Whatever the industry, managing a business can entail dealing with extraordinary amounts of paperwork, from work orders to invoices, contracts to receipts. Even in today’s technology-driven business world, many organizations continue to keep hard copies of paperwork; others have embraced electronic record-keeping, yet put minimal effort into ensuring that things remain organized and easily accessible at all times. In the average workplace, in other words, record-keeping rarely takes high priority. And yet, paperwork has a number of hidden costs where workplace productivity is concerned.

Indeed, much like a junk drawer in the home, a stockpile of old records may not seem worth organizing—that is, until you need to pull up a record and can’t locate it. In addition to being burdensome to store, managing the variety of paperwork that any given business produces can lead to dramatically reduced productivity. The average office worker wastes an astonishing 40% of the workday owing to lack of organizational skills, and sifting through paperwork can be a major contributing factor to this time sink. Even more staggering is the American Demographic Society’s conclusion that workers in the United States waste an excess of 9 million hours daily looking for misplaced articles—and, in turn, waste resources such as paper and printer ink creating duplicate copies of these same documents.

Managers suffer from the paperwork plague to an equal if not greater extent. While employees spend approximately four hours per week in meetings—and report that at least half of this time is wasted—managers spend nearly twice as much of their workweek in time-wasting conferences. The note-taking and brainstorming sessions that routinely transpire in such meetings generate a great deal of paperwork that is promptly stuffed into a drawer or the recycling bin, never to be seen again. Combined with the $37 billion lost annually to unnecessary business meetings in the U.S., these lost ideas and opportunities are a major managerial shortcoming.

So, how can a business keep track of an ever-growing collection of important paperwork while ensuring that it is organized, accessible, and beneficial rather than burdensome to operations? With powerful yet user-friendly project management software such as ConductorLIVE, you can leverage the power of the web to say goodbye to filing cabinets and move all of your paperwork to a centralized web-based location.

A web-based project management platform provides a dynamic, convenient means of collecting, tracking, and indexing paperwork, from simple work orders to complex project files. This means that workers can not only locate exactly what they need when they need it, but also correspond and share with teammates and managers in a paper-free format—eliminating both the need for time-wasting meetings and the risk of misplacing a great idea. This increased productivity applies to managers, too, enabling them to divert time spent in meetings to more important endeavors, easily search for and retrieve files, instantaneously share information with peers, and conveniently solicit and implement employees’ ideas. An online project management solution can also help managers reduce unnecessary expenditures on printer maintenance, ink, and perhaps most importantly, paper—10,000 sheets of which are utilized by each office worker annually.

Web-based project management software such as ConductorLIVE empowers you to increase productivity by taking all of your paperwork to a centralized online locale. Seeking a better solution to storing and sharing your business documents? Consider a powerful yet easy-to-use project management platform for all of your communication, collaboration, and organizational needs.

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From trade publications to news reports to blogs, a broad spectrum of media geared toward business owners and managers have stressed the importance of good project management for improving communications, increasing efficiency, and boosting profits—no matter the industry. That being said, fewer have acknowledged the great extent to which project management software can help companies achieve these and other goals by streamlining virtually every aspect of the business. It’s true: project management software, when implemented and utilized to take advantage of its full capabilities, is the superior solution to keeping projects on track—that is, on time and under budget.

After all, if you can’t see where you are, how can you know where you’re going? Just as traveling cross-country without a road map can easily lead one off course, trying to complete a project without a clearly defined pathway creates opportunity after opportunity to go astray. This is especially true for projects that are team endeavors. Having a convenient means to establish a timeline, delegate responsibilities, track individual and overall progress, and provide and solicit feedback can help to ensure that each and every team member—and thus the team as a whole—is on track to project completion.

A powerful yet easy-to-use project management platform such as ConductorLIVE can provide all of this and more, helping you and your team to communicate, collaborate, and stay organized from the earliest stages of the project through its completion. The myriad advantages of a web-based project management platform include the following:

• Facilitates teamwork
• Encourages and expedites communication
• Promotes collaboration, including file sharing
• Enables organization, including task delegation and scheduling
• Increases transparency and accountability
• Allows for the instant exchange of information concerning project changes, additions, and delays
• Keeps project leads and owners informed of progress

In other words, a dynamic online project management suite can help you to keep projects on-track and under budget by streamlining everything from communication to collaboration, organization to oversight.

