Software Specific Acronyms -

ERP – ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software integrates internal and external collaborative information across an entire organisation, embracing finance/accounting, manufacturing, sales and service, customer relationship management, etc. ERP solutions automate this process with an integrated software application.

Project ERP – Project ERP systems are similar to ‘traditional’ ERP solutions but are designed solely for Professional Services Firms. They integrate and automate all aspects of a project driven organisation’s client and project lifecycle, including finance/accounting, time and expense, resource and project management, proposal automation, customer relationship management, invoice and billing. The purpose of a Project ERP solution is to facilitate the entire client and project life cycle.

PSA – Professional Services Automation (frequently abbreviated to PSA) is software designed to assist professionals, such as IT consultants, Engineering consultants, Architects and Market Researchers with project management and resource management for client projects.

CRM – Customer relationship management (CRM) is a widely implemented solution for managing a company’s communication with customers, clients and prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize the entire business processes life cycle—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing and business development, customer service, and technical support.

RM – Resource Management. In organisational studies, resource management is the efficient and effective deployment of an organization’s resources when they are needed. Such resources may include financial resources, consultants, creative professionals, architects, human skills, production resources, or IT staff.

KPI – Key Performance Indicators, also known as KPI or Key Success Indicators (KSI), help an organization define and measure progress toward organizational goals. Once an organization has analysed its mission, identified all its stakeholders, and defined its goals, it needs a way to measure progress toward those goals. Key Performance Indicators are those measurements.

SRP – SRP (Service Resource Planning) is a process that streamlines operations by optimizing staffing resources, manage projects more efficiently and clearly account for project time and expenses.

Industry Specific Bite size Acronyms:

RFQ – Request for Quotation

RFI – Request for Information

PID – Project Initiation Document

SDD – System Design Document

RFP – Request for Proposal

ROI – Return On Investment

Heat Map – Data Visualisation Dashboard

API – Application Programme Interface

I hope this has been helpful, if personally you feel I have left out any acronyms that you feel need to be a part of this list comment below.

My next step was to get an overall understanding of the industry itself, my manager sent me a white paper called “Success Factors For Consulting Firms”. This white paper gave me a great insight into the world of professional services firms, I could then see how these acronyms fit within the industry. You can find a copy of this white paper here.

Image by digitalart 

What to ask before you buy Enterprise Resource Planning Software?

Before committing to an ERP system you should first look closely at what your organisation needs and wants to achieve with its ERP strategy. This fact find will help determine which application and what kind of functionality your organisation requires form its ERP system. After compiling this information you can then start to understand which vendors will provide and meet your needs. As we all know there isn’t a complete ERP solution that fits all so, PSA Software fits all PS firms, for example. You should be able to find an ERP solution that fits your business, different ERP products focus on different industries/company sizes. ERP solutions can no longer be chosen just on product merit, you have to look very closely at vendors that specialise in your specific industry. Being intelligent with your selection will go a long way towards easing the implementation process.

What are the specific business problems you’re solving with ERP?

-          Example – do you need to improve employee utilization and shorten project time frames? Is instant transparency and collaborative knowledge needed? Functionality?

Who will be the ERP project manager?

-          One person- an outside consultant or a current employee should be in charge of managing the process to choose an ERP solution, coordinating demos, consultations. You need someone with strong leadership skills that can bring together all other department heads (finance, sales, HR, services).

What are the goals and metrics that you will use to measure the success of your organisation’s new ERP system?

-          Your organisation should have certain KPI’s that are tracked on a regular basis, these would be a good starting point.

Do your organisation’s business leaders support this ERP implementation project?  

-          Everybody needs to be involved in deciding which business processes are included in your ERP system. Adoption is key to a successful implementation and by involving your employees at an early stage you’re half way there.

What features and functions do you need from your new ERP solution that will help increase user’s productivity and provide access to the business data users most need?

-          Customization

-          Functionality

-          Will staff need access at home via a desktop, laptop or  pda

-          Is your organisation departmental across different geographical areas

-          Is your organisation international? Does the system nee to support a variety of languages?

 If your organisation operates globally, are there foreign currencies and languages that your ERP solution must support?

-          Does your system need to transact business in any number of global currencies?

-          Will multi-currency integrate with accounting, project control, project planning, resource management and CRM

-          Is your organisation international? Does the system nee to support a variety of languages?

With which modules will you begin rolling out your ERP package?

-          First roll out the features that will meet your organisation’s most dire needs, taking implementation in stages will help your IT Manager and ERP users to adopt new processes.

What technology will we need to support the software?

-          Is the software browser based?

