Management gets made more difficult every day as people and projects spread across the globe. One minute, you’re in the northeastern United States working on the project; next, you find yourself traveling to a warehouse in the Southwest. But work doesn’t stop because you’re out of the office. You need to make sure that projects stay on track, employees know what they’re supposed to do, and customers get their updates. The following four apps can help you define your remote management style.
XSCANPET
Inventory tracking sometimes feels like herding cats. If workers don’t have bar-code scanners with them in a warehouse, they may fail to scan items into a database. Or, they miss a bin of products, thinking someone else who has a scanner will update the inventory. XSCANPET eliminates the problem of not having enough inventory tracking equipment for people to use.
This app runs on smartphones and uses a Microsoft Excel file for the item database. Employees install the app on their company phones, such as the sleek Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge on the T-Mobile network, and simply scan the bar codes as they work. The information uploads into an Excel spreadsheet and to a database where you can access the data. All you need to do from this point is provide the information to the necessary party. With a smartphone like the S7 Edge, on T-Mobile’s reliable 4G LTE netowk, you can be sure that your data will upload quickly. This allows employees to work with ease and convenience.
Asana
Project management requires assigning teams to perform specific tasks and ensure these tasks are completed on time. You create a list of assignments, then you make sure all employees receive their assignments. Simple, right? The process is simple until members of your team overlook the important details and people fall off task. Don’t compromise your efficiency with project delays.
Asana streamlines project management by creating groups through a content management system-style interface. All you need to do is create groups, place your team members in those groups, and enter their assignments. Users log into their groups, find out what they need to do on a particular day, and who they’re working with on their assignments. Asana eliminates uncertainty and keeps projects running smoothly. Asana also functions on smartphones to keep everyone connected to project details even when people are not in the office.
Slack
Communication is key in project management, and if no one is talking, you’ll risk a communication breakdown. Slack lets you create groups of users for mass communication. Send a message that’s targeted at one group and send a different message to a different group. Eliminate the need to send mass emails to specific groups and then wonder if you reached everyone on the list. With Slack, you can target the message and track your communications.
Keeping communication clean and direct goes a long ways towards eliminating problems. Each group can communicate with the members of its team without another group interjecting a different question or derailing the topic. Everyone can to talk to the people they need to interact with at any given time. In the meantime, your create the management style of keeping control of the project without hovering over shoulders and letting people do what they need to do.
Casual
Have you ever wished you had enough artistic talent to create flow charts as you visualize them in your head? Wish no more with Casual’s easy-to-use design tool. You create the flow chart as you envision the design, then you place people or groups under their project heading, and distribute your flow chart once you have completed its layout. Give users the ability to edit your chart as the project progresses. Or, you can lock your chart from changes as needed. Casual makes a clean and easy-to-use tool to help keep details of a project organized for everyone involved in the work.
The above four apps can help you target all aspects of project management without being overbearing and spending too much time focused on a particular area. With these apps in place, you can keep communications open with everyone and create a transparent, effective, and efficient management style for you and your team.