Managing a professional services project successfully could be relatively easy if the project team is supported by first-grade PSA Software. However, successful project delivery hinges on numerous factors. This blog aims to get under the skin of top parameters that drive project success and how a software solution can be a great catalyst – be it PSA Software for MSP (Managed Service Providers) or PSA Software for IT companies.
Project management approach & methodology
Even within the professional services industry, organizations approach project management very differently. Their approaches reflect the organizational project management maturity as well as its culture. It is very common to observe professional services company deliver projects based on diverse approaches including predictive, agile, and hybrid. The business processes, decision-workflows, templates, etc. vary in line with the nature of the project. The governance mechanisms are tied to the strategic nature of the project as well as the complexity, value, and duration of the project. Projects could have a combination of contract payment types – fixed price, time & material, or cost-plus. Project management teams must be empowered with flexible PPM solutions.
A PSA Software for IT Companies with a high level of configurability to the project needs acts as the foundation of successful project delivery.
Integrated project planning
Today, the professional services projects undertaken by MSPs, or IT companies face twin challenges of complexity and speed of delivery. Further, such projects must deal with additional dimensions of external vendors, regulatory compliance, and demanding stakeholders. To successfully navigate such a tough project environment, project teams must ensure rigorous as well as holistic/integrated project planning – by incorporating scope, schedule, resources, costs, procurement, engineering data (BOM), quality & compliance, risks, issues, meetings, and collaboration needs.
A PSA Software for MSP/IT Companies enables the creation of fool-proof project plans, that act as the pillars of successful project delivery.
Stakeholder Collaboration
Businesses are no longer local. IT Companies & MSPs are managing large, complex, and global professional services engagements. The success of such projects relies significantly on stakeholder collaboration and engagement.
Stakeholder collaboration in professional services projects involves multiple dimensions including –
- Workflows for deliverable review, acceptance, and signoffs.
- Informal mechanisms akin to social media platforms.
- Document sharing and collaboration.
- Managing virtual meetings.
- Rules-based escalations.
- Customer reviews and acceptance.
- Vendor deliverable review and acceptance.
A PSA Software for MSP/IT Companies offers multiple and seamless platforms for the project teams to collaborate with diverse project stakeholders. In the process, best PSA Software drives operational transparency between stakeholders (internal and external). Transparency leads to a higher level of trust, that significantly improves both project-related efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness. In the absence of a robust PSA Software, stakeholder interactions Project stakeholder engagement is another important pillar of successful project delivery.
Systems Integration
We are living in a world of technology and IT applications. It is not uncommon to find professional services enterprises relying on various IT applications such as running on ERPs, CRMs, Accounting, and others – to manage their day-to-day business operations. In this scenario, when professional services organizations undertake projects and programs, teams need to be supported with a single version of truth – be it Proposals, Contracts, Financials, Procurement, Quality, etc. Project teams’ struggles include data gathering & scrubbing, review & validation, and reconciling with multiple sources.
A PSA Software for IT Companies/MSPs enables the seamless integration of data from multiple sources and offers a single version of project management truth. With such system integration capabilities, PSA Software supports faster and high-quality decision-making – a key differentiator in today’s hypercompetitive business scenario.
Performance Measurement & Tracking
Delivering professional services projects is closely tied to proactive project monitoring based on varied project metrics. These performance metrics could address –
- Progress against key Milestones.
- Defects (Quality) & Compliance.
- Budgets: Planned vs. Actual.
- Resource Utilization, Efficiency, and Productivity.
- Revenue Recognition.
- Customer Invoicing & Cashflow.
- Stakeholder Satisfaction.
- Overall Project Health.
- Net Promoter Score.
With excellent PSA Software for IT Companies, project teams are better equipped to track their progress proactively – and implement corrective or preventive actions to ensure that the project stays aligned with the business needs.
Analytics & Dashboards
With pressures of competition unlike never, plus the focus on data privacy and compliance, professional services project managers need to be ahead of the market. For this to happen, decision-makers must have access to critical insights – as early as possible. There is little value in post-mortems! “Analytics are short-cuts to decision-making” – project teams and decision-makers should get ‘push notifications’ on ‘what is likely to occur’ based on the progress so far and interdependent deliverables. These push notifications could be in various forms such as –
- Upcoming milestones that are at risk as some of the predecessor deliverables that have been delayed.
- Possible budget-overrun due to a change in the resource-mix.
- Potential impact of internal deliverables on work performed by external vendors, and…
- …many more!
A worthy PSA Software for IT Companies is designed to connect current progress with plans and deliver alerts and notifications based on the specific needs of the project.
Concluding Remarks
With state-of-art PSA Software, senior management could expect empowered professional services project teams to deliver successful projects more predictably.
