Reviews serve as that tangible form of trust for your business and your online marketplace

“Google it.”

We have definitely heard those two words before — probably even spoken them ourselves. The word Google has become synonymous with researching anything on the Internet!

Now consider Yelp.

Some people, especially those living in San Francisco, might consider Yelp the Google of food reviews. They turn to it to look for new cuisines and food joints, relying on its reviews and ratings to instruct their decision.

Now, picture this. You did a quick search on “Japanese restaurants near me”, and multiple relevant eateries pop up. You then narrow down your options to the final two, but to your horror, you find that the two cannot be distinguished. What do you do to resolve that awful conundrum?

You turn to Yelp, and you notice that small yet stark difference. Restaurant A has multiple five-star ratings by exceptionally satisfied customers raving about its food and ambience, while Restaurant B suffers a little in the review department. Alas, we have arrived at our decision: Restaurant A.

Reviews are so critical in our decision-making process. While the recommendations of friends and family rank first in our minds, online reviews come in a close second. According to a Fan & Fuel Digital Marketing Group survey, 92 per cent of respondents mentioned that they would hesitate to make a purchase on items with no reviews.

Reviews serve as that tangible form of trust for your business and your online marketplace. While we may not necessarily believe all reviews – and even empathise with restaurants that receive irrational, negative reviews from accusatory customers – relying on the opinion of others to influence our choices is human nature.

Also Read: Startup Weekend Jakarta 2019 will help young entrepreneurs and businesses succeed in Indonesia

Airbnb has a Superhost status for the crème de la crème of hosts; Uber has a star rating for drivers and passengers; Etsy has written reviews from happy customers that praise the workmanship of the good delivered. To users, these reviews are perceived as “real experiences” and are a helpful reference point for them to refer to.

We’ve raved about the benefits of reviews, but how does one get off on the right foot with regards to reviews for their online marketplace or business?

Getting started – reviews and reputation systems

The simple yet fundamental first step as a marketplace or business owner is to encourage buyers to leave reviews for sellers. After a good has been purchased or service rendered, buyers may be prompted to leave a one to five-star rating, coupled with a written review to justify the rating given.

For example, a marketplace that rents outdoor event spaces. A buyer of that marketplace has had a great birthday party hosted at her chosen venue, so she leaves vibrant compliments about its spaciousness and cleanliness. After her, another satisfied buyer leaves similar reviews commenting on the quality of the space. There is a consensus building up that the outdoor event space lives up to the seller’s claim.

Collectively, these ratings and reviews hold tremendous weight. While sellers can post photos and rave endlessly about how roomy and scrubbed their event space is, a review or two solidifies that description’s trustworthiness.

More about reputation systems

One way that businesses and online marketplaces can implement a rating system is through gamification. This happens when a user (buyer or seller) is awarded points, badges, or higher status in the community for “playing a game,” like performing an action or achieving a quantifiable goal.

Typically, these accumulated points lead to a reward, which could also serve as a reputation status.

Here are some quicks questions to get you started!

• What is the objective of your marketplace: one-time purchases, or repeated ones?
• What kind of user behaviour are you tracking?
• Which behaviours are worth rewarding, and which worth penalising?

Your answers to those questions will determine the design of the reputation system (or game) most suited for your marketplace. For example, if the goal of your reputation system is to allow buyers to determine whether a seller is trustworthy, then a relevant indicator would be to monitor the seller’s percentage of fully completed transactions, service ratings and comments.

Also Read: Our TOP100 Taiwan champion says let’s bring chatbots to real estate!

There is a lot to explore in reputation system and reviews, and it might even seem overwhelming initially. Nevertheless, the first step to get started is simple – encourage and build a culture of review giving in your marketplace.

Reviews build trust among potential buyers, which is so valuable and essential in any online marketplace. But more than that, it also helps to validate a buyer’s decision post-purchase.

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Image by inueng

Samuel Kuek is from the Business Development Team at Arcadier, a SaaS company that provides ideas that allow you to build your own marketplace in minutes. You can follow Arcadier on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for the latest insights on marketplaces and the Sharing Economy.

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Thailand’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency or depa signs MoU with the companies to receive know-how and technology

Back in February 2019, Thailand’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa) has signed agreements with six regional Internet of Things (IoT) companies from Singapore as a symbolic partnership. It will see the six companies provide know-how and technology to Thai government, as well as boosting the agency’s Digital Park Thailand and IoT Institute Initiative.

