Use Google Apps for Project Management; Gaining Convenience and Saving Money
Using Google Apps as Tools for Project Management
This article discusses using Google applications for project management and use google apps for project management; gaining convenience and saving money. The best thing about Google apps is that they are free to use. In business and project management meeting projected costs is crucial, so any help along the way to finishing your project within budget is welcome. By employing Google apps, there is no requirement to upgrade or maintain the software you are using, providing convenience and saving you money.
The main advantage of Google apps is that they are not installed. By using cloud computing, this saves the user the need to have multiple installs, and opens the possibility of many access points (cell phone, home PC, remote connections). This universal access provides outstanding opportunities to run your project planning and documentation for free and from anywhere.
Google Calendar
Google calender can be used to organise your project from start to finish.
As Google calender supports multiple calendars, you can organise and manage all of your projects, storing them in one location. Controlling multiple projects is made possible by utilizing the ability to create many calendars.
When you setup calendars, you can share with members of your team and designate tasks to team members. Team members can then access the calendar via other calendars by just entering the calendar name. Once you have shared your calendar with your team members, you can then assign tasks.
Provided that you have a compatible cell phone, you can also synchronize your Google calendar with your phone. Google now also provides offline access, offering a read-only version of your calendar to keep you on top of your schedule and tasks.
Once your tasks are set up in your calendar, you can then preset reminders to keep track of what is coming up in a project or to remind you of meetings and events that you need to attend.
Google calendars also have the capability for synchronising your MS Outlook calendar, depending on your business needs.
Google Groups
The Google groups app can be set up and used as a sharing tool for your project. Archived discussions and mail create a reference point for the project group.
Each group can be tailored to meet individual or group requirements.
You can setup groups to meet your project requirements and use the group invite features, send messages to your groups or invite to meetings.
Google Sites
With Google sites, you can create websites without any knowledge of HTML or coding. Free templates are availballe to suit your project and for starting your sites. The website can be created to keep a central resource of project information or could be used to show clients progress or reports.
Google sites also supports sharing or accessing information allowing you to create different sites hosting many projects.
Google Docs
Another great app for using Google applications for project management and for gaining convenience and saving money is Google docs.Now that you have your calendar set up, tasks created and events organized, you can share any team documents via Google docs. The great feature here is that you can create a document and have multiple accesses by sharing it. Google docs supports simultaneous editing as well (a message will appear, advising whoever is accessing the document at the time that someone else is also currently editing it).
Google offers the same facilities for spreadsheets, drawings and presentations, all frequently used in project management.
Security
Google employs tight security. The Google apps website advises that through people, technology and process, a secure system is provided for your data via the latest technologies and data centre practices, providing data and network security.
Having security issues addressed adds a huge advantage in using this platform to develop your projects. Google also says that the apps are available 99.9% of the time, supporting continuity of your work.
Visit the official website for Google apps.
