Why Choose A Project Management Software on Salesforce
As the tech world expands, services businesses grapple with increasingly sizable projects, necessitating the use of efficient and comprehensive project management systems. Visualizing an entire project from inception to completion through detailed charts, graphs, and real-time data on a unified platform becomes crucial.
This is where Salesforce-native project management software brings value. Built with the same technological foundations as Salesforce, a native app enables seamless integration with the CRM platform—eliminating the need to switch between platforms and providing a 360° view into projects.
Benefits of Using a Project Management System on Salesforce
A clear advantage of transitioning your teams to project management on Salesforce via a native app is that you can consolidate management of resources, finances, people, and customers—all within a unified platform.
Furthermore, integrating your management system with Salesforce creates a customer-centric system. By unifying project management and customer data, placing customers at the heart of each project becomes effortless.
The alternative to using native apps is using project management point solutions—not on a unified platform, not natively integrated. Some believe this method keeps data accessible. However, these users miss out on the benefits of having a unified system, such as data consolidation and having a single source of truth.
Without integration, project teams can struggle with silos and fogged visibility, as data is scattered across disparate systems. Teams also often grapple with delays in decision-making and data entry errors—both caused by having to update and sync information between systems manually.
By centralizing your customer and project database, teams get access to the same data and actionable insights in real time, improving speed and collaboration. Workflows from planning to execution become seamless. Centralization also enhances visibility and data accuracy, making running projects intelligently, meeting customer objectives, and achieving operational, business-driven metrics easier.
A unified customer and project management database will also benefit professional services aiming to integrate artificial intelligence into their operations. AI tools require comprehensive, clean, and historical data to generate accurate predictions and meaningful insights. By having “one source of truth” instead of separate databases per function, businesses create a solid foundation for optimal AI implementation.
Transform your services delivery into a customer-first experience.
7 Features of Top Project Management Software on Salesforce
A Salesforce-native project management software is key to building a customer-centric, unified management platform—a true asset for any services business. But not all native solutions are created equal. So how do you determine which one is best in class?
This section outlines must-have features that can help your organization optimize workflows, improve resource management, and enhance collaboration on Salesforce.
- Enterprise-wide project portfolio management
See the full picture to make informed decisions that drive efficiency and long-term success.
- Big-picture visibility: Gain cross-company insights into all projects and resources. Manage complex staffing across geographies or multi-entity businesses.
- Resource optimization: Centralize management of resources to improve planning efficiency while accommodating growth or acquisitions.
- Data-driven resource allocation
Get visual and hierarchical breakdowns of project tasks to make resource assigning and progress tracking more efficient.
- Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): A detailed WBS integrated into Gantt charts enables tracking dependencies, task progress, and time spent at individual task levels.
- Real-time updates: Enable better planning and pipeline forecasting with live visibility into resource availability across multiple projects.
- Personalized project views
Enable high-level and detailed views of all projects that allow managers to oversee their portfolios efficiently and effectively.
- Consolidated data: Access to key data—status, dates, financial information, etc.—on a single page. This makes tracking and managing multiple projects more efficient.
- Detailed insights: Break down high-level data into granular insights. This helps with managing risks, identifying issues early, and overseeing financial KPIs, such as budget burnup and revenue forecasts versus baselines.
- Customizable workspaces
Adapt to different teams and roles. A flexible project management system allows users to tailor dashboards, alerts, and reports to their specific needs.
- Role-specific customization: Support targeted views for different roles, such as services teams or resource managers, making workflows efficient.
- Flexible dashboards and fields: Customize dashboards, alerts, reports, and field views to align with unique workflows.
- Clone and edit pages: Drag-and-drop functionality allows users to easily swap alert cards, add charts, and customize workspaces to their needs.
- Scalable workflow automation: Automate, optimize, and scale workflows to enhance efficiency and support business growth.
- Workflow automation
Automation modernizes project management systems, helping you achieve more with less effort.
- Streamlined processes: Reduce administrative burdens and improve speed and efficiency with automation. Great solutions also integrate seamlessly with existing systems and databases.
- Automated resource management: Automated tracking, dynamic adjustments, and a unified resource view across workflows help eliminate bottlenecks, boost utilization, and prevent employee burnout.
- Project templates
Best-in-class project management software offers templates built on project management best practices. They can also be extended to include templated project management reports for simpler project reporting and analytics.
- Consistency and efficiency: Ensure repeatable project creation processes. Great templates include customizable task panes, automated task dependencies, and synchronized milestones.
- Bottom-up planning: Assign roles to tasks. Calculate estimated revenue, costs, and margins to ensure accurate forecasting.
- Customer-centric features
Features like communities and portals offer a centralized online platform where access and collaboration between project teams and customers are simplified.
- Centralized collaboration: Simplify stakeholder access and collaboration. Communities provide a centralized space for storing project-related documents, such as budgets, status reports, risks, and invoices.
- Self-service options: Allow stakeholders to access invoices, pay online, and view project updates in real time.
- Collaborative task management: Allow customers to interact with tasks directly via portals, improving communication across the delivery ecosystem.
- Real-time reporting: Keep stakeholders informed through automated status reports with live access to project updates.
These seven features of best-in-class Salesforce-native project management apps can help professional services enhance efficiency, streamline workflows, and achieve successful project outcomes.
Unlock Customer-First Project Management With the Right Salesforce-Native Solution
Stand out from the crowd by placing your customers at the heart of each project. Salesforce-native project management software enables a customer-centric approach to project management by providing professional services a unified system that consolidates customer and project data. Those with best-in-class features further this by boosting real-time visibility and collaboration among all stakeholders.
Enter Certinia Professional Services (PS) Cloud, a native app that offers project management on Salesforce. With world-class features that enable services and operations leaders to effectively unify teams, data, and workflows within a single platform, PS Cloud empowers services businesses to deliver greater value to their customers—all while refining their project management capabilities.
Maximize your Salesforce investment with Certinia