The six companies involved are Willowmore, UnaBiz, Gobi Partners, Ascent Solutions, Unity, and Spotwerkz, as reported by FutureIoT.

The MoU covers opportunities like the opening of a training center within the Thailand EEC digital park, looking to explore the development of IoT solutions for Thailand’s small medium enterprises and large companies.

The agreement is also a nod to Thailand 4.0 policy, the government’s 20-year strategy to make Thailand a more tech-centric and value-based economy.

“These partnerships will strengthen and enhance Thailand’s resources and help us gain a competitive position in the IoT industry within the ASEAN market,” said Dr. Passakon Prathombutr, Senior Executive Vice President of depa.

Also Read: Asia Pacific: the beacon of growth and opportunity for entrepreneurs

Signed in Singapore, the companies involved are expected to provide technologies based on their expertises.

Gaming platform Unity provides professional 3D automotive design, industrial, and architectural services as well as film and animation services. depa will utilise Unity’s capability to support the digital transformation efforts for SMEs and manufacturing as well as Thailand’s creative industries in film and animation.

Spotwerkz, as a big data analytics company, will play a role as the licensee of Unity in Thailand.

With UnaBiz, that claimed to be Asia’s first IoT dedicated network operator in Singapore and Taiwan, depa will develop digital capabilities in the area of industrial automation, agriculture, tourism, education, and healthcare, as told by Henri Bong, CEO and founder of UnaBiz.

As the provider of enterprise-grade smart padlock, smart cabinet locks, and portable Sigfox-Bluetooth gateway SigWAV, Willowmore will work with depa in developing access control, security systems technology, and IoT gateways.

Also Read: Startup Weekend Jakarta 2019 will help young entrepreneurs and businesses succeed in Indonesia

Gobi Partners, on the other hand, will be providing depa and the Thai government with expertise on funding startups.

Ascent Solutions, the company that provides services in various industries such as warehouses, logistics, freight forwarding, intelligent transportation, and e-passport tools will help Thai government to develop technologies and provide its solutions to the Digital Park Thailand and IoT Institute in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC).
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The funding was secured in the company’s Q4 last year, just after the launch of Venturra Discovery itself in September 2018

Medigo, Indonesia-based healthtech company that connects healthcare facilities with patients, doctors, insurance agents, and government under one platform, announced that it has raised seed funding from Venturra Discovery, the new seed investment arm of Venturra Capital.

Claimed to be different than other healthtech startups, Medigo was founded in May 2018, focusses on connecting healthcare facilities with the mission to “build a better, more connected Indonesian digital healthcare ecosystem”.

To do this, Medigo targets hospitals, clinics, and also Puskesmas (the local health centre) as users of their platform, seeking to connect them with their patients, doctors, and supporting partners such as insurance as well as the government.

“Medigo believes that the real problems in the Indonesian healthcare industry are not patient-side, but on the providers’ side. The healthcare industry is highly regulated, very bureaucratic, and complex. We aim to solve problems for providers first. Without solving those problems, it’s tough to provide quality service and experience to patients,” said Harya Bimo, CEO of Medigo.

In its official statement, Medigo highlighted that most of more than 2800 hospitals in Indonesia are not yet connected to their doctors and patients. Majority of more than 18.000 clinics all over Indonesia are not yet standardized and still being operated manually.

Also Read: Go-Jek becomes Indonesia’s first ‘decacorn’ company

Challenges in the Indonesian healthcare industry include interoperability in all levels of healthcare facilities from Puskesmas, clinics, to hospitals. There is also inefficiency in accessing medical records for both patients and healthcare providers, along with complicated referencing process between healthcare facilities, not to mention the manual process required for insurance claims.

One of Medigo’s products for healthcare providers in Indonesia is an out-patient management platform for hospitals to manage their polyclinics operations such as registrations, queue, patient slots, and doctors schedule through API connection.

For clinics, Medigo provides an integrated clinic management application called Medigo Qlinik, that is aimed towards clinics owner or management to digitize their operations.

As for patients, Medigo provides a soon-to-be-launched app to connect to doctors practicing in Medigo’s clinic and hospital partners. It lets patients register, book a consultation, check medical resume, dan pay for consultations and medicine.

