Are you aware of your attraction’s capacity? As in, the maximum amount of work your team can carry through within their given working schedule and the resources available to them?
The procedure of answering the question is called capacity planning.
The right capacity planning tool can help attractions better manage employee capacity, allocate employee resources and maximize profits. Capacity planning tools for resource capacity help to ensure that your company and projects are always aware of the latest resource requirements and challenges.
However, with thousands of capacity planning software options available today, which one should you go for? This blog will help you decide.
CAPACITY MANAGEMENT
Capacity planning or management is the process through which an organization concludes how much work can be completed given its total number of employees and upcoming time constraints.
More precisely “capacity” is the maximum amount of work that can be completed in a given period. Capacity is often measured in hours available to be worked. And in this context “Management” is the act of scheduling employee hours against a fixed or expected amount of work.
Read: How To Fix [pii_email_781176e5bdf919c2df0f] Error Solved
Capacity Management Process
Measure Analyze+Track
Measure
First, you have to understand how much capacity you have and how that compares to your project workloads.
A tip: if you want to avoid doing this math eResource Scheduler is the only solution that can crunch all these numbers for you.
Analyze
After you calculated your capacity, you can make an appropriate decision based on the numbers you are seeing
Track
If you are getting started with capacity planning you are likely relying on estimates especially when it comes to project demand. To understand how much time your project likely takes up, you should start tracking the time.
Top 10 Capacity Management Tools
If you are struggling to work out where to assign either infrastructure or resources, whether you can take on a new project or client, or you just want to track how much time you are investing in everyday tasks, it’s probably time you look into resource management tools.
If you just want to see what you are spending time on and whether you have the capacity for extra work, you can look into simple tools that are limited in functionality. However, if you need to predict the resources you are likely to need a Capacity Management tool to predict what’s likely to happen.
1. eResource Scheduler:
eResource Scheduler is one of the leading resource scheduling software products and service companies. This tool is highly visual and engaging, making faster scheduling decisions with insight into real-time resource capacity visible at different levels (role, team, manager, department, office, etc) considering current allocation and resource strength.
eResource scheduler has an easy drag-and-drop interface, extends and shortens booking, and easily accessible split booking. Color-coded heat maps that highlight under-utilized and over-utilized resources in custom-defined color. Configurable resource management software that maintains a comprehensive resource profile and allows effective and effortless coordination of resources across all teams and departments of the organization. Timesheet is built in eRS which provides capturing, approval, and reporting with insight into actual time spent on the project and highlights the gaps in scheduling vs actual. Pricing at minimum comes with a 14-day free trial.
2. Activity Timeline
Activity timeline is yet another capacity and management tool. Paired with Jira, this tool helps you to keep track of project completion. Having synced with Jira this tool/app holds all your projects in a single place so that you can track all your existing tasks and projects.
Activity Timelines also provide insight, so you can monitor how resources are used in real-time. No longer will you lose track of who is working on what project along with the total time consumed and money you have sunk to complete the project.
3. Toggl Plan
Another one of the popular capacity management tools, which gives users access to analyze how well different teams are performing in real-time. Toggl Plan enables collaboration at a company-wide level, allowing team leaders to schedule tasks for every individual, and coworkers to team up on individual projects. This capacity management tool brings clarity to the capacity planning process, sets deadlines, and to adhere within the software.
The software lets users create a timeline for their tasks and projects and features drag and drop for a straightforward organization.
4. Teamup
Teamup is simple but works better for small teams. The essential feature of Timeup software is a shared calendar that all team members will have access to. In the calendar, you can schedule team meetings, briefings, and project milestones such as important dates along the way.
The benefit of displaying the information in the calendar is that managers can zoom in on a micro level to see how resources are allocated. Then they can also zoom out for a broad overview of progress and performance. The option to color code the calendar makes it easy to identify different types of projects and resources allocated.
