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Tips for Managing IT Team Effectively

March 4, 2022 by Sydney Kendellen Leave a Comment

How to utilize your team effectively — Your team can either lead the company to success, or failure, which is why you need to utilize them as best as you can.

Teamwork is essential for creating the foundation of a high-performing business. Good team ethic leads to the success and smooth operations of your company. By identifying employees’ skill sets and assigning tasks that are well suited to their abilities helps to improve team efficiency. An effective team includes skills such as good problem-solving skills, decision making, communication and interpersonal skills. Here are some tips you can use when managing your team to benefit your company.

First, behind every successful business lies a great team. Teamwork maximizes the individual strengths of team members to bring out their best. Selecting individuals with the proper skills for the job is an important part of building a strong and successful team. When the right people are in place, work is always a priority and projects are completed effectively. You can find this out by:

How they embrace challenges
What motivates them
How the work with others
What their strengths and weaknesses are
How they handle stress and negative situations

When an effective team is set in stone they ensure success for your company operations.

Second, communicating the idea of success you’ve developed to your team in a way that clarifies both goals and expectations. All team members should trust, respect, and support each other, once the team is established and each member should know the value of their personal contribution to the team goal. By involving team members in the decision making process, it helps to limit conflict and complaints related to projects and tasks. The quality of decisions made will improve when the whole team is involved. Team decision making is beneficial, as it offers a diverse set of views that work towards creating a positive outcome for the company.

Third, conflict often arises when team members focus on personal issues rather than work related issues. Building a positive relationship with your colleagues can make for a much less stressful environment and work to reduce conflict. Teams who work particularly well together enjoy each other’s company and get together outside of the office from time to time to socialize and have some fun. This will lead to more productivity and success in the long run.

Finally, motivation can be in short supply during times of stress for some employees. However, if you have employees that approach work with a positive attitude and complete their tasks, other employees with recognize their hard work. Seeing others working productively will encourage underperforming employees to work harder as well. This will help to increase motivation and efficiency in your workplace.

Overall, these tips help to create an effective team and successful company!

The Days of Manual Data Collection are Over

March 3, 2022 by Sophie Donais Leave a Comment

manual data collection and input to excel inefficient — Manual organization of data and project updates amongst a team may lead to greater margin for human error.

It is understandable that companies may want to cut expenses by performing manual documentation of data in a spreadsheet format for project organization. However, although a spreadsheet can provide these services it is not as diverse in efficiencies as web-based project management software powered by a commercial database. This type of software can provide multiple services such as employee scheduling, project scheduling, communication platform, organized documentation, and many more.

Spreadsheets are known as a domain for manual data documentation which can be used for project management however, here are the reasons it is inefficient:

Manual data collection and documentation
No automatic assignment of tasks
No automatic updates and reports
No project updates or tracking
Manual financial calculations of resources

Further we will discuss why using web-based project management software within your company is more efficient and worth the investment:

Project Progression

The requirement of project manager’s to constantly question employees on the status of their project is an inefficient method prone to human error. This collection of information must also be diligently inputted into Excel by the one individual each time a round check-in has been performed. The frequent questioning of employee’s progress may cause them to feel a lack of trust towards their superiors. However, project management software can be utilized to avoid human error and maintain this trust within the team.

Dependency and Documentation

Utilizing spreadsheets within your company causes a great dependence on one individual to input and update data. This does not make it easy to track changes and alter timelines which are important functions when managing a project. The reliance on one individual and lack of tracking changes can very easily lead to errors in documentation. The implementation of web based project management software can track changes automatically and eliminate reliance on one individual.

Project Summaries

To provide a summary of all aspects of your project without the use of a project management software can become complex with multiple open tabs including emails, data, and documentation.

In contrast project management software provides a detailed summary of the lifespan of your project. This type of software has the capacity of managing all departments of an organization, not simply just the IT department. The functions of this software include but are not limited to; financials, project updates, scheduling, document organization, communication systems, and tasks.

