Although most firms recognize that professional services automation systems (PSA) are important, they also recognize that they are expensive. In order to justify the expense of a PSA, service managers will need to build a solid business case. To help the service managers build their case, we present the PSA system value proposition for sales, finance, and senior executives.
Created by Bi101
The Sales Group
Primary Concern: As the primary contact with the customer, salespeople often feel that their reputation is on the line with every sale. With that in mind, they are principally concerned about the organizations ability to deliver projects on time and under budget. In addition, they are worried about closing more business and shortening the sales cycle.
Value Proposition: The best point to emphasis here is that PSA software can integrate with a number of other systems including customer relationship management (CRM) tools. With this integration, sales is allowed into the delivery process. They can see the percentage of projects that were delivered on time. They can also see resource availability which allows them to sell specific resources to a client. The value proposition to the sales team is that they gain more confidence in the firm’s ability to deliver and insight into the firms resources.
Created by Bi101
The Finance Group
Primary Concern: Finance is worried about the financial health of the firm. They are concerned about billing the customer based on the terms of the contact and recognized the revenue when it is properly earned. Last, they are concerned about billing rates and employee resource utilization.
Value Proposition: One of the key points to emphasis here is that professional services automation tools provide “automation” of some of these key concerns. For example, the system can be setup so that billings occur as the project team enters their time. The system can further be setup with the appropriate rules so that revenue is automatically recognized once a particular milestone is noted as delivered within the project plan. The value proposition to the finance group is that by adopting a PSA, invoice accuracy will increase while delays in invoicing decrease. In addition, by automating revenue recognition, they can spend less time worrying about tracking sales and more time thinking strategically.
Created by Bi101
Senior Executives
Primary Concern: At a high level, senior management is concerned with all of the risks associated with a business. They are focused on revenue, margins, employee management, cost management, and profitability. These executives believe that access to more data will help them make better business decisions.
Value Proposition: The best point to emphasis here is that professional services automation system will feed the need for data while at the same time help them manage all of the risks. With robust reporting features, senior managers are able to gain top down insight into project profitability, employee utilization, and profit and loss. Even better, the reports are so easy to customize that most managers can build their own reports.
Each business group has a different set of fears and a good business case will have a value proposition for each group. If you need help addressing your groups concern, please contact us.
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