Complete Resource for Online Project Management

Remote collaboration greatly relies on technological advancements. The success of such collaborations is anchored on these technological solutions. Working remotely eliminates the opportunity for casual conversations in the office or for colleagues to witness each other’s work. However, advanced technology allows remote teams to be as efficient as their office-based counterparts.

With leading a dispersed team, there is a wide array of tools available for almost any situation that may arise. The abundance of options can be overwhelming.

Thus, it’s crucial to determine which project management solution would work best in coordinating globally dispersed teams.

Choosing a program that fits your company’s specific needs is the most apparent solution.

In today’s market, the numerous project management solutions available can make it challenging to select the appropriate one for your needs. You can begin by asking yourself certain questions about how you intend to utilize the tool. This will assist you in narrowing down your options and selecting the most suitable project management solution.

Before purchasing a project management system for your dispersed team, consider these ten factors.

  1. From which industries do you acquire clients for your company’s projects? (such as artistic, manufacturing, software, human resources, printing, etc.)?
  2. It would be beneficial to have an idea of the typical size of projects.
  3. How often do you handle multiple tasks simultaneously?
  4. For projects that include remote workers, how many individuals work on the project at the same time?
  5. What is the workflow process? Is the entire project completed on a collaborative platform or are portions of it completed and submitted? Or is it a blend of both?
  6. Are you using third-party providers who require regular communication?
  7. Do you invoice clients by the hour or pay remote workers on an hourly basis?
  8. Which other software packages do you utilize that your project management software will have to integrate with?
  9. How critical is the chat feature to your project management application, and what about invoicing functionality? (This post provides additional information about IT management.)
  10. What are the expenditures linked to implementing a remote project management tool?

Platforms to efficiently manage remote teams and their projects.

Prior to making a final decision on project management software for a remote team, it is crucial to take into account the aforementioned questions. With a plethora of software options available, it is vital to choose the most appropriate one.

Simplicity in Project Management for Small Businesses and Enterprises

Basecamp: Basecamp is a perfect solution for any organization wishing to empower their remote teams to work independently while maintaining a high level of productivity and communication. With Basecamp, remote teams can keep track of their individual projects, allocate and plan tasks, and stay connected. This platform is particularly suitable for small to medium-sized enterprises, providing regular updates and automated check-ins at a uniform price of £99 per month, regardless of the subscription duration.

Samepage: Samepage is a real-time collaboration and editing platform that integrates with services like Slack and Salesforce. It includes multiple features such as video conferencing, file sharing, scheduling, and email and can be used in various languages, making it a perfect fit for managing teams globally. Subscription to the Pro plan is priced at $7 USD per person per month while the free version provides many features for teams up to 10 members.

Quip: Quip is an excellent selection for any remote team that desires a versatile collaboration tool. It enables seamless sharing of sheets and writing of code, making it appropriate for several purposes such as product development, recruitment, HR, and sales. The Live Apps feature permits storage of all the applications and software involved in a project in one, convenient location. The monthly cost for a group of five members is $30, with an extra $10 charge for each additional member.

Efficient Project Management for Medium-Sized Businesses

Wrike: For an organisation in need of a system to handle multiple projects or a tailored process, Wrike is a perfect solution. It provides the ability to keep track of tasks, deadlines, and priorities, as well as the ability to monitor results and produce reports. A free trial period is offered, and subscription options begin at just £7.83 per member per month.

ActiveCollab: ActiveCollab is the ultimate platform for managing multiple projects from various locations, offering all the necessary tools for effective project management. Its customizable workflows allow users to utilize Gantt-chart-like timelines, Kanban boards, or basic lists, making it user-friendly and highly adaptable. Additional features include timekeeping and billing. ActiveCollab is accessible as both server-hosted and cloud-based solutions, with a free trial available, and monthly cloud hosting plans starting at $25.

Zoho Projects: With more than one million businesses choosing Zoho Projects as their project management software due to its extensive range of features for online collaboration, it’s unsurprising. Zoho Projects makes team collaboration effortless, with powerful communication tools, document sharing, and insightful analytics. Additionally, its mobile interface, compatibility with various programs, and support of API make it suitable for any organization. It also offers an affordable pricing plan, which starts at £25 for 20 projects.

Enterprise-Level Projects and Tasks

Assembla: For major enterprises seeking to migrate their operations to the cloud and integrate their work with the latest software like Git and Jira while adhering to strict security standards, Assembla offers an effective solution. Assembla’s services are attainable by companies across different sectors, like healthcare, video game development, and manufacturing. The platform addresses every stage of the process, inclusive of project creation, building, testing, and deployment. The monthly project management cost is set at $7.50 per user across the enterprise.

