliminary consultation at your convenience.

First Name*

Last Name*

Email Address*

Company

jQuery(document).bind('gform_post_render', function(event, formId, currentPage){if(formId == 18) {} } );jQuery(document).bind('gform_post_conditional_logic', function(event, formId, fields, isInit){} ); jQuery(document).ready(function(){jQuery(document).trigger('gform_post_render', [18, 1]) } );

The post Podcast 19: Customer Education 101 – With Dave Derington of Azuqua appeared first on Talented Learning.

Podcast 19: Customer Education 101 – With Dave Derington of Azuqua original post at Talented Learning

0 notes

martechadvisor-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Why Does MarTech Need Digital Asset Management?

Managing your digital media is the need of the hour. With the sheer amount of content being churned out by brands, it is now the need of the hour to bring order to this chaos. For that, you need to know how to manage your digital media. Here is why you need a digital asset management (DAM) system for your MarTech stack.

Do any of the following scenarios seem familiar to you?

Scenario 1: You have received four variations of your organization’s new logo:

logo_final.png

logo_final_ver1.png

logo_final_ver2.png

logo_final_ver3.png

Now you’re not sure which file to use as working on the wrong file means starting everything from scratch.

Scenario 2: Despite sharing the files with everyone in the team, some people will reach out to you asking for a particular file. And it is always an urgent request, so you cannot refuse. You end up wasting a lot of your valuable time during this process.

If you have been in any of these situations, I completely empathize with you; we’ve all have been there.

The rise of inbound marketing in the last decade has left companies with a voluminous amount of scattered media causing a topsy-turvy content creation process that is highly inefficient.

A solution to this is digital asset management (DAM). DAM strives to bring order to this chaos without adding any hassles to your existing responsibilities.

What is a Digital Asset?

**A digital asset is any digital media file that provides value to the organization and can be identified by its metadata.** So, essentially, a digital asset could be any of the following:

Photos

Videos

Audio files

Slide decks

Logos

Graphics

Illustrations

Animations

PDFs

Documents, spreadsheets, etc.

One of the crucial elements of any digital asset is its metadata. Metadata contains the filename, its format, keywords, author/creator, date of creation, ownership, copyright details, etc.

What Is Digital Asset Management (DAM)?

**Digital Asset Management (DAM) is a discipline of organizing, storing, fetching, archiving and distributing digital assets.**

**A DAM system is a centralized repository to store and manage an organization's digital assets. It provides marketers with authority to manage user access permissions. **

Why Do You Need Digital Asset Management (DAM)?

1. Follow Brand Guidelines

Organizations and agencies alike have a set of brand guidelines in place to maintain consistency in their external communication. For example, a brand might have four different logo versions that are used for different purposes. Many times brand guidelines don't transition well when it comes to implementation due to many reasons. Mistakes such as using the wrong version of the logo or wrong fonts are quite common.

DAM systems have a centralized library of assets that are up-to-date allowing everyone to adhere to brand guidelines and maintain brand consistency.

Also Read: The Biggest Obstacle to Better Productivity Might Well Be Your Documents

2. Save Space and Advanced Search Capabilities

If you are already using a cloud storage solution, you might already be having problems with content duplication. If you have two different versions of an image, it will be difficult to figure out which one to use even if you try to make sense using its file details. DAM systems avoid this redundancy by streamlining your repository through metadata.

**The advanced search capability allows you to search files by applying filters such as file names, format, category, keywords, description, metadata, and other custom attributes. It further allows you to find content within text documents or filter images by colors, number of people or gender.** Certain DAM solutions also help you with face detection, celebrity identification, visual text recognition, and sentiment analysis.

Also Read: Digital Asset Management Restores Order to Fast-moving, Competitive Retail Market

3. Greater Control Over Your Content

When you use traditional communication mediums to transfer files, you have no way to track how your content is being used and who is using it. **Digital asset management gives you greater control over how you want to share your content. You also get to keep a tab on who has viewed your content and with whom it is shared.**

Also, the implementation of standard encryption protocols makes sure that the content stays safe in the vault and when it is shared.

Also Read: 10 Important Aspects to give a DAM about

4. Availability of Plugins and Integrations

DAM systems offer integrations with various products and apps across different categories which are used by designers and marketers on a daily basis. A few of them are as follows:

Project Management and Communication: JIRA, Slack, Asana, Trello, Basecamp, SmartSheet

CMS: WordPress, Drupal, OpenText, Kentico, Sitecore

Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, HootSuite, Sprinklr

Marketing Automation and CRM: HubSpot, Marketo, MailChimp, Eloqua, Salesforce

Creative and Publishing: Adobe Creative Cloud, Google Apps, MS-Office

Cloud File Sharing: Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, OneDrive, SharePoint

Along with these, DAM systems can also be integrated with e-commerce and PIM platforms, ERPs, online video platforms, etc. to import and export content swiftly.

Also Read: Will DAM be the Future of Marketing Content?

5. Foster the Culture of Collaboration

Most of the time, various departments within an organization work in silos with little to no interaction between them. When two departments are working on a project or campaign, the department dynamics complicate the workflow. The process of ideation, creation, and approval takes a lot of time.

You can break down the silos by opting for digital asset management. A DAM system circumvents the lengthy process by making content accessible to the relevant team members and automates certain parts of the workflow by updating everyone whenever a new file is added, or edit is made. It also allows you to leave comments and feedback and track changes accordingly.

This particular feature also helps if you regularly work with an external agency on your marketing campaigns.

Conclusion

One of the major reasons organizations do not adopt a DAM software is the cost that it incurs. While the cost might come across as an unnecessary expenditure, the benefits of DAM outweigh in the efficiency and productivity aspects which directly impact the revenue. Sure, if you are a small tightly-knit department, DAM might not be ideal for you, but in other cases, it's worth considering.

This article was first appeared on MarTech Advisor

#martech #marketing #technology #business #cmo

0 notes

ashleydpalmerusa · 7 years ago

Text

Controllers Talk Switching Gears From Public Accounting to Industry

If it wasn’t for Fred Butterweck, CPA, this article may not have come to be.

I was introduced to Butterweck, corporate controller of New York-based Clickspring Design, who worked for six years at PwC, via email as a potential source for the industry articles I’d be writing for Going Concern. During our email conversation, he wrote, “Not sure if you already covered the topic, but the transition from public accounting to industry has always interested me.” I read that and thought, “That’s a great idea. Why didn’t I think of that?”

I then pitched Butterweck’s idea to Caleb, who said, “That’s a great idea. Why didn’t I think of that?”

So, I spoke to Butterweck and 13 other corporate controllers about their transition from public accounting to industry, including the biggest adjustment they had to make or challenge they had to face. In addition, I asked them whether they used their time in public accounting as a steppingstone to a career in industry, why they left public accounting, and what they took away from public accounting that has helped them most as controller.

The 13 other controllers I spoke to, and the public accounting firms they worked for (in parenthesis), were:

Julie Brand, CPA, corporate controller, Pattern Energy Group, San Francisco (Deloitte)

Tony Combs, CPA, corporate controller, Urban Airship, Portland, Ore. (CBIZ MHM, PwC)

Lindsay Gorang, CPA, corporate controller, SightLife Surgical, Seattle (Deloitte)

J.C. Gum, CPA, vice president and corporate controller, Ag Processing Inc, Omaha, Neb. (KPMG)

Brian Harding, CPA, vice president, corporate controller, and principal accounting officer, FLIR Systems, Wilsonville, Ore. (KPMG)

Drew Hester, CPA, vice president, controllership and global business services, Beam Suntory, Chicago (PwC)

Lauren Johnson, CPA, senior controller, Portfolio Advisors LLC, Darien, Conn. (BDO USA)

Will Majic, CPA, CA, controller, corporate finance, Calian Group, Ottawa, Ontario (Deloitte)

Senad Mustafic, CPA, senior director – corporate controller, Smartsheet, Bellevue, Wash. (Deloitte)

Matt Nelson, CPA, vice president and corporate controller, Tableau Software, Seattle (PwC)

Mitra Rezvan, CPA, vice president and corporate controller, PagerDuty, San Francisco (KPMG)

Paul Starrantino, CPA, corporate controller, Sierra Nevada Corp., Sparks, Nev. (PwC)

Christopher Sullivan, CPA, corporate controller, Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Inc., Rockville, Md. (EY)

What I learned is that, for the most part, controllers have fond memories of their time in public accounting, and some envisioned they’d spend their entire careers there. But for one reason or another—whether it was not wanting to be a partner, pursuing a new challenge, less travel, or just losing passion for it—the controllers decided to make the jump to industry.