Every year individual businesses and the United States economy alike lose extraordinary amounts of money to failed projects. And, as a recent survey by software development company Geneca indicates, many business executives—including a staggering 75% of those in the IT industry—anticipate that their projects will fail long before they throw in the towel. Reducing those numbers starts with learning from past mistakes, which brings to light yet another advantage of project management software. In addition to helping you avoid blown deadlines and over-expenditures in the first place, a project management platform also enables you to review each and every detail of a project (whether or not it was completed), empowering you to identify where things could have been improved so that you can implement those changes the next time around.

An online project management solution such as ConductorLIVE can help you streamline communication, collaboration, and organization to boost your chances of project success. If you’re seeking an affordable, effective approach to better project management, consider adopting a dynamic project management solution that leverages the power of the web.

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When asked what aspect of their job is most in need of improvement, many employees reply that their workplace lacks a strong infrastructure for facilitating internal communications. The reality is that many corporate workplaces do not provide an ideal environment for employees—and perhaps especially recent hires and those who think outside the box—to communicate with those at the upper echelons of the company. Even the most confident employee may find it daunting to voice criticism in a face-to-face meeting with a team leader or stakeholder. Likewise, an employee with an innovative idea might be hesitant to give it a voice out of concern that it will not be well-received by more traditional-minded colleagues.

Among the myriad benefits of online project management software are communication features that empower employees to share and exchange ideas without the pressures that typically accompany formal meetings. What does this mean in concrete terms? Consider an example from the IT industry. Software developers represent some of the most innovative minds and talented problem-solvers in IT. And yet, a developer who identifies room for dramatic improvement in a given piece of software may not feel confident voicing his or her ideas to colleagues who engage with the software on the consumer end (e.g. an investor or CEO). In this case, an IT project management solution might provide an ideal forum for the developer to share his or her highly valuable input in an environment that is low-pressure and easily accessible by the target audience.

This single example demonstrates the high value of project management software to any business, no matter the industry. By providing a space for employees to contribute their voices to a given project, you dramatically increase the potential of the project itself. The more voices, in other words, the more potential solutions. That being said, a dynamic project management platform such as ConductorLIVE also means that you’ll never find yourself amid a cacophony. Features enabling private exchange, large discussions, and even the prioritization of conversations give you the power to organize communications in whatever way works best for your business, whether that involves communicating one-on-one, soliciting team feedback on a project, or creating an organization-wide forum.

When you hire a new employee, you do so because you value what their experience and expertise can bring to your workplace. This being the case, isn’t it in your best interest to provide them with a means of communicating their ideas? Unsurprisingly, it is when workers feel as though their input is welcomed and encouraged that they are most inclined to share their opinions. And an IT project management platform can provide the perfect solution to improving internal communications by fostering dynamic exchange.

A web-based project management solution can help you optimize workplace communication and collaboration by providing an inviting space for the exchange of ideas. If you’re seeking to improve internal communications within your organization, consider leveraging the power of the web by adopting a dynamic online collaboration platform such as ConductorLIVE.

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Across the globe, Americans have gained a reputation for investing too many hours in work and too few hours in vacation time. Yet a growing body of research suggests that time away from the office can dramatically increase employee engagement—and, in turn, employee productivity. This means that, contrary to popular practice, granting workers more time off rather than less can be a valuable strategy for managing even the most hectic of workplaces. That being said, an absent employee can throw a wrench in the workflow, and this is especially true for organizations that utilize teams. Fortunately, an online collaboration platform such as ConductorLIVE makes it possible to offer employees more rejuvenating time off while keeping projects on track, while making it easier for workers returning from a vacation to resume their roles and get back up to speed faster than ever before.

In 2015, 55% of workers in the United States failed to use their allotted vacation time, which translates to 658 million days of unused vacation across the nation. In just one year, this unused time off impacted 1.6 million jobs and cost the national economy a staggering $223 billion. Among these 658 million days, 222 million were forfeited—which means that they could not be paid out, rolled over into the next fiscal year, or exchanged for another benefit. Annually, this lost vacation time translates to $61.4 billion in forfeited benefits among American employees.

Employees cite a number of reasons for forfeiting vacation time. According to a 2014 survey, 40% of respondents did so out of a fear of returning to an overwhelming workload. 35% believed that no one else in their organization was capable of doing their particular job. Other commonly cited reasons include being unable to afford time off, fear of being perceived as replaceable, and the desire to demonstrate dedication to the company. Many of these responses are indicative of a problem that extends well beyond the conundrum of whether or not to use one’s vacation time: workplace inefficiency.

