The success of any project depends on having a great plan as well as a platform for improving team productivity. As important as it is to execute a new project or idea, it’s that difficult to maintain efficiency throughout the project.

For a project manager, it is imperative to see the bigger picture and do the best to manage the different tasks related to the project at hand. However, it is seen that many project managers struggle to keep track of tasks and end up losing control of everything. To avoid all the unnecessary chaos and confusion related to managing a project, you need reliable project management software that is designed to make the entire process smoother. This blog will help you understand the difference a good project management suite brings to your business and how to choose one!

Read more: Why is Project Management Software Crucial to Project Success in Remote Work Environment

What is Project Management?

The term project management can be defined as the approach one takes for planning and coordinating a project. Be it a small-scale entity, a decentralized team, or a global enterprise, there should be a proper channel available for project management. Every business is optimistic during the starting stages of a project, but it can get very difficult when it comes to overseeing the project development to the final product. This is where project management software comes to play.

Project management software applications have become a necessity in today’s competitive world. They are an essential pillar of support to get the job done regardless of the industry or domain. A project management platform can ensure that you get access to all the tools required to manage every task involved in the project. In other words, you have everything at hand to finish the project within the set deadlines and achieve the expected outcomes.

What are the Functions of Project Management Software?

Project management software like InfinCE can have many functions. InfinCE goes beyond the traditional project management software in numerous ways. It offers you an entire suite of apps at the price of a traditional project management application to ensure improved productivity. Below are some of the main features that make a project management suite exceptional – ensuring the platform you choose has these would be the first stepping-stone to success.

Read more: 5 Ways A Project Management Tool Can Help Your Business Grow

1. Cloud-Based Functionality

Cloud-based solutions have become a commonplace feature for forward-thinking businesses. What’s more, remote work culture has become the mainstream option for many businesses due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. With a robust project management suite that provides cloud-based services, you can ensure better collaboration among your team members no matter where they are located around the globe. In addition, cloud-based solutions are cost-effective, easier to implement, and scalable to meet your varied needs.

2. Seamless Collaboration Options

Seamless communication and collaboration are vital in every project to ensure that all the team members are on the same page. A project management solution like InfinCE can ensure cross-functional collaboration to simplify the way different teams work. You can easily communicate with your team members using the all-in-one platform to share important information and documents related to the task, which will make sure that the job is done efficiently and on time.

3. Easy Integration of Tools

As a project manager, you may find yourself using different productivity tools for different functionalities. For instance, you may use a tool for communication, another for assigning day-to-day tasks, and yet another to share files. An all-in-one project management suite like InfinCE can offer you a unified platform to manage everything. You can integrate as many apps into the software as you want to manage your project. This way, you will not have to juggle between different tools, which can lead to a loss in productivity.

This also means that you will get more time to spend on the important aspects of the project. The most essential tools you should have in your project management software include:

• Planning Tools: Your project management suite should have the right tools to let you map different tasks and describe task iterations clearly at the start of a project. This will help you to layout the project expectations upfront for your team members.
• Task Management Apps: The project management platform you choose should allow for seamless integration of productivity and task management apps to make day-to-day work easier. This could range from creating jobs to assigning tasks and setting deadlines to generating reports and more.
• Time Tracking Options: A successful project management strategy relies heavily on how different team members utilize their time for the different tasks assigned to them. With efficient project management software, you can track time and export timesheets from a single dashboard to monitor the performance of your team.

Read more: 5 Must-have Features In A Project Management Tool For Small Businesses

Added Functions to Look Out for in Your Project Management Software

The final output of a project depends a lot upon who is responsible for what. This demands keeping the team updated about the different tasks at all stages of the project as well as assigning tasks and job roles as required. With an all-in-one project management software like InfinCE, you can automate the assigning of repeated tasks based on specific rules to streamline the process. Moreover, you can also communicate the deadlines and responsibilities to your team more clearly when you are on the same platform.

