| At a glance Web-based or cloud-based resource scheduling is the need of the hour. It impacts your project success rate, revenues, talent retention, and customer satisfaction. Find out its benefits. Learn about the challenges in implementing it. |
If the project managers and resource management group in your IT services company use spreadsheets and emails to allocate and re-allocate resources, you need to give them better tools. Their decisions on resources impact your project margins, DSOs, and much more.
In the short and medium term, your resource scheduling determines project successes or failures, missed revenues and reduced margins, and customer satisfaction or conflicts with them. It can also keep your project managers and others perennially bogged down in endless discussions on the subject.
In the long term, your resource scheduling can affect your standing in the marketplace as well as your ability to retain and attract talent.
You need, therefore, to consider web-based or cloud-based resource scheduling. There are big-ticket benefits. They pose some challenges.
Benefits of web or cloud-based resource management
Resource module of professional services automation (PSA) software provides real-time loading of resources. Your managers can assign project tasks, monitor progress, and re-allocate them considering emerging events like leave, new projects, etc. Such a resource module can connect with other software packages like project management to obtain relevant data.
Compare this with traditional resource management which either depends on multiple spreadsheets and emails or standalone packages. It is next to impossible to obtain reliable real-time data on resources, leave, or project plan changes.
Cloud-based resource scheduling provides dashboards and other tools for your managers to collaborate and act swiftly. Matching employee skill sets with those required for completing various tasks is another great capability of the resource management module of a full-featured PSA.
This capability is needed to avoid using people with higher competencies to perform low-level tasks. Web-based resource scheduling makes it possible to optimize resources for achieving on-time project deliveries.
There are some challenges too.
Challenges of Resource Scheduling
The first and foremost challenge is to build repositories of people and their skill sets and tasks and required skill sets. This takes time, but the efforts are well worth the recurring benefits.
Resource conflicts are bound to occur, but a web-based tool is your best ally to resolve them without running in circles.
Implementing a web-based or cloud-based solution involves changing your organizational culture e.g. people are not used to quick collaborative workflows. Therefore it is a process that needs leadership focus and hand-holding.
Junk the tedious and the traditional
Get rid of those endless email threads, infinite versions of spreadsheets, and time spent reconciling data. Embrace a web-based resource scheduling paradigm.
Make it the first phase of implementing PSA software. Once everyone sees its benefits you will get their commitment to move ahead.
Choose a PSA platform carefully. Choose a PSA vendor-partner who has done it all.
Read more on the subject
Resource management software: Tell-tale signs that you need
Resource allocation for successful project management – Part1
Resource allocation for successful project management – Part 2
Listen to this episode of ProductDossier Podcast
Why is resource management emerging as a strategic capability?
