With several countries resorting to lockdowns in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, one thing that has suffered the most is the everyday functioning of businesses. Read on to find out how eRS cloud is helping businesses restore the BAU (Business-As-Usual) climate.
‘Work from home’ is now being considered by a large number of businesses, as a quintessential strategy to continue their operations, during the pandemic. But how equipped an enterprise is in enforcing this strategy would determine how quickly it can normalize their operations.
Fortunately, for a lot of businesses, the pandemic and its global turmoil came at a time when they were planning or have already started working with remote teams.
A 2019 report from Owl Labs states that as many as 16% of global companies are now functioning on a remote basis. In the engineering and computer industries, 70% of the employees work remotely at least once every week.
So, how are some businesses better equipped to work with global remote teams as compared to others? With the help of advanced software solutions such as eRS (eResource Scheduler) Cloud.
The cloud-based resource scheduling solution is trusted by a large number of businesses to effectively utilize their human resources irrespective of whether they are working from the same office or are spread across the city, between states, or even countries.
Here is how eRS Cloud can take your remote teams and their working to the next level.
1. Schedule and Manage Teams from Anywhere in the World
Before getting to the features of eRS and how they help a business effectively work with remote teams, let us start with how the software solution is an excellent choice for times like these when the world is struggling with a pandemic.
(eRS Cloud- Resource Scheduling Chart)
Effective implementation of a work-from-home plan requires the project managers to have easy-anytime-anywhere access to detailed information related to all the team members working across multiple projects. This is essential for them to schedule and manage the project. The cloud-based version of eRS makes this a possibility.
It allows the managers to not only track each member of the organization but also better utilize their available capacity as well as expertise. This kind of tracking helps prevent employee burnouts, minimize operational redundancies, manage capacity utilization and still be able to take and complete projects on time even amid a calamity like COVID-19.
2. Improved Team Collaboration
One of the biggest hindrances for businesses wanting to work with remote teams is lack of team collaboration. As per Buffer’s 2019 State of Remote Work Report , as much as 17% of the respondents agreed that they do not prefer teams working remotely due to lack of collaboration.
But with the help of cloud-based solutions such as eRS, communication and collaboration is never a problem. Project managers and team members only need an internet connection along with a desktop computer or laptop to use such solutions. There is no need for any additional tools, software, platform, server, or any rigorous training to start using such resource management solutions.
So, no matter if you want to work with a team member who is working from home or an offshore team located in another city or country, collaboration becomes super simple and effective. eRS cloud uses state-of-the-art technologies to ensure that all your business data is protected at all times.
3. Smooth and Transparent Flow of Information
Most large businesses simultaneously work on multiple projects. Resources with varying expertise are assigned to different aspects of these projects. In such cases, it gets very challenging for a project manager to keep track of all the various resources and the progress of projects.
This directly impacts the ability of a business to meet the project deadlines and often makes the project go over budget. With eRS Cloud, the project managers always have a centralized database of all the resources and projects so that they can be managed efficiently.
(eRS Cloud- Project List)
Even if you have multiple project managers, they can all have access to the same centralized pool of information so that problems like miscommunication or lack of information flow is effectively mitigated. Overall, this could help project managers make better decisions with regards to the utilization of resources so that projects do get completed within the set deadlines and budgets.
4. Boost Decision-Making
Taking decisions with regards to the resources can be complicated when your team members are not working from a single physical location. But to help make this easier, eRS Cloud comes with fully configurable reports, including real-time resource utilization reports, availability reports, gap reports, financial reports, and more.
(eRS Cloud-Utilization Report)
All of these reports are fully configurable to help project managers generate them as per the custom needs of their resources, projects, and business requirements. Based on the in-depth reports, managers and decision-makers are better equipped to make decisions that can help improve the overall functioning of the organization.
(eRS Cloud-Financial Report by Resources)
Moreover, managers can also use these reports innovatively in many different ways. For instance, the resource availability report can be used to help build hiring strategies. Based on the total number of people working on a project, their availability, and project timeline, project managers can decide if they need to hire more resources to complete the project and streamline operations.
New Upgrades During COVID-19
In our endeavour to help businesses with many different aspects of their day-to-day activities, especially ones that revolve around resources, newer features have been added to the eRS Cloud. Some of the latest upgrades are as follows
1. Email Notifications
The email notification feature can come in very handy in case the employees or even the project managers do not have regular access to eRS Cloud.
Every time any new data is added to the application or, any information is deleted or edited, email notifications are generated automatically and are sent to selected recipients. Even in case if a particular resource is removed from or assigned to the project, the email notification will help the manager know about such changes.
Also, as the emails can be received on mobile phones, the feature makes it easier for the managers and the team members to stay updated on the project details, even when they cannot access their computer or laptop.
2. Project and Resource Financials
In the current times, where businesses are facing a cash crunch, cost-optimization plays a crucial role in the success of a project. For improved efficiency, eRS Cloud now has improved project and resource financials related features. You can now easily define cost and billing rates based on Role, Resource, and Project Level.
(eRS Cloud-Cost and Billing Rates)
Moreover, for improved transparency and accuracy, a comprehensive financial timeline could be created for the resources to capture the changes in their pay rates. The reports can be configured to show cost, revenue, and profit information across all the different levels of the organization, including resource, team, project, client, department, etc.
Views and filters can also be configured, along with the access rights customization to make sure that confidentiality is maintained at all the different levels of the organization.
3. Project Progress Reporting
A nifty little project slider is added to the software which can be used by the employees working on a project to update the progress of their assignment regularly. The progress data of every team member is collected by the software to update the overall project progress then.
(eRS Cloud-Project Progress Report)
This ensures that the project managers are always fully aware of not just the overall project progress but even the progress on individual assignments. Necessary steps can then be taken if required to ensure that the progress is in line with the expected timeline.
Remote Working: Now and the Future
With global businesses now looking to hire top talent irrespective of the geographical boundaries, remote working is only expected to get more popular in the future. For instance, as per Upwork’s Third Annual Future Workforce Report , 73% of all the departments will have remote workers by 2028.
The COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated the demand for remote teams as more and more businesses are now looking to have their employees work from home. Rather than waiting for the COVID-19 pandemic to get over, it’d be wise for organizations to start working on strategies so that their operations could resume as quickly as possible.
Even once the pandemic finally gets over, it could easily take several months for things to get back to normal. Working with remote teams and using cloud-based software solutions like eRS Cloud is currently being seen as an effective solution for businesses wanting to resume their operations and avoid further delays and losses.
Visit our website or get in touch with our support team to know more about eRS Cloud and schedule a web demo. You can also request a free trial to get a first-hand experience of all the advanced features.
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