Resource Management Software
Resource management software is a type of project management software. It allows organizations to track the availability of their employees, identify what skills they have and schedule them for projects accordingly. Resource management tools are typically used by larger organizations, which have a greater need to optimize employee workloads and identify which workers are best suited for certain projects.
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NetSuite OpenAir offers buyers a collection of applications designed to support every stage of the professional services delivery lifecycle. Offered as Software-as-a-Service, the platform includes applications to manage project...Read more
Using Clarizen’s leading collaborative work management solution for the enterprise, businesses can solve challenges far beyond traditional work, project or resource management. With Clarizen’s enterprise-grade solut...Read more
Quick Base is the smoothest way to manage complex and strategic projects involving many stakeholders in different departments and roles. Quick Base is a cloud-based low-code application development platform that is highly custo...Read more
NetSuite Professional Services Automation
NetSuite Professional Services Automation is used by professional services organizations to optimize their project-based operations. The software offers integrated project management, resource management, project-based accounti...Read more
Workzone is a project management solution that offers document management, project collaboration, customizable reporting, resource and task management and time tracking. The software is cloud-based and offers automated emailed ...Read more
Project Insight (PI) is the work management hub helping companies manage projects, allocate personnel and track what work is being done throughout the entire organization. The intuitive software aggregates data from hig...Read more
monday.com, an award-winning collaboration and project management platform, helps teams plan together efficiently and execute complex projects to deliver results on time. monday.com team management and...Read more
Easy Projects is a cloud-based project management platform suitable for midsize organizations and enterprises. Easy Projects provides every contributing team member, project manager, executive, stakeholder or customer w...Read more
KeyedIn is a cloud-based project management solution for enterprise-level companies offering a suite with features, such as program management, professional services automation and project portfolio management application....Read more
BigTime is an online time and billing solution designed to serve professional service firms like accounting, engineering, government contracting, legal and IT services. The integrated solution offers features like time and expe...Read more
Software pricing tips
Read our Resource Management Software Buyers GuideSubscription models
- Per employee/per month: This model allows you to pay a monthly fee for each of your employees.
- Per user/per month: Users pay a monthly fee for users—normally administrative users—rather than all employees.
Perpetual license
- This involves paying an upfront sum for the license to own the software and use it indefinitely.
- This is the more traditional model and is most common with on-premise applications and with larger businesses.
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Smartsheet is a work execution platform and collaboration tool with a familiar spreadsheet-like interface that helps teams plan, track, and manage projects in real-time. Smartsheet features include a r...Read more
Cora Systems provide enterprise project and portfolio management solutions to global organizations and government agencies, such as Honeywell, Elanco, PwC, City of London and the UK’s National Health Service. Their soluti...Read more
Sciforma is a cloud-based project and portfolio management solution for enterprises that allows to strategically track and analyze project data and make relevant decisions. It can be sold as a stand-alone portfolio management, ...Read more
Aysling is a cloud-based enterprise resource solution that can run an entire business, from leads to sales, through delivery to payments. Aysling is easy to deploy, configure, use, and manage while offering ...Read more
Workamajig is a cloud-based HTML5 project management solution designed for creative ad agencies and in-house advertising teams of all sizes. Key features include opportunity tracking, project management, time tracking, resource...Read more
Small businesses require big data to scale and improve. Dovico Timesheet helps growing companies with project time and cost data reports that provide insights into labour availability and billable or non-billable project health...Read more
Screendragon is a leading work management platform designed for marketing, agency and professional services teams. It is used and loved by global companies and agencies like Kellogg’s, BP, The International Olympic Commit...Read more
Mavenlink offers services and solutions for project management, resource planning, collaboration, and project accounting. Mavenlink combines the robust functionality of a Professional Services Automation solution with intuitive...Read more
Deltek Vision is a cloud-based project-based solution for professional services firms that is available for cloud or on-premise deployment. It combines project accounting, resource management, project management, time...Read more
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Buyers Guide
Last Updated: February 28, 2021The first and most crucial step in executing any project is selecting the right resources. Therefore, it becomes important that managers pick the appropriate resources based on their team or organization’s skill set. A resource management tool can automate this step and helps project managers make quick decisions while optimizing employee staffing.
