Due to the nature of modern businesses, with staff increasingly working with one colleague - an internet connection, managing projects can be challenging. Ensuring that all parties are working to the same goals and objectives, with the same idea of what is demanded is delivered within time and budget puts a lot of strain on a project manager.

Software has been effectively applied to the management of projects, and everyone involved tends to find them useful. Team members can use software to prioritise and keep track of their workloads, while project managers can use software to encourage high productivity and most valuably, monitor the progress of tasks and projects.

Web-based applications can help a manager to help distant team members to collaborate and communicate, and can prove more productive. Instead of sending individual emails to each other, the team can use project management software to communicate around a particular task or project, with the manager being able to oversee the proceedings.

Times have changed, and spreadsheets are no longer the solution to project management. As teams become more spread out, managers lose control of the process. Centralisation of project work is the answer, as it means reducing the amount of time spent reconciling multiple versions of documents and ensures that everyone is on the same page. Emailing spreadsheets around leads to mistakes and errors, eliminates the possibility of tracking activities and is not an effective way of managing a project.

If you’re considering investing in project management software there are some distinct choices to make, between pre-packaged applications or ongoing custom-built online software for example, and whether it is developed in-house or by third-party developers.

Pre-packaged applications do offer ease, convenience and immediacy, but can also have limited functionality, a lack of ability to evolve with a business and as such may not be a scalable solution.

Customised software applications can take a lot of time to develop, but adapting software solutions to your own specific needs will mean you can be quite satisfied with the end results. Software like this is likely to greatly benefit a business, centralising work processes and providing a variety of levels of functionality.

Often the best way is to opt for a packaged piece of project management software which has the capacity to be customised for specific business needs. This will often come in the form of web-based applications which are hosted on a secure server, and this makes a lot of sense, as it means no additional software is needed. There are loads of different types of project management software to suit a range of business needs and budgets.

John Mce writes on a number of subjects including project management training and software.