We live in a digitally disrupted world that thrives on data and interconnectivity. Businesses that operate with their teams working in silos will find themselves irrelevant and redundant, more so in the newly defined post-pandemic business as usual. Be it a small or large enterprise, collaboration and data exchange across multiple functions or business applications is a significant part of your everyday operations. This is why the need for integration is imminent. On-premises, cloud-native, modern, or legacy applications – integration is the lifesaver of your organization.

Add to this equation an interesting growth projection: In 2020, the enterprise integration market had been valued at USD 9.65 billion; it is now predicted by 2026, it will reach USD 22.69 at a CAGR of 15.42%. So, what can businesses extrapolate from this?

One, data drives innovation and business change, and two, integration is a key feature that is critical to achieving sustained business success and for businesses to remain relevant.

Read more: How Can Organizations Profit More from Collaboration Software?

Furthermore, businesses globally are looking to build their digital resilience in order to stay afloat in the face of change. In this context, simplifying integration as a core asset would be vital as it would mean the following. 

• Optimization of business processes: Integration facilitates organizations to build a central framework or software architecture that enables cross-functional teams to connect efficiently and transmit data between multiple systems for better collaboration. This essentially translates to lesser bottlenecks and improved accuracy. Integration eliminates manual, time-consuming processes by significantly minimizing communication delays and increasing efficiency and speed. It automates them to deliver optimized business outcomes driven by high-value strategic processes. 
• Better responsiveness and preparedness for change: Integration helps build a conducive environment that embraces change and paves the way for unique technological opportunities. This forms the core of a digital transformation process that translates directly into better business performance by fostering innovation.
• Improved decision-making through data-driven insights: Connected data offers holistic enterprise-wide visibility. Thereby enabling both customers and employees to see the big picture and base their decisions on qualitative evidence and not just on discrete, non-contextual information.
• Reduced costs: By integrating legacy systems with modern infrastructure rather than entirely replacing them, integration drives enhanced revenue and reduced costs. By connecting disparate systems to one another and building a central framework that allows both old and new models to co-exist, integration allows businesses to keep revamping existing infrastructure incrementally. 
• Supports cloud initiatives: Existing systems and processes can seamlessly connect to cloud-based services through integration. By connecting to the cloud, organizations typically cut down costs as it precludes the need to invest in separate solutions that serve distinct purposes and instead consolidate several functions under one hood through the cloud. 

That brings us to the following question: How do you choose a business platform that makes integration simple?

Simplified integration is at the cornerstone of your organization’s success. Seamless integration across multiple functions and connected processes within an organization helps eliminate silos, prepares an organization for any eventuality, fosters growth and robust development, and drives overall operational as well as strategic efficiency.

Read more: Why is It Necessary to Safeguard Data Privacy in Project Management?

So, what are the essential checklist you should consider while choosing a business platform that simplifies integration?

• Flexibility and API implementation support: A business platform can simplify integration if it works within an agile environment and contributes to a seamless process workflow. This improves efficiency and allows for easy configuration through robust APIs. 
• Ability to handle hybrid/coexistence scenarios: Since legacy systems can’t be entirely replaced for modern infrastructure and will need to be scaled appropriately, a business platform should be flexible enough to accommodate integration across multiple scenarios such as cloud-to-cloud, on-premises to cloud, and on-premises to on-premises.
• Strong architecture support: Integration is seamlessly carried out if a business platform supports multiple architectures such as Microservices, SOA & ESB (Enterprise Service Bus).
• High volume data processing. One of the most crucial parameters while considering an integration platform is its ability to process huge volumes of data in seconds. Batch processing support and high-volume requests are vital pre-requisites for a robust integration platform.
• Security: Data security is indeed the most critical aspect to look out for while choosing an integration platform. While choosing an enterprise integration platform, ensure that it is well-built with security features and that the overall flow of data is not dependent on third-party servers.

How does a robust business platform such as InfinCE be your best bet for seamless integration?

