In business practices, one slight miscommunication can be detrimental to an organisation. Collaboration and teamwork are necessary to avoid a potential catastrophe that could cause projects to crumble and businesses to fall behind.
Successful project managers know the importance of organising tasks, maintaining understanding among team members, and unifying the efforts of their members to achieve their goals. Project management tools support this process, as they help businesses teams coordinate and organise their projects and objectives. By utilising this software, project managers and staff members can determine the best methods for executing their plans, setting priorities, allocating tasks, and managing the process to ensure its completion within its deadlines and budget amounts.
Many organisations worldwide have begun to implement a project-centric approach to their working structures through the use of enterprise software. The UK is no exception. According to a 2019 report by the Association for Project Management, project management creates £156.5 billion GVA annually in the UK. Furthermore, a Mordor Intelligence report on the growth of the project management software market stated that the market was projected to register a CAGR of 10.67% from 2020 to 2026.
To analyse the options, here are some of the top project management software and tools currently available for UK-based organisations.
Best for Affordable Options
Teamwork
Teamwork project management tool is advertised as being able to satisfy the business needs of an account director, project manager and founder. Its system lets users view their project plans, budgets, milestones and time tracking all in one place. In addition, real-time chatting can occur between colleagues, leaders and their clients in the tool, and users can import their tasks and projects to work as a team within the system. Teamwork also provides pre-built project templates to help users get started.
This software has a long list of other tools that can be integrated, making it an excellent choice for companies that already rely on multiple systems. After a free 30-day trial, pricing is determined by a plan based on the number of users and included features. However, Teamwork does offer a free plan with limited capabilities, including messaging, basic project and task management, and milestones.
Reviews online indicate that most users seem pleased with the product’s capabilities, despite missing a few more-specialised features.
Best for Resource Organisation
WorkSavi
WorkSavi project management system helps with organising tasks for workforce teams. Project managers can track multiple projects at once within the tool and adjust their team members’ schedules as needed. The tool’s tracker feature lets users see their project activities and the progress of their teams, with timelines to ensure the timely completion of their work. A nice quality of this product is how it can display project information in a Gantt chart, allowing for easy viewing and comprehension. The “Resources” feature is also quite helpful, as users can clearly view and organise their resource information together in one place and simplify their external and internal supply chain management.
The WorkSavi software can integrate with popular business tools like OneDrive, Google Drive, Google Data Studio and Dropbox. Those interested in the product can experience a 30-day free trial. After this, plans start at £15 monthly per user. More expensive plans include its Project Portfolio Management tools and additional features and storage.
Best for Construction Project Management
Procore
Procore project management software helps to facilitate communication and organisation among construction project members. It has mobile collaboration tools to help users communicate their needs wherever and whenever. The tool lets all members access essential information in one system location, and plans or information changes are instantly updated across all accounts. Its RFI software helps users make changes within the system. A nice feature of this software is that users can create drawings when editing and revising project plans. The site diary software is also helpful for tracking important aspects of project sites like weather conditions and labour productivity.
The program has many integration options with – such as with Oracle Primavera P6, Docusign, Microsoft Project and Smartsheets. Procore provides custom quotes for its products depending on factors like company type, construction volume and priorities.
Online user reviews express satisfaction with the tool’s features and platform capacity; however, some mention experiencing glitches with the software.
Best for Agencies
Synergist
Synergist agency project management software is designed to help agencies and consultancies based within the UK. Aside from the standard project management tools like communication and planning capabilities, it also has many notable features. For example, its project management reporting allows users to view their business forecast and job profitability. In addition, agencies can benefit from the pipeline management tracking and capabilities. The tool also comes with several features for managing time and expenses, such as the project estimation and quoting system, and online timesheets. It seems like a great option for teams that want to get the most from their software with regard to future planning and workforce management.
The software integrates with several accounting tools like Sage 50, Sage Business Cloud Accounting and Quickbooks, so users can financially manage their products within the Synergist system. Synergist pricing is determined through tier levels based on features and the number of users. Since the Synergist Cloud comprises the core system plus the capabilities and required users, this option is one of the pricier ones on the list, starting at a minimum of £280 per month for the lowest tier.
Judging by the limited online reviews, users seem pleased with this product.
Best for User Friendliness
Trello
Trello project management system allows users to manage and plan their project tasks through its intuitive app. Aside from being undeniably aesthetically pleasing, the system seems ideal for visual learners in the way that it is efficiently organised and accessible through mobile or web-based use. The Trello board lets users access timelines, schedules, metrics, and other features for simple project planning. Users can organise their projects with “Trello cards” containing project information, deadline dates, documentation, checklists and more. The cards even allow team leaders to provide and track feedback on project actions. A nice perk of the Trello system is its use of no-code automation, which helps by reducing your team’s tedious work by automating their everyday activities and repetitive tasks. This tool seems to have been created to facilitate communication and collaboration among all team members. Its streamlined voting function allows users to either support or disapprove of project aspects, which can help promote teamwork, employee engagement and productivity.
