The use of web-based project management has been trending upward over the last few years among small businesses and large corporations alike. Although the business world is having to redefine its efforts in many ways, those using this technology have accelerated the efficiency of their work drastically.

When web-based project management (and cloud computing in general) was first introduced several years ago, it received a lot of negative reviews, and even today, many find it problematic. Some business owners have expressed concern for the security of personal information, for example. However, while problems still exist, I wish to direct my focus to the positive effects of web-based project management in terms of communication. To show this, I will use the example of a small retailer in which I played a minor role as night manager in my early college years. From this, I hope to convey what NOT to do in a business.

If web-based project management was considered the epitome of efficient management practices today, then the retailer I worked for would be just the opposite. Things were so disordered that every mode of communication seemed to fail, down to the menial tasks of cleaning the bathroom up to establishing new store locations. I recall a time when my manager wanted over a thousand dollars of certain incoming product set aside for a customer. The manager wrote it on a sticky note. Because the memo was posted on the wall behind the computer among hundreds of other notes. The customer, having encountered similar problems with the company before, decided to buy somewhere else.

This is not to say a sticky note is an unviable option (after all, it still works at times), but with web-based project management, this situation could have been avoided very easily. Starting with the very first step, the memo would have been sent directly to me, avoiding sticky notes altogether. I would even be able to access the task on my phone before I came into work.

Additional failures in communication for this retailer came from paperwork, phone calls, and faxes, all of which could have been avoided with web-based project management. Inventory was tracked via paper, paper which had been passed around so often and with such a variety of employees’ handwriting that it could hardly be said that the inventory was tracked at all. Phone calls to the store went straight to the cashiers, who were already occupied with the registers. If corporate needed to issue a new project, then it was usually left to the memory of the cashiers to notify someone. If the fax machine was running, it would block credit card transactions, or vice versa.

For the companies that use web-based project management today, those extra costs and deficiencies of poor communication are reduced, and in many cases eliminated. When such problems are out of the way, other things can be focused on, and the strength of a business will most assuredly increase. Proper communication among employees and customers alike is one of the keys to a successful business - and today, with web-based project management, communication has never been easier.