Whether you want to consolidate disparate units of data from enterprise silos, cut down on tedious manual task flows and replace them with automation, or want to leverage key data insights to drive better decisions, InfinCE is equipped with an array of tools that help facilitate seamless integration across all your business processes and functions.

With InfinCE that simplifies integration at its core, you will get a bird’s eye view as well as an insightful take into important aspects of your IT infrastructure. This will help you prepare for the future as well as guide you in managing your business operations proficiently. By taking stock of critical trends and changes early on, you will be adept at making evidence-based strategic decisions at a quick turnaround time.

InfinCE works as your unified business platform to offer meaningful and deep insights into different layers of your IT resources and helps you see how each process/system is interconnected to the other, thereby making integration both simple and seamless.  

Get in touch with us to know more about InfinCE and how it can help your business.

Since the beginning of 2020, digital transformation has come knocking at the doors of businesses across every primary industry. 

Over the past two years, we have transcended traditional work models and embraced remote-capable ecosystems powered by collaboration and productivity technologies. These have caused a tremendous shift in how people are collaborating and getting their work done. And this has been very beneficial.

Through this article, we’ll explore the many benefits of better systems of collaboration and how they can impact productivity and the workflows within projects. 

But let’s begin by understanding the pain points – why we need collaboration tools and the negative impacts on productivity due to a lack of effective collaboration among teams.

Read more: Moving to Hybrid Work Culture? Here’s What You Need to Consider!

How Lack of Collaboration Can Affect Projects

1. Stunted results

If you don’t have effective collaboration systems or communication tools across the organization, you may not achieve much. To build game-changing solutions in a highly competitive market, you need to leverage the skills and capabilities of your entire team. This is not possible if the digital systems in place don’t allow you to collaborate effectively.

2. Inability to plan properly

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”, Benjamin Franklin said. The success of any project rests heavily on how effectively it gets planned. Whether your organization follows AGILE, Waterfall, or any other project management model, none of their capabilities are enough to overcome improper planning. And proper planning is not possible without effective collaboration across teams.

3. Organizational silos

This is a significant challenge, especially for projects that require a lot of knowledge sharing. If the teams are not consistently aligned with each other, one side will always have incomplete information about the project or the process. This extends even beyond just information. It also holds for goals, objectives, and priorities. Unless the entire team is singing from the same sheet, nothing is going to sound good.

4. Lack of trust among people

This is a people issue than a project issue. But people are vital to any process. If there aren’t enough systems for people to easily collaborate, organizations risk fostering unnecessary competitiveness. People can become disengaged and won’t be able to develop close professional relationships or build trust.

Read more: How Can Organizations Profit More from Collaboration Software?

So, what is the solution?

The simplest answer would be to facilitate better collaboration among their teams. And how do we do that? 

The solution lies in the digital ecosystem that the organization operates within. The right digital workplace orchestration could be the difference between a successful, collaborative project and one that’s struggling to take off.

This leads us to our next point of discussion – 

How better technologies can improve collaboration and productivity

1. Breaking Down Silos

Better collaboration means better communication, which leads to better transfer of knowledge among teams. An effective digital workplace solution can empower knowledge workers to access information or educate themselves on best practices in real-time. This enables them to continue and complete their tasks. They need not wait for the information to arrive from the source or mail it back to them.

2. Transparency and Visibility

A robust digital ecosystem is beneficial not only to the people who are involved in the project but also to those who manage it. For example, collaboration tools can allow managers to maintain oversight on the project and remain in constant communication with the people involved. It will enable them to interfere appropriately and resolve crises in real-team as they arise.

3. Enhanced Workflows

Workflows benefit in multiple ways from incorporating organization-wide collaboration systems. Firstly, it speeds up the processes by reducing the time between ideation to implementation. It can also help avoid version control issues by offering easy real-time file-sharing capabilities. This removes inefficiencies like having to pass documents through emails. 