Here’s a sampling of the answers they provided me. Some of their responses have been edited for length and clarity:

Going Concern: Did you envision using your time in public accounting as a steppingstone to a career in industry accounting? Or did you have other plans?

Fred Butterweck: At the time I received my offer [in November 1999, during his senior year of college], I figured I would be at PwC my entire career. About four or five years into my time at PwC, I started to assume the role of acting manager on some of my engagements. It was at that time I began to realize being an auditor wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my career.

But I wouldn’t exactly use the term “steppingstone” because, to me, that infers a one-way relationship where you take what you want and move on. If done correctly, the public experience should be more symbiotic. In other words, the firm is going to work you hard, but in exchange, you gain valuable experience and come out stronger and tougher for your efforts.

Tony Combs: When I started my career at CBIZ MHM, I seriously considered a long-term career in public accounting. At a mid-tier firm, you get to work on a wide variety of clients, and it was fun seeing and learning a lot of different things. I thought going into industry would be boring at the time.

A friend of mine helped recruit me over to PwC, and I was curious if the Big 4 was any different from a mid-tier firm. At PwC, I had the opportunity to work on a Fortune 500 company [client], which I felt gave me a real 360-degree public accounting career. I had a young family at the time and eventually decided that I wanted to move out of public and into industry. My experience at PwC gave me a nice background to exit into another Fortune 500 company to start my career in industry.

Will Majic: When I began my career, it was a requirement to obtain your professional designation [CPA, CA], which required three years of public accounting working experience. For the first few years, all I had exposure to was my colleagues receiving their professional designation and immediately looking at employment outside the firm. That’s what I thought I wanted during that time as well, because it’s what I was exposed to.

But the more I worked at Deloitte, the more I enjoyed my experience and the more the idea of staying in public accounting appealed to me. I was lucky to have interesting clients and good relationships with the partners I worked for. It wasn’t until I heard of the right opportunity that I seriously considered leaving.

Matt Nelson: My father has been a business owner for 40 years. Growing up, he turned me onto the idea of working for myself one day. So, I always knew I wanted to find a role where I could help contribute to running a company. That was motivation for me while I was working at PwC, and I took cues from the partners in our office. They helped shape me as a professional and prepared me for the role I have taken on at Tableau.

Mitra Rezvan: Earlier in my career at KPMG, I planned to eventually become a partner at the firm. But as I worked with different audit clients, I became more interested in being on the corporate side, running the business and implementing processes, systems, and controls. Above all, I wanted to learn how to set up and run a business, and how larger organizations worked. As an auditor, I felt that I could provide valuable feedback, but I never had the chance to implement that feedback and see the ultimate results.

GC: When did you know it was time to leave public accounting and take a new path for your accounting career?

Julie Brand: What prompted me to leave public accounting was a great career opportunity on a client that I had provided services to. I was also interested in a reduced travel schedule that public accounting could not otherwise ensure.

Brian Harding: While at KPMG, I’d always assumed I’d pursue a partner opportunity. When I returned to KPMG in Portland, Ore. in 2011 after spending over a year at the firm’s European headquarters in London, the recommended path to partner would involve a rotation through the national office. I was asked to consider that path and come back with a “yes” or “no” on our willingness to move to New York in the next year. After much deliberation and stressful discussions, my wife and I decided we’d be open to the New York rotation. But a little while after communicating that willingness, the landscape had shifted and I learned that the partner promotion opportunity was no longer dependent on the transfer through the national office. After wrestling with this decision and kind of putting life on hold for the next move, it was somewhat disappointing to have the rotation off the table. It also introduced another layer of uncertainty in the timing for the partner opportunity.

Shortly thereafter, I was offered the opportunity to join FLIR. The position checked many boxes for me as an opportunity for professional development with a market-leading, innovative, and growing technology company.

Drew Hester: I was missing out on the experience of building something really lasting. Teams assemble, disassemble, and reassemble very quickly in public accounting, and the audit product itself is so intangible. It can be difficult to sustain a sense of having accomplished something that is more than fleeting. It’s also been really enjoyable to have great spirits brands to talk about at parties when people ask me about my job rather than watching smiles slowly fade and eyes glaze over as I explain that I audit multinationals.

Paul Starrantino: I left public accounting in 2010 during the downturn in the economy after working at PwC for 14 years, the last four as a senior manager. I no longer had the same passion [for] the profession that I had earlier in my career and felt it was time to seek opportunities in industry that would further broaden my professional experience.

Christopher Sullivan: During my time at EY, I felt challenged with new career experiences; however, I felt the experiences began to plateau once I was promoted to senior manager. Therefore, I felt it was time to evaluate what my long-term professional goals were. It came down to whether I wanted to commit to attempting the partner path or jump over to the world of industry accounting. Ultimately, I made the decision to move to industry because becoming a CFO one day seemed more exciting to me than the thought of becoming partner.

GC: What was your transition like from public accounting to industry? What was the biggest adjustment you had to make or challenge you had to overcome?

Julie Brand: The most impactful part of the transition was not working under a level of materiality. Public accountants perform procedures in conjunction with evaluated risk profiles and a defined client materiality scope, which is not the case in industry accounting. Industry accountants must perform their procedures at lower levels of materiality, if defined at all.

My biggest challenge was to effectively integrate the strategy of the business within the constraints of accounting. In other words, the “big picture concept”—there is more to the business decisions of the company that reside outside of accounting, such as operations, legal support, and IT.

Lindsay Gorang: I had two main concerns with leaving Deloitte and was pleasantly surprised in both cases. First, I thought I would miss the variety of working with so many different team members. I moved on from Deloitte to a small company with only 40 employees and feared I was significantly slimming my work network. What I failed to consider was how many outside parties I would regularly collaborate with: joint venture partners, lenders, key suppliers, attorneys, consultants, and affiliate companies.

Second, I thought I would miss working with the caliber of talent I worked with at Deloitte, but I was delighted to discover that my new colleagues were equally bright and motivated, and from a far broader array of fields. I love teaming with cross-functional leaders; they help me learn about so many areas beyond accounting-specific matters.

J.C. Gum: In public accounting, if I came across an accounting issue with which I had no previous experience, I could walk down the hall and usually find a couple of others who had. They could provide quick references, helpful leads, and generally get me started on researching the issue. In industry accounting, I found myself being the resource of last resort. I really missed having that interaction with others, bantering concepts and pitfalls on the most complex accounting issues.

Brian Harding: One of the biggest challenges for me was stepping into a new position where I was expected to be a leader in the organization, but I initially had no direct staff members to supervise. Coming from KPMG, where we had droves of managers, seniors, staff, and interns to support each engagement, there was a challenging transition into a new reality that, while I’d regularly report and present to the board and executive leadership, I’d also be the one to roll up my sleeves and do much of the heavy lifting to complete a project.

Lauren Johnson: The most difficult challenge for me, in the beginning, was dealing with the pace of activity that exists in private industry. There is this sort of urban legend that those in public accounting talk about which is that private sector is slower-paced than public. I can say that it’s absolutely not true; private is not slower-paced than public, and that’s not a bad thing.

Senad Mustafic: I like diversity—not only in terms of race, ethnicity, or gender, but also in terms of educational backgrounds, ways of thinking, and approaching problem-solving. In industry, it’s been refreshing to work with people from different professional disciplines. When it comes to diversity, the public accounting environment is monotonous—people have the same educational background, a lot of them went to the exact same college, and their career goals are similar.

The real challenge on the industry side, in my opinion, is you fully own the numbers. You see exactly where they come from, how they’re generated, and you’re fully responsible for their accuracy and completeness. I don’t think I appreciated the full science behind that process while I was in public accounting.