InfinCE also makes it simpler to track the progress of the project by giving you a unified view of the various tasks on a single dashboard. This can not only help to monitor the performance of your team members but also motivate them in case they hit a roadblock or need some help in getting things resolved. This also means that you can prevent bottlenecks and break any silos before they affect your team’s overall productivity.

InfinCE also allows you to anticipate what can go wrong in a project and take the required actions in due time. This will keep the workflow unhindered so that the objectives of the project are achieved as expected. In a nutshell, a reliable project management software suite like InfinCE will help you to keep your team focused and organized to ensure optimal success for your business. So wait no more! Sign Up with InfinCE today and unlock unlimited possibilities for your business!

Why should small businesses invest in a cloud business phone system

In the past, a business phone system was not a small business priority. But did you know that nearly 65% of consumers prefer to interact with a business over a phone call rather than utilizing a web contact form? As companies rush to find more ways to engage their loyal customers, keeping their contact options flexible and open to customer demands is a critical area that they cannot ignore. In this context, having a business phone number is essential as customers may want to get in touch with you directly for various reasons. Traditional telephonic communication systems have transitioned into their digital avatars. Today VOIP based telecommunication is the backbone of every small business phone system out there.

The latest and most trending internet-enabled telephonic communication infrastructure for today’s digital-savvy small businesses is a cloud business phone system. The trend is attributed to the ROI that cloud business phone systems can provide to small businesses. Cloud business phone systems help companies deliver a seamless experience for customers to get in touch with them. 

Let us explore the top 7 benefits that a small business can enjoy if they switch over to a cloud business phone system:

1. Global access

A telephone system managed in a cloud environment enables businesses to globalize their communication infrastructure. It allows the staff to utilize the business phone for communication from anywhere in the world in just a few clicks. All it takes is a few configuration steps to be done on your cloud phone system. In a matter of minutes, your business phone system will be ready for use in any country you may shift your operating base to or open up new offices. All data related to your contacts, workflow mappings of different departments, or executives can be seamlessly moved to your new work location without any effort.

Read more: 5 Ways an Integrated Cloud Platform is Beneficial for Your Small Business

2. Cost-efficient

As we all know, cloud business phone systems rely on VOIP technology to make phone calls from the internet. Voice is transferred as data packets and not as analog signals found in traditional line-based telephonic infrastructure. Voice services over the internet are relatively inexpensive irrespective of the geographies connected through the line for customer interactions. Availing a cloud business phone system also allows small businesses to avoid hefty license fees as they can opt for economic subscription plans that best suit their needs.

3. Simplified infrastructure

A cloud business phone system doesn’t require enterprises to have physical telecommunication infrastructure components like a PBX box, telephones, and operational lines. Also, they do not require office premises to be modified to lay cables and wires to support a large user base of executives accessing different official phone numbers. The cloud system offers all employees a simple one-click call from their smartphones, and the cloud service provider handles all call routing, network optimization, and traffic management.

Read more: 8 Ways Cloud Automation Significantly Improves Your Legacy IT Operations

4. Flexibility of scale

Small businesses always need technology that can flexibly align with their growth prospects. Cloud telephone systems allow enterprises to seamlessly scale up the number of people who can access the business phone system with just a few clicks and no physical infrastructure additions. They can increase the number of subscribers in their monthly or yearly billing contract signed with a service provider. The same applies if they want to scale down operations as well.

5. Device independence

With a cloud-based business phone system, employees can make calls from any of their devices such as smartphones or laptops or any other work gear and have the recipient receive the call from the official business correspondence number. All call features such as recording, analytics, reporting, etc., can be done on the cloud. Companies can even route incoming calls to an employee’s number to another employee easily in the event of leave or absence.

6. Limitless geographical extension

One of the highlights of using a cloud-based VOIP business phone system is that it gives businesses the freedom to establish a local presence in a country with a business phone system tagged to a local number. They can do it remotely from anywhere globally, thereby empowering businesses to expand their reach to international customers seamlessly.