4. Engagement and Morale

A study conducted at Stanford University claimed that “when people treated as partners work together with others – even when physically apart – their motivation increases.” The simple act of connecting people can help bridge gaps between teams and build engagement and morale. When people are working in silos, they remain unaware of how their work impacts the overall project. Connecting people not only improve organizational cohesion it gives them the motivation and perspective to deliver better. 

Read more: 5 Ways InfinCE Can Save On Your Enterprise IT Budget

InfinCE- A Perfect Collaboration Platform for Businesses

Now that we know how a great collaboration platform can improve productivity let’s look at a good option for your business.

InfinCE is the only true digital workplace orchestration platform ever built. It is a one-of-a-kind solution that offers all the collaboration and productivity tools and the technical infrastructure an organization needs. 

Leveraged effectively, organizations can use InfinCE to turbocharge their workflows, deliver better, and achieve improved innovation within the organization.

Let’s check out how.

1. Cloud-based infrastructure

InfinCE offers a fully cloud-based ecosystem for its extensive list of productivity and collaboration tools. It allows employees to access these tools anytime and from anywhere in the world, on a device of their choice. Further, the model also supports real-time file sharing, allowing teams and individuals to share documents through secure access systems. This avoids delays that can arise by relying on the manual transfer of files.

2. Easy tracking and analysis

InfinCE enables business leaders to efficiently monitor and review business metrics through personalized dashboards and data visualization tiles. In addition to a whole host of pre-built standard tiles for monitoring information, it allows for customized tiles for specific requirements like monitoring servers, apps, and even employees. These insights can help leaders make faster decisions and resolve problems faster. 

3. Security

Digital security is a significant point in today’s work environment, especially when talking about a digital workplace model. InfinCE takes this into special consideration by protecting all data stored within its infrastructure with the latest cybersecurity protocols. Everything is stored securely on virtual private servers with advanced firewalls. In addition, smart access control systems permit only the right people to access or edit files. 

4. Comprehensive and Extendable 

If the digital workplace system is not capable enough or extendable for everyone’s use, an organization-wide adaptation may be impossible. This means that you risk going from individual silos to department-based silos. This is where InfinCE stands out. It comes packed with a whole host of productivity and collaboration tools. It ranges from the software to edit documents and spreadsheets to email clients and servers and much more. Further, the platform’s unique infrastructure makes it highly extendable – businesses can remove old applications and add in new software or SaaS options from other vendors.

Through this discussion, it’s easy to see how greater collaboration is directly proportional to better productivity and project management.

A powerful and effective digital workplace orchestration platform like InfinCE with its suite of productivity and collaboration tools can do wonders for your project workflows. There’s no better way to empower your teams.

Chat with our expert to learn more about InfinCE. 

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!

Best Practices to Optimize Project Management Communication

Agile project management is highly crucial in today’s remote-first, digital-first workplace. The remote work culture has emerged as a potential solution for handling various operational aspects across companies. Remote work management brings several benefits to the table, but it is not devoid of challenges. One of the biggest concerns in managing remote teams is effective communication.

Without consistent and effective project communication between the teams, it can be challenging for the managers to execute actions as planned. Likewise, lack of proper communication will make it impossible to ensure that everyone is on the same page about the project’s status and what changes have been made to it. Ineffective project communication can lead to transparency issues between the teams, affecting their productivity and overall results.

Download White Paper: Adapting to The Changing Face of Enterprise Collaboration

Common Challenges in Project Management Communication

Most managers fail to drive the optimum outcome when managing remote teams. It is because they do not start with a well-planned communication strategy. Remote work and project management should always have a robust communication strategy so that no unwanted scenario pops up. It prevents project teams from using ineffective channels at inappropriate times.

For instance, while dealing with an urgent customer request, email communication alone may not be effective. You may have to use telecommunication, video conferencing, or instant messaging platforms to solve the customer challenge immediately. At the same time, an everyday instant messenger may not support screen sharing or file sharing. Hence, it is crucial to adopt Digital Workplace Orchestration platforms like InfinCE to manage your projects. 