Also Read: Six Singapore-based IoT companies sign deal with Thailand’s depa

Currently, the pilot phase of Medigo is running in local hospital Rumah Sakit Pertamina Pusat (RSPP), Rumah Sakit Pertamina Jaya (RSPJ), and over 100 clinics. This year, Medigo aims to partner with 10 hospitals, 500 clinics, to get to 3 million interactions between patients and doctors.
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Image Credit: Medigo

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Who really remembers every single thing that has affected their performance by the end of the year?

Let’s face it, annual performance reviews are unrealistic and aren’t effective when it comes to adapting on the fly and making changes with maximal flexibility.

Not only is the end-of-the-year scramble hectic and stressful, but no one can really remember their entire year’s performance track record — unless they have an eidetic memory or something.

As it seems, annual performance reviews may quickly fade into obscurity and become a thing of the past. Many companies are now swapping from annual to a more frequent performance review format.

The more frequent and “real-time” the performance review, the more readily a company is able to adapt. In essence, correcting and/or reversing a lagging aspect of performance that would have gone unnoticed in an annual review.

We live in a rapidly changing world, and for businesses to thrive on top of just staying afloat, they need to be able to review and redirect their course in an almost instantaneous manner.

Also Read: Fashion and music take centre stage at Jakarta’s TOP100 announcement

For real-time performance reviews to be implemented effectively, they need to almost be personalised and chock full of crowd-sourced feedback. As conducive to progress as real-time performance is, mainly smaller companies are making the shifts, while large corporations face a plethora of problems associated with changing their entire performance review system.

Small businesses should take advantage of this changing of an era and begin implementing a variety of tactics to ensure the most detailed and thorough real-time reports are available.

One very basic tactic is creating criteria with which “team leaders” will effectively review their team members. Then encourage weekly meetings with team leaders, breaking down annual performance reviews into weekly chunks.

Another tactic that has been implemented with great efficacy is the mobile app, Snapshot. With this app, employees can ask to be reviewed at any given moment based on five principles; leadership skills, relationships, business acumen, technical capability, global acumen. Instead of being given a standard rating, they are simply informed on if they are surpassing, failing, or meeting expectations.

Real-time performance reviews are still time-consuming, but not nearly as much as annual reviews have been. Instead of writing lengthy end-of-the-year evaluations, leaders are conducting five to ten-minute review meetings, which shortens annual reviews exponentially.

While they both have their efficacy, real-time performance is more effective at allowing on-the-fly adaptation, whereas annual reviews allow one to see the bigger picture or the overall scheme of things. With that being said, they both have their uses, and when implemented in cohesion, can greatly increase a company’s ability to assess and manage resources and performance.

Another time-saving option is the use of crowdsource reviews, which is where employees company-wide can write reviews and ratings on other employees, though the feedback is, at times, indirect and not as conducive to individual employee improvement.

Also Read: Innocent project management mistakes that could doom your business

One issue that has arisen, however, is deciding on bonuses and pay raises without the traditional annual review and rating system. With that being said, a rating isn’t necessarily the best way to decide on pay raises.

If trust can be placed in team leaders, and employees can be accurately reviewed on their market values, company contributions, and how refined their skill sets are, then this extensive input should be enough for a company to make decisions on raises and bonuses.

All-in-all, though it is a work in progress, real-time performance reviews are in the immediate future, and change isn’t painful, only resistance to change is.

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e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

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In addition to the two Judge’s Choice winners, the e27 TOP100 competition also named eight other qualifying startups

The Jakarta round of the TOP100 competition closed on Thursday, April 4, with Mussy.co and Yuna & Co being crowned as winners of the Judge’s Choice award.

The two startups are set to get:

• A free exhibition booth space in the TOP100 Zone at Echelon
• A pitching slot on the TOP100 stage on day one of Echelon
• Intimate investor meetings and inclusion to Corporate business matching
• Five starter tickets to Echelon Asia Summit
• Access to the TOP100 Tour in Singapore

Mussy.co is musicians marketplace platform that aims to help customers find and book quality musicians for events, while empowering local musicians at the same time.

Started out in 2017, the platform initially targeted lower class cafes but expanded to middle class markets with lower volume but higher transaction value a year later. Most of its users are in the B2B segment, thought it has also begun to enter the B2C segment.

