With the growth of SaaS and Shadow IT, the number of apps in a business is exploding. Teams are constantly seeking the best apps and services to enable collaboration and information sharing. At the same time, businesses need platforms to better manage the work that’s being undertaken in the organization through these applications and services.

An integrated project management system is critical for this purpose.

If your project management software doesn’t integrate with other business systems, your team will struggle with organizational inefficiencies, incomplete data, and poor collaboration.

Here’s what happens when PM tools don’t integrate with existing apps:

• Communication breaks down. If software apps can’t communicate, the team will struggle to do so too.
• Data exchange is cumbersome and team members spend extra time working between applications.
• Costs and risk of errors increase if data is manually manipulated between applications.
• Data exported in the form of snapshots gets stale in a matter of hours leading to potentially harmful decisions.
• Your ability to manage projects is limited if you can’t access apps from mobile and portable devices.
• Unnecessary duplication.

Spending your day wrangling information from apps that don’t play well together is frustrating and timewasting. It’s especially painful for teams who can’t get the data they need in the format they need. But use a tool that integrates with your other key business applications, and your processes become streamlined and more effective—with comprehensive data insight that takes project strategy to the next level.

Here are the benefits of being able to integrate apps with your PM software:

• Develop a shared context and understanding of business needs and resources.
• Automate tasks and deliver information between online services.
• Share cross-department requests and updates.
• Stay on top of a variety of task types within one environment.
• Collaborate more fluidly with other team members, clients, customers, and vendors.
• Communicate and collaborate better.
• Deliver comprehensive and reliable data to stakeholders.
• Help your organization embrace change.

Here’s how LiquidPlanner helps you integrate services into a PM tool

LiquidPlanner is project management software that offers the following integrations:

File sharing and storage
LiquidPlanner offers integration with the three most popular cloud storage services: Google Drive™, Dropbox, and Box.

Email integration
LiquidPlanner lets you use email to create new tasks and make comments on existing plan items in your workspace. You also have a choice of email notifications you can receive, giving you updates and prompts on work that needs your attention.

Mobile
We have iOS and Android mobile apps for anyone with a LiquidPlanner account. These apps let you access project views, collaborate with team members, track time, create or edit tasks, and more.

Developer API and Webhooks
LiquidPlanner has an open API, and also offers a Webhooks configuration. You can learn about the LiquidPlanner API, get code samples, and make test calls at our Developer Hub. We also have a public Developer Forum where you can ask questions—developer to developer.

Just as teamwork is essential to project success, so is having a project management tool that lets you integrate with all the business integrations that drive your business forward. No organization should have to spend valuable time weeding out information form a variety of systems. Find a way to bring them all together, and you’ll achieve your project successes more efficiently and faster.

Project management is hard work! This blog represents Part Eight of our nine-part eBook about common PM pain points. To learn more about how to solve PM challenges, and turn them into opportunities, download our eBook, How to Solve the Top 9 Project Management Challenges.