Read more: How Successful Leaders Engage Employees Using Modern Business Communication Tools like InfinCE 

Communication gaps in project management can also arise when some team members are not updated with the project’s progress. For example, suppose someone is handling the design aspect of the project and fails to update the design status to other members. In that case, the production team will have to wait until they receive notification regarding design completion. This can lead to trust and transparency issues and minimize employee productivity. 

Another challenge in project management communication is that managers often do not have the means to fine-tune their strategies as per the project’s progress. Even though the project communication management approach fits the implementation needs, companies may need to accommodate frequent change requests from the customer. It’s crucial to refine the communication and collaboration strategy to match the changing project management demands.

Read more: Business Process Management Strategy for your Small Business 

How to Ensure Project Management Communication Success

When developing the project communication plan, you need to determine how you can pass on the relevant information to the team members in due time. It’s also important to decide how you can share the necessary files and documents with the appropriate parties for carrying out their jobs. InfinCE’s project collaboration software can simplify all these processes.

How to Choose a Project Management Platform

An all-in-one project collaboration platform like InfinCE can come in very handy in team management, as it gives you an effective communication channel for different purposes. InfinCE’s project management software helps you handle knowledge management and data sharing functions. It allows you to oversee the progress and status of various project aspects on a unified dashboard.

Read more: 5 Key Features Every Project Management Dashboard Should Offer 

By adopting a reliable project management platform like InfinCE, you can rest assured that a proper communications workflow is in place. InfinCE helps deliver the data that your team members require to perform their job roles at every stage of the project. Moreover, it can also serve as a channel to collect feedback and improve the project management communication system to guarantee optimal results. InfinCE helps build trust among the team members by making your process more transparent.

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

Best Practices to Handle Project Management Communication

Along with an all-in-one project management platform, you also need to implement the best project management communication strategy. The next step is to confirm if the strategy works as intended. As a business owner, you should regularly monitor the strategy. It includes conveying insights generated at each point of the project management process, how and where the data is processed, and how the team members apply insights to improve their work. 

Analyze the efficiency of your project communication strategy at regular intervals to identify any communication gaps and take steps to address them. Keep an eye on how your team members use the project communication platform. Review how project managers use the digital workplace platform to share team and project updates and dashboards. Project management software like InfinCE also helps encourage virtual socialization among team members. You can also use it to assess the performance of your project communication strategy and make changes if needed. 

Read more: 5 Best Practices To Enable Seamless Communication For Your Remote Workforce 

Tips to Manage External Communications

An agile project management tool allows you to communicate with all the parties involved in a project to ensure that you can reach your target outcomes on time. For instance, InfinCE OpenProject enables you to grant access to external users like your clients and other stakeholders. This improves the stakeholders’ visibility over the project’s status. They can recommend insights relevant to the execution of a specific project process. 

You can also manage access to the communication funnel for document sharing internally and for other purposes externally. This will help the team members find the required information instantly, which leads to improved transparency and productivity. On the other end, having a unified communications channel will make collaboration with clients and suppliers much easier for your team members.

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

The Closing Note

Besides a robust communication strategy, you also need to ensure appropriate communication at the end of a project. Project management communication will help you confirm that the results meet the intended quality. You can also refine the approach and the process in due course.  

Communication should continue even after completing the project. Employee recognition, social conversations, and casual interactions go a long way in boosting remote team morale, which will eventually lead to high-end productivity and performance.InfinCE is a digital workplace orchestration platform that offers a vast array of collaboration apps, productivity tools, custom dashboards, centralized and private IT infrastructure, custom branding elements, a curated app marketplace, and a host of other features. Talk to us and find out how InfinCE can be your best project management companion.

The key ingredients that make up an ideal project management dashboard.

