Having discussed the efficacy of online team management tools last time, we left our discussion on how we can choose a good tool. Amidst the sea of such tools, it's obviously a difficult task to pick one, especially if you are using such tools for the first time.
The choice of a good online team management tool depends on what you want. Yes, it’s your business needs, firm type, and what you want the software to do that matters.
Here we would take a look at some quick points and actions that you should ponder upon before picking a specific tool.
Team Size and Price
The first question that comes is what’s your team size? It's crucial because if your team is a small one then you can make the best use of the features of most of the tools that are available for free. However, if your team is bigger, say around 30-40member team then maybe you have to zero down on more features loaded tools and thus have to settle for a paid version.
Here an online team manager like Task Tracker comes as a welcome
exception. Task Tracker is an absolute
Zero cost solution that provides excellent services for your team (up to 50
members) helping them boost productivity by up to 60%.
Features you want
Not every feature on your tool fulfills your business needs. Say,
there is a common feature of attendance on each management tool but you want
location-based attendance to track your employees during work hours. Then you
have to pick a tool that comes in with such a feature.
Task Tracker which has an online punch-in and punch-out feature
powered by geo-tagging helping you track the location of your team would come
in handy in such cases. Thus, what you want is important and it's important you
list down all features your firm needs.
Shortlisting and Using
Once you list the features you want it would become easy to short-list the tools that suit your needs. After short-listing when you are left with a select few tools it's time to test them.
Subscribe to the free plan for these tools and start using them for your daily management needs. This real-time testing would provide you with great clarity on what works and what does not. At this point, you would be just a touch away from getting the right management tool for your business needs.
Feedback and Finalizing
The core of the entire management process is managing the team well.
So, it's logical to take the inputs from the team who is actually going to use
it for work management.
Sit down with the team and discuss with team managers, and team members which tool they feel is good, and what feature they find useful. Through this discussion, the final clouds of doubt would also go away as the tool that gets the most acceptance from the team members would be making the cut. After all discussions and deliberations, zero down on one tool and simplify your management.
Again your journey doesn’t end here. Just because you have got a good tool doesn't mean it's for life long. Keep an eye on other tools (from the shortlisted list) and see if someone is offering better service at less cost then don’t hesitate to make the switch. Your loyalty is with your business, not tools.
If you are looking for a free-of-cost feature loaded and effective solution that is adaptable to any industry then you must give Task Tracker a try. Experience it and feel the change.