The service is run through revenue-sharing scheme with 30 per cent of fee going to Mussy.co.

By 2022, the platform aims to develop into becoming its own indie artists management. Before that, it also wants to provide a streaming and online advertising platform for the musicians.

Also Read: Our TOP100 Taiwan champion says let’s bring chatbots to real estate!

The startup’s milestones include clocking in IDR900 million (US$63,500) transaction value and having 2,500 musicians on the platform. It has also won accolades such as the second winner of Indonesia Startup Insight in Singapore on November 2018 and the top nine list of Startup Turkey Competition in 2018.

It is currently looking for a US$300,000 funding round to reach 238,000 transactions in 2023.

Yuna & Co is a fashion platform that aims to make it easier for customers to find and wear clothing that suits their personal style best, by offering a digital personal stylist service.

The platform works by users entering their style profile on the Yuna & Co platform. Users then choose among the available boxes, with prices ranging from IDR599,000 (US$42) to IDR999,000 (US$70). Once the box is delivered to the user, they get to try the contents on and give feedback to the platform.

By 2020, Yuna & Co aims to have their fashion recommendation service to be run by 80 per cent machine.

The company is currently raising a US$500,000 funding round to build inventory and scale its market reach until December 2019.

Also Read: Yangon’s TOP100 champ sees itself spearheading the future of freelance

In the Indonesian e-commerce sector itself, fashion continues to be the biggest revenue driver with the category taking over more than 25 per cent of total e-commerce revenue. In 2018, total e-commerce revenue in the country has reached US$12 billion, and it is expected to reach US$53 billion by 2025.

In addition to the two startups, the TOP100 competition also named eight other qualifying startups:

• AMREN
• Crewdible
• Giladiskon
• Indexa Law
• Pay OK
• PT Piniship Logistik Indonesia
• PT Spark Integrated Solutions
• temandokter

Congratulations for all the winners and stay tuned for more updates from TOP100 competitions!

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Jingle Magic is a Beijing-based education tech startup that provides a Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and AI-powered educational software

MyEG Capital, the investment arm of e-government service provider MyEG Services Bhd, announced that it has invested a total of US$1.5 million into Chinese edtech company Jingle Magic, as reported by Deal Street Asia.

Joining the investment are Zhejiang ZHongdi Investment Management, which is an education sector-focused investment fund affiliated with Tsinghua Holdings Group’s Muhua Education Fund, and VC firm Beijing Dianjing Zhiyuan Investment Center.

The company said that it will use the funding to continue tapping into disruptive technologies to benefits to society.

“We believe that schools in the future will extensively deploy AR systems to enhance the learning experience,” said MyEG managing director TS Wong commenting on the investment.

Jingle Magic was established in 2016 and it develops Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based educational equipment and software. The products of the edtech company are AI-based AR smart desk, AI smart board, as well as diversified Internet system infrastructure solutions for schools.

Also Read: Six Singapore-based IoT companies sign deal with Thailand’s depa

The startup has a host of backers since its last financing round in 2016 that includes Anhui Kexun Venture Capital, a venture capital firm under iFlytek Co Ltd; Nantong Muhua Equity Investment Center, a part of Muhua Education; and Beijing Yifan Taihe Venture Capital Center.

Other portfolio companies under MyEG Capital include FashionValet, Agmo Studio and Stampede Solutions. This investment in the edtech company would be the second investment in AR/VR/AI space by MyEG Capital having done so for US$2.4 million in Ximmerse last year for 3.13 per cent interest exchange.
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Go-Jek, with US$10B valuation, is in 19th position on the CB Insights list, just below its bigger rival Grab, which is valued US$11B

Ride-hailing firm Go-Jek is now a decacorn, a company with over US$10 billion valuation, according to a CB Insights listing.

It is the first Indonesian company to achieve this feat.

Go-Jek is in 19th position on the list, just below its bigger rival Grab, which is valued over US$11 billion.
Their global competitor Uber is on the top, with a valuation of over US$72 billion.

Tokopedia and Traveloka, two other tech companies from the archipelago with valuations of US$7 billion and US$2 billion, respectively, have also got a mention on the report, which has listed all the 335 unicorn companies across the globe.

Filipino company Revolution Precrafted, which offers a collection of limited edition, pre-crafted properties, including homes and pavilions, has also found place on the list.

