What is Professional Services Automation?

What do organizations like IT services, management consulting, advertising, and marketing agencies have in common? Some or all of their revenue comes from managing projects for their clients. This is generally referred to as professional services.

Once you move past a handful of clients, operating an efficient and effective services business becomes challenging without a set of tools to help you keep track of the myriad of moving parts. In addition, as your professional services organization grows, you’ll need more transparent ways to track financials and metrics on project delivery.

Many organizations start with a few in-house tools, most commonly spreadsheets, to keep things running smoothly. Over time as the organization grows, those tools can hinder performance and efficiency.

The next evolution for these businesses is to consider a Professional Service Automation (PSA) platform. What is PSA? How do you know when it’s time to make the move? And how do you find the right PSA solution for your business?

What is Professional Services Automation?

Professional Services Automation software brings together financial management, resource management and planning, and project management under a single umbrella. It offers automation of tasks that support those areas. Additionally, a good PSA will make reporting easier, more transparent, and far more accessible.

With everything brought together into one platform, it becomes possible to get an unmatched view of everything going on within your professional services organization. Using a PSA is like shining a light on every aspect of your business, giving a clear picture of what’s working and what isn’t.

That clearer picture comes with a wealth of benefits:

• Project and resource management can be streamlined
• Resources can be better balanced and fully utilized
• Timekeeping will be accurate, detailed, and compliant
• Project billing is simplified
• Projects are delivered more consistently; on time, and with greater success
• Customer satisfaction is increased
• Integration across multiple tools for a 360-degree view of business performance
• Opportunities for cross-training and professional development can be easily identified
• The organization can get real-time visibility into profitability and performance

When is it Time to Find a PSA Platform?

It’s possible that your organization already has some tools in place to accomplish a few of these things. A “homegrown” PSA solution is frequently made up of a variety of spreadsheets and disconnected tools. Not all are digital – you may have some processes still supported by “sneaker-net” or email communications.

These solutions do work for smaller organizations for a while. But in the end, they impede growth due to a lack of visibility and flexibility. It’s hard to see what’s happening across the business when one project manager uses a spreadsheet for project management while another has adopted an online tool. Resource managers can lose track of who is working on what. One team member may be at 120% utilization, while another is at 60%.

Plus, there is no consistent and easy view of what’s going on. As the saying goes, you can’t improve what you don’t measure. It’s nearly impossible to measure the right things when the information is spread across different groups and disciplines. Also, further confusing the process, these different groups often do not use the same rulers. These systems can’t support a professional services organization for long, and they won’t be able to help the business grow and scale.

There are three indicators to look for that will tell you it’s time to consider a PSA tool:

• Users are dissatisfied: Users of the current systems are frustrated by the lack of usability or support for processes.
• No enterprise reporting: You can see how a single project is performing, but understanding how all projects, resources, and financials are doing takes hours or days of information gathering.
• Ready to grow: Your business is ready to grow, but your current tools can’t scale.

Not only can a PSA platform help you wrap your arms around these challenges, but it can also automate the mundane and repetitive tasks associated with day-to-day professional services management tasks.

Choosing PSA Software That is Right for You

Once you realize the value that a PSA platform can bring to your organization, it can be hard to hold back from choosing one. However, this is a solution that will support your entire organization for years to come. It’s important to understand your requirements and take the time to compare platforms to get the most optimal solution.

As you consider what platform to invest in, keep these factors in mind:

Your PSA Should be User Friendly

The solution you choose should be easy to use for those using the tool every day. Adoption of the solution will be faster and more complete if it can meet users’ needs AND is intuitive.

Your PSA Should be an Enterprise-Wide Tool

Your PSA isn’t just for one part of your business. Don’t define requirements that only answer the needs of a single business unit. Instead, consider what everyone who will touch the platform might need – from project managers to team leaders to Finance.

Your PSA Should Support Integrations with Your Other Solutions

For a PSA solution to be truly effective, it will need to have access to information from across the business and be able to share information out to other operational platforms like CRM’s and accounting systems. Your PSA should have the ability to integrate with a wide range of other tools that you use to support your business.

Conclusion

Investing in a PSA solution for your business can be a huge boost to your productivity, project consistency, customer satisfaction, and revenue. To be all of these things, you must choose a PSA that supports your processes while creating space for growth and change.

If you’re having trouble defining everything you’d like your PSA to do, reach out to us at Top Step. We’ve helped hundreds of professional services organizations evaluate and understand their business needs for a PSA, assist in guiding the purchase of potential solutions, setting up the platform, and customizing it to meet your needs. Contact us today to find out how we can help you get more from your projects, teams, and planning.