The purpose of this review is to help highlight one of the most widely-used project management tools called Wrike. You will also find the needed details of Wrike and how it can take your project management to the next level.
Being able to deliver timely projects is a must if your business plans to remain relevant in today’s world. That’s why it is vital that you’re using the right tool to manage all your business projects.
I know there are plenty of project management tools out there, with newer tools being introduced daily.
Let’s begin with a basic intro of the company behind this novel product before diving into deeper details.
About Wrike
Wrike is a cloud-based project management solution with features for tracking projects, deadlines, schedules, and workflow processes.
It’s a great tool that enables team members to easily collaborate with each other during a project. The application has multi-language support for English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, and Italian.
Wrike makes it very easy for users to streamline workflow while allowing businesses to focus on their main tasks.
Founded in 2006 by Andrew Filev, Wrike has grown to become a foremost brand in the project management space with 700+ staff members. The company has been duly recognized for its contributions to the project management space.
The strength of Wrike comes from its ability to help you organize, track project tasks, collaborate and in-depth reporting. There are lots of great features in this project management tool as you will be finding out pretty soon.
Wrike Features
Wrike is an all-in-one project management tool that features all the tools to manage your projects efficiently. This section highlights some of the most obvious features that you will find in every instance of Wrike.
1 – Collaborate with Ease
Wrike is a great tool that can help improve communication among team members of a project throughout the development process. It enables team members to interact with the different tasks and processes that are displayed in the interface, all in real-time.
This makes it easy for team members to work together throughout the project, making it possible to track the project’s success. Team leaders and members will also find it easy to access the performance of other members of the team.
If a team member leaves the project for whatever reason, it becomes easy to pass off their work to someone else. That’s because of the clear communication channels established by using Wrike.
2 – Dashboard
Users will find that the Wrike dashboard provides all the needed details to successfully manage their projects. It comes in a well-designed and organized interface with easy-to-access tools.
You will find it easy to locate such tools for upcoming tasks, analytics, and recent efficiency.
From your dashboard, you will be able to rearrange any of your projects in the sidebar and also make use of the filtering tools to find information faster.
3 – Time Tracking
Wrike is a tool that enables you to take your time tracking to a whole new level. It is able to achieve this by giving you the tools to assign specific project tasks to employees or team members in real-time, after which you could add the associated due date for the task and then begin the time counter.
Wrike also lets you track time through manual input of the time into the counter if you’re unable to login in real-time.
4 – Project Management
This is actually what Wrike is designed for, to handle your projects in an efficient manner. Although its project management isn’t much different from other tools in the market, it offers tools to assign each task and subtask while adding due dates.
It also offers an efficient folder system that helps you organize your projects – you can create folders for projects and also for clients. Also, you can organize folders of recurring clients in a way that you will find it easy to retrieve the folders anytime you need them.
5 – Task Management
You will find it quite easy to create project tasks and subtasks using the Wrike tool. You can also view all the tasks and subtasks either in the list or timeline views.
You can use this feature to add custom details to different tasks in your project.
6 – Bug Tracking
Wrike is a tool that helps users in identifying bugs or scope creeps from the beginning and all through the development process.
The project management tool is equipped with various detection and security features for protecting your projects from damages.
7 – Resource Management
This tool comes with a resource management tool that allows you to track and monitor the workloads of employees and team members. You can use its drag and drop interface to view specific tasks that have been assigned to your team members. Also, you will be able to find out those of them that have spaces in their schedules.
8 – Calendar
This feature allows Wrike users to see specific project tasks in the calendar view. You can select from the different available options for viewing your calendar. Also, additional projects can be added to your calendar as “layers” and also view settings adjusted based on status and task types.
9 – Messaging
The project management platform also makes communication easy and seamless between team members. It offers an inbox feature for team members where all notifications and messages are received. If you get mentioned in any communication, you can be sure that you will receive it in your inbox.
In order to respond to any message, all you need to do is add your comments to the projects, the tasks, or subtasks. However, you cannot reply to any message from within your Wrike inbox.
10 – Reports and Analytics
Wrike offers you the tools that you can use to generate reports for any of your projects or tasks. It’s a reporting tool that can be used to obtain in-depth information on any projects or tasks you’re working on.
It may seem a little complex to use, but when you get a hang of it, you will find the reporting tool very useful for your projects.
You can also access different project and task reports through your web interface or through your mobile device. These reports can also be easily shared among members of your project team or employees.