Building Reports

Spreadsheets are simply a domain where data is inputted and stored, they do not provide a built-in reporting system. However, project management software builds reports for you so your time is not consumed scouring data and locating documents.

Data Organization

Spreadsheets may be useful for storing data in one specific place but when it comes to managing a project, multiple members of the team need access to this information. There is usually one person in charge of maintaining the data updates when updates are manual. This means employees cannot make project updates in real time leading to a greater margin for error in data records.

Project management software is intended to provide companies with the tools to maintain organization and efficiency within projects.

Request a demo today to learn more about what project management software can do for your company.

Combining Change Management and Project Management

February 25, 2022 by Sophie Donais Leave a Comment

depicting an unexpected change to a project and how it is managed — Recognize change and make modifications before it is harmful to your project.

There is great value in the strategic combination of change management and project management within the operations of a company. Change management is a method used to help a company adapt to changes from internal and external factors. Project management on the other hand is the process of organizing large projects and coaching a team throughout each milestone. The integration of both allows a company to make changes on both a technical and employee level.

Although change management and project management are both structured methods there are different characteristics to each. Change management for instance is a structured process in implementing change; however, there is no defined goal requiring multiple shifts to approach strategies. In contrast, project management is defined by a specific end goal as well as project milestones throughout. Project managers can plan their entire project before beginning whereas change managers are presented with unexpected changes throughout the process.

The integration of both management approaches within technological systems and employee management can lead your company to greater opportunity for success. This allows for problems to be identified, changes to be made, employees to be informed, and issues to be resolved.

Why Project Managers should Integrate Change Management into their Strategy

Individual and shared goals

Project Managers and Change managers can work together to reach a shared objective while also working independently towards specific goals. The integration of both can work to improve employee performance and overall company success.

Project Team Communication

The integration of these two strategies makes for greater communication between all roles within the project. For example, when an unexpected development arises the project team is presented with the issue in a timely manner and change managers begin to adjust project plans. This fast recognition of an issue and communication of important strategic adjustments is attributed to the integration of the two management approaches.

Employee Commitment

Project managers know how unexpected changes can occur and how that can hinder the progress of the project. It is important to be able to identify these issues immediately and have solutions or modifications. This proactive organization of changes to the project will motivate employees to embrace the change rather than be afraid of it.

Request a demo today.

Software Integration

February 23, 2022 by Sydney Kendellen Leave a Comment

A growing business can quickly turn into a complex web of software apps, inventory management, accounting, and finance systems. Utilizing a wide range of software can obstruct your chances for success. This has seen a lot of companies turn to single purpose applications to cut down the time spent on project management, billing, help desk support, and other business operation tasks. Software integration is guaranteed to increase efficiency and productivity.

Most business organizations use various software platforms, it can be difficult to make all of the systems work together. Multiple software solutions can slow down your process and eventually break your system. The goal of software integration is to get IT systems to work together, so costs are reduced, and the speed of data and information transfer is increased. Integration is not only used to connect an organization’s internal systems, but to also integrate third parties that organizations operate with. More importantly, software integrations can be designed so that you don’t lose any valuable information when they interface.

Cost Efficiency

Maintaining multiple systems is expensive and requires substantial IT resources. Depending on the number of systems, the cost can quickly add up. Consequently, valuable IT time that could be used to make the business more productive is wasted, while maintenance costs significantly increase. An integrated software solution eliminates the need for repetitive tasks. As a result, essential tasks can now be completed more efficiently while using the same resources, reducing unnecessary costs. This not only saves you money but also valuable time and effort that would otherwise be spent training employees to use a new system.

Integrated software helps achieve higher efficiency by eliminating the need for repetitive manual data entry. It is also easier to train employees on a more simplified system rather than various platforms. All information is saved in one location, so you do not have to spend extra money for additional storage of multiple systems. Not only will this lead to better organization but also to less stress when locating where information are stored for informational and reporting purposes. This also helps you save time, so you can prioritize more important tasks efficiently.

Ultimately your data will be easier to access and report on across the enterprise. Your IT team will be far more productive in a short period of time.

