As large-scale consultancies, professional services companies operate by a very old and very important adage: time is money. Because they’re charging for their time, and because their customer demands solid results with as little and as controllable a cost as possible, the company needs to figure out how to deliver the best, most efficient service possible, while also keeping a handle on their internal workings.

Without enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, that’s an impossible prospect. What are the top reasons for going ERP, particularly in the cloud?

Align staff to deliver projects on time, profitably

Professional services is all about putting the right people on the right job, at the right time. Let’s say a company has two developers—one senior, one junior. The senior developer can do a project in three hours, but they charge $100/hour for his services. For the junior developer, the project takes ten hours, but at $40/hour. The obvious answer is to just put the senior developer on the job, but it’s not always that simple. What if they’re already booked out? Professional services companies need to respond quickly to this changing “inventory” of skills.

ERP solutions like NetSuite come bundled with services resource planning (SRP) tools to help get a handle on who can work, and when, and how efficient they’ll be. This ensures that management has the best visibility to make the smartest, most cost-efficient decisions. It can also help reveal gaps in skills, which could aid in recruiting.

Productivity is important, too—ERP solutions will give the company insight into when their people are working, and how efficiently, so that everyone knows they’re getting their money’s worth.

Streamline non-billable tasks

As we said before, time is money, and having that senior developer, for example, spend even ten minutes on invoicing a customer is a major lost opportunity. Not only is that non-billable time, but it’s work that could be automated with ERP.

By automatically connecting completed work with invoicing and finances, the developer—or even a project manager—can better spend their time doing work that creates value for the company. On top of that, ERP-enabled finances means a better handle on complex regulatory battles, such as revenue recognition, while having more visibility into profitability and client satisfaction.

Get a handle on project management

Professional services companies need to understand the full picture of their staff, inventory, efficiency, and utilization in order to make the best product at the best cost. If cloud ERP for professional services companies can improve collaboration between disparate employees through mobile-enabled UIs, all the better. In today’s fast-moving economy, it’s the only way to get ahead.

NetSuite offers cloud ERP solutions that are specifically crafted to help professional services companies become more efficient and more profitable. Even better, Bi101’s managed services can help you get there, with none of the IT headaches. Want to know more about how we can help you set your company up to grow? Get in touch and we’ll show you the ERP-enabled future.