The Advantages of Integration with PSA
The process of evaluating a significant solution investment – like acquiring a Professional Services Automation (PSA) platform – is similar across businesses and verticals. The reasons are compiled, the needs considered, and the potential candidates reviewed.
The review of a PSA includes more than just what problems it solves. It should also be evaluated for the advantages it brings to a professional services organization. How will this tool help put you ahead of your competitors?
A well-tooled and implemented solution does more than just tag resources, manage a project, or enter time and expenses. Instead, integrations into the platform make it a nexus for operational efficiencies and accelerating decision-making.
The Spreadsheet Killer
Without a tool to consolidate, view, and report on data from across the business, many organizations rely on spreadsheets to run their business.
While spreadsheets have become the norm for everything from resource planning to project plans to budgets, they are unfortunately the same as shoving a round peg in a square hole. We ask them to perform tasks they were never meant to, and they do it as admirably as they can. Still, the result is less than effective, limping along instead of rocketing a professional services organization to success.
By integrating data sources into a PSA, you remove the need to run your business off spreadsheets. The result is expanded visibility, fewer data errors, and more transparent, more timely, and more accessible reporting.
Eliminating Data Silos
Spreadsheets are a single symptom of a more significant problem. Without a single view of data or a common means of solving problems, each department or group goes about solving problems in its own way.
This is not only inefficient; it adds layers of complexity and leaves data orphaned within its specialized solution. Not to mention that maintenance of a siloed data store is costly – both in terms of dollars and in time invested.
Integrating data sources into your PSA creates a single view of the data. Management can occur in one place, and all stakeholders can work off of the same set of information, streamlining scheduling, billing, hiring, and decisions.
Plus, spreadsheets and other single-serve data solutions rarely offer features like role-based access. A PSA can provide greater control over data governance than other methods.
Accelerated Decision Making
Reporting is vital for any business, regardless of size. It isn’t enough to be able to see your data and report on it. To truly understand where your business is at any moment in time and make the shifts that keep you on course or even ahead of the curve, you need access to real-time data.
To stay competitive and provide the best customer experience, it’s important to know what’s happening today. There is little room for batching data or consolidating by slower means.
Why? If your data is even delayed by a day, your decisions become purely reactionary. You’ll only be able to see a problem and say, “We had an issue happen yesterday that we need to address.”
Real-time data shifts the script to “We’re having an issue right now we need to address.” Even better, when data is brought together from across the business and the right KPIs are defined, the conversation can become forward-thinking – it’s now “There is a problem on the horizon, let’s take care of it before it becomes an issue.”
Businesses are a little like sailing. Once a captain picks a point on the horizon, he heads for it, making small adjustments to avoid obstacles and to bring the ship back on course.
Your business goals are that spot on the horizon, and having real-time to operate off of will give you the vision to make small course corrections instead of ending up miles from where you wanted to be. This up-to-the-minute, accurate data supports that level of decision-making and becomes a powerful competitive tool.
Conclusion
In his book, The Attributes, author and former Navy SEAL Rich Diviney states that “Congruity of thought and action is essential in high-performing teams, especially when the environment is so dynamic and the stakes are so high.” In a professional services organization, congruity of thought requires everyone to be working off the same page, at the same time, with the most up-to-date data.
This can only happen if teams have a single source of information to operate from and consolidated, accurate, and timely data to use for decisions. A PSA gives your business the power to bring everyone together and the power to move forward as a single entity.
If you’re looking to massively improve your operational efficiency, communications, and even your profits with the implementation of a PSA solution, Top Step can help. Contact us today to learn more about how we can get you up and running with a platform that will give you unmatched data access and clarity.