Also Read: Fashion and music take centre stage at Jakarta’s TOP100 announcement

Go-Jek is a all-in-one convenience service, with different business units including Go-Ride, Go-Send, Go-Food, and Go-Mart. It has also recently expanded with Go-Box, Go-Glam, Go-Clean and Go-Massage.

The company is backed by a number of investors, including Google Capital, Tencent Holdings, KKR and Sequoia Capital. Go-Jek is reportedly continuing its fundraising push, setting its goal at raising US$2 billion. As per a TechCrunch report, its existing investors, including Google, Tencent, and JD.com, have agreed to invest around US$920 million into the latest round.

 

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We also have updates from the Chinese government, Market Kurly, and the Indonesian central bank

Go-Jek becomes Indonesia’s first ‘decacorn’ company – e27

A listing by CBInsights has put Indonesian ride-hailing giant Go-Jek in the decacorn list for having over US$10 billion valuation.

As the first Indonesian company to achieve this status, Go-Jek is in 19th position on the list, just below its bigger rival Grab, which is valued over US$11 billion.

Their global competitor Uber is on the top, with a valuation of over US$72 billion.

The company has not commented on the report.

China recognises 13 new tech jobs – South China Morning Post

China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security on Wednesday published a list of 13 new job titles in the tech sector, South China Morning Post reported.

The job titles include professional gamers, drone pilots, robotics operators and software engineers in areas like AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and cloud computing.

The new additions were approved on April 1 by three government bodies, following a draft notice seeking public opinions in January. It marks the first time since 2015 that authorities have included new jobs into a list of nearly 19,000 official professions in China.

While not conferring any direct financial benefit, being added to the list does signal that such professions could receive more government support such as vocational training and regulatory protection.

Also Read: The Philippines rejects Go-Jek’s appeal for ride-hailing licence

South Korea’s Market Kurly raises US$88M in Series D funding round – Dealstreet Asia

Kurly Inc., the South Korean company behind online premium grocery service Market Kurly, has raised a KRW100 billion (US$88 million) Series D funding round led by existing investors and international investor Global Venture Partners, Dealstreet Asia wrote.

Existing investor Sequoia China also participated in the funding round.

“With this latest investment, we can secure internal processes and build a talent pool so that we can continue to increase our grocery market share, while maintaining quality,” said CEO Sophie Kim.

Launched in May 2015, Market Kurly offers what is claimed to be “the fastest and freshest delivery system” available to consumers in the market. All orders placed by 11AM are delivered by 7AM the next day, including fresh produce harvested in that same day.

Indonesia performs second test for QR code standardisation – Tirto

The Indonesian central bank has begun the second test for a nation-wide QR code standardisation this month, following a first test that was run between September and November 2018, Tirto reported.

“In this second stage, we are testing dispute [resolution]. For example, what happens when the fee has been transferred but the merchants fail to receive it. Also how transactions are being run in blank spot areas,” said Ricky Satria, deputy director of payments system policy and monitoring at the central bank.

The nation-wide programme, which is referred as QR Indonesia Standard (QRIS), aims to expand interconnectivity in order to support digital finances.

Satria gave an example of LinkAja users being able to transact on Go-Jek ecosystem once the standardisation is finalised on the second semester of 2019.

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Image Credit: Boudewijn Huysmans on Unsplash

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Oops and sorrys won’t rectify colossal slip-ups

According to a PwC report, 97 per cent of organisations believe that project management is critical for the performance and success of a business. However, despite the astounding statistic, all is not hunky dory in the project management landscape.

Let me tell you why:

• Most businesses experience a project failure rate of 70 per cent. [com]
• Only 2.5 per cent of organizations can complete 100 per cent of their projects successfully. [Gallup]
• Over one in three projects (33.3 per cent) have no baseline or direction. [Wellingtone]
• Only 56 per cent of project managers hold the certification to do their job. Even the specialists at corporates such as IBM are no exception. [Wrike]

Therefore, it isn’t surprising to witness a majority of organisations being unable to complete a project within a specific timeframe and budget. These mistakes lead to reduced performance, cause delays in delivery and in worst cases lead to major failures thereby hampering the growth of a business.

Although each project has its own separate set of issues, why do so many projects fail? There are certain predictable and recurring sinkholes to watch out for before they doom your client projects. They can either make or break your business.

