Do you use any business software to automate your department or company work? CRM and ERP systems are seen almost everywhere in large companies but small or growing businesses still overlook the comfort they can have with business software. Usually, solutions are made on cloud computing technology that delivers the user from installing any programs on the computer or dealing with complicated systems. What is really good about cloud in this case is that you don’t need to think of how the whole system works and is being maintained. You have guarantees of having access to your data and the application whenever you need and from wherever you are, at the only condition of having the internet connection.

Cloud computing has been used for different areas of business automation. We can speak of solutions, made for software development (bug tracking), customer service (ticketing), office management, HR workflow automation, sales collaboration and others. Business automation solutions make it possible to track the employees’ time and performance, plan resources, track projects completion. You can always choose a solution according to your business needs. They are indeed numerous. Today I would like to speak about daily task automation which can be used at any company or department. Daily task management through online cloud-based systems spares you from additional emails, phone calls and meetings. You can see all of your tasks and your team members’ tasks in a single application. The status provided to each task reveals how much work has been done, what is about to be done now and how far you can move now.

How exactly daily task management systems work? When you type the login and a password on the application website, you get access to your task list. If a solution has integrated project management features, it’s usually possible to see the whole project plan for a long term plus single tasks that are planned upon this schedule. Tracker features make it possible to program your business process for a short or a long period of time. Trackers are schemes that are not just a plan, but they are an automated process. When one team member finishes his task, another one automatically gets an email notification about the necessity of starting his or her part of work. Trackers are good for companies that deal with repeatedly performed operations: this might be a support service or software development.

It doesn’t depend on project management or tracker if you will have your to-do list in an online daily task management system. Your tasks are usually seen in a single list with the marks of the importance level and the status. If the task is in progress or done, you can set a relevant status. If a tracker is not involved, nothing will happen further in the system. With a tracker, after you hit the ‘done’ button, the item will go down the scheme and new tasks will be generated and given out to your working fellows.

I have written mainly that daily task management systems are perfect for teams that are situated in different locations all over the world. But how often it has happened when we cannot deal upon a certain amount of tasks within one office? Daily task management systems usually come with a set  of online collaboration tools. Such sets may include wiki, notes, comments, forums, chats, even video chats, and email notifications. It’s possible to say that no daily task management system nowadays can go without online collaboration tools. So you can use the system that has the features that you like more or find more comfortable to use. I myself like notes, but you might prefer wiki, especially if you are in software development.

Cloud-based or SaaS daily task management systems store your data in cloud database and guarantee its safety and availability at any time you need them. Also, the costs of maintenance are usually smaller comparing to a cost of having a special IT support professional for maintaining additional system.

Author’s bio:

Anastasia Chumakova works in online workflow automation and project management and she got so passionate about the online collaboration systems that she started to write about it. First, she wanted to get rid of her friends, who couldn’t understand what her company was doing. Then, she started to write for blogs about new applications for entrepreneurs and companies.