When it comes to managing and delivering a project, a good sense of awareness on who’s doing what and when is one supposed to be done is very precious. But in a huge group divided into teams (and sometimes, sub-teams) it would be hard to do so, especially if you happen to have to travel a lot to meet clients. When you have that problem, it makes regular general meetings impossible at times and tracking each team member and the status of their task difficult. And to the team members who have deadlines to beat, sometimes face-to-face meetings are annoying and bothersome, especially when the task is part research, part development and you’re expected to finish it at the same time as other tasks that fall under your expertise and the meeting is at a very inconvenient time (like two hours past your shift). It’s a nightmare. Then there’s paperwork and the reports.

Well, that’s a long time ago. As technology advances and with the Internet, things are now getting easier. Now you don’t have to waste much time in general meetings. You could just meet for a few minutes online and give a very short summary of your status. Meeting time can now be focused instead on tackling more issues like discussions on problems encountered at the time most convenient to everyone. Or you might not need to hold general meetings anymore regularly and just talk and discuss with each people on your team about their concerns.

There are a lot of software out there that finally tackle the problems with project management and they do much more than just show you deadlines. They can let you organize your team, assign tasks, meet online (via chat, video, or email), track their progress, and even compute each member’s pay. You can view all the information you need anywhere you go and anytime you need it: via the Internet on the PC or on your smartphone. Now, you don’t have to lose any more sleep over a meeting, work allocation, and deadlines. Here are some of those amazing tools.

1. WorkflowMax

WorkflowMax
WorkflowMax offers a variety of functions for everyone on the team. Time Sheet? No problem. Users can do it when they’re free. Paper-free and fast. View your teams’ progress on the go with their app. Contact clients and tell them your teams’ progress via reports. Charge your clients via a set fee or customize it, all done online. Monitor the costs, a project’s progress status and history very easily, whenever you need to. Access or store project files via the Internet. Schedule repeating tasks. Each member has complete control of their time.

2. Basecamp

Basecamp
The style born out of 90’s email innovations will not just cut it anymore. It’s messy and there needs to be something done about it. Enter Basecamp. Basecamp has a lot of functions to organize and manage your company, whether it’s assigning jobs, keeping tabs on progress, and making updates, feedback, and concerns from each team member that you can easily reply to. View project files and images online for you or your teams. Talk to the team via chat for easy communication.

3. Activecollab

Activecollab
Activecollab is another tool that offers the same functions as the previous ones. It has an organized dashboard where users can see their progress, their updates, and their next tasks. Managers can assign and find their history and progress via a smart task filter and an easy-to-use workflow function. They even have a nifty calendar to chart out how long a task will be running.

The choice is yours on which tool to use. Feel free to use the one you think would make tracking your projects easier and more efficient. You may also go out and look for ones that are free-to-use if you’re unwilling or unable to shell out some cash o. It’s all up to you and once you start using them you’ll never find yourself wanting to go back to paper transactions, email-chains, or those regular early morning/late afternoon meetings. Because, hey, making our lives easier is what’s technology all about.