How to Motivate your IT Team

February 17, 2022 by Sophie Donais Leave a Comment

Employees may lose motivation over time leading to a decrease in work efficiency. This declined motivation can cause the company’s productivity rates to go downhill. The implementation of incentives may improve employees’ health and drive. Happy and healthy employees make for satisfied managers. Incentivizing properly provides a motivating and energized work environment which leads to a successful company. Here are a couple pointers below on how to motivate your employees to improve productivity and company success.

Set Individual Standards

Setting quotas may be just what you need to improve the motivation of your team. Working and being held up to a standard is a key motivator for everyone to complete tasks. When setting a quota it must be challenging but not unreachable in order to maintain motivation. Employees must maintain confidence in their abilities to reach their quotas. Quotas can work to measure employees productivity levels and help employees take accountability for unfinished work. When setting quotas, it is important to review each employee separately to find the rate at which they work. realistic Individual goals and requirements can then be set for the following month that are greater than what they are currently producing. With company standards in place, employees are motivated by the fact they may be rewarded or penalized based on their work productivity.

Facilitate Friendly Competition

Naturally we all want to be the best at what we do or at least on the same level as those around us. This translates into the workplace where creating friendly competition for employees can positively affect their productivity levels. Providing a visual representation of each employee’s sales or project milestone completions can enhance motivation. This may be used in combination with rewards for the top performers to push them to their full potential. Rewards can be as simple as a gift card or you can get creative with them. Competition allows for employees to visualize the work and progression it takes to get a promotion or raise within the company.

Implement Incentives

Offering rewards for accomplishments in the workplace can improve the motivation of your team. Recognizing quality work gives your employees the feeling that they are of value to the company. Depending on the nature of the project, these rewards can be large or small, material or cash. However, incentives must be implemented properly in order to be effective. Different types of incentives can be used for all the stages of a project. For example, when the first milestone is met you may have an incentive for the top performer on that team. This could be small, something as simple as a gift card to their favorite restaurant. Then the rewards may increase in value as the project progresses towards greater milestones for optimal motivation of the team.

IT Incident Management System Metrics

February 15, 2022 by Sydney Kendellen Leave a Comment

What is an effective incident management system and what metrics are important to track? It is often referred to as taking action to restore regular service operations quickly while minimizing the negative impact on business operations. Managing incidents effectively is an essential piece for providing quality customer support and maintaining business continuity. The lessons learned can also help teams improve their current processes to prevent future incidents.

Benefits of an effective incident management system:

Increased productivity and efficiency
Higher level of service quality
Visibility and transparency
Valuable IT service management documentation
Enhance end-user satisfaction
Knowledge base documentation for reference

The self-service portal is the single point of contact for the users to report any incidents. When well-designed, the portal provides the user guidance ensuring the reported incident has all the pertinent information required to assist the L1 help desk. Well-documented service requests can be resolved in an efficient manner and routed to the appropriate team or individual quickly for resolution. This will also reduce the back-and-forth email with the customer for request clarity.

Incident Management Metrics

There are 3 major factors through which an incident order is decided upon: Impact, urgency, and priority.

Impact – How a business is affected by an incident?

Urgent – How urgent the incident is and how much time it will take to be resolved?

Priority – What is the priority of the incident ? (Low, Medium or High)

5 steps of incident management:

Incident Reporting communication begins at the time an incident is identified to acknowledge to the user or business that disruption is taking place and investigation is in progress.
Incident Escalation occurs when an incident triggers an alert and the proper procedures are performed by the individual who is assigned to manage the incident.
Investigation and Diagnosis IT team performs analysis, then staff can investigate the type, cause, and possible solutions for an incident.
Resolution and Recovery involve eliminating the root causes of issues and restoring systems to full functioning operation. Resolving an incident also includes documenting the findings and steps taken to restore service.
Incident Closure communicating and confirming from users that the service experience is normalized ensuring customer satisfaction is met.

Tips for Managing IT Team Effectively