Project management is an irreplaceable asset of any business. It plays a crucial role in driving successful business results. Across the globe, companies are increasingly investing in project management tools to help track the progress of their customer deliverables and ensuring efficient operations. 

But are you investing in the right project management capabilities needed to succeed?  

To answer this question you need to be aware of what a project management software needs to offer as features in today’s highly disruptive and digital-first business scenario. 

Here are our picks on the top 5 features you need to make sure are present in your project management dashboard. These will help your workforce to seamlessly deliver successful results for customer projects every time.

Related Reading: 5 Ways A Project Management Tool Can Help Your Business Grow 

1. Smart Workflows

All your efficient planning and strategic direction of managing a project will not find a smooth ride to success unless there are automated workflows that help synchronize different stages of project activity. In simple terms, a workflow can be defined as a series of steps that will be automated to ensure that people and project tasks move seamlessly through defined project milestones. With smarter workflows, team members can be empowered with capabilities such as automatic tracking of project communication, approvals and status updates and much more.

2. Budgeting

The success of every project irrespective of it being a customer-facing or an internal one is primarily dependent on how well it has been budgeted. By budgeting, we mean that there is a transparent view of the project’s budgetary scope and it will be easier for finance or payment teams to view the progress of project schedules and raise invoices according to pre-defined contractual obligations. 

It becomes easier for decision-makers to get a holistic view of how the project is utilizing resources to efficiently manage budgets and scope changes. It also helps them to have knowledge about how much of these budgeted figures have been accepted by the customer or internal teams that required the project. The project management dashboard that you utilize should have a clear space for tracking your budgets and trace anomalies and unexpected escalations in billing.

Related Reading: 5 Must-have Features In A Project Management Tool For Small Businesses

3. KPI Indicators

In the age of performance-oriented work culture, there are quite a lot of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that every project manager needs to keep track of in a project. The KPIs could be related to the project’s budget, milestones and schedules, resource utilization, employee performance, time and effort, customer satisfaction indices and much more. 

The project management platform is the perfect place to have a comprehensive view of these KPI elements and hence your project management software needs to incorporate KPI visibility as a key pillar.

4. Team Management and Collaboration

Customer-facing projects often require a collaborative and constructive approach from multiple team members who may be spread across offices or continents in several cases with different time zones. Bringing them together and offering a seamless collaborative environment is an essential factor and the project management software you choose can play a big part in it. 

By having a dedicated section in the dashboard for team communication as well as collaboration options, platforms like InfinCE foster a culture of togetherness within the company that will be beneficial for sustained growth in the long run. Examples of collaborative options that employees can directly access from the project management dashboard could be joining meetings virtually through audio or video interfacing, sharing and working collaboratively on documents and files, tracking dependent task progress and much more.

InfinCE also supports you to quickly transit to remote working. InfinCE enables your workforce to get up and get running remotely, within the shortest time and without the need for any special equipment.

Related Reading: Effective Work From Home Tips – Infographic

5. Reporting

Decisions are often made by leadership by analyzing reports from project managers. These reports cover a wide spectrum of operational and functional parameters of a business. It includes employee performance reports, budget and billing reports, marketing and pipeline or lead generation reports, profit and loss reports, project progress reports and much more. And each of these reports may have multiple variants or sub-reports depending on factors such as geographical classification, vertical or industry-wise classification, product or service wise classification and much more. 

A project management dashboard needs to incorporate a powerful reporting feature that can provide comprehensive yet simplified insights of the entire business or project which will then allow decision-makers to utilize it for their next step or strategic planning.

Managing a project successfully requires considerable effort from managers and team members. But without a digital platform to organize all activities and tasks, there is no way people can handle complex project activities of today manually. This is where enterprise platforms like InfinCE can be the game-changer. Our cloud-based enterprise collaboration platform enables you to successfully manage big or small projects seamlessly with intuitive dashboards offering all the necessary features you need. Our consultants can customize the platform to suit your unique business needs thereby ensuring continuous success for your project management activities. Get in touch with us to know more.