By adopting a robust online project management solution, you can replace time-wasting emails, meetings, and other sources of lag with a streamlined approach to project management. A dynamic suite of online collaboration tools can empower team members, project leaders, and organizational managers alike to share ideas and files, delegate responsibilities, review the progress of a given task or project, and more in one centralized online location. By providing a powerful yet user-friendly means of staying connected, a platform such as ConductorLIVE encourages and facilitates improved communication and collaboration while also providing an unmatched approach to organization. Moreover, online collaboration software means that even when one of your most valuable employees has taken off to Disneyland—or Vegas—his or her team will be able to stay on track, and your vacationer will be able to catch up with ease when he or she has returned to the real world.

A dynamic online project management solution such as ConductorLIVE offers streamlined communication and collaboration to increase workplace efficiency. If you’re seeking a better means of facilitating employee vacation (after all, they’ve earned it!) without sacrificing time, money, or productivity, consider adopting a web-based project management solution for all of your communication, collaboration, and organizational needs.

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According to a recent study conducted by the Queens University of Charlotte, nearly 40% of employees feel that collaboration is not adequately prioritized in their organizations. Nevertheless, the same study also found that approximately 75% of employers rank collaboration and teamwork as “very important” to the functioning of their workplace. A survey published by Salesforce yielded similar results, with 86% of executives and employees citing poor collaboration and communication as major contributors to workplace failures. These numbers suggest that while the vast majority of employees view communication and collaboration as vital to the health of the workplace, many organizations are lacking in the tools required to make this a reality. Fortunately, online collaboration software such as ConductorLIVE offers a powerful, user-friendly, and affordable way to facilitate efficient, effective collaboration among individual employees, entire teams, and departments within an organization.

Forbes reports that highly collaborative organizations experience not only increased productivity, but also higher rates of employee satisfaction. Online collaboration software that enables easy communication, progress tracking and feedback, and the exchange of information can help any organization achieve these outcomes. Facilitating ease of communication among team members, for example, can dramatically reduce workplace frustration, leading to heightened efficiency and a boost in office morale. Routinely providing employees with positive feedback and constructive criticism can likewise help to create a supportive work environment, yielding not only improvements in the workflow, but also improved employee confidence. Moreover, by creating a conduit for direct employee-to-employee communication, managers can remove themselves as the middlemen in each and every workplace transaction, allowing for more efficient collaboration among team members. Running a highly collaborative organization also entails ensuring that employees can exchange ideas and information—including files—instantaneously, whether they are located in the same office or across the world.

By leveraging the power of technology, any organization can implement the following five ways of improving collaboration in the workplace:

• Foster effective communication. Online collaboration tools enable effective, instantaneous communication and file sharing among team members and managers.
• Set measurable goals. A web-based collaboration platform can help you to establish clear, reasonable goals to ensure that individual employees and entire teams are on the right track to project completion.
• Leverage the strengths of your team members. Online organizational tools can help you to assign team members tasks that play to their individual strengths, creating a more efficient workflow and setting employees up for success.
• Encourage cohesion. Online collaboration software provides team members a means of weighing in on decisions large and small, while mitigating the possibility that one worker’s efforts will be duplicated by another.
• Increase efficiency. A collaboration platform can dramatically streamline your workflow by enabling team members to divide up and complete tasks as best fits their individual time availability and expertise.

In short: prioritizing workplace collaboration yields improved communication, increased efficiency, and a boost in employee satisfaction. And all of this translates to speedier solutions to ensure that projects are completed on-time and on-budget.

Online project management solutions such as ConductorLIVE can increase employee productivity and engagement alike by helping you streamline communication and collaboration in your organization. If you’re seeking a powerful, easy-to-use, and affordable means of enhancing collaboration in your workplace, consider leveraging the power of the web and investing in a project management solution.

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Humanity is well into the Digital Age, a period in which technology has become integrated into every aspect of our personal and professional lives. And yet, there are those who refuse even now to adopt or adapt to the rapidly evolving list of technologies available for use. The fact of the matter is that there is now a technological solution for virtually every situation or problem that might arise, no matter the industry in which one is employed. Nevertheless, many organizations continue to conduct business on paper or via e-mail, completely unaware of the nearly limitless technological possibilities to emerge since the days of AOL.

Of course, there are those organizations that have wholeheartedly embraced the Digital Age—and in fact, these same entrepreneurs and startups are making some of the most dramatic impacts in their fields. Some of the most successful organizations out there have incorporated a toolbox of technological implements into their business practices, employing time management software, task management apps, news aggregators, website management software, reporting tools, social media platforms, and much, much more to boost productivity, as well as to grow their customer bases.

