Best Resource Management Software

Resource Management is an effective and efficient use of resources by the organization in order to get the maximum output. Since resources are limited, they need to be planned in a manner. Managing people as a resource is a tough task as it requires analyzing their skills and assigning them the tasks accordingly. The effective resource planning involves delivering projects on time without missing onto the deadlines with also utilizing the maximum capacity and skills of the employees. Resource planning effectively utilizes the organizational resources and helps keep profit margins high with a reduction in the cost on projects.

What is Resource Management Software?

The most important step in implementing any project is to select the right resources. Resource management software helps you automate this step and help project managers with quick decisions.

Resource management software is also known as resource planning software which helps companies effectively plan resources. The software is having a dashboard with a display of the resources available, their best time to complete the task, quantity and quality measure, and other important information required to manage and assign the resource. It also has spreadsheets for the individual products so as to have detailed information. Before the resource planning software, companies either used to have manual records, that is the file record book or spreadsheets.

The information on spreadsheets used to be entered manually and to search for any relevant information was a tough task which also used to consume a lot of time and manpower. The use of spreadsheets also included a lot of human errors, file overwrites, redundant work, and more. With the usage of resource planning software, the work got more planned. With the available features such as IT project management software, the software can be updated and managed even remotely. Any information can be viewed and accessed by the authorized person from anywhere.

Resource planning is one niche required by every organization. This involves managing a team of employees, or contractors and also involves efficient use of the available material. The right task needs to be assigned to the right person in a given time so as to maximize efficiency. Planning resources in a manner help companies achieve deadlines as well as encourage employees to come together as a team of skilled labor to complete the task. However, resource planning software is mostly preferred by mid-sized and large organizations as they need to manage the large teams and multiple resources.

The large organizations have the benefit of resource management software as the allocations are magnified and the forecasting is improved. The deadlines can be achieved and managed throughout with better supervision tracking the progress of the project. With large companies being metric driven they require to maintain specific resource utilization and financial targets. 

Features of Resource Management Tools for Resource Planning

As explained above, organizations spend a majority amount of their time in planning and allocation of resources and hence resource management software plays the role in completing this process effectively and efficiently. For good management, selection of a suitable resource planning software is equally important. Few of the mandatory features of a resource planning software are:

• Cloud-Based: The cloud-based system helps organizations utilize the resources efficiently by identifying, curating and scheduling the resources on projects and track the progress throughout. The cloud-based resource planning software can be accessed from anywhere and hence help-desk software knows the status of the project in real-time.
• Dashboard: Correct information is as important as it displays at the right time. A resource planning software has a well configurable dashboard that displays all the key information related to a project, be it, Person assigned, the status of the project, resource invested, etc., all on one single screen. The dashboard provides real-time insight of the resource available and its capacity and instantly highlights the areas that require immediate attention or rectification. On the basis of this, the user can further go down to access the detailed information.
• Centralized Information:  With organizations having multiple offices, the resources are spread in different locations. The resources are widely dispersed and are divided from a cluster to teams to individuals. With all the departments working on different projects, it is tough to track of each at a given time. The organization lacks visibility and transparency at times which decrease its ability to utilize the resources effectively.

Resource management software helps you centralize all the company information in one place. The information can only be shared by the authorized users and can be made password protected. Having a centralized directory helps make search and identifying the right resource easy and effective.

• Centralized list of the project: With companies working on multiple projects at a given time, the requirement by the management is to keep track of all a common platform. Each project is working on a different phase and hence it’s tough to update about each accurately and regularly by a team of people. The resource management software enlists all the projects at one place and keeps track of all in the real-time. It records and maintains all the information associated with a project which can also be used later in the search. Another advantage of the centralized report is that it can be used and accessed by any authorized user in the organization and doesn’t require a team of extra manpower to update. The accessible reports by all provide better and accurate visibility and clarity based on which, important decisions can be made.
• Efficient resource planning with available reports: The algorithms and formulas inbuilt with the resource planning software accurately measure and report on resource utilization at all the levels. The information is updated in real time whenever there is a change in the inputs provided by the user. The utilization reports consist of all the important information required by the management to take the major decisions. The report facilitates efficient resource planning and hiring plans for short, medium and long-term.

Common Functionality of Resource Management Software

• Staff Forecasting: Allow organizations to plan the manpower hiring in advance indicating the staff requires for the desired project. It makes recommendations based on the data available.
• Skills and availability tracking: This feature helps to identify the employee available at a given time and assign them the task. Pre-information about the employees needs to be feed in the software/system. It further assigns the task according to the skills and availability of the employees.
• Request automation: This features cuts down the majority of the time invested in finding the right employee, assigning them the task and keeping track of the project. The automation automatically updates the project status based on the available input and hence makes easy for the management to keep track of the project. It also automatically generates the report, weekly, monthly or yearly as required and generates a detailed report after the completion of the assignment/Project.
• Timesheet Management: This feature allows the user to track the actual time spent by the individual on a given project or the overtime done on a project hence, staying transparent with the employee.

Benefits of Resource Management Software

• Resource planning software solved the major hurdle of companies for effectively utilizing their man-power and other resources so as to maximize the efficiency overall. With the real-time updates, the task of continuously tracking and updating with requirements can be taken care of. The task can be assigned or re-allocate maintaining the transparency with the employee.  

• The resource management software also helps with the efficient predictability. With every time the company gets associated with a new client, assignment of work, resource allocation, and monitoring can be done and predicted in advance. This helps the organization with deciding the estimated deadline of the project more accurately.
• Integrating the resource management software with CES(Customer Engagement Software) or accounting management software can also help in assigning the financials to a new project and costs involved in re-allocation of the project. This helps in the cost-benefit with eventually leads to better profit margins.
• Resource planning software offers a centralized workspace for the teams and departments to collaborate and work collectively. The teams and employees can be taken care remotely and also be tracked on the work progress.
• The reporting tools are based on data-driven decisions and hence are updated information in the real time. The real-time information also helps avoid unexpected delays in deadlines.

With all the available advantages of the Resource Management software, it is important for the organization to select and invest in the system that serves there needs well and help them cut down on the expenses. If utilized properly, Resource management software takes the pain and guesswork out to get the most out of your team.