Project Management is getting more and more complicated. Complexity is always the enemy of execution and an individual’s productivity is closely related with the complexity of tasks at hand.

What comes to your mind when we say “Productivity killer”?

• An outdated tool or a system  
• Lack of communication within a team
• Having no proper goals or a plan

We all start our day having a list of To-Dos. We all want to become better at what we do, but it can be challenging to complete all Project-related tasks at one stroke.  

“You cannot mandate productivity. You must provide tools to let people become their best – Steve Jobs”

Salesforce will help you make the most out of your work day and will also help your team to manage projects better.

In this article, we will cover the following 7 Project Management related Salesforce features and Apps in Salesforce AppExchange that you and your team could use

1. Salesforce Teams & Tasks
2. Salesforce Chatter
3. Salesforce KPIs, Reports & Dashboards
4. Salesforce Automation Features
5. Salesforce Mobile Application
6. Salesforce Quip
7. Project Management Apps on Appexchange

1. Salesforce Teams & Tasks

Account and Opportunity teams can be set up in Salesforce. You could add only relevant employees to the team and control access to this information. This team could use the Salesforce tasks feature to close deals faster and personalize customer journey.

A task is equivalent to a simple to-do list in real-life but is related to a specific customer or an opportunity. With Salesforce, a task wouldn’t be slipped, repeated or done at a wrong time

”Productivity is never an accident it’s the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning and focussed effort – Paul Meyer”

Salesforce is an ideal way to maintain customer relationships consistently and sell smarter.

You can view tasks in multiple formats – tasks as a list, table or a kanban board. You could also view the tasks under activity timeline inside an opportunity, lead or an account screen.

Salesforce also has task notifications feature. It could remind you to complete a task in a timely fashion.

2. Salesforce Chatter

Chatter is a project collaboration tool inside Salesforce. You could create a team chatter group specific for account or a project and then update progress there. It is a great way to track progress and talk with team members.

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You could share and version control files specific to the project to your team and avoid emailing them every time. Chatter also has a game-based badging system to recognize productive employees and promote innovation.

3. Salesforce KPIs, Reports & Dashboards

A Harvard Business study reveals,

“83% of population don’t have goals, 14% have a plan in mind, 3% write them down

14% of who have goals are 10X successful than those without goals and

3% of who have written goals are 3X more successful than those with plan”

Clearly goal-setting is linked to better results. Salesforce can help sales-representatives to be more productive in three ways

1. Set goals and create a dashboard to track if they reached the quota
2. Prioritize opportunities which needs immediate attention
3. In Salesforce Lightning, you could personalize the home page to include news stories, alerts, daily dashboards, etc.

You could use Reports, Dashboards to monitor team’s performance and manage project timelines. Project managers can also make data-driven decisions during the course of the project .

For instance, you want to know who your highest value prospects are? You could create a report showing the top open accounts and the amount.

Dashboards combine all important metrics and present in a single screen. Salesforce’s dynamic dashboards present data specific to the user who has logged in.

Learn more about how Bewotec, a Cloudideas customer became more successful with Salesforce reporting.

4. Salesforce Automation Features

Salesforce could automate repetitive administration tasks and automate workflows.

Automation Scenario 1: A note-worthy feature in Salesforce is linking email to Salesforce. It could sync your contact information, appointments and all opportunity related important information.

Automation Scenario 2: Set up approvals for offering discounts to customers or even travelling to customer sites, etc.  

Automation Scenario 3: Sales reps usually seek guidance from peers or sales managers in some cases. This process can be automated using the Sales Path feature.

Read more about how automation can be used in marketing.

5. Salesforce Mobile Application

Salesforce Mobile App lets you complete tasks without having to log in to the computer every time. You could maintain relationships with your customers from your comfort zone. The app is available in Google Playstore or Apple App Store.

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It helps you to plan the day better and on the go. You could also take quick notes about an opportunity or customer in phone and reference later.

6. Salesforce Quip

You could simultaneously work on a document with your team members using Quip. Team mates could suggest changes on a document and you could revise, comment and reach common grounds.

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Quip is embedded to Salesforce and is a secure place for teams to collaborate. The decision makers or project managers can

1. create work documents,
2. facilitate discussions and
3. assign tasks to team members directly all at one place.
   

Recently Salesforce integrated Quip to Salesforce Anywhere. Now live data from Quip documents, spreadsheets and business process templates will be available directly on the Salesforce Anywhere app.

Read more about Salesforce Anywhere on our blog.

7. Project Management Apps on AppExchange

You and your team might already be using some productivity and project management applications.Salesforce can connect with those applications on top of the core functionality.

One of the tried and tested tool by CloudIdeas is TaskRay. With Taskray’s project templates, automation features you could do project management in a faster and efficient way.

“Businesses with a clear project management structure in place have 38% more successful projects that met their original goals than those that did not.- Pulse Profession Study”

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Conclusion

Rome was not built in a day and so is Salesforce implementation, customization.

When you use Salesforce wisely, it could improve employee’s productivity and avoid burnouts.

Additionally you could successfully complete projects and meet customer expectations.

Consult our Salesforce Experts now, we are happy to help you strategize your project management structure.