Matt Nelson: The biggest adjustment has been a greater appreciation for the operational side of the business, but it’s also been the most rewarding. In public accounting, there are rules to follow for almost everything. If there’s a question, there’s probably a guide where you can look up the answer. In industry, you have to figure it out. You make hard decisions every day.

I’ve also learned how to be a better communicator. In public accounting, you generally work closely with other finance and accounting professionals who understand what you do. In industry, many of the people you interact with each day think all accountants are tax professionals, and April 15 is the busiest day of the year.

Mitra Rezvan: Perhaps the hardest part of the transition was learning the hands-on operational accounting. It’s one thing to audit and provide technical guidance, but it’s another thing to build a process, know what reports you need, and work with technical teams to build systems for running the business efficiently.

Paul Starrantino: It’s a different experience to sit on the other side of the desk and close the period, prepare financial statements, perform acquisition due diligence, forecast, or plan the year. Accounting or controllership touches all aspects of an organization. As a result, some of the challenges stem from other departments approaching matters from a different lens and the need to balance an approach within a GAAP environment without sounding like an accountant but rather a partner in a mutually beneficial situation. However, I believe the biggest challenge is change management—large organization change—and the ability to partner, persuade, and obtain buy-in with others.

Christopher Sullivan: The transition was a very positive experience. It was fun and challenging to figure out how the sausage gets made, beginning with booking transactions in the general ledger all the way through to the end result of financial reporting and improving that process. The technical accounting foundation that I gained while at EY has made me comfortable with SEC reporting and the technical accounting knowledge and research skills needed in my role as controller.

GC: What’s one thing you’ve taken from your experience working in public accounting that has helped you the most in your job as a controller?

Fred Butterweck: As an auditor, you have to be able to quickly sort through a lot of information and key in on what’s important in short order. I feel this has helped me become a quick learner and hone my ability to identify key business issues and risks and stay focused on what’s important.

Tony Combs: The work ethic you get in public accounting. I had a lot of confidence in my capabilities coming out of public; I felt I could take on any type of project.

Lindsay Gorang: Managing teams effectively, by setting a high bar and providing frequent feedback to help my team achieve lofty goals.

J.C. Gum: KPMG taught me to be an owner. From my first audit when I was assigned cutoff at my client, ownership was critical to my success in public accounting. I quickly learned no one else is assigned to my areas, and the more I owned it, the more responsibility I was given. Similarly, industry accounting requires you to fully own all aspects of your job.

Drew Hester: The sheer variety of companies, clients, partners, staff, technical accounting issues, tough deadlines, and challenges I encountered. While navigating all of that, there is an inherent breadth of experience, required adaptability, and development of a sense that you can find a successful outcome in any situation that quietly accumulates. It makes for a very solid foundation when dealing with the more focused challenges that working for a single enterprise presents.

Lauren Johnson: Public accounting teaches you the “why” behind the process and the numbers, while private industry teaches you the “how.” Understanding the why has helped me tremendously when answering technical questions, problem-solving, and implementing process improvement.

Will Majic: There are tight deadlines and numerous demands at accounting firms that cause you to make good use of your time and work a few extra hours here and there at night or on weekends. That has taught me to be effective with my time during the day and has also given me an appreciation for putting in extra hours when required.

Senad Mustafic: I learned a lot about people management at Deloitte. Working on different audit engagements, one gets exposed to different management styles. I remember one year, as an audit senior, I reported simultaneously to six audit managers. Seeing their different styles helped me understand the style I wanted to have for myself and the style I wanted to avoid.

Stay tuned for more from these controllers in a future article where they offer advice to CPAs about making the jump from public accounting to industry.

Image: iStock/oculo

The post Controllers Talk Switching Gears From Public Accounting to Industry appeared first on Going Concern.

from Accounting News http://goingconcern.com/controllers-transition-public-accounting-to-industry-inchan/

0 notes

tortuga-aak · 7 years ago

Text

4 apps your business needs to compete today — and thrive tomorrow

Getty Images

Today’s most innovative companies know that in order to maintain a competitive advantage, the ability to move from idea to impact — fast — is what defines success. And a strategic approach to collaboration is a key component of any organization’s ability to operate with agility.

A recent survey of IT decision makers showed that 84% believe if a company has not strategically deployed enterprise collaboration apps, that they are actually at a competitive disadvantage. A collaboration strategy is much more than lighting up a new chat app or moving your internal drive to the cloud. As collaboration technologies have matured, a few key categories within collaboration have emerged: tools that help you create content, store and sync work, communication platforms, and manage work.

A well-built strategy includes technologies from each of these categories — and the four apps recommended below are not only leaders today, but have an eye to the future in a way that will help you grow your business.

Here are four apps you need — now and in the future.

1. Google Docs

Content creation is at the heart of much of today’s work, and the ability to quickly and seamlessly provide feedback, edits, and commentary is a fundamental piece.

Google’s G Suite (composed of Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Sheets) has been a leader in this space for years and Google Docs provide a seamless content creation and collaboration experience. Regular updates continue to add new functionality and add to existing capabilities and include creative integrations and connection points to reduce time spent switching between apps.

2. Box

Content creation software, like Google Docs, doesn’t negate the need for a solution to store and sync files. In this space, Box is an industry leader. Box brings rich content management and security to platforms like Google Docs or Office 365 to simplify the way many organizations approach storage and content management.

Box has an eye to the future, too, and are exploring the various ways artificial intelligence can help users find useful content and tools quickly. The company recently announced new functionality to help guide users to the right tools outside of Box using AI.

3. Microsoft Teams

The social component of work is undeniable for most teams, whether working together in an office or collaborating remotely. Thus a key component of any winning collaboration strategy is a platform that these groups can use to communicate in real time, outside of more static formats, like email. A relative newcomer, Microsoft Teams has experienced tremendous popularity.

Not only does Microsoft Teams facilitate group conversations, multiple integrations with other collaboration tools help add context to conversations. Microsoft has plans to make Teams even more useful — the company recently announced its intentions to sunset Skype for Business, and fold the enterprise business conferencing call capabilities into Teams.

4. Smartsheet

All of this cloud-based content creation, collaboration, and communication is only as good as the plan you put in place to turn it all into action and execution. That’s where Smartsheet, a cloud-based work management platform, comes into play.

Smartsheet combines the tried and true simplicity of its interface with powerful automation capabilities to empower knowledge workers everywhere to eliminate redundancies in work management and free up time to focus on creativity, innovation, and higher value work — without draining resources from IT or requiring expensive, time-consuming solutions.

Collective collaboration wins

The importance of a collaboration strategy is undeniable — now it’s up to business leaders to intentionally think through not only their chosen collaboration tools, but the composite whole.

Learn more about the state of enterprise collaboration.

This post is sponsored by Smartsheet. | Content written and provided by Smartsheet.

from Feedburner http://ift.tt/2hv1uSC

#Feedburner

0 notes

cloudwaveintegration · 3 years ago

Link

Smartsheet App - Google Smartsheet | Smartsheet Project Management

#smartsheet #smartsheet app #smartsheet pricing #google smartsheet #smartsheetcom #smartsheet project management #smartsheet trello integration #smartsheet 10 000ft integration #smartsheet office 365 integration #smartsheet active directory integration #box smartsheet integration #tableau smartsheet integration

0 notes

electricalservicesbkft084-blog · 4 years ago

Text

6 Simple Techniques For Low Voltage Landscape Lighting

The Framework Services section supplies a prime focus for the framework for Stanford College of Medicine everyday operations. The web pages in this area include: explains exactly how to set up a workdesk or cellular telephone for voicemail, teleconferencing, Teleconference 6 as well as other phone features. lays out IRT's many video assistance services, and supplies info regarding establishing up as well as running Medmeeting, the School of Medicine's online conference option.

offers an introduction of computer system safety and security procedures at the SoM, and methods for you to keep your very own information safe and secure, including information security, VPN, and also sending files and e-mail securely. supplies info about the Institution of Medicine firewall software and exactly how to ask for access. supplies information on web server holding and management.

IT framework management is a valuable source that can be leveraged in medical care organizations to check, manage, and also properly utilize facilities, IT possessions, networks, security systems, and also various other processes in one systematized location. IT infrastructure administration in a healthcare organization offers a means to track, manage, and also store resources, procedures as well as process info, and also safeguarded health details (PHI).

