The Evolution of Professional Services in 2024 and Beyond
The professional services industry is poised for significant growth in the coming years. As per industry analysts, the global professional services market will expand at a CAGR of over 7% from 2023 to 2030, driven by factors like increasing adoption of digital technologies and rising demand for specialized consulting services across industries.
In line with the overall industry growth trends, the operations of professional services organizations will also evolve drastically in 2024. Based on insights shared by industry experts in a recent webinar discussion, here are three key trends that will shape the future of professional services:
- Connecting services quoting and PSA systems: Customers will expect professional services firms to seamlessly connect their services quoting tools with project or professional services automation (PSA) systems. This integrated platform approach delivers complete visibility into service offerings, resource allocation, project timelines and revenues.
- Embracing AI: Artificial intelligence and machine learning will become integral to automating high-effort tasks like scoping, estimations, resource forecasting and quoting. AI will help drive efficiency, consistency and scalability across the service delivery life cycle.
- Revenue and resource forecasting will be pivotal: With supply-demand imbalances and margin pressures, accurate revenue and resource forecasting enabled by the connection of front-end CRM and back-end PSA systems will be key for firms to grow profitably. It will minimize revenue leakages and optimize resource staffing.
These trends underline the growing need for end-to-end automation and real-time insights in running profitable professional services agencies.
How Top Step and Provus Enable Future-Ready Services Organizations
As per Ronn, the CEO of Top Step Consulting, some of the must-have capabilities for automation-focused professional service firms include system-wide data visibility, repeatable processes and integrations across CRM, quoting and PSA tools.
This is where Top Step’s consulting pedigree in OpenAir PSA implementations, coupled with Provus’ AI-powered services quoting platform, can create tremendous value.
For instance, Provus delivers an accurate and agile quoting process through guided selling, using customer data and benchmarks to provide recommendations. The structured data flows into OpenAir PSA to enable seamless project creation and resource allocation. Pre-built integrations between the two systems ensure quotes translate into profitable projects.
Additionally, real-time visibility into quotes and resources enables more informed sales negotiations as well as better forecasting and hiring decisions. The connected platforms unlock accurate revenue projections along with quicker time-to-revenue.
Overall, Top Step and Provus check all the boxes needed to gear up professional service providers for the innovations in AI and automation coming down the line.
Key Takeaways for Professional Services Leaders
Move away from spreadsheet-based processes to automated platforms for quoting and resource management. Excel and email-driven methods will not scale.
Adopt an integrated solution covering front-end selling to back-end delivery with pre-built connectivity between the two systems. This powers data-driven decisions across the service lifecycle.
Leverage AI-led capabilities for quoting, resource forecasting and project financials to boost productivity, quality and growth. The future will demand predictive insights from platform ecosystems.
As business complexity increases, professional services leaders must assess the maturity of their tech stacks and automate processes through platforms like Provus and OpenAir PSA offered by consulting partners like Top Step. The firms that modernize systems first will gain a competitive edge. The time to lay the foundations for 2024 and beyond success is now!
