Project Management and Hot Air
A woman was in a hot air balloon. She spotted someone below and lowered closer to the ground to get his attention. She shouted, "Hey, I don't know where I am. Can you help me?" The man responded, "You are in a hot air balloon. You're about twenty feet above the ground, three miles east of the Mississippi River." "You must be a Geologist," the woman replied. "Why yes!" said the man, "How did you know?" "Everything you have told me is true, but I do not know what to do with all this information, I am still lost and you haven't been any help at all!” she explained. "Ah, you are a Project Manager," noted the man. "Yes, I am a Project Manager. How did you know?" she asked. "A lot of hot air got you in this trouble, you have no idea where you are or where you are going. You’re in the same situation as before I came along but somehow this is now my fault!"
Apologies to any project managers but this did make me smile. In business success is achieved by meeting or exceeding project forecasts. Most companies track project spend using time sheets and expense sheets. It's generally a pain for us all to fill them in and an even bigger pain if you have to sort them all out. Here are 10 things we like about our Wrap Solution to project management:
- Time/expense sheets available over the internet at any time on any device.
- All the boring time sheet details are automatically filled in for you (name, times, project numbers).
- Everybody sees the plan of action and knows what is expected of them.
- Automatic client quotations for Managers eyes only.
- Generic task can be added/edited (attach company checklists to ensure company standards are applied).
- Date calculations take in to account weekends and national holidays.
- Mileage calculations linked to Google maps.
- Thinner wallets - receipts can be photo’d from your smartphone and uploaded with your expense sheet.
- Automatic in-tray for any time/expense sheets awaiting manager’s approval.
- Automatic Gantt chart showing %completion ready for immediate export to Excel.
Best of all the Excel source files used to create this solution are readily customised to meet the specific requirement of your own company. Please contact us to arrange a trial or if you are an existing client please ask us to install it for you. Next time I’ll describe an asset management solution to find and manage assets, to keep them in good repair to extend their productive life and to track their value.