-          Do you have an in house application support team?

-          Will you need – Activex controls, plug ins, applets or proprietary controls?

-          Will software need to be installed on all users’ computers?

-          Will your hosting solution need reviewing?

Which user will need training on the new system?

-          Adoption is integral to a successful ERP system, what training will we need, and how will the vendor supply this?

Vendor Acceptance?

-          Look closely at your industry and the vendors with experience in your specific market

-          Check references and background – clients, white papers, blogs

-          How well do they know my industry? Training and Implementation? Updating? Support?

Want to read more about on-premise vs. cloud?

Read our article “Head in the Clouds or Feet on the Ground?”

At a time when expenditure on new software is uppermost in peoples’ minds, a number of questions present themselves. One of the first questions we ask ourselves is whether to take the traditional route of on-premise software with its flexibility and familiarity or do we embrace the more avant-garde cloud/SaaS offerings that are springing up all over the internet? This article discusses the differences between cloud-based and on-premise software. Download the article now

Manage –

Coordinating customer-related activities is crucial to building and maintaining strong customer relationships. Up to date Activity Management allows your business development, sales and consultant teams to stay organized and strengthen the relationship between you and your customers. CRM software allows you to automate your client and content management, proposal tracking, opportunity tracking, marketing campaign management, business development and activity management empowering your employees with the tools to build strong client relationships needed. Professional service organizations need a better understanding of managing potential customer’s behaviour and his or her likelihood to choose our firm to deliver services as opposed to selecting a competitor. By managing your business management software efficiently you create a network of collaborative information shared across your whole organization, which will maximise the bottom line in time management, revenue and profit whilst increasing employee utilization.

Retain –

Clients are the lifeblood of a professional services firm. In times where we may struggle to gain new business we turn to our existing client base. By having a company-wide focus on personal relationships, pro-active account management and using technology to support those activities, we can maximise our existing client relationships in a manner that is both profitable and mutual beneficial. Managing clients, contacts and projects efficiently allows you to increase profit, retain customers and maximise revenue even in uncertain economic conditions. Your clients are the heart of your organisation and managing these relationships effectively will ensure a long and satisfying client lifecycle. CRM software is a purpose built tool that nurtures you clients through all stages of the client engagement lifecycle, gathering critical information along the way starting from targeting and lead generation all the way through to managing and retaining business. If client are the heart of your business and revenue is the blood stream that keeps you going then CRM is the back bone that holds everything together.

Conclusion –

“If your business module is based on sharing knowledge and information, you must internally practice what you preach”

Want to read more aout how CRM Software can give your organization a 360 degree view of the client engagement lifecycle?

Clients are the lifeblood of a professional services firm. In times where we may struggle to gain new business we turn to our existing client base. By having a company-wide focus on personal relationships, pro-active account management and using technology to support those activities, we can maximise our existing client relationships in a manner that is both profitable and mutually beneficial. Click Here To Read More..

Below is a list of more specific returns:

• Faster delivery of  project sensitive information to all team members and reduced project turnaround times
• Improved project resource planning and fine tuning of the marketing and recruitment pipelines.
• Better application of time and materials to the right tasks and the ability to make adjustments, due to faster and more accurate delivery of project cost and budget information
• Reduction of costly errors and omissions
• Reduced billing cycles leading to an increase in cashflow
• Better retention of client relationships and information even as individual client managers come and go

This is by no means a completed list but provides a short summary and examples of tangible and intangible benefits to be achieved from utilising Project ERP / PSA software.

Project ERP / PSA Software Case Studies

Industry Specific Case Studies:
• Consultants
• Consulting Engineers
• Research Agencies
• Creative Agencies
• Project Management
• Construction Consultants
• Architects
and more…

View Now

Specific
Make sure that your KPIs are well defined and understood by everyone. If you have to, write down certain definitions. For example, what is classed as a new client? Do you have a separate category for clients that have come through referrals; or what about an existing client merging with another company – is this an existing or new client? You get the point.

Measurable
How are you tracking your KPIs – in a system, Excel spreadsheet, Access database? Ensure that have a reliable way of measuring and keeping track of your KPIs. There is no point setting KPIs if you can’t measure and report on them.

Achievable
Can you achieve your KPIs with your current team? Make sure that you have KPIs that are achievable and realistic (see below).

Realistic
Can you really obtain a 50% growth next year? If yes – great. If not, don’t make this one of your KPIs. Unrealistic and unachievable KPIs are next to useless.

