Part 2: Acumatica ERP: End the Guessing of Making Profit Decisions
Posted on: April 10, 2020 | By: Guy Logan | Acumatica, Professional Services
Acumatica ERP – Professional Services
Welcome to the second blog of the “10 Profit Decisions Service Firms are Making Blind: How a Progressive ERP Ends the Guessing” series. In this blog, we will look at how proactive information from Acumatica ERP will build revenues and reduce costs to improve project success and profitability. Professional service organizations have a demand for top talent personnel which comes with having to compete for skilled people. It comes down to having a modern and efficient system to better the productivity and reputation of a company. These firms also need to deliver projects within budget. Having a proactive system makes it possible for there to be real-time reporting to improve productivity and mange budgets. Read on to learn more!
Increase Revenues: Attract high value personnel
Professional service firms depend on the skills of their employees to attract and retain clients. There will always be demand for people who have advanced skills and knowledge and can deliver great value to clients. The problem these firms are faced with is high competition among top talent. When there is a large demand for skilled people, firms need to keep their employees satisfied. Top talent is recognized quickly. To keep employees from switching firms, employees should not be wasting time on administrative tasks, working longer hours due to being understaffed, or deal with slow, outdated systems.
Having a modern ERP system is key to supporting employees. Top talent expects to have systems which will give them the ability to be as productive and efficient possible. For project teams, a modern system means the ability to use mobile devices to work productively in their field. It also means using collaborative systems that will minimize administrative tasks and allows them to foster active client participation across geographies. Simply put, top employees want to work for an organization that has the reputation for excellence and the systems to support it.
Reduce Costs: Deliver projects within budget
Keeping project budgets under control requires constant vigilance and proactive remedies. As your organization grows and the number and the complexity of engagements expands, the amount of data that needs to be monitored grows with it. To fully leverage the data, organizations today need systems that can anticipate and alert project managers to changing conditions. The challenge companies deal with is having outdated reports that provide inaccurate or outdated estimates to complete projects. Estimates are based on past performance, but every project is different with new inputs and outcomes. Legacy systems can only report on the past, providing no insight into the potential results of changes as a project moves forward. Without warning, a project can get out of hand and be unprofitable quickly.
With a proactive system, the issue of having outdated reports can be eliminated because of real-time reporting. As teams expand, in numbers or in geographic diversity, their activities need to be monitored. As teams become more virtual, a proactive system needs to be put in place that manages across all time zones and language barriers. This can deliver dashboards and alerts to project managers to warn them of changes in project status that can affect the budgets and timelines. In addition, you can optimize resource allocation and scheduling at the proposal stage, as well as monitor utilization to avoid overbooking.
Conclusion
Professional service firms can increase revenues and reduce costs by attracting high value personnel and delivering projects within budget. Top employees want to work for an organization that has the reputation for excellence and is committed to retaining that status. Using real-time dashboards and reports will improve productivity, monitor scope and manage budgets with proactive project information.
Interested in learning more on how proactive information from Acumatica ERP will build revenues and reduce costs? Download the white paper here to get an in depth understanding of 10 profit decisions professional service companies are making blind and how these decisions can be made with confidence.