7. Recovery and security

With a cloud-based business phone system, your business’s entire telephone system has a virtual infrastructure hosted and secured in a cloud environment. In the wake of a natural calamity or a sudden migration of office space to a new city or locality, your business phone system can be up and running from the new area in a matter of seconds.

Download White Paper: The Business Value of InfinCE for Business Owners and Employees

As the world is increasingly transitioning to digital-first interactions, keeping your telecommunication system agile and flexible is vital for sustainable business growth. This is where investing in a cloud business phone system can make a tangible return on your investment. Get in touch with us to see how InfinCE can help create the perfect digital backbone for your small business by bringing all your enterprise applications, telecommunication, and collaboration capabilities under one roof on a SaaS model. 

Choosing the Right Pricing Model for Enterprise IT Services

The recent trends in digital transformation have paved the way for ensuring optimal business growth for enterprises. With the rates of public cloud adoption going up, it seems that leaders have recognized the potential of modern IT tools and technologies for generating better revenue. Simultaneously, organizations have also started to find alternatives to traditional IT infrastructure models and achieve improved agility in their operations.

Today, the cloud has become ideal for businesses to build enterprise applications at much lesser costs quickly. Cloud also allows them to utilize advanced technologies to scale their operations and stay competitive in the market. As new IT solutions are entering the industry every day, organizations need to identify the right platform to manage their workloads.

Read more: Private Or Public Cloud: Where Should My Business Invest? 

Choosing the right pricing model for enterprise IT services

Partnering with a reliable IT services vendor like InfinCE gives organizations the option to run workloads on-premises and on the public cloud. This works to bolster the security of sensitive company data further while ensuring superior operational efficiency. Although adopting the best IT models is always the goal of a business, leaders also look for responsive technology partners that can offer IT solutions at the best costs. So, it’s crucial to choose the right pricing model.

There are predominantly two types of pricing models for enterprise IT services – subscription-based models and consumption-based pricing. Choosing the right pricing strategy allows a business to scale their IT resources up or down as needed while saving some money in the process as well.

The consumption-based approach is usually the go-to option for companies that want to make their business operations more agile. On the other hand, a subscription-based model suits those who want to keep their budget under control while benefiting from the potential of modern IT tools and technologies. 

Read more: 5 Reasons For Small Businesses To Adopt SaaS Model 

Listed in this blog are three principal business areas that are primarily affected by your IT pricing model’s choice.

1. Enterprise IT Operations

In the past, launching a new IT project required considerable hardware and software investments. Sometimes, it also needed months of planning and execution to get it right. Today, businesses demand faster solutions that will allow them to launch an IT project on the go. It can be facilitated easily by collaborating with an agile IT services provider.

A subscription-based model means that you will need to pay upfront for receiving the services, be it cloud solution or on-premise. Some vendors also allow customizing the features in their subscription models so that you can decide which elements you will need to optimize the IT operations of your company. As the costs are determined based on the length of the subscription, long-term plans often mean lower business costs.

On the contrary, the consumption-based IT model allows you to pay for the services you use. While this can be a good option for those who have trouble keeping their IT systems updated with software updates and patches, it will need you to cherry-pick the required tools and technologies every time you want to launch an IT project. So it is vital to choose an end-to-end IT solutions provider when going with the consumption-based pricing model.

Read more: InfinCE – A One Stop Technology Solution for Small Business 

2. Running Workloads

Working with a reliable IT services vendor that will take care of everything from equipment maintenance and on-site configurations to training and support for your in-house team is always the best choice to stay ahead of competitors. That’s what InfinCE does for its customers. InfinCE’s technical concierge allows businesses to access IT support via phone, email, or live chat. The concierge helps you resolve the problem either by yourself or by arranging for a technician, depending on the challenge’s complexity.

When the IT vendor manages everything, a fixed recurring invoice can lead to better savings than paying every month. As subscription-based models are evolving, it gives you greater control and flexibility when choosing IT plans.

