| At a glance It’s a paradox. IT services companies deliver digital transformation projects to their customers, but their operations depend on standalone software and many spreadsheets. There is an urgent need for attention to their operational challenges to meet the ever-increasing demands of their customers and employees. This article explains why IT companies need the best PSA software. |
IT services companies conceptualize and deliver billable complex projects to their customers. Their customers aim to achieve significant gains in operational efficiency, reduction in costs, or enable better business models.
Such transformational projects need the expertise of hundreds or even thousands of knowledge workers. IT companies face complex challenges when they formulate such projects and execute them. IT services companies need to plan projects by assessing risks, estimating resource requirements, assigning the right people to the various tasks, and delivering projects within budget. Their customers also need to participate in such transformational projects. Therefore good communication and teamwork between IT companies and their customers are essential to their success.
This article analyzes key operational challenges and describes how the best PSA Software can help them streamline their operations.
What operational issues do IT services companies encounter?
Many IT companies struggle with various issues that hurt their productivity and profitability. The complexity of the projects, technical risks, and scope creep makes estimating the project costs difficult. Costs of various people resources and overhead levels are often not standardized across their organizations because their technical teams estimate costs using standalone spreadsheets.
The result is either overestimating costs due to ‘safety buffers’ or underestimating costs. Wrong cost estimation of bids can lead to losing project orders or making less profit than optimal.
Workflows used to estimate project costs need more standardization and control in many IT companies.
Another operational challenge is the inability to use accumulated experience from similar projects in the past. The work breakdown structures (WBS) used for planning various projects need to be more granular. Project planning is based on implicit assumptions leading to delayed deliveries, missed billing opportunities, and faulty resource forecasting. As a result, some team members are overloaded while others remain underutilized. Employees get frustrated, and customers lose trust.
Resource planning is a nightmare in many companies. Unrealistic project planning, changes in customer requirements, non-availability of key people, and optimizing bench strength make resource planning a major operational challenge.
Getting up-to-date project financials and projected costs from time to time is nearly impossible. Managing projects within their respective budgets is difficult.
How to Streamline IT Companies Operations?
To address these operational challenges, IT companies need to undertake end-to-end digitization of their workflows. The opportunity-to-cost business workflows should be digitally connected—standalone software packages like CRM, HRMS, project management, and accounting need to be integrated.
Purpose-built and real-time dashboards should replace spreadsheets for combining information in different packages. Managers can then easily collaborate with other departments and make better decisions speedily.
IT PSA software is necessary for the above.
How PSA Software Can Streamline IT Company Operations?
A powerful and complete PSA software integrates and speeds up end-to-end project lifecycles. It automates opportunity and proposal management, resource allocation, project management, invoicing, and financials.PSA software eliminates a plethora of departmental and individual spreadsheets.
By relying on well-tested industry-standard configurable workflows, PSA software enables IT companies to streamline their operations and address the issues mentioned earlier.
What Kind of PSA Software Do IT Companies Need?
You need to look for a powerful, configurable solution that provides a ‘single version of the truth’ across your organization. The software should offer modules for opportunity and proposal management, resource and cost allocation, project and task management, leave and timesheet management, invoicing, and complete project financials with real-time forecasting and actual costs. It should be built on a low-code, no-code platform, allowing easy customization and integration with existing systems.
Why is ProductDossier PSA the Best Software for Streamlining IT Company Operations?
ProductDossier PSA software shines as the best choice. It is a unified platform on which all the essential modules mentioned earlier operate. ProductDossier PSA supports your opportunity-to-cash cycles.
You can deploy the software module by module and realize tangible benefits at each stage. Such an iterative approach boosts employees’ confidence and ensures a smooth transition to the new system.
ProductDossier PSA software is built on a low-code, no-code platform, making it highly configurable to suit the unique needs of each IT company. It implements industry-standard workflows and best practices.
With real-time access to validated and dependable information, managers can make informed decisions, improve resource allocation, and minimize customer billing disputes.
In conclusion, if you struggle to overcome challenges like estimating project costs, managing resources efficiently, and minimizing billing disputes, it’s time to deploy the best PSA software for IT companies: ProductDossier PSA.
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Digitalization of project management – part 1
Digitalization of project management -part 2
