Beyond CRM: How Salesforce Can Transform Your Project Management Game

Intelligent project management is vital for businesses to streamline processes and workflows, and have clarity of all tasks.

It is not surprising to know that 65%-80% of IT projects either fail or miss the deadlines[i]. This can be largely attributed to inefficient project management and unrealistic expectations.

Salesforce with its enterprise-grade features is one of the widely adopted CRMs across the globe. It is the favorite platform for many renowned businesses including Spotify, Toyota, and Walmart to manage their day-to-day business operations.

But can you do project management with Salesforce?

Well, using Salesforce for project management is certainly an option with its multiple functionalities spread across its platforms.

In this article, let us know more about managing your projects the right way in the Salesforce ecosystem.

Benefits of Using Salesforce for Project Management

1. Customization for Precise Alignment:
Salesforce’s customizable nature empowers project managers to tailor the platform precisely to their project needs. Through the creation of custom objects, fields, and workflows, teams can mold Salesforce to fit unique project requirements, making it a highly tailored project management system. This flexibility allows for the smoother integration of functionalities, reinforcing Salesforce as a versatile solution for diverse project management use cases.

2. Automation Driving Efficiency:
With tools like Process Builder and Workflow Rules, Salesforce empowers automation for tasks, notifications, and workflow streamlining. This automation reduces manual effort, ensures consistency, and triggers actions based on predefined conditions, thereby boosting overall efficiency.

3. Seamless Collaboration Through Chatter:
Salesforce’s Chatter feature fosters real-time collaboration among project teams. Dedicated Chatter groups facilitate communication, file sharing, issue discussions, and updates. This functionality streamlines team interaction, enhancing productivity and decision-making.

4. Insights With Reporting and Analytics:
Salesforce’s robust reporting and dashboard capabilities provide comprehensive insights into project progress, resource allocation, and overall health. Customized reports visualize crucial project metrics, aiding in informed decision-making and proactive adjustments.

5. Ease of Integration:
Salesforce’s easy integration capabilities make it simple to align and provide functionalities that are not built-in, such as a dedicated cloud for project management. To avoid potential integration challenges, it’s recommended to explore project management apps specifically designed for Salesforce, which can be found on the AppExchange.

Step-by-Step Guide for Project Management With Salesforce

Salesforce’s project management capabilities include task notifications, customer onboarding, internal communication, team management, and so on.

Here’s how you can utilize these features in Salesforce for managing projects:

1. Creating Projects, Tasks, and Milestones

Salesforce CRM provides standard objects like Leads, Accounts, Contacts, etc. However, for project management, you can create custom objects such as “Projects,” “Tasks,” “Milestones,” or “Resources” to suit your workflow.

These custom objects act as containers to store data related to specific aspects of your projects. Within these custom objects, you can create custom fields to capture and organize relevant information.

For instance, within a “Projects” object, you might include fields like “Project Name,” “Start Date,” “End Date,” “Project Owner,” or “Project Status.” You can follow a similar approach for tasks as well.

2. Task Management in Salesforce

The built-in Task object within Salesforce can be used to manage project-related tasks.

With it, you can create tasks directly within Salesforce, assign them to team members, set due dates, and priorities, and associate them with relevant projects or accounts.

These tasks can be linked to a project or a specific account for better organization of projects. Furthermore, you can use filters and rules to track the task progress.

3. Internal Communication:

Salesforce Chatter is a social collaboration platform built into the Salesforce CRM system. It acts as a central hub for communication, file sharing, and knowledge sharing within an organization.

For project management within Salesforce, you can create dedicated Chatter groups for individual projects or teams involved in the process.

4. Automation With Workflows and Processes

Salesforce offers powerful automation tools like Process Builder and Workflow Rules that empower users to automate repetitive tasks and optimize workflows seamlessly.

Process Builder: This tool allows users to visually construct automated processes by setting up criteria and defining immediate or scheduled actions. For project management, you can create processes that trigger actions based on specific conditions. For example:

• Automated Task Assignments: Define rules to automatically assign tasks to the right team member based on predefined criteria like task type, priority, or account status.

• Task Notifications and Alerts: Set up actions to send automatic notifications or alerts when tasks are overdue or when certain milestones are achieved. This keeps the team informed and ensures timely responses.

Workflow Rules: These are rule-based criteria that automatically execute certain actions when triggered by specific events. With workflows, you can:

• Automate Task Updates: Define rules to automatically update task fields or statuses based on changes in related records or specific criteria, reducing manual effort.

• Email Notifications: Trigger email alerts to relevant stakeholders or team members when specific conditions, such as task completion or escalation, are met.

While there’s a lot that can be done to enhance project management using Salesforce, these existing capabilities if effectively utilized can help in tracking projects. Furthermore, integrating applications from AppExchange can extend the features or completely connect a project management tool for you.

For example, Sinergify can easily connect your Jira with your Salesforce CRM.

Wrapping Up

Salesforce’s potential for project management is constantly evolving, and the future looks bright for the ever-growing project management market, expected to reach $15 billion by 2030[ii]. In addition to this exciting trajectory, the experts in our organization shared insights on the likelihood of Salesforce launching its own dedicated Project Management platform.

Statistical References:

^[i] APEPM
^[ii] Straits Research