Distributed teams. Remote work. Hybrid offices. More tools and apps than we can count. Work today has become fragmented across time zones, devices, and siloed communication channels.
As leaders try to manage diasporas of workers and priorities, productivity takes a hit. A recent study found:
- 69% of managers admit to struggling with work management
- 57% say workers lack visibility into team goals
- 51% have issues with email overload and missed assignments
Without connectivity and organization, companies lag in delivering complex initiatives requiring tight orchestration. Employees become frustrated by lack of alignment and meaningless work. Customer needs go unmet as overloaded teams struggle to focus and collaborate.
Work management software aims to tackle these problems with centralized platforms that add structure, transparency, and insights into getting work done.
The market has exploded to over $750 million in recent years. Spending is expected to double by 2025 as more organizations look to sync up distributed teams.
Work Management vs. Project Management
Before reviewing top solutions, it‘s important to distinguish work management from project management since the names sound similar:
Project Management
- Focuses on handling temporary initiatives and drives them to completion
- Utilizes methods like Agile and Waterfall to coordinate budgets, resources, timelines
- Works well for defined scopes and predictable endeavors
Work Management
- Ongoing coordination and improvement of perpetural business operations
- Adds visibility into responsibilities, productivity, and process cycle times
- Enables flexibility in reallocating tasks and adjusting workflows
In short, project management revolves around what/when while work management improves who/how.
With dynamic needs and fluid teams, work management brings key advantages:
- Adaptability – add/reprioritize tasks and focus areas without rigid processes
- Continuous – make workflows more efficient vs short-term efforts
- Insights – leverage dashboard metrics to uncover bottlenecks
- Support – enables flexible organizational structures and remote workers
Now let‘s explore top platforms enabling better work execution.
Why Work Management Platforms Are Game-Changers
Leaning on email and spreadsheets is no longer enough (if it ever was) for orchestrating modern knowledge worker tasks that require ongoing alignment. Teams need purpose-built platforms that provide:
1. Centralization – one place to monitor assignments, collaborate, access files
2. Structure – model workflows, standardize processes, build in accountability
3. Transparency – visibility into who‘s doing what and track progress
4. Automation – reduce manual hassles via notifications, reminders, status updates
5. Insights – leverage dashboards and reports to surface patterns and inefficiencies
6. Integration – interconnect ecosystems to eliminate toggling between tools
Without these capabilities, organizations face painful challenges:
- Information silos across disconnected systems
- Lack of transparency into workload distribution
- Unclear ownership for tasks
- Difficulty identifying dependencies and blockers
- Communications buried across long email threads
- No way to scale processes globally
But with unified work management, teams move forward together by replacing chaos with orderly systems optimized for regular business operations.
13 Work Management Platforms For All Needs
The category offers solutions tailored to companies of varying sizes, industries, and budgets. Here are 13 top contenders:
Monday.com
Monday.com is one of the fastest growing options with 125,000+ organizations leveraging its customizable workflows and 200+ integrations. Teams enjoy an intuitive interface with modules for managing repeatable processes.
Key Features:
- Visually build workflows and standard operating procedures (SOPs)
- Panels give all context needed for a task in one card
- Charts provide visibility into individual and team performance
- Views like Gantt charts or a workload dashboard
- Google Calendar and Slack integrate seamlessly
For distributed teams, Monday.com brings order to unstructured work chaos. Its flexibility works well for departments with dynamic needs like marketing or IT rather than regimented production cycles.
ClickUp
Trusted by over 200,000 companies like McDonald‘s and Spotify, ClickUp suits both technical and non-technical teams with customizable workflows supporting unlimited hierarchies and configurable views.
Key Features:
- Centralized inbox for managing assignments
- Document version control similar to GitHub
- Custom fields and statuses modeled to actual processes
- Views like calendar, timeline, Kaban, or Gantt
- Robust permission controls by user type
ClickUp removes cross-channel confusion by consolidating communication, documents, goals, and tasks into a single productivity engine. Change management is easy with flexible configurations matching actual needs rather than forcing standardized processes.
Wrike
Wrike shines where enterprise-grade security and scale come into play. With 1,500+ global customers like KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and KFC, it provides robust oversight into team productivity.
Key Features:
- Interactive dashboards with custom widgets
- Gantt charts plotting dependencies
- Assign tasks across 20+ project views
- Activity audit trails monitor engagement
- Role-based permissioning
- Schedule optimization
Consider Wrike‘s advanced functionality when graduating from makeshift workflows to regimented systems required for complex initiatives.
Infinity
Prefer crafting workflows visually? Infinity lets you build playbooks from pre-made templates then connects tasks across teams to standardize best practices.
Key Features:
- Library of 50+ templates for common use cases
- Visually design procedures with a drag-and-drop builder
- Multi-step approval flows with permissions
- Automate repetitive administrative tasks
- Integrate workflows extending outside the company
- Embed process KPIs and analytics
Infinity simplifies working cross-functionally by uniformizing operations for consistent output. It works for dynamic environments needing real-time visual status indicators.
Jira
Originally built for agile software teams, Jira has expanded into enterprise work management for business teams via Jira Align. Trusted by leading engineering teams globally, it‘s renowned for flexible issue tracking.
Key Features:
- Visual boards with customizable workflows
- Standard agile ceremonies like sprints and standups
- Reports on team utilization and burn down rates
- Integrates directly with code repositories
- Maps dependencies and release plans
For software groups, Jira provides best-in-class digitization of collaborative coding – from tickets to deployment. Expand functionality with 1000+ apps via Atlassian Marketplace.