5. Float
Float is another capacity management platform that helps you to plan, schedule, and track entire team projects. Float offers you the key features to set a budget to forecast your resource capacity and can strategically plan your project work, you can also add project phases and set milestones, which helps you to monitor project progress in real-time and compare total time in task completion, also Project Managers/Leaders can schedule time off, set custom holidays with calendar integration.
Float offers a 30 day free trial, after this paid plan starts at $7.50/ user per month.
6. Wrike
Wrike resource planning and scheduling solutions give managers/leaders the flexibility and visibility they need to create balance within the team by allocating the right amount of work, optimizing performances, and managing the cash flow.
Wrike helps you to visualize employees’ workloads from a bird’s eye view for you to manage the overutilized and underutilized employees, and distribute tasks hours or minutes independently, the drag-and-drop interface allows you to re-prioritize projects. Wrike has a free version with limited access and also 4 paid plans. The professional plan costs $9.80 / per user per month and the business plan costs $24.80/per user per month.
7. Mavenlink
Mavenlink is also one of the countable capacity management tools to check out. It offers companies to plan complex operations and monitor resource availability. Mavenlink comes with its own native API integration which means you don’t need third-party integrations. Housed in a system of the modern, minimal dashboard, Mavenlink software is designed for both large-scale projects as well as small-scale projects. It helps to streamline skill management, role-based planning, resource forecasting, and capacity management with ease.
There are four pricing tiers for Mavenlink. The lowest tier is $19 per month for up to 5 users while the professional plan costs $39/per user per month.
8. Smartsheet
Smartsheet is a solution that helps teams to manage projects and automate processes and time-tracking features. In the dashboard Spreadsheet style, Gantt layout helps you to plan and organize the project. Time Tracking function helps you to plan and track your project in real-time and ensure to match the deadlines, helps project managers to get an overview of available resources, and to forecast upcoming workloads.
- Unlock a world of educational possibilities by leveraging the ingenuity of Blooket hacks sourced from the expansive GitHub community, enhancing student engagement and fostering a love for learning.
- Embrace the collaborative spirit of GitHub as you tap into a treasure trove of Blooket hacks, empowering educators to create immersive and interactive experiences that leave a lasting impact on students’ academic journeys.
- Seamlessly integrate Blooket hacks from GitHub into your teaching toolkit, allowing you to customize and optimize learning activities, providing students with a dynamic and personalized learning experience.
- Harness the power of open-source innovation with Blooket hacks sourced from GitHub, empowering educators to gamify their lessons and cultivate a vibrant learning environment that sparks curiosity and ignites a passion for knowledge.
- Discover the secret sauce of educational success with Blooket hacks found on GitHub, revolutionizing traditional teaching methods and paving the way for engaging, interactive, and effective learning experiences that captivate students’ imaginations.
Smartsheet best fits a large organization that manages complex projects and improves team collaboration. Smartsheet has 3 plans available, Plan pro costs $9/user, and business plan costs $32 per user with minimum of 3 users.
9. Saviom
Capacity planning tool for large organizations with formal operational efficiency improvement programs. It has all the necessary features to optimize resource usage. Small and medium teams might find the price and user experience intimidating.
10. Runn
Runn is one of the visual and engaging capacity management tools which brings insight to life and aids understanding of capacity. Users can view project and resource calendars which makes it easier to identify resource risks and additional bookings. You can drill down into specific team members to understand how well they are utilized including in real-time. Regular monitoring can allow the Project Leaders to split the billable and nonbillable working hours. Runn is also one of the kinds which allow you to control your project finances.
Conclusion:
Capacity is the tool to help you and your team to find the right resource at the right time. In this blog, we covered what capacity planning is and how it is done. This process is further simplified with the best capacity management tools available.
There are several resource management and planning tools. eRS scheduler is one of the best tools to manage complex projects, people, and tasks with a friendly price of $4/user. eResource Scheduler is a cloud-based software that comes with the most advanced features and functions. These value-added features can enable significant efficiencies in terms of fully utilizing resources.
