Can you feel the change in the air? It’s refreshing, as the start of fall always is, but it also signals a time of reflection and preparation for your business. The end of the calendar year is a natural time to understand what worked and what didn’t, where you need to improve resources and start looking toward your plan for the following year.
co
With that in mind, here is a look at what’s coming to professional services organizations (PSOs) in 2019, and for what you’ll need to plan in order to remain competitive.
- Faster speed of change
Remember the good ol’ days when life just seemed…simpler? Well, PSOs are no exception to that. Businesses were humming along as long as they supported their customers well. Now, PSO customers are more well-informed and are being targeted more aggressively with strong competitive offers. PSOs have to evolve their business – and do it quickly – to retain their existing customers and continue adding new ones. The industry evolution keeps requiring new adaptations, and that speed of change is only increasing. - Constant agility
That ever-increasing speed of change requires PSOs to become more agile. They simply must be faster on their feet and adjust their operations to customers’ changing needs. Becoming agile applies to every individual in the organization, and affects everything from how you hire, to how you develop and treat your team, and how you manage projects. It also means adopting technology and tools that are flexible enough to meet your pace of business. We’re not going to go back to how things were, so it’s time to understand and implement agile methodologies throughout your PSO. - Customer centricity
All businesses – not just those in professional services – must be built around the customer’s needs, wants and preferences to remain competitive. To center your business around your customer, you must first know your customer. To do that, you must listen to them. Listen to your customers and you can build a product that meets their needs and create experiences with your organizations that they enjoy – and benefit from. As one of our very wise customers says, “We don’t have a process. Our customer is the process.” Keep your customer at the heart of every decision you make, and you’ll keep delivering. - Moving to the Google Cloud Platform
Because of the incredible pace at which businesses are adopting new technology, we’re seeing more PSOs rely on a cloud platform rather than managing many disparate applications. Many favor the Google Cloud Platform for its less-is-more approach and easy to use tools – which means more vendors are building solutions on the Google platform. “The number of professional services organizations moving to Google Workspace is rapidly growing as companies look for a more agile, collaborative approach with less overhead and lower costs,” says Jeanne Urich, Managing Director at SPI Research, a global research, consulting and training organization for PSOs. It’s a natural choice: Google Workspace doesn’t let cumbersome technology get in the way of doing your job well.
What’s on your radar for your business in 2021? Share with us on Twitter @VOGSY_PSA.
