Do you know how to automate project information? This is not an easy task indeed and, initially, it may seem a distant reality for most companies. However, this practice will help your business to be more productive, to take better advantage of available resources and better select projects. All of these aspects will help your company to gain a competitive advantage in the market.
Here we will highlight the importance of automating projects and we’ll explain why this practice became a trend in the market. In addition, we will show you the reasons why you should invest in data automation for your business.
The Importance of Project Automation
Project automation has shown to be increasingly indispensable in business, especially in large companies. This is because usually there is a large number of projects, data, and information within these companies.
Thus, it became necessary to organize all this data so that it is properly analyzed. When information is well organized, managers tend to make more successful decisions regarding the company’s future, such as investing in the company’s expansion, launching new products or deciding which projects should be implemented.
Why Did Automating Projects Become a Trend?
Constant evolution of technological tools makes automation to be a natural trend regarding practices of several distinct sectors of a company. For that matter, it is important to know how to apply the concept in the best way possible.
It’s essential to identify the tasks that could be automated since this practice will optimize productivity and will help managers to focus on strategic tasks for the company. It is worth mentioning that the process should already start within project management. This will allow the organization to have knowledge of the overview and about individual projects. That way, it becomes easier to identify which tasks can and might be automated.
Why Invest in Your Company’s Automation?
Automation brings several benefits for the companies, such as obtaining reports, successful decision making, and cutting expenses. We’ll discuss these matters below.
Reports and Control
The possibility to have all your tasks available in one tool, such as Microsoft Project Online, and work on it, allows the system to offer reports and management controls. They could be very useful to help companies to save time with meetings, spreadsheets, or presentations regarding the status of a project.
That happens because some relevant management information is generated automatically with data provided by the resource, such as performance and health graphics, how much time was spent in each project and activity, when the resources will be available for a next task and other important information for the project’s decision making. This allows managers to have better knowledge about different projects, helping to control the results. By using this method, it becomes possible to adopt measures that seek to optimize productivity and investment.
Successful Decisions
As the management systems present several reports, activity, and department analyses, managers have access to a great variety of data that help them to make better and more strategic decisions using all gathered information.
Usually, large companies count with departments that carry out various projects at once, with a large amount of data. Data analysis, dashboards, and reports tools connect data and allow managers to exploit information and to make decisions regarding the progress of the projects and their impact in the business, without the need of an IT support team.
Cutting Expenses
Besides optimizing productivity, automation contributes to cutting expenses in organizations. This practice helps managers to have better control regarding the actions taken by their team and it becomes possible to better invest the team’s time to focus on activities that contribute more to achieve the project’s goals. With this, an organization can obtain better available resources and reduce unnecessary expenses in the allocation of resources in manual and repetitive tasks such as generating records, obtaining progress information, elaborate presentations, etc.
Automating project information is essential because it reduces manual work, information redundancy, mistakes and allows the managers to focus on establishing priorities and effectively monitor the results. There are several tools that can be used for that purpose, such as Microsoft Project (Project Management), Power BI (Reports), Teams Ideas (Business Case and Portfolio Prioritization)
Considering all the benefits mentioned and described in this article, it is worth implementing this practice within your company.