What are the Objectives of Resource Management?

At a glance, the objective of resource management seems like it’s all about planning and tracking resources used to complete a specific job. But in reality, resource management is about so much more. When used properly, resource management also has the ability to improve profitability, prevent over-scheduling or under-scheduling resources, better predict job costs, make more informed hiring decisions, and improve the scalability of your company.

But to understand the breadth of resource management, we have to understand its objectives.

6 Objectives of Resource Management

Looking at resource management as a business tool instead of as simply a project management tool can help improve Business Intelligence and systems that support and accelerate company growth.

Below are 6 of the best objectives of resource management to drive company value.

1. Improve the Profitability of Projects

The benefits of resource management come before a project ever starts by helping to improve the profitability of projects.

First, resource management helps estimate a project by building out a plan for the resources needed to complete the project. This helps the project manager properly identify costs. Resource management software eliminates guesswork in the estimating process by detailing exactly which resources will be needed and in what quantities to complete a project. It will also calculate the costs associated with those resources so the project coordinator can better predict profits.

The second way resource management can improve the estimating and profitability process is through comparing profitability scenarios based on different combinations of resources. This helps the project coordinator determine the best mix of resources to maximize the profitability of a project.

2. Plan for & Schedule the Resources You Need

Quoting a project is one thing, but scheduling resources to predictably complete the project within the proposed time frame is another. This is why resource planning and scheduling is one of the main objectives of resource management. With resource management tools, users can drag and drop resources into the project outline produced in the estimating stage of the project.

Resource management tools like Kantata allow you to see which resources are available and when at a glance, and even have simple search and filter tools that narrow down your resource search to the resources that have the skills needed to complete the specific needs in your task.

3. Use Resources Effectively

Besides scheduling to manage projects, resource management can also be used to manage your teams more effectively. It can give you insight into what resources you have available and what their current schedules look like. Is there one resource you tend to overload or another that is underused? Resource management can help make sure you’re maximizing (but not overloading) your resources.

Resource management tools can also help you see which resources are more profitable than others. This can help you determine where there may be weak spots or places for additional coaching within your team to improve the efficacy of your resources.

4. Inform Hiring Decisions

Resource management can also provide objective business data that helps you make more informed business decisions. With the insights provided in resource management, you can see whether projects can be more effectively spread between team members, or whether work capacity is full across the board. This can help provide functional, objective data about if and when another hire needs to be made.

This helps take the guesswork out of knowing when to hire, when to augment with outsourced resources, or when to wait. This can have huge cost-saving benefits for a company.

5. Provide More Accurate Job Costing

Some of the most important objectives of resource management come after the job is complete. Predicting better job costs is one of these. The best resource management software will offer sophisticated reporting tools to analyze your project. These will help you see planned resource allocation versus actual resource allocation. Comparing budget to actual is a huge data point for understanding the true cost of your service/project.

With this post-project reporting, you can see which areas of the project you may have underestimated or overestimated so you can make the appropriate changes in the future. This data is not only important for the specific project type, but can also be an important source of information for your company as a whole. For instance, it can give you insight into which of your resources are most profitable, what patterns project managers or salespeople have fallen into when estimating projects, and whether there are any “scope creep” issues that should be addressed.

6. Improve the Scalability of Your Company

Resource management eliminates the guesswork from job costing, scheduling, and profitability. Not only does this help maximize margins to improve cash flow, but it also improves the predictability of service. An effective resource management system will also create data points and templates that can be reused for future projects to streamline new work while maintaining consistency.

All of these factors culminate in an environment primed for scalability. By effectively using a resource management tool, you can produce predictable processes and results in your company that help you more sustainably support future growth.

Want to learn more about resource management?

Click here to discover how The Kantata Professional Services Cloud takes resource management to a new level with purpose-built cloud software created specifically to solve the challenges faced by services organizations.