Have you ever worked on a project where someone spends hours working on a task, only to find out someone in another department already completed it? It’s a common problem for many organizations.
Projects bring together people from different departments with a range of experience, skills, and perspectives. But if an organization doesn’t have a system in place to facilitate team coordination, there can be misunderstandings and conflicts. Using a structured project management approach can help prevent issues like duplication of efforts that can waste time and increase costs.
When teams understand what needs to be done, responsibilities, and goals, it helps them with productivity and focus. As the team’s progress is tracked, issues can be resolved quickly and adjustments made. This approach also helps to build confidence that projects are being efficiently managed.
A common pain point for Salesforce users is that Salesforce doesn’t have project, portfolio, or resource management capabilities within any Cloud, which can make project coordination challenging. But with Milestones PM+, Salesforce users have project and related data right in their CRM, alongside contact and account information, which makes collaboration and coordination easier.
For example, as the Healthier Kids Foundation organization grew, they needed a more structured approach for project management. The team was using emails, Word documents, spreadsheets, and Outlook Calendars to manage projects. They chose Milestones PM+ to help them organize projects and expand their project management approach. Bob explains, “We needed a solution that was integrated with Salesforce®, and we’ve been able to do some pretty cool stuff with that integration,” said the organization’s Chief of Staff, VP Information Systems and Quality, Bob Hansen.
Initially Healthier Kids used Milestones PM+ to track individual requests and for tracking estimated hours, due dates, and team requests. “We recently started Assigning Resources, so we’re rolling into the fullness of project management,” he said. (Read more: Milestones PM+ Helps the Healthier Kids Foundation Manage Projects and Focus on Their Mission.)
This popular article has more than 1,500 views! Assigning Tasks to a user can be done manually or automatically. Milestones PM+ assigns owners to Projects, Milestones, and Tasks automatically based on the user performing or triggering the Project import from a template file. Find out how.
Using the Project Template Best Practices
As you're getting started with Milestones PM+, the Summary of Best Practices when using Project Templates can be a great resource. Read more.
File Uploads From XML, CSV and Spreadsheets
Have project data saved locally on your computer? First, prepare a copy of your XML, CSV, or spreadsheet file for an easy upload. Get the details.
Using the Project Creation Button
First, you’ll need to ensure you have a lookup field on Project which points to the object you want to create a project from. Some objects like Opportunity or Account have a relationship field out of the box, but custom objects will not. Get started.
Email Alerts from Milestone or Tasks
Find out how to set up the Visualforce page so that it will send email alerts from a milestone or task page layout. Learn more.
Assigning Multiple Resources to a Project Task
To assign multiple users to a task, find the related list called “Task Resources” under the Task object. You may need to add this to the layout if you do not see it by default. Then create multiple junction object records by clicking the “New Task Resource” button on that related list. These records will be unique for each task and resource combination. Get the details.
How to add the Lightning Gantt to the Page Layout
To add the Lightning Gantt to the page layout, first go to Setup > Object Manager > Project/Milestone > Page Layouts > drag the Visualforce page 'Project Gantt Chart' onto the page layout. Do this on the Project object and the Milestone object. Learn more.
Setting Up Holidays
This is another common request Admins need to help out with. To set up your company's holiday schedule navigate to Setup > Holidays > New Holiday. Repeat this step for all of the holidays that your company is out of the office for. Learn more.
Milestones PM+ gives you 360-degree project visibility inside of your Salesforce environment. Whatever project management approach you choose, Milestones PM+ can help you improve project productivity insights, collaborate with non-Salesforce users and external resources, onboard customers, and leverage mobile app support for users who are off-site. 100% Salesforce-native and free to download on the AppExchange, Milestones PM+ works with all Salesforce clouds (Professional and up) for any industry.