Resources – the driver of value and cost!
Organizations are undertaking programs and projects at an unprecedented rate to ensure execution meets strategy. The focus on program and project management has put tremendous pressure to plan and manage a company’s most important asset – resources! The complexity of resource planning and management increases when resources are deployed to multiple engagements in parallel, working from different geographical locations and time zones, and type of project organization structure (functional, projectized, or matrix). The need for Resource Management Software was never so urgent!
Let us delve a bit deeper into:
1. The top challenges associated with enterprise resource planning and management.
2. Ways in which a Resource Planning Software could alleviate the challenges and drive value.
Resource Planning Challenge # 1
Lack of visibility into business demand and resource availability.
Irrespective of the industry, businesses rely on sales and marketing teams to generate revenue opportunities. The performance metrics of sales and marketing include generating higher customer leads and then converting them into revenue. The next step of the customer journey involves project planning and execution. The performance metrics of the delivery teams center around scope, schedule, resources, cost, quality, and stakeholder satisfaction. It does not take a great deal of intelligence to observe the disconnect between business demand and resource availability; the conflicts between the cross-functional teams should not be a surprise.
Value of a Resource Management Software
A top-of-the-line resource planning software such as TouchBase Resource Management bridges the ‘information gap’ between sales and project delivery teams by seamlessly connecting business demand with project execution. Such project resource management tools offer visibility to sales teams about resource capacity and availability before making customer commitments. In the same breath, project execution teams are regularly notified about the deals pipeline as they progress from lead to contract, allowing them to deal with resource planning and management.
Resource Planning Challenge # 2
Unable to thoroughly analyze resource skills and competencies.
Projects are delivered based on diverse organizational structures such as functional, projectized, and matrix. Imagine an organization undertaking a project from as small as ten to a hundred, where the project resources could range from fifty to five hundred. Every project is unique, may require a diverse set of skills and competencies. Throw in another dimension of multiple/global locations. Being a functional manager, manager of project managers, or a resource manager, you realize that hell is not very far off!
Visualize how project managers request resources and how they get assigned – chaos is too mild a word! Amidst the maze of spreadsheets and emails, resources disappear into a vacuum.
Value of a Resource Management Software
A top-class resource planning software offers capabilities that define multiple dimensions of resource skills, competencies, domains, years of experience, location, cost rates, bill rates, etc. Further, project resource management tools enable the configuration of process flows and decision nodes according to organizational standards. Combined, enterprise resource planning tools eliminate the chaos of resource management.
Resource Planning Challenge # 3
Evaluate resource allocation, productivity, and utilization.
Business leaders struggle to evaluate their resource management efficiencies. Project managers cannot focus on the three broad parameters resource allocation, resource utilization, and resource productivity. When resources are being assigned based on standalone spreadsheets and emails, how does one expect to get the complete picture of resource planning and management? It is not hard to find some overworked resources, while some have a jolly time at work! The natural impact is the inability of managers to evaluate the overall utilization of resources. When resources are under-utilized, it directly impacts project profitability. Over-utilization is an indicator of potential demotivation, attrition, etc. Without streamlined processes and project resource management tools, managers cannot review their team productivity (planned effort vs. actual effort).
Value of a Resource Management Software
An enterprise resource planning and management software offers dynamic views and analytics of resource allocation. When consolidated at a project or an enterprise-level, managers could evaluate resource utilization metrics swiftly, an indicator of how an organization’s use of its resources. By efficiently tracking planned and actual effort (at a task, work package, phase, or project level), managers could review the productivity of resources and put in place necessary course corrections.
Resource Planning Challenge # 4
Questionable resource management data.
Organizations manage resources using multiple and disparate platforms, including Spreadsheet Software, ERPs, HRMS, and others. The biggest challenge is these applications are ‘data islands.’ In such an environment of disconnected applications, the biggest casualty happens to be ‘questionable data integrity.’ Imagine the level of confidence that managers have in such data and the associated decisions they make.
Value of a Resource Management Software
A robust project resource management tool such as TouchBase Integrations offers capabilities to seamlessly integrate between multiple applications and drives one version of resource management truth!
To summarize,
1. Sub-standard resource management – Lost Opportunities
Business leaders and project managers would do significant harm to their organizations unless they take a hard look at the lost opportunities due to sub-par resource management.
- Misaligned projects vis-à-vis resources prioritization.
- Significantly high cost of resource management.
- Reduced project profitability.
- Missed billing due to ad hoc resource tracking.
- Ineffective resource management drives higher attrition.
2. Top-class enterprise resource planning software – Business Value
Investing in an advanced resource management software, organizations gain significant business value some of which are outlined below.
- Holistic project resource management.
- Digitized project resource management.
- Controlled resource allocation & tracking.
- Resource utilization & cost optimization.
- Timely effort tracking & client billing.
- One version of resource management truth.
- Higher project profitability and ROI.
