Best Resource Management Software

For a business that is planning to march on the path of success, effective resource management is very important. In its absence, a business can face major brunt at various key functional areas. However, doing so is an actual job as there are many aspects that demand unwavering attention. 

Power with AI, a specialized resource management system can help you doing so. This business tool has the ability to track, manage, monitor, and optimize your existing resources in the best possible manner. 

What is Resource Management Software?

Resource management software is a tech-driven tool that helps a business to find out the availability of resources and ensuring their proper usability. By using high-end AI, this Ai tools lets a business find out what the problem areas are and how you can address them. No matter whether you have plenty of resources or dealing with scarcity, the best resource management software will guide you to make most of them and contribute towards business success and leverage maximum products. 

This business tool is here to enhance collaboration, promote easy and secure information sharing, having detailed reporting, and utilizing the available resources at fullest. The automation of resource management software helps a business to reduce the reduction in mundane work and reducing the incident of human errors. 

The four main types of resources that can be managed and streamlined using these tools are:

• Time  

• Human Resource 

• Hardware/software/business application 

• Operational cost and budget 

By integrating the world’s best AI and automation in these resources, resource information management systems ensure the maximum utility of these resources and increase ROI. Depending upon the type of configuration, you can have on-cloud or on-premise resource management platforms. 

Benefits of Resource Management Software

As a resource management software seeks resources from a resourcing perspective, using it and reap a whole range of benefits that were never known before. Here are some of the key benefits that will be at your service once you implement the best resource management tool that you can reap. 

1. Impeccable automation 

The advanced automation of the resource management tool can easily reduce the role of your human resources without decreasing the business-related activities associated with each human resource. Fronts like invoice generation software, inventory update, collaboration, information exchange that are crucial yet tedious are now automated and can be handled with the least possible human intervention. 

Using automation, you can utilize the available time in a better way. A lot of things can be handled with the least possible human intervention, you can take over multiple projects without increasing the operational burden on your team. 

2. Better cross-collaboration  

The resource management system is not made of a single feature or facility. There are multiple applications and integrations associated with a single platform. With the help of its impeccable integration, it brings your key operational fronts and a single place and helps your team members gain a bird-eye view of what’s happening where. Online resource management software promotes better and easy cross-platform collaboration in the easiest possible manner.  

3. Proper resource utilization 

To run a business effortlessly, one must have to invest hugely to buy relative resource management. If somehow, you are not utilizing the resources properly, all the investment will go in vain. By doing proper optimization of available resources and distributing them amongst the on-going projects, it ensures that there is proper resource utilization in one’s ecosystem. When resources are properly utilized, you can witness better ROI, high revenue, and proper optimization. 

4. Centralization of information 

19.8% of employees admit that they spend a lot of time (one day in a whole week) to look relative information. Lack of accessibility to the right kind of business information can lead to a downfall in the long run as well. In a business ecosystem, various operations take place on various fronts. If you want to streamline business processing then you must find a way to build a centralized place where information exchange can happen without any hassles. 

Resource management system software is that platform. By gathering information from all your key functional areas, it helps your team to gain better access to the information. As it's packed with high-end encryption, information exchange will be 100% secure. 

6. Increased team productivity  

By bring automation in mundane tasks and integrate functional information at a centralized platform, resource management software enables a business to increase team productivity. Your team will be able to accomplish more tasks in less time. 

7. Data-rich forecasting and reporting 

With the help of resource management system software, you can easily conduct a comparative study of available resources and workload and will help you do real-time forecasting and reporting. Using the data analysis, you can easily design business or project strategies and get monthly reporting. 

Key Features of Resource Management Software

The main reason behind the impeccable popularity of resource management software is its feature suite. It has everything to track, manage, schedule, and automate your operations. The list of ‘must-have’ features is as mentioned below:

1. Resource scheduling and planning 

This feature has been designed to do right and regular and valuable resource scheduling and planning. 

It can provide you a list of needed resources based upon the project and provide the real-time availability detail as well. You can do editing in the resource lists without any issues. 

2. Staffing forecasting

This feature allows organizations of all sorts to find out the staff required for a particular project and the availability. It helps you do proper staff distribution based on their skill sets and needs of the projects. 

3. Time-sheet management 

Keep track of the time spent on a particular project with the help of this feature. It also allows you to find out the billable hours of the human resources. Managers can calculate the overtime done on each project and do effective time management with time management software. 