Asana: With multiple, remote teams working on various projects, Asana is an excellent solution to explore. It offers a comprehensive range of features while remaining intuitive and user-friendly, even for non-tech-savvy individuals. With Asana, users can assign tasks to team members, confidentially share information, and even create templates for routine tasks. Prices start from $9.99 per user per month, and there is also a free option available for startups.

Collaboration Tasks: In larger organizations, teams frequently operate independently, devoid of knowledge of other departments’ activities. However, Teamwork Projects is an ideal solution for ensuring teams can interact with each other and collaborate with awareness of each other’s interdependence. Furthermore, it allows remote team members to understand their precise role in a project. This secure and simple-to-use online collaboration tool includes all necessary features, with the Pro package beginning at £9 per user monthly.

The Best Option for Coders

Atlassian Jira Software: Widely recognized as the top choice of software engineers working in agile teams, Jira provides a thorough solution for planning, monitoring, and deploying new software. The platform is highly flexible, facilitating its customization to suit any software development process, from initial planning to final bug-hunting. Jira is suitable for teams using Scrum, Kanban, or a Mixed Methodology, regardless of the team’s location or expansion rate. Its secure communication channels, thousands of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and over three thousand additional integrations make it the ideal choice for geographically dispersed development teams. For teams of 11-100, the monthly cost is $7 per user.

Dropbox Alternative: Atlassian BitBucket For companies that require their remote developers to access Git repositories while also safeguarding proprietary code, BitBucket is an ideal solution. It provides useful tools, such as inline comment and code review, which enable seamless programming project collaboration. This platform is highly scalable, making it suitable for both small and large teams. Furthermore, the cost for medium-sized teams is just $2.

GitHub: When working with GitHub, developers can effortlessly collaborate with one another, whether the used software is open-source or proprietary. This kind of platform provides remote engineers with the necessary support when working on their code, while enabling project managers to oversee individual contributions and project progress. GitHub offers a central hub for assigning tasks, tracking progress, and sharing files, which can all be managed for a monthly business user fee of £21.

The Benchmark for Novel Product Development

Productboard: With its product roadmap, feature prioritization, and team, client, and customer communication, Productboard is an outstanding product development solution. However, what sets it apart from other platforms is its capacity for producing a service or product specifically in response to customer needs and desires. The software’s features are intended to optimize the product’s reliability, including consumer feedback, the study of current trends and their relevance to strategic objectives, and competition analysis to give the product a competitive advantage. Productboard provides a 15-day free trial and a monthly fee of $49 for up to 20 contributors and 5 projects.

Aha!: For product development undertaken remotely, it is critical to have a system that allows more than just an overview of the project, but promotes idea-sharing, feedback gathering, and their implementation. Aha! provides a thorough solution to these requirements and more, including strategy formulation and visual roadmap development. Furthermore, Aha! helps to articulate the product’s finer details, improving its marketability. As for pricing, start-ups can utilize this tool for free, while premium subscriptions begin at $59 per month per user.

Top Pick for Marketers and Creative Agencies

iMeet Central: Designed with marketing teams and agencies in mind who work with various remote suppliers and creatives across different time zones, iMeet Central (formerly Central Desktop) offers an outstanding solution. It enables effective campaign management, creative work review, and seamless process modification. Additionally, iMeet Central provides a REST API for JSON-based integration with current programs. It is available for marketers and advertising agencies for a monthly cost of $45.00 per user.

Suitable for B2B Content Marketing

Kapost: Relevant and useful content is fundamental for a successful B2B marketing strategy. Yet, without a project management platform like Kapost, generating large volumes of material can be challenging. Kapost accelerates content generation, identifies content gaps, and ensures the right material is distributed to the right prospects. This platform is designed for team collaboration on document creation, progress communication, and real-time feedback exchange. The service costs $3,500 per month.

Beneficial for Service Providers

Scoro: Geared towards service providers and creative companies, Scoro is a comprehensive software solution offering project, resource, and financial management support. With remote work prioritized, Scoro provides an all-in-one platform to manage all aspects of a business, including custom rate setting, project quotation generation, and differentiation between billable and non-billable tasks. For those seeking a comprehensive suite of features, monthly fees start from just £22.

Recommended for Artists and Artisans

Abstract: Abstract is an innovative platform that facilitates collaborative design work, enables sharing of sketch files, provides feedback from peers, and promotes the final designs. With Abstract, making modifications to designs is fast and simple, and changes are automatically saved, allowing users to seamlessly merge different versions of their work. Abstract provides ideal tools to collaborate on design projects, whether it involves visual designers, front-end developers, or campaign storyboarders. Subscription costs for each contributor start at just $9 per month.

