Allocate Blog

Are you feeling overwhelmed? It's OK, take a big deep breath and repeat after me: "managing my resources and tasks can be easier". Feeling better? Nope? That's normal. Running a business, especially when you have a whole class of contractors to manage, keep up with and prioritize, is exhausting.

We know...why do you think we built Allocate anyway? Keep reading to find out how task-tracking software makes management easier.

Keeping your team and resources organized is one of the major reasons for using task-tracking software. If you had to constantly keep people in the loop, you'd be spending most of your day sending emails and obnoxiously CCing the whole team on every single one. That's what you call not getting anything done, and wasting the time of your hard-working team as well. Resource and task-tracking software lets your team know what's going without having to babysit anyone.

When deadlines are approaching, you have to be able to count on your team to hunker down and get the job done. If you weren't using resource and task-tracking software you'd be resorting to writings thing down in a notebook. This is totally cool if you're a company of one (have you seen that Evernote Moleskine?), but what if you're juggling eight contractors? How would they know what to do and in what priority they should do it?

Consider for a minute, the idea of setting milestones in the first place. You may not have thought to even create milestones for project. Having mini goals (aka milestones) spread throughout the project keeps your contractors focused and your customers happy.
Task management software can make you think about your projects in new ways -- like being able to see all your available business resources on one screen. Having this level of overview is empowering and can make tackling the next project easier.

Does Pam have the latest copy of the report? You were supposed to have it ready for her by the end of day! Dang, now Pam's got to scramble around to get it before her big meeting. Having someone or something remind you can really save the day.

Reminders may seem trivial, but if you were able to capture all the things you'd like to be reminded of on a daily basis, your brain would be a whole lot less cluttered with mental post-it notes. Task-tracking software consolidates your to-dos so that you can focus on everything else.

You can't shop for groceries while you're at the home improvement store just like you can't assign Pamela new work if she's on vacation in Belize for the next two weeks. But you don't know what you can't do unless you have a grasp on the availability of your contractors, or anyone you delegate to.

Task-tracking and resource management software can give you the peace of mind and information to make better money making business decisions. What other ways has task-tracking software made managing your business easier? Let us know in the comments, that's something we're pretty darn interested in.

Having simple resource management software sounds too good to be true.

To be able to quickly add resources (contractors, equipment, etc.), and define the availability of each resource sounds like a complicated task. In the past, managers had their own pen and paper system for managing these resources. If you’ve ever worked in the restaurant or retail business and had a shift chart, it tends to look something like that -- a visual display of when people can work, and then filling them in when applicable.

But again, if you've ever worked in the restaurant business or retail, how many times were you scheduled on days that you listed as unavailable?

That's what we mean when we say resource management – the availability of your resources and assigning them to tasks only when they're able to complete them.

Thankfully, the days of pen and paper scheduling are almost gone, but larger businesses still struggle with managing resources in an organized way. That's where resource management software comes in. The real question is, what does having simple resource management software really provide for you? How can it affect your business and the decisions you make? All of these benefits can be distilled down to one word.

It all comes down to power. Simple resource management software gives you the power to understand the resources you have access to. It should be able to tell you who's available, what they're working on, and when they're open for additional work.

This knowledge can help you make informed business decisions such as estimating a start date for a new project or knowing when you'll be able to take on new work.

If your staff is made up of contractors, each of them has their own set of schedules and skills. This can be very challenging to manage but if you had a resource management tool, you could quickly look to see who was available at any given time and determine if they possess the right skills for the task.

The equipment you use to get the job done is also subject to availability. Juggling the schedule of open equipment can be an art form of its own. Sometimes this equipment is mission-critical.

If you don't know when you can use it, then you're completing the project blindly. If someone is using it right at the moment you need it, you could be setting back the project by days or weeks. Being able to quickly see a high-level view of your equipments availability makes for better decisions.

Resource management creates a foundation that task management sits upon. The resources you have available will determine what you can do and when you can do it. Knowing this information is critical to any business.

Do you really want to be making guesses when it comes to setting milestones for projects? You can't provide your client with an accurate start and finish date without knowing who has time to work on their project.

Simple resource management software can save you time and money. It also helps you make money by keeping clients happy and by saving dough on unnecessary resources. It's the foundation that all other project tasks you perform sit upon.

One question still remains. Why haven't you tried a simple resource management platform like Allocate yet? Do you have any questions about the resource management process? We'd be happy to help so feel free to get in touch with us by email or by leaving a comment.