To reap the benefits of centralized IT systems management while likewise remaining certified to protection standards, you require a powerful, real-time, as well as safe device to run your systems. Smartsheet is a work implementation platform that allows medical care firms to boost job http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/?action=click&contentCollection&region=TopBar&WT.nav=searchWidget&module=SearchSubmit&pgtype=Homepage#/electronics ,computer and communication infrastructure services effectiveness, scale service procedures, as well as safely handle as well as keep PHI, while conference or exceeding all of HIPAA's regulative needs.

The 6-Minute Rule for Electronics

The company cloud is ever-expanding and also progressing. Early cloud systems like Microsoft Workplace 365 and Google G Suite are widely made use of by companies of all kinds and sizes and have actually smoothly changed boxed software program with more flexible as well as collective cloud-enabled options. Likewise, specialized applications such as Adobe Creative Cloud, NetSuite, and also lots of others are thriving on the cloud as OS-agnostic alternatives accessible to customers on a per need basis in extensive subscription plans.

Facts About Electronic Service Uncovered

If it appears like many, otherwise most, of the apps you utilize to get to outdoors your company's wall surfaces are cloud-based applications, after that you 'd be right as they are everywhere. On the other hand, firms are replacing their own infrastructure with cloud services too. Sometimes, it's just for storage and also back-up where Box (for Organisation) as well as Dropbox are almost everywhere, while others, such as Carbonite Cloud Backupand alsoMozyPro for Organisation, are quietly supplying back-up for companies from the Fortune 500 to your office.

Getting My Electric Company To Work

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), which was the first kind of cloud solution, has ended up being a de facto criterion for organisation. It's ended up being so standardized that, sometimes, there is no standalone software application selection readily available. When's the last time you saw the standalone FedEx application on a computer system? In other instances, they have brought new abilities to businesses that just didn't exist before, such avri-tec.com as off-site storage space with Box (for Service) and Dropbox.

youtube

Infrastructure solutions in the cloud are currently coming to be a standard for organizations of all dimensions. Big ventures are well along in making the transfer to IaaS, and small to midsize businesses (SMBs) are currently moving as well. Today, the prime factor much more business haven't relocated is their lack of technological talent to move apps to the cloud as well as apply the apps there.

For the majority of organizations, a move to the cloud conserves cash when it pertains to broadening a data center or executing a new one. There's really little capital investment entailed with a cloud implementation and also, while there are month-to-month charges for cloud operations, they're usually much less than paying an IT division to do the same job.

If a piece of facilities in your information center goes down, then you'll need to find an employee to go deal with the trouble. This may mean calling a person in over a night, weekend, or holiday; it will mean extra pay, as well as it might also suggest that you stay down if the product-- whether it's a web server or a button-- needs a replacement that's not available up until the next organisation day.

The Greatest Guide To Electronic Components

Depending upon your service-level contract (SHANTY TOWN), the cloud carrier has the obligation to make certain your workload keeps up as well as running. While that does not ensure 100 percent uptime (besides, you still require an internet connection, which relies on infrastructure in your shop and also network connection that's not regulated by your cloud carrier), it's a degree of integrity that's tough to match inside your own information facility.

0 notes

electricalservicesbkft084-blog · 5 years ago

Text

Get This Report on Electronic Service

The Framework Providers area offers a focal point for the framework for Stanford School of Medication daily operations. The pages in this area include: discusses how to establish up a workdesk or cellphone for voicemail, teleconferencing, Teleconference 6 and other phone functions. describes IRT's countless video clip support services, and supplies info regarding setting up and also running Medmeeting, the College of Medicine's online meeting remedy.

gives an introduction of computer safety and security actions at the SoM, and also means for you to maintain your own information safe and secure, including information security, VPN, as well as sending files and also e-mail securely. supplies information regarding the Institution of Medicine firewall and just how to request gain access to. offers info on web server hosting and also administration.

IT framework monitoring is an useful source that can be leveraged in medical care organizations to monitor, manage, and also effectively take advantage of facilities, IT properties, networks, safety and security systems, and also numerous other processes in one streamlined location. IT facilities management in a medical care organization uses a means to track, manage, as well as shop sources, operations and also procedure information, and safeguarded health information (PHI).

To enjoy the advantages of centralized IT systems administration while likewise continuing to be certified to protection criteria, you require a powerful, real-time, as well as secure device to run your systems. Smartsheet is a work execution platform that enables health care firms to improve job performance, scale company processes, as well as firmly manage and also save PHI, while conference or going beyond every one of HIPAA's regulatory needs.

How Low Voltage Landscape Lighting can Save You Time, Stress, and Money.

Business cloud is ever-expanding and evolving. Early cloud platforms like Microsoft Workplace 365 and Google G Collection are extensively used by companies of all types as well as sizes as well as have easily changed boxed software program with even more versatile as well as collaborative cloud-enabled solutions. Similarly, specialized applications such as Adobe Creative Cloud, NetSuite, and also lots of others are growing on the cloud as OS-agnostic options easily accessible to users on a per need basis in complete subscription packages.

See This Report on Industrial Electronics

If it appears like several, if not most, of the apps you use to get to outdoors your firm's walls are cloud-based apps, then you 'd be right as they are anywhere. Meanwhile, firms are replacing their very own infrastructure with cloud services too. In some situations, it's merely for storage space and backup where Box (for Service) and also Dropbox are almost everywhere, while others, such as Carbonite Cloud Back-upas well asMozyPro for Business, are quietly supplying back-up for companies from the Lot of money 500 to your house workplace.

Facts About Digital Infrastructure Uncovered

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), which was the initial https://www.uconnect.co.il מסכי מולטימדיה sort of cloud solution, has actually ended up being a de facto criterion for company. It's become so standard that, in many cases, there is no standalone software program selection offered. When's the last time you saw the standalone FedEx app on a computer system? In other cases, they have brought new abilities to companies that merely really did not exist previously, such as off-site storage with Box (for Service) as well as Dropbox.

youtube

Framework solutions in the cloud are now ending up being a requirement for companies of all sizes. Large business are well along in making the step to IaaS, and also little to midsize organisations (SMBs) are currently relocating also. Today, the prime factor a lot more companies haven't moved is their lack of technical talent to move apps to the cloud and apply the apps there.

For most organizations, a transfer to the cloud conserves money when it comes to increasing a data center or executing a brand-new one. There's very little capital expenditure entailed with a cloud implementation and, while there are month-to-month charges for cloud procedures, they're usually far less than paying an IT department to do the exact same work.

If an item of facilities in your information center drops, then you'll need to find an employee to go repair the issue. This may indicate calling a person in over an evening, weekend, or holiday; it will certainly mean extra pay, and also it might also imply that you stay down if the product-- whether it's a server or a switch-- requires a substitute that's not available until the next business day.

The Greatest Guide To Computer Communication

Depending upon your service-level agreement (SHANTY TOWN), the cloud service provider has the obligation to make certain your work stays up as well as running. While that doesn't ensure one hundred percent uptime (nevertheless, you still require an internet connection, as well as that relies on infrastructure in your http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/?action=click&contentCollection&region=TopBar&WT.nav=searchWidget&module=SearchSubmit&pgtype=Homepage#/electronics ,computer and communication infrastructure services store as well as network connectivity that's not regulated by your cloud company), it's a degree of integrity that's tough to match inside your very own information facility.

0 notes

electricalservicesbkft084-blog · 5 years ago

Text

The Ultimate Guide To Low Voltage Lighting

The Infrastructure Services section provides a prime focus for the structure for Stanford College http://edition.cnn.com/search/?text=electronics ,computer and communication infrastructure services of Medication daily procedures. The web pages in this section consist of: describes exactly how to set up a workdesk or cellular telephone for voicemail, teleconferencing, Seminar Call 6 as well as various other phone features. describes IRT's numerous video clip support services, and provides details concerning establishing up and also running Medmeeting, the Institution of Medication's online meeting option.

provides an introduction of computer safety steps at the SoM, and also ways for you to keep your very own details safe and secure, including data security, VPN, and also sending data as well as email firmly. offers info about the Institution of Medicine firewall and how to request gain access to. gives details on web server organizing as well as management.