Time bound
Set a reasonable time frame for you to achieve these KPIs. Don’t make the time frame too short – people will rush and job/projects may not get done to the normal standard; but also don’t leave too much time which can also affect the performance of your jobs/projects.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for consulting firms may include:
- Number of new clients
- % of revenue coming from existing clients
- % of consultants generating revenue above £…K
- # of consulting hours to achieve revenue
- % of billable hours vs non-billable hours
- % change in monthly support calls
- Avg nr of days needed for each job or project
- Cost of training staff vs revenue/employee

There are many more KPIs for consulting firms – the list would be almost endless. And there certainly will be some very specific ones for your organisation – what do your executive team and stakeholders want to see? Those are your most important KPIs.

I hope this article has been of value and has given you some food for thought about the KPIs for your own organisation.

Success Factors for Consulting Firms

• Short-Term, Operational Success Factors
• Long-Term, Strategic Success Factors
• Current Externalities in Consulting Firms
Download Now

Professional service firms use a variety of ways to measure success within their organisations. There are copious KPI’s we manage, track and report, but every project is customer focused on client satisfaction and meeting their expectations. To achieve the level of client satisfaction that we should all adhere to; we need to ensure that we abide by and complete all contractual agreements, on time and on budget. Your organisation may evaluate success based on various factors including client engagement, project time frame, referrals, recommendations, efficiency, employee utilization and revenue against profit.

In order to achieve project success and maximise profitability we need to ensure that we are as efficient as possible. This blog post is going to look closely at some of the critical elements of where and how to improve project efficiency, timeframe of project, client information updating, highlighting potential pitfalls, invoicing and billing

Timeframe of Project –

Time is an expensive commodity so evaluating time spent on projects is critical to our overall bottom line. We need to scrutinise the entire timeframe of projects from start to finish understanding the profit and loss by different cost centres including marketing, sales, services and implementation to really see the overall true profitability. Automating business processs will allow you to see a true insight into all factors and cost centres empowering you and your organisation when making critical decisions.

Client Information Updates –

Clients’ need to be assured that we know their business and industry inside out: updating and sharing critical client information is key element when enabling employees to achieve client satisfaction. By automating the information sharing process you can achieve companywide collaborative knowledge that can be accessed and updated in real time. Automation will automatically digest and share all client information across all parts of the business in one system, eliminating redundant data input processes.

Highlight Pitfalls –

Clients of professional service s firms greatly value prompt communication and responsiveness. This is even more imperative in these dark economic days that we find ourselves, were clients are reluctant to spend money.  It is crucial that professional service firms highlight any pitfalls or problems with projects immediately so that timely action can be taken to avoid bigger issues at a later date.When utilising a fully integrated business management system we have a 360 degree view of all client information, this allows us to compare current or similar finished project data. Whic empowers us to identify where problems or pitfalls may arise, and we can analyse this data and prepare for the right course of action to minimalise any issues.

Invoicing and Billing –

As I have already stated, client satisfaction is a critical element to professional services firms, but invoicing and billing are of equal importance . Revenue is vanity but cash flow is reality; We must become more efficient with the way we invoice and bill our clients. By automating your business processes you are enabling your company to seamlessly integrate with all business development, project and financial management modules, ensuring that costs are shared automatically while maintaining a comprehensive audit trail. The example below shows the potential loss in revenue and profits when not efficiently tracking billable hours and invoicing:

Organisation with 500 Employees

-              Reduce Revenue Leakage

-              “By not capturing just 2% of all billable project work, this company would be losing approximately £1,310,000 in revenue per year or £109,000 per month”

(This example shows that with a company of 500 employees, not capturing 2% of billable hours could result in a leakage of £1,310,000)

Today’s challenging business environment highlights the absolute necessity of accurate and up to date critical project and business data. Firms that automate and streamline their organisation’s business process are the ones with a significant competitive advantage. Stay tuned for the next installment of “Improve project Success and Profitability by Automating your Business Processes” or if you can’t wait click here to see the full article!

How – It all starts with clients. Professional service organizations survive and thrive by acquiring new clients and retaining existing ones. To be successful in today’s business environment, Professional service organizations need to fully understand and manage the entire client engagement life cycle, from targeting, lead tracking and prospecting through to acquiring and implementation.

Target –Your CRM strategy should contain all the tools and components to successfully counteract the key challenges that Professional services firms face when targeting prospective clients. Value Proposition/Brand Recognition, Demand and Lead Generation and Customer and List Segmentation are all elements of this CRM strategy.

