Ever tried to change your own oil? Unless you're a contortionist, you've probably discovered that getting your oil filter off is damn near impossible. You need to squeeze your hand into a tiny little area, grab a hold of that greasy round sonofagun, and twist with enough force to break a three month old seal.
It's kind of like trying to pry that piece of food out from between your rear molar and the space left when you had your wisdom teeth pulled. Your tongue can't grab it, and it's too slippery to snag with your fingers. Plus, you look nuts trying to stick your whole hand way back there to grab it.
The solution to each of these situations is a specialized tool. Yanking your oil filter out becomes a lot simpler when you use one of these. And you can fish that hunk of barbecued ribs out of your teeth much easier using one of these jobbies. In each case, the specialized tool makes the job quick and easy.
Project Management - Only for the Organized
Today's web application focus is on Project Management. A complex job involving all kinds of measurables that need to be weighed, managed and communicated to the right people at the right time. A job that gets much easier if you have a few specialized tools.
And a web application can provide those tools. Tools that help you increase client satisfaction and save time.
Marsha the Marketer
Meet Marsha. She's a project manager at fictional company Big Idea Marketing and relies on all kinds of people to make her projects run smoothly. She needs writers, designers, printers and web developers to get her projects delivered. She also needs to keep her clients informed of steps along the way, and gather input from them.
It's a lot to keep on her plate. She leaves work late every day, feeling exhausted. She used to enjoy her job, but keeping all the pieces straight have burned her out, and she's thinking of finding a job with fewer moving pieces to keep track of.
The Web App That Saved My Life
Thankfully, the brass at Big Idea Marketing has taken note of how stressed Marsha is, and have hired IntelliSites to build them a custom Web Application. We've asked Marsha all kinds of questions, and have figured out ways to solve many of her problems. We're building an application that does all kinds of things for her. Her new web application will:
1. Track all the pieces of her projects We've built it so she can assign tasks and deadlines to each of her team members individually, view current drafts of documents, and leave comments. Her designers can upload new designs, her writers can add new drafts of copy, and her developers and printers have access to files so they can work on implementations and samples. Having all of this flexibility in one place makes Marsha more efficient, freeing her to manage more projects and still have time for a much needed coffee break.
2. Get Clients Involved The beautiful thing about a web application is that anyone with Internet access can use it at any time. We've built a special portal into the Big Idea Application that clients can use at their convenience. When Marsha sees something she'd like to show to the client, she simply marks it as "shared" and her clients get an email asking for their input. Clients leave feedback directly in the application, and Marsha's team can review it as soon as they have a moment. The team is more efficient, and Marsha's clients are happier knowing where the project stands.
3. No Learning Curve Marsha was skeptical about a web application at first. She'd used project management programs before, but found them so hard to learn and use that keeping them up to date actually cost her time. But when we built their custom application, we only added the things that Marsha needed. We didn't build any extraneous pieces, or force her to jump through any unnecessary hoops just to get things done. We built exactly what she needed in exactly the way she needed it. Now she just hops in, finds the info she needs, and moves on to something else. Instead of wasting time working on the software, she lets the software do the work for her.
Saving Time and Increasing Customer Satisfaction
That's the name of the game for the Big Idea web application. It frees up Marsha to get more done with less effort. And it gives clients a window into the process, helping to calm their nerves and avoiding big surprises along the path.
Next week, I'll show you how you can use a web application as a kind of personal assistant, keeping your dates, contacts and messages organized.
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