IT facilities administration is a beneficial resource that can be leveraged in medical care organizations to keep an eye on, handle, and efficiently take advantage of centers, IT possessions, networks, safety systems, and also various other procedures in one centralized location. IT facilities administration in a healthcare organization provides a means to track, take care of, as well as store sources, operations as well as process information, and also secured health info (PHI).

To gain the advantages of central IT systems monitoring while also remaining certified to safety and security criteria, you require an effective, real-time, and also safe and secure device to run your systems. Smartsheet is a job implementation platform that allows healthcare business to boost job effectiveness, scale service processes, and also firmly handle as well as save PHI, while conference or surpassing every one of HIPAA's regulatory needs.

Little Known Questions About Electronics.

Business cloud is ever-expanding and also evolving. Early cloud platforms like Microsoft Workplace 365 and Google G Collection are commonly made use of by companies of all types and also dimensions as well as have actually easily changed boxed software program with even more versatile and also collective cloud-enabled options. In a similar way, specialized applications such as Adobe Creative Cloud, NetSuite, as well as numerous others are growing on the cloud as OS-agnostic alternatives available to customers on a per need basis in all-inclusive registration packages.

The Electric Company Diaries

If it appears like lots of, if not most, of the applications you utilize to reach outdoors your business's walls are cloud-based apps, after that you 'd be right as they are almost everywhere. On the other hand, firms are changing their very own framework with cloud solutions as well. Sometimes, it's simply for storage and also back-up where Box (for Business) and Dropbox are everywhere, while others, such as Carbonite Cloud Back-upand alsoMozyPro for Company, are quietly supplying back-up for companies from the Ton of money 500 to your office.

מצלמות אבטחה לבית itemprop="caption">Getting The Low Voltage Landscape Lighting To Work

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), which was the very first kind of cloud solution, has ended up being a de facto requirement for business. It's become so standard that, sometimes, there is no standalone software option offered. When's the last time you saw the standalone FedEx app on a computer system? In other instances, they have actually brought brand-new abilities to organisations that simply really did not exist in the past, such as off-site storage with Box (for Business) and Dropbox.

youtube

Framework solutions in the cloud are now ending up being a standard for organizations of all dimensions. Large business are well along in making the transfer to IaaS, as well as tiny to midsize services (SMBs) are currently relocating as well. Now, the prime reason much more business haven't moved is their absence of technical ability to move apps to the cloud as well as implement the apps there.

For most organizations, a relocate to the cloud saves cash when it concerns expanding an information center or carrying out a new one. There's very little capital expenditure included with a cloud execution as well as, while there are regular monthly charges for cloud procedures, they're often far much less than paying an IT department to do the exact same work.

If an item of infrastructure in your data center decreases, after that you'll have to locate an employee to go deal with the issue. This may suggest calling someone in over an evening, weekend, or vacation; it will certainly suggest additional pay, and also it may likewise indicate that you stay down if the item-- whether it's a web server or a button-- needs a replacement that's not readily available up until the following company day.

About Computer Communication

Relying on your service-level agreement (RUN-DOWN NEIGHBORHOOD), the cloud carrier has the duty to ensure your work keeps up as well as running. While that does not assure 100 percent uptime (after all, you still require a web connection, which depends upon facilities in your shop as well as network connectivity that's not regulated by your cloud provider), it's a degree of integrity that's hard to match inside your very own data center.

0 notes

projectmanagementtcom-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Project Management Software Compatible With Sales Force

New Post has been published on https://www.projectmanagementt.com/project-management-software-compatible-with-sales-force/

Project Management Software Compatible With Sales Force

Project management software compatible with sales force, is it true?

It is true that project management helps in achieving consistent brand communications and excellence in customer experiences.

Project management software compatible with sales force and much more

Features to look for

Below are few features which should be considered during if you are considering project management software which is compatible with sales force.

It is good in listing tasks, sub tasks and milestones.

It has tools for managing and tacking tasks.

It has convenient views of project structures.

It has collaboration features.

It has document sharing capabilities.

It has the ability to report on task statuses.

It has interfaces to optimize mobile devices.

Strengths and weaknesses

Sales force can be used to create and assign tasks to one or multiple users.

Sales force doesn’t support managing tasks dependencies. So, when the due date is amended, dependent task stay unchanged.

All the tasks can also be bought together without even customizing the sales force.

There is a tool known as sales chatter which very important tool for collaborating on projects is. It includes activities and feedbacks also.

Project teams can also use out of the box document management capabilities in order to create and exchange documents.

Sales force provides a powerful drag and drop report builder also along with the feature of customized dashboard.

The app allows project team members to access the system at any time from any devices.

Short and long of it

TOP 50 SALESFORCE PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS AND SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS

1. Smartsheet for Salesforce

@Smartsheet

Key Features:

Import from Microsoft Project or Excel

Multiple levels of tasks

Single sign-on from Salesforce

Share project sheets and attached files with anyone inside or outside your Salesforce account

Cost:

Basic: $14/month paid annually – For individuals coordinating a project or tracking information, people, or tasks, unlimited collaborators, Gantt charts, and mobile access

Team: $39/month paid annually – For a team with 3 to 50 people coordinating work of all kinds, starts at $13/user, multiple creators, user management, and reporting

Enterprise: Contact for a quote – For enterprises from dozens to thousands, managing work of all kinds, single sign-on, automated provisioning, and dedicated account manager

WORK[etc]

@WORKetc_support

Key Features:

Sync contacts and leads from WORK[etc] with Saleforce

Gmail integrated

Create sub projects and tasks that trigger when others are marked complete

Manage in 8 different real time project views including Gantt charts, project trees, and real-time activity streams

Cost: FREE trial available for 14 days

Starter: $78/month – 2 user maximum, 2,000 contacts, 3GB storage

Team: $195/month – 3 users included, each extra user adds $49/month, 10,000 contacts, 15GB storage, plus social media, email marketing, customer portal, accounting integrations, and more

Foundations: $395/month – 3 users included, each extra user adds $59/month, 20,000 contacts, 50GB storage, all Team plan features, plus contractor portal and deep reporting

TaskRay

@bracketlabs

Key Features:

100% Salesforce native

Use standard Salesforce tools to create unique workflows

Flexible framework for agile, iterative work practices

One simple view into project status, to dos, task owners, and due dates

Cost: FREE trial available

$15/user/month paid annually

$19/user/month paid monthly

Mavenlink

@mavenlink

Key Features:

Define team members, access limits, and fine project details

Robust resourcing tools

Project templates for recurring tasks and deliverables

Create custom fields for project numbers, client addresses, and other project details

Cost: FREE trial available for 10 days

FREE plan available – Contact for more information

Teams: $4/user/month with annual contract – collaborative task management

Professional: $29/user/month with annual contract – integrated financial management

Premier: Contact for a quote – comprehensive business management

Wrike

@wrike

Key Features:

Real-time workspace ideal for collaboration

Project management on the go with iPhone and Android apps

Manage resources and deadlines centrally for team alignment

Cost:

FREE – for small teams who need basic task management, up to 5 users, unlimited collaborators, 2 levels of projects

Professional – for teams who need project planning and collaboration, 5 or 15 users, unlimited collaborators, storage space from 5GB, and unlimited levels of projects

o 5 users: $49/month paid annually

o 15 users: $99/month paid annually

Clarizen

@clarizen

Key Features:

Salesforce users can access work items and view their status without logging in to Clarizen

One click opens projects directly within Clarizen

Customize reports

Cost: $250/month

Workfront

@Workfront_Inc

Key Features:

Requests flow directly into your queue

RESTful APIs designed to allow integrations with Salesforce

Access work in the cloud and out of the office with iOS and Android mobile apps

Cost:

Aprika Mission Control

@aprikabusiness

Key Features:

Mission Control console

Projects, milestones, and actions

Virtual project whiteboard

Assignment and reminder notifications

Chatter integration

Project Template ‘Deep Clone’

Drag n’ Drop Gantt Charts

Time Tracking

Expense Tracking

Resource Capacity Scheduler/Calendar

Risk Log/Risk Chart

Burn Down Char

Cost: FREE trial available for 14 days

AU$20/user/month

VeoProject

@veoproject

Key Features:

