lgo Teambot

What is the only application that all professionals in the world use?

Exactly. It is the email. For years professionals around the world complained about how uncomfortable it can be if it is used as a documentation repository and even claimed that emails are "dead". Even so, it is very clear that mail is still unrivaled in the day to day of any office.

Of course, at ITM Platform we do not want to help your inboxes become messy garbage dumps.

No more unwanted notifications

The problem with email in B2B environments is not so much the channel, but the frequency. Usually, most applications send notifications automatically and, unless they are very well designed, their volume increases rapidly and end up being ignored.

With Teambot the opposite occurs: it is an ally of our users because it only sends a notification when it is requested.

The functioning is very simple:

  1. I write an email to Teambot
  2. I include my request for information on the message subject
  3. Teambot reads mu subject and my email address
  4. Teambot sends me an email with the requested information

This whole process can last less than 6 seconds. And you do not even need to log into ITM Platform. This is the reason why all our customers are adding Teambot to their list of regular contacts.

Semantic searches from the subject

The truly elegant thing about Teambot is that it offers precise and complex information from an absolutely minimalist user interface. We have decided to follow one of the best design maxims: less is more.

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In order to provide users with the highest advantages, we have transformed the email into a search engine... applied to all ITM Platform projects and tasks.

The search engine uses only the metadata fields. Specifically, two fields:

  • The addressee, who is always teambot@itmplatform.io
  • The subject, where the user indicated the information they are looking for.

Benefits of Teambot

  • As a Team Member, you can organize your day without logging into ITM Platform

By simply sending an email to Teambot with the subject “today”, you will receive all the tasks to which you are assigned and all the projects in which you participate.

From there, you can request more details with a simple click.

  • As a project manager, you can swiftly check the status of critical tasks

Do you have doubts about the status of a task? Ask Teambot and you will find out immediately.

  • As a PMO administrator, you can quickly check the status of any project

With the access privileges of a Full Access license, PMO managers can use Teambot to gather the most important information about the status of a project.  In order to do this, they just have to send an email to Teambot with the name of the project (or a part of it) in the mail subject. If there is more than one option, Teambot will send a clarification email.

  • With Teambot you can work offline

From now on, users who are in geographical environments with connectivity problems can continue working while they are offline, obtaining the detailed information they need. With Teambot, the email server will send and receive emails even in locations with very low connectivity; and once the information is received, it will be available anywhere in offline mode.

  • With Teambot you can respond to your boss with precision

Another useful feature is the simplicity of reporting information to anyone, just forward the information offered by Teambot.

How to give Teambot instructions for email

Teambot reads the email subject to find out what you need. The first command you can try with Teambot could be “help”; Teambot will send you instructions on the type of commands available and the answer you will get:

  • Task lists for a given day: list tasks
  • Complete lists of tasks: list all tasks
  • Complete lists of projects: list all projects
  • Task details: name of the task
  • Project details: name of the project

Beyond the basic instructions, we wanted Teambot to be able to listen to our users and understand what they want to know. So, for example, if you send Teambot an email with the subject “corporate plan”, it will return a list of tasks and projects whose name resembles the subject.

In the next phases, we hope that Teambot will continue learning new rules of behavior and will become even more useful and helpful, offering proactive reminders when, for example, the delivery date of a critical task approaches; or allowing to report hours and progress by email.

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Magnifying glass, looking at graphs, reportWhy make status reports?

Every project needs a status report , also known as progress report, in which the status of the project is clearly, accurately and objectively reported.

Start feeding your project status reports with live data on ITM Platform.

A project status report is intended to provide an evaluation of the progress and communicate execution details. Therefore, the development of the progress report is of great importance, since it is vital that it be carried out following a predetermined model. Only in this way will the users of the reports be able to compare them with each other:

  • Comparing status reports for different phases of the same project gives you a better idea of the distance covered, analyzing how far future projections from previous phases have been verified or denied
  • Comparing reports from different projects is crucial, especially among similar projects using Gantt charts, to understand where discrepancies between estimates and real data are

If you do not have a reporting model in your organization, you are missing out on the advantage of being able to compare reports. To make matters worse, homogeneous models allow users of such reports to find the information they need quickly, as they know how it’s structured. This is one of the aspects where by a Project Management Office can bring great benefits for internal communication in an organization.

A status report contains a brief description of the main elements of the report, establishing causes and explanations that justify and give context to the data. Metrics and graphics will allow the user to understand the progress of the project in a very short time.

The executive summary: Basis for monitoring a project

This section requires an objective description of how the project is running . The summary should present clearly and simply the most important results of the project, including:

  • Milestones fulfilled
  • Deliverables and quality
  • Risks or unforeseen events
  • Relationship between estimates and real, in at least three aspects: resource allocation, costs and deadlines
  • The difference between the estimated progress and the progress to date. If the date of delivery is considered unrealistic, this alarm signal is the first step to alert the customer and negotiate a new date with him.

On the other hand, the executive summary is very effective for a detailed follow-up of the unplanned challenges that arose during project development, as well as actions to be implemented in the short term , so that any eventuality can be mitigated.

The purpose is to ensure that the project continues on the path to success, delivering the project on time, with the expected quality.

Project progress reporting: steady progress assessment

The constant evaluation of a project is vital to know what countermeasures should be taken to make the project successful. Hence the preparation of this section outlines the most problematic areas of the project.

Likewise, suggestions and corrections can be advanced to solve a specific problem. As the project, often, cannot wait to receive feedback on these aspects, decisions are already taken, so this point can delineate already decided actions.

Registration Template: Project Control

The status report should generate relevant information about the risks recorded. It is advisable to start from a registry template by means of which you can retrieve useful information in an orderly way. This registry template will contain:

  • Project Risk Factors,
  • Probabilities
  • Project impact

You can visit ITM Platform’s free risk assessment matrix to compile this information quickly.

Know all about metrics: Promotes project tracking

Managing a project is only possible if you have the tools to quantify the different parameters involved, offering objective and comparable data. Thus, you can measure, for example:

  • Delivery times
  • Quality of the deliverables, based on the number of requirements included
  • Costs incurred to date
  • Percentage costs over total
  • Amount of unanticipated costs incurred
  • Hours worked, either per worker or by professional category

Result indicator

If the result is not a material product but a service, and the project covers the phases of implementation and marketing, there will be a large number of quantifiable aspects related to the result, such as the number of users, their average cost, and so on. These indicators will serve to measure the quality of delivery.

If you are interested in knowing which indicators you can use to manage your portfolio, you can continue reading these articles:

 

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