Value Proposition and Brand Recognition – Value proposition and Brand recognition is the most critical component of the target phase of the client engagement life cycle. Firms need to create brand awareness and communicate the value proposition to as many potential clients as possible

Lead Generation – Lead generation is an important marketing strategy when generating client interest. Leads can be generated from a variety of marketing campaigns for a range of purposes such as list building or e-newsletter list acquisition. CRM captures the whole lifecycle of marketing campaigns including lead generation, allowing you as an organization to look at leads as individuals and not as part of mass communication campaigns.

Customer List segmentation – Customer and List Segmentation is a practice that should always be up held. To become more intelligent when targeting we must define our contacts by certain criteria such as sector, business, size, location, budget or service. Without in depth knowledge of our targets, how do we expect to win their business? CRM software will enable you to segment your targets into defined categories of opportunities. We can then become smarter with the way we market and who we market to. Mass marketing is a dated trend and we now need to become more personalised in our approach. CRM gives you in depth knowledge of all targets in real time allowing you to facilitate better decision making when implementing campaigns and maximising your marketing ROI.

Acquire – To acquire business in these difficult economic times organizations need to differentiate themselves, and they need to communicate how their services map to clients’ needs. In order to improve revenue and profit a professional services organization needs to attract and retain the top end business projects. CRM software will give you an overview of projects and clients allowing you to look at revenue Vs cost. This information then enables you to know which type of projects are most profitable and should be a priority at this acquiring stage. Whilst traditional marketing methods, such as advertising and publishing articles or books, are still viable do we really know their ROI? Unfortunately, often the answer is no and we have to become more intelligent with tracking the success and failure of our marketing campaigns within our organization. CRM software contains tools that track a target through marketing and lead generation campaigns to acquiring that business, feeding back critical information to our marketing and business development managers. Smart CRMs can even highlight behavioural patterns and common pitfalls, while giving indications about where, when, and what to sell.

As customer demand grows and profit margins are stretched professional service organizations need to work harder and smarter when competing for business. Professional service organizations need to build relationships with clients, not only to win repeat business, but also to identify opportunities to up-sell or cross-sell their services. To build and strengthen client relationships, professional service organizations need CRM software to give them a 360-degree view of clients’ preferences, purchase levels, and satisfaction rates. Alexander Graham Bell quite rightfully said “Before anything else, information and preparation is the key to success”, which is the underlined ethos of CRM.

This is “The Four Critical Phases Of Using CRM In The Client Engagement Life Cycle” part 1 of 2, stay tuned for part 2 covering how to manage and retain clients using CRM…..

Want to read more aout how CRM Software can give your organization a 360 degree view of the client engagement lifecycle?

Clients are the lifeblood of a professional services firm. In times where we may struggle to gain new business we turn to our existing client base. By having a company-wide focus on personal relationships, pro-active account management and using technology to support those activities, we can maximise our existing client relationships in a manner that is both profitable and mutually beneficial. Click Here To Read More..

No doubt many of you have faced this conundrum, often seduced by the promise of either low set up, implementation and ongoing costs afforded by cloud solutions. Alternatively, with an infrastructure in place (people and hardware), many would consider that on-premise software with its increased security and integration possibilities a no brainer. With both cloud offerings prospering and on-premise software maintaining a good market share, there are no simple answers.

Having spent many years working with, and supporting, an on-premise solution when there were few alternatives, my initial feelings about cloud / SaaS offerings were very positive. All of a sudden the opportunity of releasing software en-masse, with all clients using the same version and controlling the environment seemed like manna from heaven. Could we slim down support teams, improve customer relations and generally live a more relaxed life? My enthusiasm quickly got the better of me and I became an advocate of a cloud solution at every development meeting. However, many software houses are not unlike the Titanic, slow to turn and often reluctant to do so even when compelling stories are made. The response of many on-premise suppliers was to buck the trend and to come up with new ideas – or old ideas with a new spin. Many moved, understandably, to full web deployment and initiated development plans that focussed on ‘smart client’ technology.

Once again, Microsoft could be seen to be encouraging both sides of the equation. For on-premise suppliers, the rich functionality inherent in ‘smart clients’ offered a response to those who wanted web deployment but cursed the passing of rich local client functions.

As time has moved on there is no one clear winner in the software industry – apart from the buyer. However, whilst the buyer now has choice in abundance, they also have confusion in equal measure.

Want to read more about on-premise vs. cloud?

Read our article “Head in the Clouds or Feet on the Ground?”

At a time when expenditure on new software is uppermost in peoples’ minds, a number of questions present themselves. One of the first questions we ask ourselves is whether to take the traditional route of on-premise software with its flexibility and familiarity or do we embrace the more avant-garde cloud/SaaS offerings that are springing up all over the internet?
This article discusses the differences between cloud-based and on-premise software. Download the article now