Asana
Asana balances lightweight task management with enterprise oversight through customizable dashboards, advanced search, and milestones tracking across large initiatives.
Key Features:
- To-do lists simplify personal organization
- Dashboard gives portfolio view into projects
- See teammates‘ workloads and capacity
- Surfacing blocked tasks
- SaaS model works across regions and verticals
Asana helps managers understand team bandwidth constraints through visibility into individual workloads. Project leaders can also easily spot roadblocked tasks to prevent downstream delays.
Teamwork
For small to mid-sized businesses, Teamwork hits a sweet spot between simplicity and scalability. It also uniquely positions itself as an all-in-one platform spanning CRM, help desk, and project management.
Key Features:
- Four products integrated together
- Single sign-on and unified namespaces
- Permissions control across subsidiaries
- Custom fields and processes
- Third-party app integration via Zapier
Rather than piecing together platforms, mid-market companies can find an end-to-end ecosystem with Teamwork fueled by tightly coupled modules.
Redbooth
Redbooth stands out for its intuitive interface, easiest for non-technical users to start organizing work. It also suits teams needing oversight into productivity through automated tracking.
Key Features:
- Highly visual Kanban boards
- Gantt charts and workload view
- Dashboard for tracking progress milestones
- Email and Google Workspace integrate
- Instant messenger for real-time collaboration
- Timesheets monitor activity
For managers seeking analytics on employee effectiveness, Redbooth provides comprehensive tracking – documenting exactly who works on what and when.
Podio
Podio uniquely delivers a collaborative workspace facilitating information sharing and gathering team feedback. It consolidates emails, files, and conversations into structured workstreams.
Key Features:
- Items capture workstreams in one place
- Access control through public/private options
- Automation tools like Zapier integrate workflows
- App marketplace with 500+ solutions
- Analysis of engagement and productivity
Podio transforms productivity via transparency, giving employees better context into priorities and progress. It evolves communication from scattered email into coherent workstreams.
Binfire
Binfire merges project and work management through both waterfall and agile frameworks – applying whichever methodology suits the initiative or current phase.
Key Features:
- Real-time visibility across entire portfolio
- Template library to accelerate implementation
- Interactive Gantt charts
- Customizable workflows and user views
- Reports detail bottlenecks and resourcing deficiencies
- AI capabilities automate administrative tasks
For project-based teams, Binfire provides flexibility to operate in delivery modes comfortable to users while managers monitor engagements via AI and analytics.
Toggl Plan
Toggl Plan positions itself as a direct replacement to spreadsheet project management. Its simplicity delivers just essential planning features teams need.
Key Features:
- Task statuses, assignments, due dates, and time estimates
- Workload chart identifies resourcing gaps
- Calendar shows deadlines and milestones
- Files, comments, and notifications centralize communications
- Burndown charts visualize progress over time
For small businesses running lots of mini-projects, Toggl Plan aggregates all vital information into collective boards ditching the frustrated scrolling through massive spreadsheets.
GoodDay
GoodDay pitches itself as a planning platform for executives through advanced features like roadmapping, resource allocation, and strategic alignment of work to corporate objectives.
Key Features:
- Top-down goal setting tied to undertakings
- Custom Gantt and workload chart
- Team capacity planning
- Automated progress indicators
- Mobile-first interface
- 70+ app integrations
For enterprise leaders seeking greater control over work streams, GoodDay provides a command center tying projects directly to strategic growth metrics.
While the spectrum runs from lightweight task managers to heavy-duty portfolio dashboards, choosing the right system comes down to aligning features and pricing to team maturity along with change management considerations.
Considerations When Selecting Solutions
With hundreds of options, where do leaders even start identifying what best matches organizational needs and culture?
Here is a framework for narrowing down selections:
1. Define Must-Have Capabilities
Do you require superior calendaring or visual process modelling? What about custom fields and views or advanced dependency mapping? Outline absolute necessary functions.
2. Determine Integration Needs
Will deep interconnectivity accelerate or hamper adoption? Consider ecosystems like Google Workspace or ability to embed tasks within everyday workflows.
3. Analyze Pricing Tradeoffs
What level of sophistication fits current challenges balanced against budget realities? Prioritize good-enough functionality with future scalability.
4. Consider Change Management
How easily can teams transition from current workflows and adapt to new systems? Simple interfaces and flexible configurations aid adoption.
At their core, these platforms unlock value by clarifying responsibilities, enhancing transparency into progress, and driving productivity – ultimately getting work done faster.
But realizing ROI necessitates engagement. Employees must see the tangible benefits through removed frustrations and busywork. Take an incremental rollout while socializing advantages at each phase rather than mandated overnight changes.
Work Management Ushers in a New Era of Cross-Functional Productivity
Breaking down legacy silos no longer remains a mere buzzword as distributed teams demand tightly integrated systems and data connectivity. People now expect elegantly designed software that removes nagging headaches through automation.
Functionality allowing customized workflows, overseer insights, and big picture visibility ushers in the next phase productivity evolution. Solutions now empower users while providing guardrails and policy enforcement.
But as with all technological change, cultural alignment accelerates transformation while governance ensures uniform excellence. Leaders play an indispensable role in communicating vision and tying work management to strategic goals.
This new category has potential to synchronize engagement across the enterprise by codifying institutional knowledge into networks accessed on-demand. It gives distributed teams unity and focus to close capability gaps. Ultimately, work management enables organizations to extract highest and best use from their most precious asset in the new economy – talented people collaborating around the world.