Access project management features and tools within Salesforce

Existing Salesforce users are imported as VeoProject users and resources

Assigned tasks in VeoProject are visible in the Salesforce My Tasks pane

Updates in Salesforce automatically update in the original VeoProject project plan

Cost: FREE trial available for 30 days

Team Pro III: $85/month – 250 project documents, 10GB disk space, SSL encryption, and Twitter, Google apps, MS Outlook, and Salesforce integration

Enterprise: $195/month – 1,000 project documents, 40GB disk space, SSL encryption, and Twitter, Google apps, MS Outlook, and Salesforce integration

DreamTeam

@dfsoftwareinc

Key Features:

Visualize project status with detailed Gantt charts and portfolio reports

Organize hierarchical folders and versioned documents

Launch, edit, upload, and share files directly from your desktop

Cost: FREE trial available for 15 days

$40/user/month

Central Desktop

@centraldesktop

Key Features:

API-based integration

Break projects into phases

Assign individual tasks

Monitor project status and shift due dates

Clone existing projects

Cost: Central Desktop Premier: $25/user/month with annual contract – Unlimited users, unlimited workspaces, 50+ GB storage

LiquidPlanner

@LiquidPlanner

Key Features:

Share important information seamlessly

Real-time visibility into the entire project process

Stay on top of status, milestones, and delivery

Cost: The LiquidPlanner App for Salesforce is FREE to LiquidPlanner subscribers

Standard: $29/user/month based on annual plan, 10 user minimum – Project visibility, improved collaboration, and intuitive task management

Professional: $39/user/month based on annual plan, 10 user minimum – Comprehensive portfolio management tool that tracks and prioritizes resources

Enterprise: $49/user/month based on annual plan, 10 user minimum – For larger organizations managing complex projects and shifting teams, includes world-class customer service

Viewpath

@viewpath

Key Features:

With Salesforce integration, bring predictability to your customer-driven projects

One of the top-rated project management solutions on the Salesforce AppExchange

Align project tasks and resources to get one complete project picture

Cost: FREE team trial available for 30 days

Starter: FREE – Basic scheduling and organizing tool for individuals or project managers with a small team of collaborators

Team: $15/month – Powerful features include cross-project resource allocation and reporting

Professional: $25/month – Powerful project management with filtering, custom labels, private branding, and more

Enterprise: $35/month – Unlimited snapshots and project resources, premier support, and more

Taskfeed

@TaskfeedApp

Key Features:

Work around your Salesforce opportunities, leads, campaigns, projects, and more

Fast, easy, and in real time

Brings team task boards to Salesforce fully integrated with Chatter to help deliver projects

Cost: Contact for a quote

XenonPMO

@TekOptimize

Key Features:

Set program-specific milestones and phases

Gate processes/milestones with entry and exit criteria

Leverage dashboards for visibility

Communicate through Chatter

Mobile functionality

Cost: Contact for a quote

JobSuite

Key Features:

Organize data under campaigns and jobs

Quickly and easily generate Creative Briefs with user-defined templates

View tasks on job schedules, calendars, reports by client or campaign or role, or more

Get custom reports using the new Report Builder and share with everyone or save in your private folder

Cost: Contact for a quote

Milestones PM+ @passagetech

Key Features:

Get visibility into all of your programs, projects, milestones, tasks, time, and issues within Salesforce

Customize to incorporate your own methodology or elements of an agile, traditional (waterfall), or hybrid methodology

Keep schedules on track and log risks and decisions

Commercial support from Salesforce

Cost: FREE package; Contact for upgrade quotes

Avata Enterprise Project Management

Key Features:

Convenient views including Gantt charts

Personalization of each project

Customizable reports, dashboard, task, and project details

Fine-grained security down to task attributes

Cost: Contact for a quote

EPMLive

@EPMLive

Key Features:

Multiple scheduling tools to plan tasks for on-time delivery

Centralize information for real-time updates and statuses

Manage schedules with varying levels of rigor and complexity

Offers a variety of scheduling methods and tools to meet project managers’ needs

Cost: Contact for a quote

Project Pulse

@Configero

Key Features:

See the entire project lifecycle

Foster communication between sales, delivery, and finance

Built-in revenue and resource forecasting

Cost: Contact for a quote

Celoxis

@celoxis

With Celoxis, organizations get enterprise project management software to manage complex project portfolios and processes. Plan, delegate, collaborate, and streamline project management with Celoxis.

Key Features:

Project tracking

Resource management

Time and expense management

Reporting and analysis

Cost: Celoxis Project Management App for Salesforce is FREE for Celoxis customers

SaaS: $24/user/month with available duration and volume discounts – 99.99% uptime, free client login, 2GB/user/month shared disk space, and more

On-Premise: one-time payment of $450/user with available volume discounts – Major and minor upgrades, free support for the first year, and more

Project Management Beacon

Key Features:

Allows accounts, budgets and budget allocation, projects, tasks, and resources

Gantt charts and dashboards for task progression and cost and resource measurement

Information center with informative dashboards shows dynamic statistics on project progress

Cost: FREE

Tenrox

@Tenrox

Key Features:

Configurable project billing and cost accounting processes

Visual workflow-driven processes

Export Tenrox Project KPIs into Salesforce

Access Tenrox reports within Salesforce

Cost: Contact for a quote

Work-Relay

@WorkRelay

Key Features:

Plan, maintain, and get complete, real-time visibility into project status

Access a single dashboard for urrent and scheduled work that includes a clear designation of priorities

Maintain a central portfolio of projects

Choose to stagger projects based on priorities and resource availability

Cost: Contact for a quote

Sciforma

@Sciforma

Key Features:

Strategic project and portfolio management with idea identification, ranking, capacity planning, and more

Functional project and portfolio management with project, resource, risk, and budget management

Calendar, demand, and issue management, plus time tracking

Cost: Contact for a quote

Replicon

@Replicon

Key Features:

Pipeline projects are auto-created in Replicon from Salesforce before deals close so project managers can add resources and ensure correct staff lock-in

More accurate project pricing

Improved forecasting precision

Streamline project and business processes

Cost: FREE trial available; Contact for a quote

Cloud Coach

@cloudcoach

Key Features:

Standardize your project processes by creating templates

Create projects within your workflows, whether from your sales processes or from a Salesforce marketing campaign

Group tasks into milestone groupings/phases

Manage change requests and approvals

Maintain risk and issue registers

Cost:

Productivity User: $29/user/month billed annually, 10 user minimum – Drive enterprise-wide productivity

Project Team Member: $39/user/month billed annually, 10 user minimum – Deliver projects as a team

Project Power User: $79/user/month billed annually, 10 user minimum – Manage projects and services automation

Portfolio Manager: $129/user/month billed annually, 10 user minimum – Deliver portfolios and programs

2Xoffice

@2Xoffice

Key Features:

Project scheduling

Enterprise collaboration

Use Gantt charts to illustrate project milestones and meet implementation deadlines

Project alerts

Stages and checklists

Project templates

Resource alignment

Cost: Contact for a quote

Genius Project

@GeniusProject

Key Features:

Use Genius Planner, the software’s own Java-based Gantt charting tool, or Microsoft Project – it’s your choice

Resources Module ensures optimal results and minimized bench time

Experiment in a sandbox environment with Genius Simulator

Cost: Prices differ based on billing duration

Standard: $19.95/user/month billed annually – For small project teams, 10 user packs, standard configuration, project and task management, and more

Enterprise: $39.95/user/month billed annually – Tailored to your needs, 50 user minimum, all Professional plan features plus hosted on-premise option, Genius Connector for integration, and more

AffinityLive

@affinitylive

Key Features:

Interactive Gantt charts

Real-time scheduling

Save milestones, tasks, and entire projects as reusable templates

Stay up to date in real time on projects, their status, and delivery teams

Cost: FREE trial available for 14 days

Plus: $16/user/month billed annually or $19/user/month billed monthly – For growing teams

Premium: $34/user/month billed annually or $39/user/month billed monthly – Get maximum flexibility and automation

Function Point

@functionpoint

Key Features:

