Project cycles are crucial to all industries and managing them can be challenging. Preparing resources for projects requires more than just planning. One should be able to anticipate bottlenecks and eventually develop tactics to circumvent them. A project management tool or software offers a technology-enabled structure and organisation for project managers to gain control over a project and deliver it successfully.

With the increasing demand for access to content via digital media and myriad of devices, the publishing industry has already been pushed into the digital space. Moving beyond digital outputs, publishers, in today’s competitive market, must gain a deeper level of understanding of project management and use these solutions that deliver real value and specifically meet the business objectives of the publishing industry.

Here are some important ways in which a project management software can enhance productivity by keeping your publishing project on track.

Easily manage and meet your publishing schedules:  With a holistic project management software, you can not only plan well ahead and in real-time but also ensure that you complete tasks on time as per the planned schedules. Planning, tracking, and collaborating are the key areas of project management. From task distribution, tracking time and budget resources, to managing teams across different locations, you can do it all on a single platform that can be accessed from anywhere at any time. Unlike a spreadsheet that needs to be filled in manually, a project management software can be perfectly integrated with an enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for automated real-time updates.

Effectively Manage Communication: A project manager in the publishing industry has to effectively manage communication with different stakeholders such as authors, copy editors, and designers. A project management software helps you carry out centralised conversations with all team members thus reducing time and avoiding miscommunication. Team members can automatically share progress updates with others as well as share files and documents. Manually sending or receiving updates and files via a number of emails can be time-consuming and tiring, thus increasing the scope for manual error in simple activities. Since each stage of a project is a smaller project in itself, you can easily save time and increase the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the team by storing and tracking all project-related documentation, information, and communication in a single place. 

Increase Productivity with Automated Workflows:  An entire project can be successfully managed from start to finish with the right tools. With automated planning that includes custom made templates, simple tasks such as monitoring progress or requesting/granting approvals can be executed seamlessly. You can also reduce the stress of trying to remember the different tasks, especially the regular and predictable ones, by scheduling them in advance. Reducing reliance on manual handling of tasks allows for better management of the workload and decreases manual errors.

Easily Track Time and Budget :  You can track projects, and easily see where you stand regarding resources and hours. Tracking and managing project deadlines in real-time improves the planning process and keeps you on schedule. Project management software can also help you identify schedule risks. Costs and budgets can be synced with real-time tracking. You can constantly track actual expenses against planned budgets. The budget feature can also send alerts when your project may go off track.

With project management software that is custom-designed for the publishing industry, publishers can get more done, in less time, freeing up time for the creative process.