Project Management is a special discipline. In a well-run project, there is a constant array of management issues to deal with, as well as a challenging routine of project management processes.

A survey conducted by Carnegie Mellon suggests that when organizations focus on their project management system, key performance significantly increases. Scheduling adherence rises 50%. Productivity can improve by over 60%.

For the modern organization, the success of any project management initiative will be tied to tools they use. For financial and data heavy positions, spreadsheets still have a tremendous amount of value. But for centralizing and sharing information, fostering collaboration, and tracking productivity, spreadsheets are quite limited.

That’s why you will need ‘’Vtiger’s Project Management App’’ to supplement your operations and reporting with intuitive tools. With the right combination of protocols and software tools, project management can engender significant cultural and operational changes that can propel your business forward.

Guide for Project Management

Through this guide you will be able to understand the various features of the Vtiger 7 Project management app that aid the whole company indirectly and Project Managers and Project teams directly.

This guide will be useful for the following personnel:

1. Administrators; because they have to deploy the system
2. Project managers; because they are meant to
3. Team members (Project); because they will be using the app.

Project Management: A Hawk-eye View

Features which help user in whole lifecycle of Project Management

1. Use Vtiger 7 to Determine Goals of the Project and Activities Linked to it

   • The feature of Map opportunity regarding the fields of the project empowers and provide an opportunity for alteration of the project
   • It helps to change the status of a deal top the project while keeping the historical information obtained during the sales cycle intact
   • It also empowers to calculate time spent on the project also known as duration. In addition to the Duration you can also track project budget and effort required for the customizable projects
   • Feature of Setting up Workflows helps to regulate the flow of activities and automate project task reminders, billing reminders and processes like updating modules.

2. Assign and Allot Tasks of the Projects to the Users and Keep a Record of their Status, in Addition to that Track Effort and Schedule

• Plan the whole project and distribute work load among the members of the team and the contractors residing outside the firm.
• This features helps to keep a estimating of the time spent on each module of the project and keep a track of actual duration of the project using workflows
• Gantt chart provides a visual picture of the project progress and also enables to identify blockers hindering the progression of the project
• Another very impressive feature known as customer self-service portal, helps your users to take a look on the progress of the project by logging on the portal

3. Group All the Data Related to a Project on a Single Place

   • It helps to collect information regarding the users from their CSV or other third party apps that are used by the users like Google Contacts, Office 365
   • You can also import data related to the project from a third party project management app
   • Feature of Document module helps in creating a link between collaterals of the roject and similar artifacts

4. Communication Process Regarding the Project with Parties Residing Outside the Firm

   • Vtiger 7 also helps you to make customized lists through which access to the individual task using shared lists is made easy
   • You can sync Google or Office 365 with Vtiger 7 through which scheduling of the Events to access the progress of the project is made easy.
   • Task manager feature of Vtiger 7 helps you to keep a record of the to-do’s regarding the project
   • Using Zapier you can incorporate your preferred task management and event management apps with the Vtiger 7
   • Email module helps to keep all the communication related to a customer in a single place.

5. Polish Internal Communication Process to Make Project Execution More Efficient

   • Use the feature of @tag while commenting to reach the experts from within the company to ask them for their help. This feature will notify them instantaneously.
   • Using Notification settings you can regulate the notifications of emails, SMS alerts. These onscreen notifications helps us to keep you aware regarding the tasks assigned to you and their deadlines.
   • You can also organize information and data related to the private tags (personalized tags) like Log Project task time.

6. Feature of Billing of the Project and Rate Cards

Projects can be classified as fixed price projects or projects based on time and material put into the project. The billing of the fixed price project is done on achieving the already defined milestones or the completion of the project. On the other hand project based on the base on material and time input are billed on reaching the predefined milestones or billing cycle.  Using Vtiger 7 you can setup a rate card in accordance to the type of the project using Picklist Dependencies.

7. Generation of Invoice and Task Approval Feature

   • There are modules of project which require permission for the time and material input. Using this feature approval from the managers inside the firm can be obtained. Even you can reach external parties for permission using this feature.
   • Task which are approved from the management, invoices of these tasks can be generated through this feature of Vtiger 7.
   • You can customize your invoices according to your need, even you can obtain them in pdf form generated by Print Templates.
   • Email templates enables you to personalize your electronic mails.

8. Stamp and Sign your Agreements and Invoices

• You can integrate DocuSign and use it to get your project agreements and invoices digitally signed within no time.

9. Reporting the Performance of the Project and Feature of Dashboards

• Use your dashboard to keep a check on the activities of the team, tasks of the projects and last but not least the performance of the project.
• You can keep a check on the project mastics so that you can compare difference between planned and actual effort, duration regarding the project milestones.
• You can also originate charts and reports customized according to your own needs and pin it on you dashboard.

10. Usage of Vtiger 7 While Incorporating it with Other Accounting Applications

You can also integrate your Vtiger 7 with the software your firm is using for the financials. It will save you from hassle of putting financial data in the Vtiger CRM manually. You can use Vtiger 7 incorporation of the following softwares:

Note: Links to guides for all the extensions are being mentioned with their names:

• Quick books
• Xero
• Tally
• PayPal

11. You Can also Incorporate Vtiger 7 with Other Email and Contact Applications

• Google
• Office 365
• Outlook
• Zapier (Integrating Zapier with Vtiger 7 helps to get access to 300+ applications)

12. Incorporate Telephone Service Providers and SMS Providers with Vtiger 7

• Plivo
• Twilio

13. Usage of Vtiger 7 In Addition to the Applications Used for Documents Management

• Google Drive
• Drop box

14. Sidebar Extension Of Vtiger 7 For Gmail Users

Whenever you are communicating with someone using Gmail over email, there are times when you will feel the need for accessing recent notes, other contacts, status of opportunities and related tickets. To overcome this difficulty, Vtiger 7 provides an extension for users who are using Gmail via chrome. Vtiger 7 provides you with everything you require using a Vtiger 7 sidebar. Learn more about the extension here.

15. Mobile App Further Helps you to Increase the Efficiency of your Business while on the Road

Vtiger 7 mobile app helps you to stay connected to your customers at any instance while you are on the road. You can use Vtiger 7 app on following platforms. Click on the names to read more about the protocols.

• IPhone
• IPad
• Android