Improving Utilization at the Tactical Level

In a previous blog, we discussed how changes at the operational level will give you the fastest business value and ROI. Not only will those changes increase billable hours available, the obvious and quick impact on resource utilization will gain buy-in from staff and management.

We’ve seen how disconnected business systems result in wasted time, weakened performance, inaccurate data, and considerable costs. Connecting those systems across people, processes, and technology allows you to focus on improving how your organization does business. You’ll want to implement more effective processes across sales, marketing, project management, and financial management that will increase revenues and drive down costs. The goal is to increase actual hours billed, measured through realization rate.

Tactical changes that will optimize projects and minimize non-billable time:

Market and sell to target customers 

The goal here is to focus on getting clients and projects that fit the skills and expertise of your resources. This will improve effectiveness of sales and marketing and create a better fit between project portfolios and your resources, leading to less non-billable time and less need for rework.

Improve project estimation 

Market trends and customer demands are driving more “fixed-cost” projects, which force your firm or business to eat the cost of any additional hours. By improving project estimation, you can reduce that amount of non-billable work.

Have the right resources on the right projects 

With improved insight and forecasting, you can do a better job of managing your resources.

Manage ‘over-servicing’ customers 

More appropriate selling, improved project estimation, and better resource management will lead to fewer project exceptions to manage and less need to make accommodations to clients that lose money for your business.

Improve billing accuracy 

Coordination between project and financial management, along with better timekeeping, will result in more accurate billing.

Read more about the challenges created by siloed business systems and how to implement operational, tactical, and strategic changes to drive increases in resource utilization and profitability. This eBook will help you learn: 

• The metrics that matter in measuring utilization.
• How you can use and learn from these utilization metrics.
• The organizational, team, and individual challenges caused by disconnected systems.
• Why traditional resource management often fails to deliver expected results.
• A framework for improving utilization and how connected technology can enable your ability to execute on it.
• Goals, objectives, measures, and specific actions you can take at the operational, tactical and strategic levels to drive improvement.

If you’re ready to discuss how Dynamics 365 can help your professional services company become more efficient and profitable, reach out to the experts at Velosio.