While massive corporations and tiny start-ups may have many differences in budget, reputation and internal structure, they do have something in common. They both, regardless of size, must plan to complete their projects consistently and efficiently. Most businesses function on the strength of their projects. In fact, almost everything that an organization does is based on carrying out tasks relating to various projects. For a business to succeed, its processes must be aligned with project goals. That’s why resource management for large organizations is just as crucial as resource management for small business.
Small Business, Big Details
“Business”, conceptually, runs in the same way regardless of the size of the company. They also more or less need the same types of resources in business. Business resources definition, in this context, refers to both consumable (such as budgets) and renewable (such as human workers and machinery). It could be argued, however, the difference between size comes down to consequences. For instance, small companies often experience company has a narrower margin for error when it comes to completing projects than their multinational counterparts. If you were to miss a project deadline as a small business it could potentially derail a client relationship, cost you revenue that you had budgeted for, halt your development or even lead to the company shutting down (certainly a ‘worst-case’ scenario). If the same project deadline is missed by a more established, larger company their size could potentially support the loss in revenue, while their professional reputation could prevent the client from leaving, etc. and still be around to do a better job next time.
If you are part of a small business you’ll understand that even the smallest changes can have a big effect on your organization, from hiring practices to how you pass work around the office. Take for example, a company of eight employees who have developed a specific training for getting certain tasks done. Add in more resources and suddenly you have new voices, experiences and new styles of working. But a standardization of processes must be in place for this to be a positive change. If not, previously successful processes could be unintentionally upended, which might negatively affect productivity.
Resource Management For Small Business
Nowhere is standardization and efficient processes more important than when working on projects for your clients. As a small business, each project means a lot—for your reputation, the morale of your team and, of course, the bottom line. In fact, making sure your projects are completed efficiently, on time and to budget can be the difference between growing the company and standing still.
Standardizing processes
Growth is an important idea here. As your business grows, the right management tool becomes extremely handy. Successfully managing clients and projects relies on having the right systems in place to keep track of your processes. Ad-hoc processes that may have worked when you first began your business will soon fall short when the work becomes more complex, the number of projects that must be juggled grows, and the deadlines become less flexible.
Understand your resource competence
Instead, you need a solution that can focus on your project resources, giving your project leaders better visibility over the allocation of their resources, and to understand what effect specific resource decisions will have on the outcome of your projects.
Improve collaboration
Deploying a sophisticated resource management business resource management technology helps members of your team stay on track. By having better visibility over your resources, your project teams can share better information with each other, which helps project tasks to be completed more efficiently and effectively. Cloud-based resource management software, such as Tempus Resource, can be accessed from both your desk and your mobile device, meaning that no matter where you are you can get access to the important stuff when you need to, enhancing collaboration even further.
Better habits for the future
A lot of smaller teams use Excel for their business resource management. With a fewer number of resources and projects it’s a functional tool. However, this is setting bad habits for the future. By putting in place a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use, resource management solution you will give your team a better structure that will scale as you grow.
Budget better
Often for small businesses, money can be tight. That’s why it’s important you can budget correctly. But budgeting for projects is difficult if you don’t have the means to see what is around the corner. With the right business resource management tools, you can better measure project progress and expected outcomes, which allows for better budgeting.
Streamline delivery
Both small and large businesses use project management as a tool to improve service delivery. They are able to streamline delivery and shorten development cycles by providing an intelligence-based management process. Identify and focus on battling potential problems before they happen or when they are small scale so as not to have major impact in the future. Continuous delivery provides a more intelligent approach to managing shortened cycles. This allows for faster updates with fewer glitches and greater buy-in. The result is improved customer satisfaction. Therefore effective small business resource management can be just as effective as an organization-wide customer satisfaction project.
Resource Management in Business, No Matter Your Size
Whether your organization has 10 employees or 10,000, resource portfolio management software, like Tempus Resource, can help you achieve your goals, improve your products and services grow your company. Project and service delivery can be improved by optimizing allocation of resources.
Tempus Resource uses ‘What-If’ simulations to model project data and help you make risk-free, data-driven decisions over your projects. This is something that is of benefit to a start-up with a small project team as much as it is to a large project management office (PMO) with several project teams across multiple borders. Our strategic portfolio management software solutions were developed around information technology portfolio management (IT resource management) then applied to engineering resource management. Now utilized across all businesses, the same benefits have been found from enterprise through small business.
With Tempus Resource you can ensure your business has what it needs to manage its projects properly, making better, more informed decisions that will help drive business growth.
For more information on business resource planning for small business and the benefits of a tool like Tempus Resource, get in touch today.
