In the flurry of developments, add-ons, hot new features, social media tools, and overall changes that the customer relationship management (CRM) industry has been experiencing, it has been easy to forget basic software requirements that every CRM solution should have. One of the most important features is a project management tool, and the experts over at Soffront went into detail recently about how to evaluate such technology to better suit your CRM needs.

Project managers have unique tasks that require monitoring of many different aspects of a company’s operations. Responsible for anything from brand awareness to client services, project managers are usually responsible for a majority of business-to-customer interactions, whether by direct or indirect means. Project management features in CRM solutions should provide central locations for collaborating on project statuses and completion dates.

The Soffront writers noted, “Project managers are dealing with the responsibilities of the job and the constant pressure to deliver. It takes a lot of coordination and effort to deliver on time and within budget. Effective project management software should be able to handle of all of this, making it a saving grace in these times of stress.”

The proper project management software should boost the overall ability of your CRM solution to not only provide swift information and conduct professional customer interactions, but to streamline your task force. Some important tools that should be included in the right project management software are project modules, support for both internal and customer projects, ease of use, task creation, time tracking, and report comphrehension.

As part of an integrated CRM solution, project management software is one of those important features that often get dismissed, when it should be taken into consideration just as seriously as when business owners and supervisors are selecting CRM technology.

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Juliana Kenny graduated from the University of Connecticut with a double degree in English and French. After managing a small company for two years, she joined TMC (News - Alert) as a Web Editor for TMCnet. Juliana currently focuses on the call center and CRM industries, but she also writes about cloud telephony and network gear including softswitches.

Edited by Jamie Epstein