How you can efficiently manage your projects using a portal

The new way to work (whether remote or hybrid work) and the advancement of technology have made companies face new challenges. These challenges relate to the use of digital tools; i.e., the use of tools that help manage different internal projects at organizations.

In managing a business project, various tools are needed to manage and supervise the activities to be carried out. For example, a Gantt chart, individual work schedules, follow-up emails, and the minutes of online or in-person meetings must be part of the management of a project, for which a digital tool is required to consolidate all this information.

For efficient project management, you can use an intuitive portal, which must first have sufficient security to store the information that supports the progress of the project. Many still believe that a portal is only used as a secure means to transfer files between the teams that are assigned to a project; however, this tool has evolved and can be used to digitalize project management, all in a single environment with quick links and an attractive design.

It is common to send digital work files by mail or to a drive, but it is not recommended if several projects are being managed. You may probably lose control of those projects, which may lead to decreased efficiency in project management. With a well-structured portal, several projects can be efficiently monitored, knowing the progress and status of all the activities to be carried out in real time by each responsible party.

Below we explain how a portal can help you manage and supervise your projects more efficiently:

• You can start by creating one or more digital spaces called “portals” and by creating “projects” within them. This space will be a workspace where activities for the digital workflow will be defined. This process will facilitate the planning of each project to be supervised.

• You must decide whether the deliverables of different projects will be organized by folders, subfolders, or just files. This will depend on the complexity of the projects. Since the tool is shared with the team, it is important to customize the projects; i.e., define access levels and users. Deliverables will be centralized as each task is completed by its due date.

• The tool will allow you to verify the completion of the activities of one or more projects by associating the various tasks in each project with a schedule (Gantt chart), thus allowing you to assign a responsible party, the access to view these tasks, and the start and expiration date of an activity, in addition to defining whether or not these tasks require a deliverable. When these activities require a lot of detail, these can be created from templates, which will facilitate the creation of batch tasks and even duplicate them and/or use them as a template when needed for other projects.

• The portal will send you notifications for each project. These notifications can be sent as summaries in automatic emails. That way, you can verify if tasks have been completed, or if these have expired or are about to expire with just one look, and you can even see the status of the projects with graphics on a panel.

•  When there is staff turnover, the mapping of key activities in the portal will ensure project continuity and compliance with the schedule.

• The portal gives you the possibility of modifying due dates in case there is a change in the schedule and allows all personnel involved in each project to be informed of the new established dates.

• The use of the portal will encourage collaborative work by showing progress in real time, in a transparent and visible way. This encourages individual and team responsibility, even more so if the team members work remotely and in different geographic zones.

•  Finally, this tool will reduce meeting times by offering a digital environment that favors the supervision of project completion on scheduled dates. In addition, it will prevent users from searching for information in incoming and outgoing emails, as it will contain all the preliminary and final files in a secure, centralized, online, and easily accessible repository.

At BDO, we use this digital solution, which was developed in collaboration with Microsoft. For such reason, with first-hand knowledge, we recommend its use for better and efficient management of the projects carried out at organizations.