In this guide, we’ll cover the ins and out of a new breed of project management software: resource management software. A growing number of vendors are now offering these tools, which focus on employee skills and availability, within their project management platforms.
Here’s what you need to know:
What Is Resource Management Software?
Common Functionality of Resource Management Software
What Type of Buyer Are You?
Benefits of Resource Management Software
Key Considerations for Resource Management Software
What Is Resource Management Software?
Resource management software is a type of project management software. It allows organizations to track the availability of their employees, identify what skills they have and schedule them for projects accordingly. Resource management tools are typically used by larger organizations, which have a greater need to optimize employee workloads and identify which workers are best suited for certain projects.
For example, a large software development firm might use resource management software to help select a team of front-end, back-end and full-stack developers, who each have unique skill sets, to work on a big project. This eliminates the busywork of manually trying to identify and schedule the right people for the job.
Common Functionality of Resource Management Software
Here are some common capabilities you can expect to find in most resource management tools:
| Skills and availability tracking | This important tool allows users to find employees with certain skills who are available at certain times and assign work to them. This relies on users inputting employee schedules and workflows and creating a profile that lists their relevant skills. For example, a project manager would use this functionality to find which back-end developers at her organization are available to tackle a side project in the coming month. |
| Staffing forecasting | Allows organizations to plan for expected staffing needs in the future by collecting internal data regarding sales, product development, product launches etc., then making recommendations based on that data. For example, if higher sales are expected in the coming quarter, the system would recommend hiring a certain number of sales reps. |
| Knowledge base | Some platforms will include a library of white papers and community channels to help human resources and project managers better understand what types of workers they’ll need for technical positions. These might contain easy-to-understand explanations of technical skills and roles that help managers know what to look for when hiring. |
| Request automation | This tool simplifies the process of selecting teams for particular assignments by automatically searching for and identifying suitable employees, based on their skills and availability. |
| Document template | Enable team managers to streamline the repetitive work of managing resources. You can use a previously used template that features all the required tasks and resources for the new project. This template eliminates the need to re-enter all the details again and again. |
| Timesheet management | Allows users to track the actual time spent by an individual on a particular project. Managers can also calculate the overtime of each project. An optional feature of automatic notification can also be included in the tool that notifies the managers when any of their team members log in to the system. |
What Type of Buyer Are You?
In general, resource management platforms are best suited for large organizations that have more than 500 employees. However, smaller companies in software development, engineering or other highly technical fields can still get a lot of use out of resource management tools. Companies with fewer than 500 employees that aren’t in a highly technical field can generally get by with a traditional project management suite.
Benefits of Resource Management Software
In general, here are the biggest benefits you will see from using resource management software at your organization:
- Greater workplace efficiency. Reduce the time it takes to staff projects and ensure that the right people are on the job.
- Evenly distributed work. With resource management software, you can view every employee’s workflow and ensure that no employee gets too swamped—or doesn’t have enough to do.
- Enhanced project management visibility. Resource management software provides greater insight into your organization’s operations than standard project management software. That’s because it provides more visibility into who is getting assigned to which projects and which skills are in greatest demand for the organization.
- Avoid conflicts. Resource management solutions provide real-time visibility about work allocation across the organization. This will also avoid unexpected delays and conflicts that increase expenses and unnecessary stress in the organization.
Key Considerations for Resource Management Software
Here are a few other things to keep in mind as you evaluate resource management software:
- Collaboration features. While working with multiple people on a single project, it is necessary that all the team members can collaborate in real time. Resource management solutions should enable users to see their work allocation, set meetings and check the project status.
- Dashboard driven. All the key aspects of resource management should be displayed to managers on a user-friendly dashboard. A quick overview of all the resources and status of multiple projects enables management to take quick project-related decisions. They can also check the resource availability for a particular skill-set that helps in effective project execution.
- Resource skills directory. The solution should have a directory to capture the skill set of all the employees. This will help project managers pick the right team member as the solution itself suggests the name of available candidates by matching their skills with the project needs. It will also make sure that employees with similar skills are assigned equal amounts of work.