Many entrepreneurs and startups are also leveraging the power of technology by adopting online project management solutions to maximize workplace efficiency. This is especially true within the tech industry, where the potentialities of technology have long been well understood. Online project management software such as ConductorLIVE offers a powerful yet user-friendly suite of tools designed to facilitate effective communication and foster collaboration—which can in turn streamline the process of IT project management to an unprecedented degree.

Web-based project management solutions empower the user to communicate and share files one-on-one or with a group, as well as enabling conversation filtering so that you can find exactly what you need, when you need it. Dynamic organizational tools enable team members to access task descriptions and project calendars to ensure that they are on track to a timely completion, while also allowing for the creation of events visible only to participating employees. A web-based platform also provides a centralized, easily accessible location to store and share relevant project information, including knowledge bases, syndicated content, files and images, and past versions of a document or other project file.

A collaboration tool like ConductorLIVE can also dramatically streamline things on the managerial end, allowing project supervisors to ask team members questions, provide constructive feedback, view the progress of a given task or project, and monitor overall compliance. A convenient dashboard offers an at-a-glance view of the most relevant information about your team members and the project as a whole. And online management software makes reporting easy by providing an all-in-one solution to creating and managing items such as invoices, timesheets, and project status reports. Offering managers and team members alike complete transparency and control, an IT project management solution such as ConductorLIVE can keep everyone on-task and on-time, wherever they are located.

Whether you’re in IT or another industry, a web-based project management platform can help you achieve improved communication, collaboration, and productivity to maximize efficiency. If you’re an entrepreneur or small business looking for a powerful yet affordable project management solution, consider investing in a dynamic suite of tools such as ConductorLIVE.

The post Tech Industry Leaders are Leveraging Technology to Maximize Efficiency appeared first on ConductorLive.

Everyone knows it, but no one likes to say it: some meetings kill productivity. According to surveys from IndustryWeek and the 3M Meeting Network, as much as 50% of the time spent in meetings is wasted. And Office Team, a division of Robert Half International, found that 45% of senior executives felt that their employees would be more productive if meetings were banned at least one day a week. Considering that around 25 million business meetings happen every day in the United States, and that members of upper management typically spend 50% of their workday in meetings, that’s a lot of lost time and a potential drain on productivity.

For many organizations, however, meetings have become a kind of necessary evil. Teams need a way to stay in touch, managers need a way to assess progress, and organizations need a way to enable collaboration and drive outcomes. Look around, and you’ll find countless lists offering tips on how to make meetings more productive, but very few ever address the idea that perhaps meetings are, themselves, the problem, and that there might be a better solution for sharing information, staying up-to-date, and empowering collaboration.

First, let’s take a look at the anatomy of an unproductive meeting: Unproductive meetings may not start on time, or may involve some participants arriving late. Late-arriving participants will need to be filled in on what they missed, which uses up valuable time rehashing things that have already been discussed, which can also lead to lack of engagement. In fact, in 2013, 92% of U.S. information workers surveyed by FuzeBox admitted that they had “multitasked” during meetings, with 41% saying that they were multitasking “often” or “all the time” during meetings, while 49% admitted to spending meeting time performing other, unrelated work.

Other times, unproductive meetings aren’t actually necessary, and are happening just to “check in,” or may involve people who don’t actually need to be in the meeting at all, leading to a lack of engagement and a loss of productivity. Unproductive meetings may be disorganized, with no clear expectations of what needs to be accomplished in the meeting, and no assigned action items by the time the meeting is adjourned. Because of this lack of focus, meetings may also run late, which not only takes up time, but demotivates workers, making it more difficult for team members to return to effective work once the meeting is over.

All these meetings cost more than productivity: they cost time and money. A recent Bain & Company survey showed that on average, 15% of an organization’s collective time is spent in meetings, a number that has gone up every year since 2008, costing organizations an estimated $37 billion a year. That’s a lot of time and money going to something that’s supposed to be an efficient solution for sharing information and increasing productivity, but that actually does just the opposite. Fortunately, there’s a better way…

One thing that meeting planners are frequently encouraged to do to make their meetings more productive is to leverage technology, but one of the best ways to leverage technology is to invest in online project management solutions that actually eliminate the need for most meetings. With project management software such as ConductorLIVE, team members can communicate, collaborate, share files, and keep in touch without the need for a lot of time-wasting meetings.

In an effort to increase productivity while still encouraging participation and teamwork, many companies are changing the way they manage projects and groups, approach communication, build knowledge, and drive outcomes in the modern age. With the help of online project management solutions such as ConductorLIVE, organizations are finding new and better ways to empower collaboration without sacrificing a lot of time, money, or productivity.

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