Project managers, we hear you. You are often under a lot of pressure, juggling multiple projects at once, coordinating with clients and suppliers, and making sure everyone is on the same page. Things can get pretty frenzied out there!
If you run a professional services firm, human capital (time, knowledge or expertise) is your primary input. You rely on your human resources to ensure project success; so your business pain points usually revolve around issues related to resource management, lack of project planning and team productivity. Whether you manage a large enterprise, a mid-size firm of consultants and contractors, or a small business, ill-planned resource management will point towards weaknesses in internal processes and stand in the way of delivering projects on time and on budget.
Resource Scheduling – allocating the right resources to the right projects and tasks – is thus a critical element of project management for professional service companies, which can help you meet those looming deadlines and maximize the utilization of all the resources in your team.
But not to worry! That’s where tools like Avaza’s resource scheduling module come in: it streamlines all of these processes into one integrated SaaS tool for Professional Services Automation (PSA). It allows you to view the availability of your resources in real-time, so you can make informed decisions on who to assign tasks to and ensure maximum utilization of your team’s time.
For example, a professional services firm that offers legal services usually bills their clients on time and material basis. The legal professionals in such companies carry out work on behalf of the client, for instance conducting research, drafting legal documents or negotiating with opposing parties. A professional’s time spent on this work needs to be properly tracked so it can be accounted for; not only the billable activities but internal tasks like meetings and administrative activities. Non-billable activities, if properly streamlined, can increase the capacity for the professional to undertake billable activities.
An all-in-one professional services automation (PSA) tool allows managers to assign tasks, view staff availability and automate and streamline workflows (like paying bills, generate invoices, approve and create timesheets etc.) - this greatly saves time and increases efficiency.
A resource scheduling tool that is part of a PSA suite thus allows business owners/managers to accurately forecast hiring needs, optimize staff utilization, and maximize project profitability, as well as link to the task management system to ensure dynamic collaboration.
Following are some benefits of scheduling software for you to improve your business workflows and outcomes:
- Better alignment of resources and projects
Scheduling in the context of project management involves the listing of activities, deliverables, and milestones within a project. A schedule also usually includes a planned start and finish date, duration, and resources assigned to each activity. Using the right software for resource scheduling improves a project manager’s ability to factor in the skills, experience and availability of team members in order to allocate them to projects and tasks in an optimal way.
- Improved Staff Utilization
The time spent by a team member on a project task vis-à-vis the total number of man-hours available in the project is a key performance indicator for a project.
Resource Scheduling tools can help find a balance between maximizing the productivity of your available resources while avoiding over-utilization. It ensures high productivity and at the same time, prevents overworking of any team member.
- Forecasting and Effective Planning
Project Managers need to effectively forecast resource utilization levels. Forecasting helps managers anticipate additional capacity that they need for pipeline projects or any under-utilization of resources that may occur in the future. A scheduling tool can help project managers to bridge the capacity and demand gap ahead of the curve.
- Increased Project Profitability
Client-focused projects are more likely to be successful if resources are managed efficiently. It reduces costs and increases margins while fulfilling stakeholder expectations. Effective management of resources can improve ROI by reducing costs, increasing product quality, or through repeat business from a satisfied client.
- Improved resource satisfaction
Effective Resource Management gives management as well as team members visibility into their team member’s workload and bandwidth. Resource Managers are able to access the right data to ensure maximum utilization of human resources while communicating any extra capacity they may have to their project manager.
Project Profitability Metrics are the Key to Growth For Professional Services Firms
Project management software that integrates all aspects of work management streamlines workflows, gives managers visibility into project profitability, and ensures team productivity is maximized. All this helps professional services firms be more efficient and accountable to their clients.
Many professional services firms are turning to PSA tools to gain a bird’s-eye view on who’s working on any project, and when. Managers can conveniently manage resources allocated to each project and hence optimise team time utilization, make more intelligent work assignments and scheduling decisions by viewing team availability information in one place, and easily schedule and edit assignments.
Why should project managers adopt a PSA tool for scheduling teams?
Research has shown that projects with clear resource management plans are more likely to be successful with lower costs, and higher margins while fulfilling stakeholder expectations.
Avaza Resource Management reports deliver insight on future revenue and margins so plans can be fine-tuned for higher profitability. It helps you find a balance between maximizing the productivity of your available resources while avoiding over-utilization. Developing an understanding of the available resources beforehand helps project managers identify problems ahead of time and avoid conflicts. Avaza customers report on average a 5% improvement in staff utilization.