4. Cost and budget management 

Find out the operational cost, do project budgeting, and create customized sale quotes with the help of this feature. Clear and concise cost management can be done using real-time cost comparison tools and techniques.  

5. Gantt chart 

Get visual insight on resource availability and find out resource usage with the help of gantt chart software. Avoid incidents of over-booking of resources and ensure proper distribution. 

6. Team collaboration 

This feature offers multiple ways to promote team collaboration. You can utilize web-conferencing, video calling, live chat software, and other tools to ensure proper communication across all the team members. 

7. Dashboard 

Gain a birds-eye view of all the activities happening across all the multiple projects and teams. Get details related to all the functional areas and track progress without hassles. 

Functionality of Resource Management Software

Here are some of the standard functions of resource management software. 

1. Efficient Scheduling 

You spend a lot of time, money, and effort in hiring qualified resources. However, hiring qualified resources is just one part, utilizing them is another. This is where a good resource management software can come in handy. They can help you utilize resources efficiently by properly identifying, profiling, and scheduling qualified resources on projects and ad-hoc work. Most of the scheduling software solutions are developed based on industry feedback, ensuring that you get the best out of your resources. 

2. Easy Access To Information 

The correct information is the key to effective decision-making and resource management. Most resource management solutions offer a dashboard that lets you access all the information on a single screen. You can use widgets on the dashboard to show information in multiple units and scales as per your requirement. Furthermore, dashboards can provide you real-time insights into resource capacity, running projects, and resource availability. This helps you identify areas that require attention. 

3. Centralized Pool of All Your Resources

As your organization grows in size, you will have multiple offices and resources spread in different locations, cities, and even countries. Further, these resources will be grouped under various teams and departments to work on multiple projects. However, this could lead to a lack of visibility of your organization’s resources. Moreover, it may also lead to gaps in identifying qualified resources when required. 

Interestingly, resource management solutions will let you maintain a centralized directory of all your resources along with their necessary information. These include skills, qualifications, certificates, and other relevant details. This, in turn, will help you identify the right resource across multiple geographies, teams, and offices very easily. 

4. Easy Project Tracking 

Just like resources, organizations have multiple projects running. They might be in various stages, and this information is often spread across teams and departments. This can make reporting about projects ineffective and lead to incorrect estimates. Resource management software maintains a complete list of all your projects in one place. Most solutions have project profile forms and custom fields that let you capture all possible information. You can later use this information to filter and identify projects quickly. 

Moreover, you can even share the project list with users based on their access rights. Having project data on hand and having clear visibility can help you make key business decisions. 

5. Optimize Resource Utilization

As an organization, it is understood that you want to optimize your resources. However, it is difficult to improve what you cannot accurately measure. Resource management software uses algorithms to measure and report resource utilization on all levels. Moreover, it automatically updates information in real-time whenever a booking is created, updated, or deleted. Furthermore, these reports are highly configurable and provide the information required for making managerial decisions. 

6. Manage Multiple Resource Types

Employees, equipment, contractors, and meeting rooms are essential resources and must be managed efficiently to ensure an organization’s success. Resource management solutions let you schedule and manage resources of all types. It lets you capture a profile form for each resource and create configurable fields as per your requirement. 

7. Keep Track of Time Zones 

You may have resources working in one city or across the globe. This means you will need to define workdays, timings, and holidays for your resources. Resource management solutions will let you create a working calendar for each individual and map it to resources. Also, it will help you calculate resource capacity based on an employee’s working calendar and ensure accurate calculations and reports.

How Much Does Resource Management Software Cost?

The price for resource management software can vary from vendor to vendor. Here are some of the pricing models you need to understand to help you decide on your budget. 

1. Pay Per Employee/Per Month

In this model, you need to pay a monthly fee for each employee in your organization. Occasionally, there might be one-time implementation fees on top of this. Also, per employee cost tends to go down as the number of total employees rises. 

Price Range: Typically from $1-$10 per employee per month.

HR software with this pricing model:

• breatheHR

• Calamari

• EmpXtrack

2. Pay Per User/Per Month

The next pricing model is the pay per user model. With this scheme, you pay a monthly fee for administrative users of the software and not all employees. However, sometimes a vendor might say user, but in reality, they will charge for all employees. As mentioned above, there will be one-time implementation fees with this model.