Business intelligence dashboard at a glance

Full-service CRM for sales and business development

Real-time financial reports

Syncs all projects, tasks, and timesheets

Build schedules from system templates, automatically assign work to teams or individuals, and use built-in timesheets and milestones

Cost:

Small: $29/user/month billed annually or $34/user/month billed monthly – 5 users minimum base package

Medium: $29/user/month billed annually for first 39 users or $34/user/month billed monthly for first 39 users

o $19/user/month billed annually for 40-99 users

Large: $29/user/month billed annually for first 39 users or $34/user/month billed monthly for first 39 users

o $19/user/month billed annually for 40-99 users

o $15/user/month billed annually for 100+ users

Daptiv

@Daptiv

Key Features:

Create and refine project templates that cover all aspects of the project management lifecycle

Powerful project collaboration tools for project stakeholders

Identify risks, monitor project performance, and fix problems quickly

Cost: Contact for a quote

Financial Force

@FinancialForce

Key Features:

Collaboratively manage project tasks with customer portals

Create customer or project communities to work more socially

Configure projects at the field level and create custom fields and views

Cost: Contact for a quote

Projector

@ProjectorPSA

Key Features:

Use Salesforce data, and Projector will show you consolidated views of booked and pipeline business

Capture time and expenses

Define how and when information is imported when you automatically import accounts and opportunities with the Salesforce.com connector

Cost: FREE trial available for 30 days; Contact for a quote

Kimble

@KimbleApps

Key Features:

Enter project work breakdown structures against the sales opportunity

Perform top-down and bottom-up resourcing of opportunities

Produce project status reports

Cost: Contact for a quote

GreenRope

@GreenRope

Key Features:

Detailed notes and project updates reside in one place for easy, quick access

Team leaders assign tasks to team members and even clients

Assign tasks and deadlines, plus keep deadlines in a central location for all to see

Track project and task information, including hours spent

Cost: FREE trial available for 14 days

Starter: $149/month – 1,000 contacts, unlimited users, unlimited emails

Pro: $169/month – 3,000 contacts, unlimited users, unlimited emails

Premium: $199/month – 5,000 contacts, unlimited users, unlimited emails

Powerhouse: $249/month – 7,500 contacts, unlimited users, unlimited emails

Magificent: $299/month – 10,000 contacts, unlimited users, unlimited emails

Supreme: $449/month – 25,000 contacts, unlimited users, unlimited emails

Leankor

@theleankor

Key Features:

Enables aggregation of critical information from Salesforce

Visually manage sales, marketing, and service operations

Assure data security and privacy with Salesforce

Workflow rules, calendar view, and reports and analytics

Cost: FREE trial available for 14 days

Personal: $10/user/month/5 licenses – Full business version with all features enabled

Professional: $19/user/month – Unlimited Kanban boards, portfolio view, targeted collaboration, workflow analytics, Salesforce integrations

Business: $24/user/month/5 licenses – All Professional plan features, plus document management, calendar view, time management, analytics, and more

Smarttime

@Apracor

Key Features:

Simple time booking on multiple projects

Extensive built-in reporting

Travel expense tracking module

See projects, employees, or overall performance at a glance

Cost: FREE

EnTransform PPM

Key Features:

Monitor overall enterprise project portfolios, resource utilization, budget, forecast and cost analysis through dashboards

Manage schedule and deliverables with automated creation of sprints and backlogs, based on Agile Scrum methodology

Create and maintain resource history, information, availability, and forecast

Set up projects, phases, sprints, deliverables, and more with one click

Cost: FREE trial available for 14 days

$50/user/month

OneEighth Project Lite

Key Features:

Reliable and secure, completely built on Force.com

Lightweight and flexible, OneEighth Project Lite runs on the sales cloud or Salesforce platform

Project objectives, budgets, costs, members, roles, tasks, timelines, and more

Cost: $16/user/month

Ajile

@StratitudeInc

Key Features:

Manage releases by creating user stories

Manage tasks using Scrum methodology and deliver projects on time

Communicate and collaborate with Chatter

Role-based home pages

Drag and drop tasks

Cost: FREE trial available for 15 days; Contact for a quote

Cloudbyz

@cloudbyz

Key Features:

Work request management

Benefits and costs evaluation

Change and release management

Cost: Contact for a quote

CloudMax

Key Features:

Successfully deliver rapid deployment framework and meet compliance requirements

Tracks the complete SDLC lifecycle

Chatter enabled

Cost: Starts at $500/company/month

Done

@KineticGrowth

Done by Kinetic Growth offers Salesforce task and activity management with collaboration features. The tasks tab allows users to see, edit, and track all Salesforce tasks in detail.

Key Features:

See Chatter updates while tasks are in progress and post to Chatter without opening each tasks

Uses standard Salesforce tasks, so it works with tasks you already have

Find existing tasks on objects you own

Define best practices and automatically create tasks with Task Templates

Create tasks with fewer clicks

Cost: Contact for a quote

GliderPMO

@GliderSystems

Key Features:

Single repository so everyone has the same up-to-date information

Track and manage dependences between work packages

Team members work together on the same set of records and documents

Highly configurable with a point-and-click interface

Keep everyone in the loop with Chatter

Cost: FREE trial available for 30 days

PMActive

@diamosoft

Key Features:

One View gives project managers a consolidated, concise view of essential project information

See consolidated status of all projects

Stay apprised of upcoming tasks

Identify priority tasks and identify problem areas

Cost: FREE trial available for 30 days; Contact for a quote

QuickBase

@IntuitQuickBase

Key Features:

Customizable and flexible

Access information at any time on any device from anywhere

Personalized notifications and reminders

Cost: FREE trial available for 30 days; Contact for a quote

Arxxus

@arxxus

Key Features:

Project and task planning

Resource management and effort tracking

Interactive user interface for schedule creation and Gantt visualization and modification

Cost: Contact for a quote

Axosoft

@axosoft

Key Features:

Get data for making educated decisions

Daily Scrum to see what each team and team member has completed, current work, and issues

Fully customizable workflows

Cost: FREE trial available for 14 days; Contact for a quote

Changepoint

@_Changepoint

Key Features:

Seamlessly integrates critical processes and data needed for effective management

Adapts to fit your needs

Support and develop your organization’s business, process, reporting, and security needs

Cost: Contact for a quote

Source: http://www.docurated.com/all-things-productivity/top-50-salesforce-project-management-tools-and-software-solutions

#Project Management #sales force #software

0 notes

martechadvisor-blog · 7 years ago

Text

5 Ways Collaboration Can Boost Your Martech Stack Performance

“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too), those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” – Charles Darwin

The words of Darwin can be applied to the success stories of all the organizations. When it comes to martech, there’re no doubt that a martech stack is a critical contributor to amplify marketing success. Martech calls for extensive handling of data analytics, reports, content, channels, results, and so much more. You can boast of the best-in-class martech stack but might wonder why it’s not quite reflecting in ROIs. That stack you own is only as good as the processes and culture built around it. Improved, effective collaboration could be the missing piece of your martech puzzle. Of course, Darwin is right! Today, collaboration is an inescapable obligation and one of the fundamental project management principles for every business.

In the modern workplace scenario, there should be a defined collaborative process whereby even an API developer who is not part of a marketing campaign or team should be able to flag something to the CMO with a minimum of fuss. Doesn’t matter if the developer is on a graveyard shift in Melbourne and the CMO of this Miami-based company is having some well-deserved leisure time in Tuscany.

Stacks need integration. People need collaboration.

Having a great set of martech tools alone doesn’t guarantee marketing success. It’s about how you’re able to weave the spirit of collaboration through all the stakeholders in the team so that they can use the tools and its outputs meaningfully, for better decision making, better innovation, and better outcomes. The first requirement is the development of ‘the collaborative culture�� and second is having the enabling collaborative tools to actually support the culture. This combination of intent and tools can differentiate how one organization leverages their martech stack over another as well as create value around the outcomes and the team.

