Team Management Software

Effectively managing a team of salespeople, marketers, writers, drivers, or any other type of employee requires clear communication, opportunities for collaboration, and a single source of truth for expectations and deadlines.

Team management software combines functionality designed to help managers track the status of projects and the individual employees working on it in a single software suite, without the need to juggle multiple systems and spreadsheets.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• What is team management software?
• Common features of team management software?
• What type of buyer are you?
• Benefits and potential issues
• Market trends to understand

What is team management software?

Team management software includes features such as project management, time tracking and scheduling, communication tools, and reporting to successfully complete projects and tasks as a team.

In fact, team management systems are essentially a version of project management with a bigger focus on collaboration features to keep teams connected and productive. Businesses can automate the flow of each task, send notifications on upcoming dates, and directly message team members to prevent important steps from slipping through the cracks.

Dashboards also give managers the ability to view all the most important team information on a single screen to understand performance and identify positive or negative trends. With this comprehensive view of the team, managers can make decisions based on actual data.

These systems are growing in popularity in the business world—especially when more employees are working remotely. Specific metrics can be used to more appropriately measure team performance when managers are unable to manage employees in a physical office.

Common features of team management software

What type of buyer are you?

Similar to project or task management tools, team management software is designed for any type of industry where groups of employees collaborate on projects. As the trend of remote work grows, these systems are often used to help track the work and performance of employees outside the office.

As you evaluate systems, determine whether you anticipate needing features that specifically benefit managers of remote teams versus in-office teams. Here are some differences:

• In-office teams can use team management software to help automate workflows and collaboration efforts among individuals. The system serves as a repository for important documents and schedules for project due dates.
• Remote teams can use team management software in the same ways as in-office teams, while also providing managers with the ability to track the performance of employees who are not physically nearby. For example, team management software includes specific metrics to measure productivity and clear milestones in projects to accurately track employee work.

Benefits and potential issues

Many companies that adopt team management software are hoping to improve the productivity of their employees and implement features to more accurately track workers. More specifically:

• Generate accurate performance metrics: Using software to measure performance helps reduce bias and leads to more transparency between managers and employees. Reports can be generated consistently for each employee for clearly defined performance expectations.
• Create a single source of truth for your employees: Teams can use the system as a hub for all workflows and process instructions for various tasks, then use communication features to get feedback or clear up lingering issues.
• Increased productivity: With software doing the heavy lifting of keeping schedules and sending reminders, employees can spend more time being creative and produce quality work.
• Valuable integrations: Team management systems, and other business operations software, typically integrate easily with many other tools—such as accounting, customer service, or manufacturing systems—for a more holistic view of the project.
• Learning curve: Managers and employees will need training to fully understand the functionality and best uses for team management tools. Be sure to evaluate the in-person and remote training services offered by the provider, as well as what is detailed within their support offering.

Market trends to understand

Team management software has been used by large enterprises for many years, but they are now growing in popularity with small companies as well due to the flexibility and low cost of cloud-based software. Three factors help drive this trend:

• Growth of remote work: Businesses around the world are beginning to understand the benefits of allowing people to work remotely, both for business goals and worker morale. Team management tools allow these companies to maintain productivity from remote workers.
• Mobility is a requirement for managers: Along with the increase in remote work, the ability to access all functionality from mobile software is a more common request from buyers today. Most modern systems offer a native app that can leverage the capabilities of mobile devices (such as the camera and GPS), or allow users to access the system via a web browser.
• Complexity of projects: When businesses launch new initiatives, especially in today’s business environment, managing every detail and including stakeholders at the right time can be too much to track on a static spreadsheet. Modern companies depend on team management systems to avoid losing track of these complex projects.