Price Range: Typically from $5-$20 per user per month.

HR software with this pricing model:

• Zoho People

• SutiHR

• QuickBase

3. One-time Payment

More common enterprises or businesses prefer to pay a larger lump sum upfront, often based on features you need and the company size. This model comes with an annual support fee or a la carte add-ons for purchase. 

Price Range: Usually around $500-$10,000, . Enterprise implementations can go upto with enterprise implementations getting into the $10,000-$100,000 range.

HR software with this pricing model:

• Optimum HR

• People Trak

• Staff Files

Latest Trends of Resource Management

Here are some of the top trends in resource management in 2021

1. Employee Wellness

While companies previously were concerned about employee well-being before, the past years saw them checking on their employees much more often. Managers, HR, and co-workers now make an effort to stay connected through quick coffee chats, remote quizzes, and events. Moreover, companies are urging employees to prioritize their physical and mental health. This has ensured that wellness programs create a happy and thriving workplace and organizational culture. 

Employee well-being programs focus on areas such as:

• Online emotional/mental health support

• Financial well-being

• Work/life balance

• Creating meaningful relationships with co-workers

• Giving back to the community

2. Remote Working 

The switch to remote working has been a game-changer for many companies. While many businesses were reluctant to let employees work remotely, they are slowly warming up to the idea. Moreover, the idea and practice of staying at work longer than required just to have a good impression on the management is on the decline. 

Companies like Twitter have announced that their staff will be allowed to work from home forever. Moreover, businesses are creating remote working policies to help employees deal with personal and professional lives better. Companies need the right resource management technology to cope with one of the most important human resource technology trends. This includes:

• Virtual performance management

• Employee self-service portals

• Remote access to payroll information and paychecks 

• Comprehensive absence and leave management functionality

3. Gig Economy and Contractors

As companies understand that they do not need their employees to be in the same physical space every day, they are slowly realizing the benefits of using contractors. Rather than going through the entering hiring process, companies are tapping into a global workforce of specialized and highly-skilled workers. Moreover, contractors can fill temporary skill gaps and be used on a long-term basis for hard-to-fill positions. 

 4. Self-service Shift Management

 With a lot of HR trends focusing on subjects related to remote work, we must not forget that a lot of professionals cannot work from home. For example, the health and hospitality industry. As a result, more companies are streamlining their shift management software process, making it possible for workers to change shifts and check-in themselves using their technology rather than that of the company. 

5. Virtual Onboarding

Companies are working out ways to onboard employees they have never met. They are setting up IT equipment and working out ways to integrate new hires, and helping them bond with new co-workers. Moreover, the HR software is setting aside extra time to check in regularly with new hires and encourage them to reach out to their new co-workers. Also, the focus is on having employee satisfaction rates and implementing feedback given during the virtual onboarding process. 

Few Problems Regarding Resource Management and How to Fix

After reading all the above content, one thing is sure that the best resource management tool can cater to various organizational needs in the best possible manner while endowing you with the best of the team’s productivity and better planning. 

However, it’s not free from glitches. There are multiple kinds of challenges while using resource management software. Here is a detailed explanation of those issues and ways to address them effectively and effortlessly. 

Issue #1- Limited Accessibility 

There are some industries where on-site work has deeper penetration and demand continual and uninterrupted team collaboration. But, if you have adopted for an on-premise resource management solution then it might not be able to address your organizational needs in a proper manner. 

Solution - A cloud-based deployment is always a better and wise choice to make in this scenario. It helps a business to make the relative data/information easily accessible. Also, it’s a way of affordable choice to make. 

Issue #2- Complexity 

Sometimes, resource management software offers a lot more than what is needed. All those features and facilities make the interface complex. In that case, you won’t be able to use what is required. Too many offerings often lead to confusion. 

Solution – Ask for a trial version of the chosen resource management software before making the final decision. By doing so, you will be able to find out what are the offerings and whether they are enough or not. 

Issue #3 - Lack of hands-on experience on the resource management software  

The user-interface of a few resource management tools can be a little complex. It takes a while to learn which means what and how things can be done. Not having hands-on experience on the resource management software that is deployed in your ecosystem is a sheer wastage. If your team is not aware of the nitty-gritty of the existing system then all the investment will go in vain. 

Solution - Ask for an on-site training program from the service provider. Most of the leading best resource management tool providers have this facility.