1. Lack of a clear business objective

68 per cent of projects are devoid of active business leaders who can provide direction or address bottlenecks. [Wrike]

The primary requirement for a project to succeed is setting clear goals. How can you start your journey when you’re clueless about the destination?

Similarly, if you haven’t found answers to critical questions like “What is the purpose of this project” or “What is its importance to the brand”, the chances of your project seeing the light of the day are minimal.

A Pulse of Profession survey found “inadequate vision” to be the fourth common cause of project failure. Although the leadership has the desired outcome fixed, they fail to pinpoint the exact goal they’d want to achieve and the KPI’s to be used to measure the objective. How can you come up with an effective roadmap in this situation?

Poor goal setting is a result of a lack of consensus among the leaders regarding the direction of the progress or the success criteria. A drastic change in the requirements can also lead to unclear goals.

Some effective tips to identify and establish clear goals for a project are:

• Your goals follow the SMART criteria – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.
• The stakeholders’ expectations must be in sync from the time the project is started.
• While evaluating the timelines, research the historical data available to calibrate the goals. If your company has managed such a project in the past, check the data to validate if your goals are manageable or irrational.
• Involve your team members in goal setting and planning. Research proves that collaborative goal-setting makes the team feel more involved, accountable and satisfied.

Successful project management thrives on predefined goals. And without those goals, it’s challenging for a project manager and his or her team to work in the right direction.

Tip

Sit with your senior management team and chalk out business objectives. A lack of clear goals is the reason why 37 per cent of projects fail. Don’t let that happen to your business.

2. Undefined team responsibilities

It’s crucial for teams across an organisation to be clear about their responsibilities and KPIs. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen most of the time. That’s where holding a “kickoff meeting” before the beginning of a project makes a difference.

By the end of that meeting, every single team member should have an understanding of what they are supposed to do in the project as an individual and how their contribution is going to fuel the project’s goals.

Also Read: Go-Jek becomes Indonesia’s first ‘decacorn’ company

“We were confused with where to start” is the last thing you want to hear from your project managers. Defining team responsibilities indirectly boosts employee morale because they are made aware of how their work is adding value to the organisation.

Tip

Make your project managers use Gantt charts so that the team members are always aware of their responsibilities and they stay on schedule.

3. Lack of project prioritisation

Only 20 per cent of project managers have their projects aligned with their organisation’s business strategy. [Changepoint]

It is humanly impossible for your project managers to take a dive into a humongous project and immediately start breezing through the deadlines. And before you know, they start dragging their feet to finish the job; thus, affecting your organization’s overall goals.

Break down the project into smaller and doable tasks. The assigned team can then work in steps and checkpoints that help them better to remain on track.

The core of project management relies on deciding attainable and realistic goals which are easily achievable. The project should be segmented in such a way that the assigned team makes progress every day.

The two effective ways to deal with this, to save additional headache and hassle is to:

• Categorize the tasks as – critical, important and good-to-do. This helps the team to be more productive.
• Follow the 80-20 rule. 20 per cent of the tasks will lead to 80 per cent of productivity. Identify that 20 per cent of the tasks and assign a high-level of urgency to them.

Tip

Manage your projects in the structure of a portfolio to identify the high-priority tasks.

4. Hiring the wrong project manager

A project cannot be successful if the resources are not properly allocated. The reason why the project manager is indispensable in this process is because he/she identifies the objective, the problem to be solved, gathers inputs from the management and team members decides the objectives and chalks a pathway of activities to deliver the expected results.

The next step for the project manager is to plan and schedule daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly tasks, supervise the execution, monitor the progress, evaluate the team’s performance, bring the project to a successful end and capture the learnings.

The modern-day manager performs tasks similar to the traditional manager including:

• Creating a framework for activities involved in the project
• Identifying the resources needed
• Recruiting more members as and when needed
• Setting milestones
• Coordinating with various teams
• Keeping the work on a track and setting a clear vision
• Ensuring that everyone in the team participates and benefits
• Mediating conflicts
• Ensuring that the milestones are delivered on time and within the decided budget

Tip

A good project manager can make or break a business. Therefore, take your time and decide on strong profiles so that your output isn’t affected, and your employees can tap into their potential to the fullest.

