Hello and welcome to this short article on the use of Sharepoint in resource management and scheduling. As you may already know from the last two articles posted, Resource management is a crucial practice in enterprise management and encompasses a wide variety of planning and implementation functions. From the development of resources such as employee training and real estate development to analysis of task outcomes, resource management is perhaps one of the most far-reaching areas of focus in business and one that truly can mean the difference between prosperity and failure. So how can you as a leader manage such a task in this era of highly complex business processes? The answer truly is enterprise software of some form or another. Now I acknowledge that there are many options for enterprise software and toolsets, but I contend that the Microsoft office 365 suite, and especially Microsoft Sharepoint, is the most well-rounded and multipurpose offering available in the market today.

Resource Management Using SharePoint

Microsoft is, as we all know, a massive multinational and one of the most ubiquitous tech companies to ever exist. This is not the case by chance, it has continuously innovated since its conception, contributing scores of both physical and software products that have changed not just business but contemporary life indelibly. The Windows operating system alone has solidified Microsoft as an absolute titan of tech, boasting a user base that encompasses the majority of personal computer owners. That being said, for business enterprise purposes, their organization-wide software solutions are what set them apart from the competition. Their most popular offering, the office 365 suite, is a powerful, multifaceted toolset that includes various tools ranging from text programs to complex social platforms for businesses. Sharepoint, in particular, is extremely useful for business as it enables team members to share files and data seamlessly in their digital workspaces. Out of the box, it serves as an intranet system with some upgrades, but our team at Infowise saw potential in the Sharepoint platform. We decided to build an upgrade that takes Sharepoint from an already powerful intranet system to a complete business logistics solution. We called this upgrade Ultimateforms, as the software introduces a form system that allows users to both use and create custom forms relevant to any particular aspect of the business. As I always say, the difference between a prosperous business and a struggling one can be absolutely minute, so leveraging every possible advantage is prudent in this era of extreme competition and saturation in any given area of business. One such area I'm talking about today is resource scheduling, and Sharepoint, in tandem with Ultimateforms can be a true boon to your logistical practices, including resource allotment and planning.

Ultimate forms Sharepoint Project Management

Here I'll introduce the project management resource planning tool that you can download for free from our solutions page, and in the next one, I'll explore some of the other resource scheduling form templates that come with Infowise Ultimateforms for SharePoint.

The Project management tool is a macroscopic resource scheduling and management form that deals with the broad strokes of task planning and tracking. It contains 6 data fields that are arrayed as follows:

- Customer

This field is used simply to document the customer for whom the project is being undertaken.  

- Project

We recommend that this field be used to denote the particular project that the entry was written in regards to. What you deem to be the project is an arbitrary decision that you must make, but generally speaking, it should be precise enough that the resources in use in the project can be tracked accurately. In other words, the bounds of the project should not be so broad that you cannot clearly delineate its edges.

- Task 

This field is for the particular task in question for the entry and can be thought of as the individual module of the aforementioned project that the entry is written about.

- Description    

This field is in place to allow the managing staff or employees to describe the task so that it can be referred to and analyzed after the project's completion.

- Date

- Hours

Conclusion

The project management form is a basic catch-all resource scheduling tool, but Ultimateforms comes with a variety of more situationally specific tools relevant to everything from overtime tracking to resource booking. The beauty of Ultimateforms is that it is fully customizable, meaning that you can create completely new forms or alter existing forms as well as customize and manipulate the way that they behave and treat data. In my next article, I'll be exploring some of the other resource scheduling tools and forms that we offer here at Infowise, but for the time being, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us or explore the rest of our extensive tutorials and documentation. See you in the next one!