What is a Resource Management System?
The best way to streamline workflows and maximize profits is to implement a resource management system – software specifically designed to support planning, scheduling, and assigning workers, funds, and technology to projects to ensure that you’re maximizing the resources available to you. When you implement the right type of resource management system, you can help your employees work more efficiently. As a result, your professional services business benefits.
Different Types of Resource Management Systems
Resource management happens at all kinds of levels. If you’re a small mom-and-pop business, a wall calendar with dates that show which employees have requested time off may be the main way you manage your employees as resources. You keep track of all your financial resources in a hand-written ledger for different accounts or projects and don’t have time to learn a new online system. Sticky notes help remind you of tasks that have to be completed this week, rather than a Google calendar alert.
Or maybe you are a person who lives and breathes spreadsheets. You use them to input data from your employees, but then you have to manually go in and input everything. Even if you use Excel formulas, it’s easy to forget to make changes or calculate errors.
And then there are the resource management systems of the future. Software marketplace G2 defines a resource management system as software that “tracks, schedules, and optimizes human and material resources required for project management. This type of software helps users compare resource availability with demand, and allocate said resources to deliver projects on time and on budget.”
Modern resource management solutions, like professional services automation (PSA) tools which are specifically designed for the resource and project management needs of professional services businesses, take capabilities and automated workflows that used to only be found separately and combine all of them in one place so you can easily manage your business. With PSA, you can use purpose-built team collaboration, business intelligence and project accounting tools to keep all decisions about resource management aligned with the larger context – the long-term success of your business and your clients’ businesses.i.
How Resource Management Systems Help Employees Work More Efficiently
Any business can benefit from a resource management system like PSA, no matter how small. In their 2022 PSA End-user Survey, Service Performance Insight said of their research into the effectiveness of PSA solutions: “PSA has become mandatory for project- and services-driven organizations to improve operational performance, better forecast, grow revenue, reduce cost, enhance quality and drive client and employee satisfaction – all while increasing profit. Every project and services-oriented organization with over 20 employees should seriously consider Professional Services Automation.”
When you implement a resource management system, it helps your employees work more efficiently. Instead of project managers needing to email resource managers and salespeople to wait for status updates on their upcoming projects, they can go in and check a shared solution for a project’s current status and any new updates. This helps team members stay on the front foot and keep forward momentum as client-facing engagements move from sales to resourcing to delivery to accounting.
Plus, resource management systems can help you assign certain people to tasks based on their strengths, ensuring employees are working on projects that are best-suited to their skillsWhen you’re looking to fill certain roles, your resource management system can suggest the right people based on data that highlights the skills you are looking for. When employees are working on tasks suited to their skillsets, they will be happier and you’ll have better retention rates. Plus, they will be able to work faster because they are completing tasks they excel at, so they’ll be more productive than those who are less experienced in the related type of work.
Benefits a Resource Management System Provides to Your Business
When you use a resource management system, you’re taking the guesswork out of allocating resources, giving resource managers the tools they need to make sure the right resources are matched with the right projects every time. For example, PSA software lets you schedule your resources in advance so you can see where you need to invest to make sure your business has the people needed for upcoming projects to go smoothly. You can use robust, real-time forecasting tools to anticipate any additional capacity needed.
Plus, reporting tools let you see how your business is doing as a whole. Business intelligence (BI) tools can analyze your operational data and create reports that help you optimize your resource usage and scale with confidence.
Of course, not all resource management software systems are the same. When shopping for a resource management system for your business, look for comprehensive tools that help you make informed resource management decisions and integrate with any existing systems, like your CRM (customer relationship management) software.
With the Kantata Professional Services Cloud, You Can Master Resource Management
The Kantata Cloud provides purpose-built solutions to address the rapidly evolving challenges professional services organizations face. With Kantata resource management, you can plan resources across any organizational structure and time period. This lets you bring together project, financial, and workforce data to deliver unprecedented clarity.
Contact us today to see why Kantata is rated as the top solution on G2’s Fall 2022 Grid for Resource Management Software.