Time management systems

Time is one of the most expensive business resources. Why time is so expensive? Just because it is not a renewable resource – you cannot store unused time to replace already wasted one. We can only measure time and fill it with activities. Every businessman knows that time is money, so you need to be very careful while planning this uncontrollable resource on your projects. Time management systems include software products which can help you in dealing with this valuable business resource, assisting you in its allocation between tasks, and in monitoring of how time is used. Basically such software allows you to manage your calendars, schedules, business plans and agendas. It has a wide market where dozens of solutions and technologies compete for wining new users and for retention the old ones. It is not an easy task for business owners to select a good solution among big number of shareware available on the Web. Let’s consider in this article some technologies and essentials which are peculiar to time management system software.

What is the best time management system?

To find an answer for this question you should consider your requirements as they actually define the answer. Let’s consider some popular kinds of time management systems, so you can select what fits your needs the most:

• Online tools – this is a type of solution which works in a web-based manner – its interface is accessible via Internet and web-browser. Such solutions are usually crated with a help of PHP, HTML, Flash and other technologies used in web-development. In spite of the fact that such systems may offer quite rich functionality, they use remote servers to store your business data, so you cannot be completely sure of its security, and also such systems are accessible only when Internet connection is on, so if it is down, then your data is unreachable.
• Open source solutions – these systems are appreciated by users with advanced software development skills who would like to modify program’s code in order of creating their own solutions integrated with other software systems used in company. Such time management system software may be a good choice for big organizations with powerful IT staff including sufficient team of software developers; however, for the most of small and medium companies investments into individual software development are overwhelming.

• Free packages – a lot of programs you may find on the Web are positioned as free (freeware). Usually these programs are not completely free-of-charge, but use the term “free” to attract more customers, while they have paid elements, for example paid collaborative module (server) or paid functionality extensions.

• Employee time management system – a lot of business organizations need time management systems which functionality is specifically related to managing employees – schedules, working shifts, career and vacancy management, timesheets etc. Such a system usually should work internally within company LAN, so the data can be safely kept on corporate server.

Example of simple time management system for small and medium business:

If you need effective shareware with high usability and rich functionality, then you should try VIP Task Manager which is recognized as one of the best time management systems for small and medium company. You can check out its functions with a help of free system’s trial version (30 days) that provides you with full functionality (Task List, Task Tree, Calendar and Resource List).