Productivity is one of the key ingredients for your business’ profitability. However, if a particular service has too many requirements to make it profitable, PSA (or professional services automation) software may be the right fit for your needs. Here, we’ll review what PSA software does, and how it can be a great benefit to a business in the professional services industry.
Understanding What We Mean by “Professional Services”
Are you in the business of providing your clients with services shaped to their needs that require you to have some kind of know-how before you can complete them? Accountants, actuaries, and attorneys are just the start of a long list of professional service providers. IT professionals like ClearView IT also could technically be considered a professional service provider. While services like these have traditionally been billed by the hour, many providers are moving to a more value-based fixed price model.
Why Professional Services Automation?
Automation capabilities have exploded in popularity in recent years for a few sensible reasons. If you could safely speed up some of the rote, repetitive tasks needed to offer your services, you would presumably be able to offer more effective services to more clients, increasing your incoming cash flow.
PSA software can assist a company in achieving this goal in a variety of ways. From project management, to resource management, to expense management, professional services automation is an incredible resource for a business. It can even track time for you - an essential part of your processes. After all, you need a record of time spent on a task, whether that task is properly billing your customers or developing products to make your organization more effective.
PSA Tools to Utilize
Depending on your needs and situation, there is an assortment of PSA options for you to consider. Some are in-house, hosted on your own infrastructure, while others are delivered as-a-service via a hosted cloud solution. Many companies will utilize Software-as-a-Service tools to allow their employees to access remote capabilities, as many professional service providers lack the resources needed to do so otherwise.
Professional services automation generally serves three functions:
- Resource management
- Project management
- Time and expense management
These three functions all require efficient time-tracking capabilities, as service providers need to know how long their services take in order to establish service rates.
What PSA Software Actually Automates
Why are these tasks the ones that are commonly attended to by a PSA solution? The answer is pretty simple: there’s a lot of detail involved, with plenty of opportunity for human error. Automating them reduces the time needed to complete them, not to mention makes your projects advance with far fewer hiccups.
Managers especially love PSA solutions because they can be a useful source of data by means of auditing a company’s projects. This means that a manager can identify what worked, what didn’t, and how to improve the process for the next time.
In short, a PSA solution can help you to improve your business for greater success down the line. At ClearView IT, we offer other solutions that help you achieve the same goal. Reach out at 866-326-7214 to find out how we can assist your business.
