Planning is very important to achieve your goals at their deadlines, and when we talk about businesses, planning becomes stressful when the number of tasks and projects increases. To deal with this stressful planning, Gantt planner free tools offer you the right type of experience that you need. However, to get a complete benefit, you must correctly choose the Gantt Chart tool.
In this post, we'll talk about how a Gantt planner may significantly improve your task management and how to choose the best Gantt charts for your company.
What is a Gantt planner free?
A Gantt chart is a task-planning and time-tracking tool that can be used for planning work schedules or project management based on the tasks, milestones, and time stamps for each. It is very effective when used in an organization. The Gantt planner is a tool that helps you digitally populate your schedule to create the perfect plan.
Although the features vary between different tools, the good ones bring additional features like collaboration, notifications, etc., to keep things productive for you.
What are the benefits and importance of a Gantt planner free for your business?
Using Gantt charts and tools like InstaGantt for managing these charts can benefit every business on so many levels. Here are the top 7 ways why Gantt charts are important for your business and how tools like InstaGantt can benefit your business:
1. It gives transparency over all tasks
The first benefit is having transparency over the whole workflow. Every stakeholder learns the details about different tasks and other project entities. The way these details are displayed makes quickly comprehending the information significantly easier. Stakeholders not only know about the tasks, but their deadlines and dependencies are also clear.
2. The efficiency and productivity increase for the whole team
Using these planners will increase the productivity and efficiency of the whole team. The upper management and team leaders can conveniently assign tasks to every employee. Moreover, they can identify potential hurdles and bottlenecks in the project. Resolving them on time maintains the efficiency of the whole team.
3. The chances of failure are significantly decreased
Gantt planners may assist in lowering the chance of project failure by giving a clear path for the project. It is because they may aid in the early identification of possible hazards and issues and develop plans for their mitigation.
4. It promotes communication and helps collaboration.
By offering a single location where everyone can see the project plan and status, Gantt planners may aid in enhancing teamwork and communication. This way, you can ensure that the information is transparently communicated with everyone and nobody lacks any important details.
5. Resource management and tracking get efficient.
By assisting with resource identification and efficient resource allocation, Gantt planners may enhance resource management. By doing this, projects may be finished on schedule and under budget because none of the resources will be sitting idle, and no resources will be overburdened. It means that Gantt planners can give you the best resource utilization experience.
6. Project managers and leads can take better decisions
Giving a comprehensive picture of the project strategy and status can help improve decision-making. It may assist project managers in deciding how to distribute resources and manage risks in the most effective manner.
7. Everyone can be held accountable for their mistakes
By clearly identifying who is accountable for each work, Gantt planners may promote responsibility. It may make it more likely that jobs will be finished on schedule and to the necessary levels of quality. So, whenever an issue is faced, it can be easily tracked down to its roots, resolving certain problems quicker.
What features to look for in the Gantt planner free options?
Currently, there are lots of options available in the market when you look for a Gantt Chart tool. A reliable tool like InstaGantt brings all the necessary features with some extras to enhance your experience. So, when you are picking a tool for making Gantt charts, here are all the features you must look for:
1. Customization as per requirements
The first feature to look for is customization. Whether it is about customizing the templates or customizing any other functionalities, the good tool will always allow you to mold itself as per your needs. If a tool does not offer that, it means that you will be restricted to a specific kind of experience.
2. Collaboration and real-time syncing
Many Gantt planners do not come with collaboration or real-time syncing services. If you get this feature, things will be very efficient since all the changes will be visible to everyone on the team in real-time. That will make collaboration among all stakeholders very easy.
3. Notifications
Even when you use a Gantt planner, sometimes a team member can miss out on important changes you made. Sometimes, telling everyone individually or leaving a team message is not the preferable choice. That’s where the push notification feature can be extremely beneficial since team members will get notifications about the changes on their devices.
4. Integrations
Gantt planner itself is a good tool, but its practicality can exponentially increase when it integrates with other tools. Every business uses multiple software and tools for different requirements, including CRM, accounting, Project management, and others. So, when your Gantt planner integrates with them, productivity will increase since you won't need to manually feed data to the Gantt planner.
5. Security and reliability
Security and reliability are important concerns for organizations. Reliability is essential when the tool you use runs on an online platform. Similarly, security is essential for all use cases since you must protect the data from unauthorized people.
6. User-friendly interface
No matter how many features you get from the tool, the interface will not be very useful if the interface is not user-friendly. So, you must go for the tool that features a user-friendly interface. Such tools are easier to get used to and good for long-term usability.
7. Comprehensive reporting
The last important feature is reporting. When the Gantt planner provides you with comprehensive reports, you can track the positives and negatives of every part of your team. Through reporting, you can also identify any room for improvement.
How to pick your best Gantt planner for free?
With lots of options available, picking one can be difficult. However, this guide lets you easily pick the best Gantt planner free tool for your requirements.
1. Start by listing down your feature requirements.
It is always the best choice to start with your requirements. When you list your requirements, you can track which features are essential or critical for you, which are not that important, and which will be useless. When picking the Gantt planner tool this way, you can be sure about picking the tool that gives you the best value for money.
2. Check tool reviews to get an idea of its reliability
Once you shortlist the tools depending on your feature requirements, it is time to check their past customer reviews. There are multiple ways of finding the reviews, including search engine/website reviews. Similarly, you may head to the review platforms where users can give genuine feedback about some tool.
Multiple platforms have many reviews, so you can have a transparent idea about the experience.
3. Look for the options that fall under your budget.
Pricing can be a critical factor for you even if you search for free tools. It is because sometimes the tool that meets your feature requirements does not come for free. So, here you need to define your budget, which can even be $0. Then start shortlisting the reliable options that fall under your budget unless you are left with one option only.
4. Start with the free trial
If the software was totally free, that would be amazing. To get a feel for a tool before purchasing it, use the free trial version first. When you are happy with the services provided by that tool, you might decide to stick with them and pay for their membership.
Verdict
When the number of tasks and employees increases, using a Gantt planner for free becomes necessary. However, with the availability of lots of options in the market, you can be confused about picking one. If so, you must follow the above mentioned method to pick the best one that caters to all your needs. It is also important to pick a tool that provides a user-friendly experience with the least learning curve.
With all the functionalities you require, such a tool can make the stressful routine of project management, progress tracking, and resource management extremely easy for you.