Perfect for Building New Structures and Renovations

In the Studio of mydoma: Mydoma Studio is an extensive platform that enables interior designers to streamline their projects by creating creative briefs, sourcing goods from various websites, updating clients, and monitoring progress reports. All users can benefit from this comprehensive system for a one-time fee of just $59.

Prioritising Time Management

Teamweek: For teams that prioritize effective time management, Teamweek is the ideal solution. By assessing the amount of work already assigned to your team and when they anticipate finishing it, resource allocation to new projects becomes more efficient. The tool is centered around a comprehensive calendar that provides a quick overview of your team’s assignments and projects. The platform is free for up to five users, with certain constraints, and offers four pricing tiers, starting from just £34 a month for a group of 10.

Agile Approaches to Manage Complex Projects

Flow: For those seeking straightforward project and campaign management, Flow is an excellent option. It can assist with large-scale projects, single resource work, and offer a comprehensive progress overview. The platform costs just $16 per month to cover up to three users.

Cost-Effective and Completely Free Alternatives

Freedcamp: Freedcamp is an excellent option for those just starting with project management. Not only is it easy to use, but it also provides several helpful tools at no extra cost. You can keep your team working efficiently and cover all the necessary aspects, from file sharing and editing to application integration, backup, white label work, password protection, and invoicing. The basic plan is free, but if you need more features, premium options are available.

Paymo: Paymo offers a comprehensive suite of tools for successful online collaboration, task scheduling, time tracking, and cost management. From Gantt charts to Kanban boards, Paymo provides the resources necessary to efficiently manage projects and enable distributed teams to track progress. Moreover, you can enjoy all these benefits at an affordable price of only £4.45 per user per month.

Most User-Friendly

Redbooth: Redbooth is a project management tool that provides functions similar to other applications in its category. This makes it a great option for small businesses dealing with simple tasks. What sets Redbooth apart is that it gives every team member a virtual office of their own. Premium plans are available starting from just $9 per user per month.

Focus on Aesthetics

Trello: Trello is an exceptional tool for managing multiple tasks, primarily due to Kanban boards that provide a clear visualisation of project progress. Assigning tasks to team members, setting deadlines, and rearranging boards is made simple with Trello. In addition, Trello’s integration with other programs, such as Jira and BitBucket, enables seamless communication between teams. The basic plan is free, but commercial options that offer additional features such as app integration are available starting from £9.99 per user per month.

Monday: Monday is an intuitive project management platform that offers a convenient overview of all associated tasks in one location. You can easily identify who is accountable for a task and its due date with just a single glance. The platform is equipped with all necessary features to efficiently manage projects, from team communication to customer updates. The most economical monthly subscription option is just $25.

Communication-oriented

Slack: Slack is a highly beneficial tool for enhancing project management efficiency, allowing teams to stay connected and collaborate on projects even from remote locations. With the assistance of Screenhero, several team members can collaborate on the same project simultaneously. Additionally, archived chats are easily accessible, promoting greater transparency and trust within a group. Small teams can use Slack for free, while premium subscriptions start from just £5.50 per month.

Stride: Stride from Atlassian is the perfect solution for those who value communication and collaboration in project management. This highly anticipated release from Atlassian enables team members to interact and work together through group discussions or one-on-one conversations without relying on cumbersome emails or long chat sessions. Furthermore, audio and video conferences can be used, and notifications can be disabled when users need to focus. The basic plan is free, while the premium plan, which includes additional features, costs $3 per user per month.

Amazingly Shareable

“G Suite”: G Suite is an increasingly popular option for project teams that need to keep everyone, both internal and external, informed about the progress of their work. Its suite of tools, including email, Google Docs, Drive, Calendar, and Hangouts, makes collaboration easy, and with Google’s Admin and Vault features, your data is secure. The most affordable monthly subscription package starts at just £5 per user.

Unmatched in Every Aspect

Explore the capabilities of Atlassian Confluence… Confluence is a popular option for businesses in comparison to other project management platforms, with notable users such as NASA and Spotify. Its compatibility with various other programs, such as Jira, expands its functionality. In addition to being user-friendly, Confluence offers a wide range of powerful features, making it an excellent choice for organisations looking to establish a knowledge base, manage multiple teams simultaneously, or complete various other tasks at a competitive price. For organisations with 11-100 members, the cost per user is just $5 per month.

Final Thoughts

If you are unsure which project management software is suitable for your distributed teams, you can try several options as most of these programs provide free trials. However, it’s important to remember that the effectiveness of any project management tool depends on the results it helps you achieve. If everyone using the platform is not familiar with it, training should be provided to achieve the best possible results. If the current tool is not working as expected, and you are struggling to find an alternative, feel free to contact us as we are always available to provide support in finding the best platform for your distributed teams.

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