No project, whether personal or team-based, can come to a good end without solid administration as support. Basic errors, infrastructure problems, budget madness, and a long etc. await around the corner to erase years of work in one stroke, so the more robust the prior organization, the greater resistance there will be against these issues. Today we will present five administrators that, with a bit of dedication, will bring order to chaos.
One of my latest anecdotes involves two friends who made the mistake of centralizing multiple aspects of their business on a single hard drive. Logically, the "disaster" does not reject all invitations it receives, and the "party" ended with a couple of desperate phone calls, a hard drive turned to dust, information in limbo, and the need to perform a forensic recovery (which by the way costs a fortune).
Of course, all of this could have been avoided with a backup, but how do you organize those backups? How do you coordinate the fact of sitting in front of the computer, copying and/or moving all files to a safe place (external drive, USB, cloud), and repeating this task every day? How do you fit this critical exercise with the rest of your activities? Perhaps the solution for them and many other entrepreneurs lies in a project manager, and today we will suggest five options:
Zoho Projects
Our first stop takes us to the Zoho platform, which many see as a worthy rival to Google and its online services. Projects offers collaborative functions, Gantt charts, report templates, and an interface that reminds us of Facebook, guaranteeing its ease of use. The free version offers a minimal online space (10 megabytes), but everything improves with $25 per month.
Bitrix24
If Zoho Projects is very limited in its free version, a good alternative to consider is Bitrix24. One of its main advantages is storing all content in the cloud, or locally on a private server. Instant messaging, collaborative chat, and video conferencing are available in the free account, which also gives 5 gigabytes of storage.
Trello
Trello uses a management system known as Kanban, whose roots extend to none other than Toyota. Its digital card system is very attractive and allows you to easily visualize the overall status of any project. Its free edition carries limits similar to those of Zoho Projects (10 MB of storage), however, the Business subscription is below $9 per month.
Asana
Asana presents itself as a "collaborative information manager", and among its associated names appears Dustin Moskovitz, one of the co-founders of Facebook. Asana provides free resources to organize up to fifteen members, set priorities, coordinate calendars, and monitor overall progress through a mobile app.
Producteev
Producteev is probably the best option for those who need the most functions without spending a cent. Unlimited users and projects, mobile apps, real-time updates, custom filters, organization via tags or priorities, and support for exporting data are part of its broad repertoire. The Pro edition costs $99 per month, but I insist: The free account gives a lot in return.
Any last-minute suggestions? Am I forgetting a service that cannot be missing here? Do you use another platform and want to share it? In that case, you know what to do: Leave a comment with your recommendations. Good luck!