11 – Workflow Automation
Workflow automation is a new feature that makes managing projects so easy for Wrike users. It offers you tools that you can use to predetermine different stages of your project and enables you to fill those stages with the right tasks.
Every time a stage is completed, tasks from the next stage of your project will be automatically assigned to team members. If you are able to plan and execute your workflow automation, you will make your project goals easy to achieve.
12 – Others
As earlier mentioned, Wrike parades a wide variety of tools and features to help you make the most of your project management.
Some of these features include file version control, branded workspace, built-in time tracker, and custom calendars for holidays, sick leave, etc. Other features of Wrike are asset management, data encryption, file management, and data backup.
Integrations
In case you want to integrate the third-party software with Wrike, there are steps to take. The first step is to browse through Wrike’s selection to see if the third-party software is listed among those supported by Wrike.
The selected software comes with file storage software such as Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, communication software like Slack, and emails (Gmail or Outlook).
The total number of third-party software that can be integrated with Wrike is just 30, which is quite limiting. If after browsing through the selection you do not find your software on the list, there are options open to you.
You can purchase the Wrike connection software in order to integrate the third-party software. This Wrike tool allows you to integrate up to 4,001 different tools.
There’s also a Wrike API for developers who wish to build apps and integrations that will work with the project management tool.
Customer Service
Customer service and support are one of the most important features to consider when choosing a service provider. Wrike scores quite highly in this regard judging from the list of available communication lines and quality of service.
Phone – Subscribers that are on any of the paid plans of Wrike can directly contact the company through its phone support. Pro users are able to access the phone support 24/7 while those who purchase the premium support plan will enjoy 24/7 phone support
Live Chat – You can contact any of their customer support team instantly through their live chat. Once you click on the Wrike live chat button on your dashboard, you will be able to connect to one of their reps
Email – Any users, both free and paid, have the ability to contact Wrike customer support via email
Blog – You can read up lots of helpful posts on project management and Wrike’s products on its blog
Videos – You will find a lot of helpful tutorial videos that provide help and training to Wrike users. These videos are mostly 3 to 5 minutes in length making them easy to digest for users. There are also videos of past editions of lie webinars to help users understand how Wrike works
Training – Those who wish to join in the live webinar can sign up by providing their names and email addresses. These webinars take place several times a month, featuring training programs such as Wrike Discover
White Papers – From the Wrike’s Featured Resources page, you’ll be able to find different resources to help with using the platform. These featured resources come in EBooks, case studies, infographics, and other content formats. They provide the needed info plus training on project management and related topics
Social Media – The company maintains an active social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn YouTube, and Pinterest
Community Forum – There is an active community forum that provides needed help for users that are having trouble with the tool
Help Center – Wrike offers a help center that features extensive information on workspaces, integrations, and different aspects of the product.
Pricing
Wrike offers different pricing plans to suit the needs of its users. There is a free plan that new users can sign up for and enjoy some features on Wrike, and there’s also a 14-day free trial period for those who opt for any paid plan.
I – Free Plan
Support up to 5 users, allows for file sharing, task management, board view, real-time activity stream, and cloud storage integrations. Other features of the Wrike free plan are spreadsheet view and 2GB storage space.
II – Professional Plan
Starts at $9.80 per user per month plus support for 5, 10, 15 users, task and subtask management, shareable dashboards, and unlimited collaborations.
Other features include Gantt charts, advanced integrations (MS Project, Excel, and RSS), 5GB of storage space and 15GB video uploads, plus all features in the free plan.
III – Business Plan
Starting at $24.80 per month, it includes all Professional plan features plus 200 users support, custom fields and workflows, report template, request forms, and others.
IV – Enterprise Plan
It is a custom plan with pricing that is only available on request and it includes all features in the Business plan and many more. Some of the other features include unlimited users, password policies, 2-factor authentication, and many others.
V – There are other plans that include Wrike for Marketers and Wrike for Professional services with prices available on request.
Affiliate Program
The Wrike affiliate program makes it possible for users to earn up to $300 in commissions from referring others.
The program pays you $100 for any customer that starts a paid Professional, $200 for Business, and $300 for Enterprise Plans.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Wrike is an all-in-one project management tool that offers you tools to handle all your projects and tasks without issues
- It’s a great tool that makes it easy for you to collaborate with team members in carrying out tasks and projects
Cons
- New users of Wrike find that it comes with a steep learning curve and may be difficult to use at first.
Conclusion
This guide offers you all the details you need to know about Wrike for achieving your project management goals.
Would you want to learn about some other tools that will help you manage and accomplish your projects? Training modules are awaiting you. You can check it out here.