Kara Hamilton, VP, People Operations, Smartsheet:

Today’s enterprises understand that the most efficient workplace tools and apps are those that promote collaboration. When employees are able to work concurrently, productivity is at its highest. We’ve seen increasing adoption of tools that automate work processes and increase team performance, but it’s been a slow transition away from legacy processes and productivity tools that were simply not designed to address the volume and velocity of today’s collaborative work. Like all legacy systems, these tend to be the tools that organizations are most familiar and comfortable with, so it’s a matter of promoting the simplicity and ease of use of the new generation of cloud collaboration apps that will ultimately improve business operations. Enterprises that see the true value in automation as a means to streamline tasks and approvals are those that will be most successful.

5 ways collaboration impacts martech stack effectiveness, competitiveness, and RoI

1. Takes data and conversations out of silos:

In a digital word – especially one driven by cloud models - most information lies online in some form or other. But without integration across all the tools and solutions, the data gets into silos. While integration across tools can create the smooth flow of data across stakeholder groups, collaboration can help turn that data into intelligence and action by enabling the right conversations and exchanges between the right team members at the right time about the right data. Also, by making those conversations accessible to the larger team, everyone knows what’s going on at a particular time, and can spot opportunities that may otherwise have remain hidden in the data or conversational silos.

2. Omni-channel marketing:

In the martech context, for a given marketing campaign, there are multiple sources of data, multiple approaches to targeting, multiple channels of communication, personalization, funneling, and localization. A good set of enabling collaboration tools can really help stitch up these components together and let teams work seamlessly to address the reality of the customer buying journey. The collaboration suite can be visualized as a parallel platform to the portfolio of martech tools, which enables members of the team to remain connected at every stage and across the outcomes of every martech tool deployed.

3. Meaningful stakeholder alignment:

Globalization, decentralization, and the matrix organization ae the current workplace reality. Team members are spread across the globe, working remote, in different time zones, or simply working flexible timings versus the regular 9 to 5 hours. Asynchronous collaboration – ability of team members to retrieve, receive, exchange, and deliberate upon information at different times from different locations becomes crucial to make the most of the new workplace reality. A culture of collaboration can help smoother alignment between critical stakeholders - be it sales and marketing, or research and product development with sales. The right tools can make that alignment faster, smoother and more impactful. Ultimately, aligned teams can build stronger business cases, go to market faster, work more effectively towards the same goals; and measure and correct at scale based on a common understanding of the performance parameters.

4. Marketing ops and contextual decision making:

Marketing ops are the facilitators of insight, efficiency, and scale for the complex marketing teams they support. They are the glue that not just holds everything together, but also creates value beyond the sum of the parts. While driving a culture of data-driven decision making is crucial, Marketing Ops also needs to gather intelligence and qualitative insights from across the team. Collaborative platforms help marketing ops to keep track of all the ongoing conversations and exchanges to contextualize’ the data they are working with and make decisions that are firmly rooted in the on-ground realities instead of just on dashboards. That is a competitive advantage that can directly impact outcomes for one team over the other.

5. Project management and Agility:

From video conferencing apps to plenty of alternatives to email, communications have come a long way. When modes or channels of communication enable a multi-way exchange of ideas, insight, and data in real-time, they become facilitators of the collaborative culture. Collaborative tools can create more agile and effective project teams because they bring everyone on the same page and leave no room for ambiguity. This clarity in roles, responsibilities, deliverables, timelines and current status can truly support the Agile marketing goals of the team.

85% of people feel that seamless collaboration can be the best aspect of their jobs. (Creative Collaboration by Highrail)

More than 70% of people believe that workflow collaboration tools enhance decision-making and productivity. (Dare to Share by Socialcast)

Collaboration tech to the rescue

Collaboration technology complements your martech stack - especially with more content, more channels, more stakeholders and tools than ever before.

Content Marketing/ Digital Asset Management

This is one function that has grown immensely and will continue to do so. To accelerate content collaborations, there are platforms like Curata, NewsCred, Kapost, Percolate, and the likes you can choose from. These platforms provide tools ranging from content scheduling to a host of analytics.

APIs, Identity, and more

Functions like these involve a lot of engineering professionals collaborating with each other. Kolab, Jira and Jira Core (by Altassian), Pidoco, and so forth are the platforms that can be leveraged.

ABM

It needs end-to-end marketing and sales collaboration which can be aided utilizing a number of tools. The crux of ABM are databases and funneling, and options are in plenty. This is one function where all the basic platforms out there solve your multiple purposes. From the basic Trello boards to Asana, your choice needs to sync with the granular analysis of your ABM prerequisites.

AdTech

A function which prospers when creative/design teams collaborate efficiently with the vertical stakeholders. Platforms supporting high-res, HD imaging, and sharing options like PlayCanvas can be leveraged for this.

Communication

Basic communication includes messaging and video calling/conferencing. Think Slack, HipChat, Go-to-Meeting, LiquidPlanner, and more. In this space, the list is endless.

Cloud and remote working

The cloud has brought exponential flexibility, independence, and freedom to teams. There is a multitude of tools and solutions to foster collaboration between this anytime, anywhere workforce, from file-sharing apps to productivity applications like Box, Dropbox, Office 365, and more.

Hamilton adds:

Having the right communication system, business software, and procedures in place can greatly improve inclusion of remote team members. Frequent voice or video communication can be much more impactful than lengthy emails or formal status meetings. Adopting tools that make communication fast and easy helps keep teams connected and engaged.

Whatever platform, tools, or apps you choose to collaborate, the basic considerations are team size, project specifications, scalability, communication modes or features, and so on. Integration with Google or/and Microsoft is a given. Apart from that, there are some features which are prerequisite for adroit collaboration (FYI – these are not for messaging/video collaboration)

Simple upfront, complexities behind the scenes

Cloud-friendly and remote accessibility

Easy visual interpretation of tasks/workflow status

Transparently designed forms with pre-fill options

Uncomplicated graphical modeling of processes

Accurate, timely notifications

Parallel collaboration between various teams

Flexibility in usage of versions (free and paid)

Balance needed between oral, written, digital, in-person, social, remote, and on-premise contact

Responsibility-based access control and security considerations

Getting the highest quality cooking equipment doesn’t always ensure food of the highest quality! Just like a martech stack doesn’t guarantee marketing success, collaborative tools alone cannot ensure seamless collaboration. Unless there is a strong culture of collaboration in the organization, as well as concerted efforts to drive meaningful adoption of the collaboration tools, the results will be sub-optimal.

The future of collaboration

The US Workplace 2020

Traditionalists – 1%

Baby Boomers – 22%

Generation X – 20%

Millennials – 50%

Generation 2020 – 7%

Source: The 2020 Workplace by Dr. Karie Willyerd

Conventional collaboration will wane out with time as we approach Workplace 2020, and martech is scheduled to go places too. Creative collaboration within martech stacks is key to stay lined with the constant, obvious disruptions.

As we continue to go deeper into ‘mobile first’ for everything, pervasive, instantaneous, and of course, asynchronous collaboration will be the way forward for marketing teams. This could reflect in more ‘wearable’ technologies that automatically track and record what employees are doing and share it with the team, automatically update meetings, deliveries, and others.

Employee experience will be an increasingly important consideration in the design of collaboration technologies, and this will not remain immune to the rise of chatbots, machine learning, and cognitive capabilities that are able to proactively support members of the team by connecting the dots across conversations and suggesting potentially rewarding areas of collaboration.

Hamilton sums up:

Automation will be at the forefront of future business operations. Ultimately, enterprises want an easier way to automate administrative, repeatable tasks that’s flexible but still adheres to process controls. It’s not about overly complex analytics tools or another chatbot that may or may not improve customer experience. 60% of the work that happens in business today occurs outside of code, such as confirming steps, providing approvals or manually sharing information. Enterprises need a repository or system of record for all the data supporting particular tasks, and technology that provides an easy way to create workflows. This is the type of automation we will continue to see within the next-gen workplace: it’s not flashy or sexy, but will yield tremendous time savings and competitive advantage.

Collaboration tools are transforming the way teams get things done across functions, by streamlining communication, process, workflow, and innovation. With the increasing complexity of marketing technology, a coherent martech collaboration environment can deliver real value and competitive advantage. It’s a de rigueur. Much to the delight of Darwin!

This article was first appeared on MarTech Advisor

#martech #marketing #technology #business #cmo

0 notes