You’ve acquired an arsenal of tools for managing your professional services organization (PSO). There’s the CRM solution for quotes and tracking opportunities. Separate ones for project and resource management. There’s the finance system, something for internal communications and collaboration; the list goes on and on.
It’s no sin. You’ve just been trying to be as efficient and competitive as possible. Unfortunately, the opposite has occurred, and now critical information is extremely difficult and time-consuming to find, never mind analyze and report on.
Worse, you rely on spreadsheets to compile data across all of these systems, and a whole lot of them have been created. You and your team are trapped in “cell hell.”
There is a solution. But first, understand how spreadsheet sprawl is hurting your organization. Below are just a few questions to ask yourself:
- What are we doing?
Spreadsheets were intended to mirror an old-time accounting practice. Ever put a name into an Excel cell only to find it changed to numbers? There’s your proof on why they’re limited. Yet, companies use spreadsheets for a range of business functions and data of all types – and those tiny cells weren’t designed for a lot of detail. That makes spreadsheets cumbersome and awkward to manipulate.
- Are we spread too thin?
For an individual, never mind an entire company, spreadsheets mean too many hours are spent on the wrong task. Entering data, scrolling through hundreds of rows, deleting and archiving, training new hires – you and your team could be spending more time on administrative functions than your actual jobs. And time is money.
- Have we got this right?
Manually entering data, or importing through files, can introduce errors. One mistake can snowball and impact a lot. Add in multiple users doing entry and the odds that everything is correct aren’t good. From billing issues that irritate customers to inaccurate revenue forecasting that jeopardizes plans, spreadsheet mistakes can quickly spread the pain across your business.
- Are we missing anything?
Leaders need accurate and timely information to quickly make the right decisions and seize new opportunities. As data sits, it becomes less reliable. In today’s fast-paced business environment, change happens quickly. Real-time visibility and analysis is the only way to ensure you don’t miss out.
If these questions have you wondering, then it’s time to check into a professional service automation (PSA) platform, an integrated solution that can do it all, designed exactly for companies like yours.
With a single solution, you’ll gain real-time data insights that support fast, strong decision-making. You’ll be able to share business and project data across your company. You can reduce data errors, free up yourself and staff members, curtail data entry and administrative time. And, because a PSA solution can automate everything from project management to contact management to timekeeping, you’ll save even more.
PSA is not just for large organizations. SPI Research feels they have become so easy to use, firms with 20+ consultants should implement one rather than use spreadsheets. They also noted that PSOs integrating CRM, PSA and finance systems experienced gains such as:
- 9% Improvement in projects delivered on time
- 8.4% Improvement in projects on budget
- 6% Increase in billable utilization
- 11.7% Increase in project margin
It’s simple. A PSA platform makes your business run better – that means it makes you more money.
Suffering the torments of cell hell? Need salvation from spreadsheets?
Talk to us. I think you’ll find the results heavenly.
