Walking the Tightrope
EQUIPPING DECISION-MAKERS TO BALANCE KEY PRIORITIES WITH CONFIDENCE
In professional services, where each decision has the potential to disrupt the delicate balance between profitability, customer satisfaction, and employee retention, every project becomes a tightrope walk with no safety net. And when team members don’t have clarity, control, and confidence, the next step can be too scary to take.
Kantata and Salesforce commissioned Forrester Consulting to ask 383 professional services decision-makers about their top priorities and challenges. The following results from the study “Vertical SaaS Drives Material Benefits For Professional Services” explain the characteristics that set leading professional services organizations (PSOs) apart and help them maintain balance when other businesses falter.
01
A Tricky Balancing Act
Most PSOs say creating loyal clients, maximizing profits, and growing and retaining their workforce will be high priorities in the coming year. These are not always complementary goals, and many businesses struggle to make progress on one without shortchanging the others, throwing off a delicate balance.
said creating loyal clients was a high or critical priority
said maximizing profit was at least a high priority
said growing and retaining their workforce was a high priority
02
Destabilizing Challenges
The majority of professional services organizations say they find the following obstacles very challenging, which threatens progress on key priorities.
Creating Loyal Clients
53%
Experienced poor retention of clients
50%
Reported an inability to collaborate effectively with clients
50%
Had poor client satisfaction
Growing and Retaining the Workforce
59%
Reported an inability to predict project resource needs in advance
53%
Experienced poor retention of employees
50%
Have an inability to collaborate effectively with external workforce
Maximize Profits
58%
Lacked visibility into plan/baseline vs. actual performance of projects
56%
Lacked data/insights needed to engage in robust forecasting
55%
Experienced lower than expected profits
03
What Sets Leaders Apart
Leaders are better equipped to maintain their balance as they work towards long-term business objectives. These three characteristics set Leader PSOs apart from Transitioning and Laggard PSOs.
- They are able to accomplish essential tasks (examples below) without facing major challenges
- They have not overly customized solutions to meet their needs
- Their tech stack works well together
Essential Task Examples
Conduct resource planning and project team collaboration across the entire services workforce—both internal and external
All respondents: 51% find challenging
Leaders: Only 8% find challenging
Project budgeting and project accounting with visibility into plan/baseline vs. actual performance
All respondents: 51% find challenging
Leaders: Only 6% find challenging
Collaborate directly with clients on engagements with the ability to route relevant approvals to client stakeholders and control what is shared with them and what isn’t
All respondents: 51% find challenging
Leaders: Only 8% find challenging
Integrate solutions seamlessly so that relevant information can be shared across the organization in an accurate and timely manner
All respondents: 50% find challenging
Leaders: Only 4% find challenging