Trello integrates with several standard business software tools like Dropbox, Google Drive and Slack.
Online product reviewers seem to favour the app’s ease of use and organisation capabilities.
Best for Marketing
Asana
Asana is a tool that provides many helpful features for organising brand campaigns and marketing projects. Users can view all of their information in the way that suits them, through the list view for assigning and managing tasks, the timeline for scheduling actions, and boards for pulling up all info relevant to the project at hand. In addition, repetitive routine work is automated to save users time and effort. The system also has a great workflow management tool that users can customise for their teams. While it is advertised as a helpful product for marketing and campaign management, Asana software could be useful for various projects and industries.
Asana has many integration options, with over 200 work management and collaboration apps to choose from. Pricing is decently affordable for this product’s plans, and it offers a free option with a variety of valuable capabilities for smaller teams.
Customer reviews seem highly in favour of the product, especially for its organisational features and customisation capabilities.
Best for Customisation
Monday
Monday is a project management tool that centralises all aspects of a project’s management throughout its duration. Team members can collaborate on the platform and make updates and changes to plans in real-time. Each stage of the project lifecycle is managed in the program, and manual tasks can be automated to streamline repetitive tasks. Users can alter the system’s pre-built templates to plan ahead for the needs of their business, like assigning tasks, managing portfolios and even calculating possible risks. The system offers great adaptability to many different kinds of projects through the customisation features. Users can edit the tool’s templates to make project structures explicitly designed for their team’s tasks that can be repeatable throughout the system.
Several popular apps can be connected to Monday code-free, or integrations can occur through the system’s open API. Integration examples include Outlook, Zoom, Excel and Google Drive. Monday is free for limited use of up to two users, but the basic plan begins at £12 per user, with price increases based on the number of users and capabilities.
While most online reviewers seemed happy with the product, some found the features and customisation options to be a bit challenging for the average user.
Best for Visual Planning
ClickUp
ClickUp is an enterprise software platform that helps with a variety of workforce processes. This tool has capabilities for reporting, collaborating, onboarding, automation, and more in addition to its project management features, making it a nice well-rounded tool for workforce teams. When it comes to projects, users can track progress, identify objectives and plan out workflows. The collaboration feature lets users comment on any document or task, assign actions in comments and communicate with other members in real-time. The time tracking tool is unique, as it uses a global timer and time estimates so users can ensure that they’re on the same page about schedules and deadlines. Other project tools worth mentioning would be “Task Dependencies” that allow tasks to be set in the order of operations and “Docs” where teams can share knowledge and collaborate. There is also the “Mind Map” feature, where users can create easy-to-follow visual outlines for their teams about ideas, projects and workflows.
ClickUp has integrations with over 1,000 tools, including OneDrive, Discord, Zoom and even Youtube. Pricing is based on team size and capabilities, and includes a limited free plan for personal use. However, be careful when choosing between plans, as many features are excluded from the less expensive options.
While some reviewers disliked how ClickUp’s features seemed more task-oriented than project-oriented, most seemed satisfied with the product.
Best for External Sharing Features
Smartsheet
Smartsheet is an agile platform for organisational teams to collaborate, manage their processes and perform work within one system. The tool is excellent for collecting and utilising data, managing digital assets, and building new solutions that support the growth and development of the user’s organisation. Workflows can be automated in the system as well as business processes, allowing users to focus on more critical tasks. Collaboration among project team members is simplified with comments and in-platform communication, which can be accessed remotely via the mobile app. The platform allows users to see Gantt charts of the team’s project tasks and the “Critical Path” feature enables users to see tasks that directly impact their project. Smartsheet has several tools for external communication and data sharing. For example, users can publish sheets and reports from the system online with members outside of their organisation by generating unique URL codes that can be accessed outside the system. Additionally, custom email domains are a nice touch for organisations, and the system keeps user data and information secure with email governance and security policies.
Smartsheet can connect with various business and collaboration apps like DocuSign, Microsoft Teams, Zapier and Microsoft Excel. After an initial free trial, price plans are based on capabilities and team size.
While many reviewers of the product enjoyed its wide array of features, some seemed to express a desire for more user-friendliness in its functionality.
Best for Financial Planning
CMap
CMap software is a cloud-based tool designed to help organisations manage their projects from a financial standpoint. Some features include live budgets for viewing the performance of all tasks, a project timeline with an automated fee-estimating tool, and project strategising that takes timesheets, expenses, third-party costs, sales invoice data and resources into consideration. The “Story So Far” feature helps with project planning, turning live data into a picture that predicts the trajectory of users’ projects. This software’s real-time reporting and project tracking capabilities make it ideal for teams looking specifically for a tool that will help them make well-informed financial decisions and are looking to carry out products that will scale their organisations.
The CMap platform has integrations with MS Teams and various tools for BI, document management, and accounting and finance. The software is offered in four plans, including differing features, and quotes are available upon request.