5. Faulty communication

59 per cent of project managers feel that communication is the biggest obstacle to business success. [Atlassian]

Communication plays a huge role in making sure the project remains on the right track. While it is essential to conduct a “kickoff meeting” at the start of a project, it is equally necessary to have sprint planning meetings, either on a daily or weekly basis.

This helps the project manager stay informed about the progress of the project and resolve the bottlenecks as soon as they arise for quicker completion.

You can then get your project managers to give you a status report of the work periodically, thus maintaining transparent communication across the organization.

Tip

Implement collaboration and web conferencing tools such as Slack, Wimi, WebEx, GoToMeeting and others within the company to ensure your employees are well connected – irrespective of location or time.

6. Overlooking the importance of a project management tool

The global project management software market is predicted to grow steadily between 2017-2020. [Technavio]

Signs that your business should adopt a project management tool:

• The projects are delayed due to unnecessary email correspondences, with the important messages getting buried in the team member’s inboxes.
• Confusion arising from non-easy-to-decipher spreadsheets.
• Missed timelines and deadlines due to a failure of accountability, poor planning and non-transparency in the project.
• Poor communication between the team members and various stakeholders due to failure to generate regular reports on the project as well as individual tasks.
• Overlapping or confusion in the division of work due to failure to establish clear roles of each team member.

When selecting a project management tool, here are some of the most important features you should look for:

• Creating, assigning and tracking tasks
• Resource planning and tracking
• Dashboards for project performance
• Graphical and detailed project performance reports
• Team collaboration
• Integrations with additional tools such as Dropbox, Zappier, Google Drive, Google Sheets and Google Calendar to name some

Also Read: Malaysian MyEG Capital injects US$1.5m in edtech startup Jingle Magic

SmartTask, online project management and collaboration tools are used by freelancers, startups, small and medium businesses and enterprises to improve their productivity by almost 40 per cent.

Tip

Sit for a couple of demos before choosing your project management tool. A number of features, pricing, and customer support are the three main factors that will influence your decision.

If you are confused between two or more software, sign up for a trial version to pick the project management tool most suitable for your company. Customer reviews on G2Crowd and Capterra help you understand the problems users face with such tools as well as their benefits over competitors.

Wrapping up

Project management is not a static agenda, but an ever-evolving element of every organization.
When assembling your team of project managers, make sure they are analytical, people-oriented and flexible in the way they operate.

Don’t forget to pick the right project management software for the teams. That’s going to make all the difference to your business!

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e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

The post Innocent project management mistakes that could doom your business appeared first on e27.

The official statement from Amazon mentions that Amazon Web Service (AWS) Asia Pacific will arrive in Jakarta by the end of 2021 or early 2022

Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ: AMZN), announced yesterday that it will open a new Asia Pacific infrastructure in Jakarta, Indonesia by the end of 2021 or early 2022.

The selected region will have three Availability Zones at launch, and will be AWS’s ninth region in the Asia Pacific after joining existing ones in Beijing, Mumbai, Ningxia, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and an upcoming region in Hong Kong SAR.

The company said that it seeks to enable customers to run workloads in Indonesia and serve millions of end-users across the Asia Pacific with lower latency.

“We believe that opening an AWS Region in Indonesia will support the country’s fast-growing startup ecosystem, large Indonesian enterprises, and government agencies by helping drive more technology jobs and businesses, boosting the local economy, and enabling organisations across all verticals to lower costs, increase agility, and improve flexibility,” said Peter DeSantis, Vice President of Global Infrastructure and Customer Support, Amazon Web Services.

AWS Regions are comprised of Availability Zones, which are technology infrastructure in separate and distinct geographic locations. They’re set to have enough distance to significantly reduce the risk of a single event impacting business continuity, yet near enough to provide low latency for high availability applications with each independent power, cooling, and physical security.

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AWS customers focussed on high availability can design their applications to run in multiple Availability Zones to achieve even greater fault-tolerance.

Indonesian organizations from startups to enterprises and the public sector will have an infrastructure in their country to leverage advanced technologies from Amazon with the suite of cloud services including analytics, artificial intelligence, database, Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, mobile services, serverless, and more to drive innovation.

Currently, AWS provides 61 Availability Zones across 20 infrastructure regions worldwide, with another 12 Availability Zones across four AWS Regions in Bahrain, Hong Kong SAR, Italy, and South Africa expected to come online by the first half of 2020.
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