It also means determining your workload requirements adequately before choosing a pricing plan so that you can avoid all kinds of risks and keep a check on the costs. You can also use both public and hosted private clouds as per the plan to explore better opportunities to develop enterprise applications and services. Meanwhile, if you go with consumption IT plans, you can easily and quickly scale the IT resources on your terms and effectively run the workloads.

Moving between public clouds and on-premises setups can also be much cost-effective when it is consumption-based pricing. Enterprises can easily choose the business-critical applications necessary to improve performance or deal with any latency issues. Likewise, it can also be beneficial to pull back the workloads with highly sensitive business data that cannot be left off-premises.

Read more: How can modern IT management software empower companies to be more agile? 

3. Capacity Planning

IT capacity planning needs companies to evaluate their resource utilization, workforce needs, and application usage before buying the servers, storage, and network infrastructure from a vendor. In this case, using a subscription-based service works out because businesses can have a predictable expense to manage their revenue stream. Moreover, subscription models also save on the costs of full purchases to gain access to the IT tools required to cover their demands.

On the contrary, the consumption-based model, or the pay-as-you-go approach, allows organizations to make an immediate purchase for their unplanned IT decisions. This can help deal with sudden demand peaks that cannot be managed with the existing infrastructure. This also means that those who are not adept with capacity planning can benefit from consumption-based IT pricing strategies. A reliable vendor can also help you determine future capacity requirements and see if the resources are enough to meet those upcoming demands.

A subscription-based model can be a boon to businesses that need an all-in-one platform for their enterprise needs. For instance, InfinCE offers a vast pool of features to support the business’s changing needs for fixed pricing. Customers can also personalize the plans with added resources to match their current and planned needs, which will lead to better operational efficiency and productivity.

Read more: 5 Points To Consider While Choosing Your Enterprise Collaboration Software 

Selecting the right pricing model 

Choose consumption-based IT model, if you:

• Prefer maintaining a more agile business operations approach
• Need to shift too often from public cloud to on-site system
• Cannot determine future peak demands precisely
• Want scalable IT resources for unplanned potential workloads
• Do not have dedicated personnel or the resources to manage any software updates or IT maintenance work

Choose subscription-based IT model, if you:

• Need a greater level of control and flexibility over your IT plans
• Prefer to have a predictable monthly expense
• Have the capacity planning done right based on the predefined budget
• Do not want to look for the required tools and technologies every now and then for new IT projects
• Want a comprehensive solution for managing everything from IT systems configurations to training and support

Choosing an all-in-one business management solution can help you become flexible and responsive to meet the customer demands and ensure optimal growth for your business in today’s competitive environment. The final decision to go with usage-based models or subscription approach should be based on your business’s actual requirements.

Want to know more about the flexible pricing plans offered by InfinCE for businesses of all sizes and capacities? Contact us! 

How can an integrated cloud platform turn your business competitive?

Across the world, businesses of all sizes are increasingly managing their operations through digital tools such as an integrated cloud platform. The benefits of such a cloud platform extend not just to big businesses but also to the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) segment where cloud technology has made a significant impact. 

The State of Cloud Adoption Amongst SMEs

SMEs are undoubtedly a major contributor to the global economy. While individually, they would not be a significant job creator, the collective market they open up for both jobs and economic contribution cannot be ignored. As competition increases every year and with pandemics like COVID-19 wrecking entire economies in a matter of months, SMEs must stay focused on delivering maximum value from minimal expenditure. As always, turning to digital transformation will be the key element that brings about a competitive edge to SMEs and helps them serve the large digital-savvy customer base worldwide.

No other technology has made business stronger and more profitable for SMBs as the feat achieved by cloud computing. 59% of small businesses that use the cloud have found to be enjoying more productivity benefits than those who are not on the cloud. Additionally, 82% of small business organizations that moved to the cloud reported that they reduced costs considerably with cloud technology.

