ERP is the Key to Professional Services Success

Of course, not all ERP is created equal. Some solutions are more effective for specific industries. Further, as time goes on, solutions can become obsolete when compared with new solutions that offer the latest advances in technology. For professional services firms, this can pose a problem. Due to their unique nature, including the need for remote access to information, collaboration needs and demand for easy to use, an out of date solution may be doing more harm than good for highly skilled employees. Fortunately, professional services firms can minimize these challenges with an effective upgrade strategy. Read further to understand how top performing organizations ensure they are getting the most value out of their ERP solution.

Upgrade Your Solution to Upgrade Your Firm

Top performing professional services firms understand the pitfalls of obsolete technology. In fact, as an industry that relies on the work of highly-skilled employees, these firms understand that up-to-date technology is an effective way to attract and retain talent. As a result, Leaders are more likely to take advantage of available upgrades to their business systems (Figure 1). On the other hand, Followers are more likely to be two or more releases behind. Implementing a new solution or upgrading an existing one is a way to ensure that technology is up-to-date and effective. For example, this could mean emerging social business functionality that can improve collaboration across the project team, as well as with the customer.

[Download PDF to see Figure 1]

So why would a professional services firm choose to upgrade their existing solutions? When polled, the number one reason that these organizations cited for upgrading their solutions is the need to take advantage of new functionality {Figure 2). Beyond social functionality used to retain talent, this could mean mobile technology that connects geographically dispersed project teams, updates to compliance rules, or simply new best practice workflows and processes supported in the most current release.

[Download PDF to see Figure 2]

But it's about more than just providing new functionality. Upgrading ERP is about providing a solution that the organization can get more value from for a long time. Not only are upgraded solutions often easier to use, but they may also provide flexibility that the organization can take advantage of as they enter new markets, alter processes, encounter new regulations, and expand their client base through new service and support offerings. Ultimately, upgrading is essential when the existing technology versions can no longer support the firm.

On the other end of the spectrum, some professional services firms may choose to replace their existing technology environment. Unsurprisingly, the reasons chosen are similar to the reasons that organizations upgrade (Figure 3}. Again, it's all about a lack of technology that can support the needs of the organization. This includes: better service delivery through improved collaboration; faster collection times, increased margin, and optimized resource utilization. In a competitive environment where every customer brings significant revenue, it is essential to use improved software to deliver more value to customers while achieving consistent profit margins.

[Download PDF to see Figure 3]

Either Way: Consider the Cloud

Whether replacing, upgrading, or implementing a new ERP solution, an organization is going to end up with a solution that can change the way the organization works. This is a perfect opportunity to reassess how the technology is delivered and supported. For professional services, solutions delivered in the cloud can be an attractive option. In fact, Leaders are 3.5 times as likely to deploy their ERP in the cloud (Figure 4}. Why is that?

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[Download PDF to see Figure 4]

There are many reasons that professional services firms cite for implementing their solutions in the cloud (Figure 5}. Not surprisingly, the top reason is the lower total cost of ownership. When faced with cost constraints and limited IT staffs, organizations want to look to solutions that require lower capital investments and allow them to rely on the resources of the software vendor to manage the IT infrastructure and operations, as well as the application.

[Download PDF to see Figure 5]

But selecting a business solution should never rely simply on costs. For professional services firms, they want easy to use solutions that can support new and changing business models and regulations, can integrate with other organizations, and can help to improve service delivery quality and strengthen cost controls. This is accomplished through more robust solutions that can improve visibility into financials and spending, as well as resource allocation. Cloud solutions can continually provide the latest functionality and user experience trends.

This leads to one of the biggest benefits of cloud solutions, the ability to be constantly updated with little disruption to the organization. We've noted how important staying updated is, a cloud solution ensures that an organization is always using the most current version of its software. No longer will the organization have to rely on a technology environment with varying components or disparate ages. The organization can simply focus on serving its clients, and letting the software vendor handle the hard parts of supporting the technology.

The Benefits

The success of an ERP implementation really comes down to whether or not the organization is able to use the emerging technology to induce improvements to the organization. For example, can projects be delivered on-time and under budget, can skilled resources be utilized effectively, and can the organization make decisions that will help to grow the business? In the case of professional services firms with cloud ERP, Aberdeen has uncovered improvements in a variety of metrics (Table 1). For example, 2014 Business Management and ERP Benchmark Survey found that firms with cloud ERP saw greater improvements in operational costs, complete and on-time service, and internal schedule compliance. Beyond the improvements enabled through cloud ERP, professional services firms with cloud solutions also perform better in a variety of metrics. These can be directly related to professional services projects. For example, since the people are the product in professional services, it is important that organizations with cloud ERP have a greater percentage of employees that exceed performance metrics. Perhaps this is why these organizations deliver more projects on-time and have more satisfied customers. These results indicate that cloud ERP is an attractive option for professional services firms to upgrade their technology environment.

[Download PDF to see Table 1]

Professional services firms exist in a competitive, complicated market. Upgrading ERP, whether in the cloud or on-premise, helps to ensure that an organization can provide technology that enables effective project management, improved decisionmaking, and employee recruitment and retention.