So many softwares

that couldn’t do what I needed

at a price I wanted to pay...

 

Asana. ProWorkFlow. TeamGantt. Co-construct. Mavenlink. ProjectLibre. OmniPlan. LivePlan. Wrike.

 
source: http://promys.com/five-ways-your-frankensteined-business-software-is-hurting-your-business/

source: http://promys.com/five-ways-your-frankensteined-business-software-is-hurting-your-business/

I have a thing for efficiency through software which is why I created the Smartsheet for Architects course. I’ve tried numerous cloud based project management solutions but few were flexible and inexpensive enough for small architecture firms.  I’m in numerous online forums for architecture business owners and have talked with other business owners about what they use for project management.  Most often the answer is “nothing and I am swamped.” 

Many firms utilize a mix of softwares to get insights into their business. Hence the Frankenstein Project Management system.

According to the 2016 AIA Firm survey report more than 77% of architecture firms have 1-9 employees, yet there doesn’t seem to be an out of the box software for less than $100/mo that could accommodate a firm of 7 people.

 You know the struggle if ...

  • You've outgrown Trello, Asana & Instagantt. Sharepoint is too clunky and you're not ready to invest in BQE Core, Mavenlink, Jira Deltek or New Forma.

  • You're looking for a software that can serve as a company intranet and database so you can input something once and have it change globally.

  • You're tired of not having an easy way to communicate tasks to your staff and resort to sending endless emails.

  • You're managing the company via 3+ non-connected spreadsheets.

  • You feel like you can't take a vacation because the office would collapse without you telling people what to do.

  • You don't have a dynamic way to create a master schedule and resort to updating it manually

  • You constantly feel like you’re forgetting something because you’re utilizing multiple softwares and put information in the wrong place.

 

SIMPLIFY YOUR WORKFLOW

 

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While the majority of these softwares could be linked to each other, the amount of time I had to spend loading and syncing the data was not sustainable.  Preparing for a company meeting with my business partner was taking too long and I searched for a better solution.  If you've been down this road - "hello fellow traveler", if not, then I hope this site will save you hours of frustration.

Out of all of the software I've tried, Smartsheet is the most flexible and integrated.  If you've already looked a Smartsheet and decided against it because of the user interface (but didn't explore its dashboard and reporting capabilities) I'd encourage you to look again.

Smartsheet Software Comparisons