Now let’s move back to the initial discussion about the benefits of an integrated cloud platform to manage operations, for a small business. Today, there is no shortage of cloud-based business applications that propel SMEs into the same competitive advantage position that bigger companies have with their spending power. 

So how can SMEs make the most of a cloud platform to get an edge over their competition? Here are 5 ways:

1. Connected Business Value

An integrated cloud platform for business management provides a medium for businesses to manage their entire ecosystem of digital applications in one place. From functions such as CRM and marketing automation to deal with customers and ERP and HRM to handle internal operations, there is a need to bring a streamlined workflow that connects insights from each department and makes it available for general consumption. 

Read more: 5 Reasons Why Every SMB Should Invest In An ERP Solution 

A cloud platform-based business management software empowers businesses to achieve this feat at ease. When all stakeholders of a business value chain are brought into a single collaborative platform, it becomes easier to offer better services at a faster pace to customers.

2. Easier Development of New Features

Over time, your business may require newer capabilities in its digital channels to remain competitive. These features and capabilities may be required across different applications or business departments and incorporating them should not be an overly complex endeavor. 

With an integrated cloud platform, newer business applications or features could be developed by business users with low code application development mechanisms, facilitated by such platforms. In fact, Gartner estimates that by 2021, nearly 30% of manufacturing organizations will entrust their digital teams to build new features with low code technology. With an integrated business management platform, it becomes easier to maintain a common technology architecture and extensible APIs onto which new features can be easily built and deployed.

Read more: How Workplace Technology and Culture Will Evolve in 2020 & Beyond

3. Reduced Operational Costs

Having disconnected and disparate digital applications in your technology ecosystem can push up operational costs as each system may need access to a different talent pool of specialists for any maintenance or development activity. Having an integrated platform deployed on the cloud will ensure that there is a need only for a single point of contact for all maintenance and development needs. The unified technology architecture makes it easier for newer developers to build features that can be shared across units without the need for development and deployment effort in each individual business system across units. This will greatly improve cost savings in the long run.

Read more: 3 Strong Reasons for Your Business to Embrace Cloud-based IT Services 

4. Seamless Organizational Data Management

By leveraging a cloud platform, businesses can enable different sub-functions or departments to work simultaneously on the same digital data from across systems and ensure that all have access to the latest version of files as well. With an integrated system, businesses can save on data re-engineering and re-modeling efforts for interoperability between systems. 

Having a centralized business management platform on the cloud also provides a single source of truth as far as key business data is concerned. Management can draw up analytical reports, insights on performance, evaluate metrics of growth, and much more easily from a unified system of applications that cater to multiple business units. Data synchronization and real-time updates allow organizations to maintain the integrity of business data and enable transparency between departments accessing or working on the same data.

5. Easy Cultural Adaptability

When the core business operations are managed and run by software on the cloud, it becomes easier for businesses to respond to cultural changes that may happen abruptly. A striking example is the COVID-19 pandemic which forced hundreds of thousands of businesses to transition into a work from home or remote operations model for employee safety. Those that had a digital core managed by an integrated cloud platform faced no disruption as employees could carry out their daily tasks from the comfort of their homes by securely accessing the organizational cloud system whereas those that did not use such a mechanism found their business to be disrupted for days due to delays in facilitating work from home for all staff.

Read more: How InfinCE Helps You Quickly Transit to Remote Working

How InfinCE Helps

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic shook the world, it was predicted that nearly 78% of all small businesses will fully adopt cloud computing by the end of 2020. By moving to the cloud, they not only realize the benefits of scalability and cost-efficiency but also set the pace for the rapid proliferation of digital transformation. With a powerful integrated cloud platform at the core of operations, enterprises can propel their digital future to new heights. Making the right choice for such a cloud platform is all that matters in this case. If you’re thinking about making the switch to the cloud, then InfinCE can be the answer you were looking for. 

With years of expertise in powering the digital backbone of successful businesses worldwide, InfinCE can become the central business management platform of your business handling everything from ERP to Sales and CRM functions. Get in touch with our experts to learn more.